Potato Harvesting

[side_show]

This is going to be my first year with a large crop of potatoes to harvest.  In other years, I've done little other than get them out of the ground with a fork, let them dry a bit, and store them in milk crates in my dark-ish, cool-ish pantry, but I had problems last year with some of them turning green as I left them out in the sun too long.  Anyone have experience with this and want to share?  I'm looking to bring in the crop in a week or two so any thoughts are welcome.

[Nabubrush]

Yep, the sun will turn them green. Cool dark place is right. I think you're doing everything right (as far as I know - I'm sure someone else will be more informed and experienced).

I think the thing to keep on top of (and it's too late for this year to institute this, I guess) is to make sure to keep mounding the dirt up over the plants. You probably are all over this. The first year we did potatoes I didn't really know about this. Also, I tend to not loosen the dirt far enough down when we plant, so the roots can't spread out enough. That's about the sum total of my knowledge.

The first year we planted potatoes was the only year we planted potatoes. Every year since then (four?) I haven't gotten every single one out and we've had a few plants the next year from the leftovers.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I have had zero luck with potato plants at home, but we got a boatload of potatoes from the CSA farm. The book on preserving food I have says to keep them in a room temperature dark place for about two weeks, then move them to a cool dark place. And yes do NOT leave them out in the sun--green potatoes are not good for you.