Garden Help - Potatos

[closet squirrel]

I have a question. I have begun to dig up my potatoes (I have white, gold and red). About 1/3 of them are gross in the middle, rotten. But there is no way to tell until you cut them open.

I usually store the potatoes in a basket in the basement and they last until about January and then I save the rest of them to plant.

1> Why are they like this?

2> What do I do since I cant tell until I cut them? If they are gross now, I can only imagine what they will be like in a few months.

Thanks, and by the way, do rotten potatos ever stink!!!!!!

 

[Gingergirl]

Sorry to hear of the loss of your crop. I love fresh potatoes.

The stinky rot is probably the result of bacteria that was able to enter the tubers behind the fungous damage from late blight. Though not all of the tubers may have rot, they may be infected with the fungous. I would not want to reintroduce the fungous to the garden, so would destroy the plants (no composting) and the tubers. So sad after all that work.

 

[Deemy]

Sometimes this can be caused by dry speels and the wet spells of the weather

 

[closet squirrel]

We had great weather too. Go figure. Is eating the ones that arent rotten a bad idea?

 

[Brooks]

CS, until you can determine otherwise, you may want to consider that portion of your garden off-limits to any more potatoes for a few years and to be careful not to mix the soil into other, hopefully uncontaminated areas of your garden. Also bear in mind that potatoes are the same family as tomatoes and I believe can share some of the same soil-borne diseases.

I've had problems with both my tomatoes and potatoes this year because of the cold, wet weather (although no sign of rotten potatoes yet). I think I need to find another place in my yard to grow tomatoes for a few years.

 

[goatlady2]

According to my Rodale's Ency. of Organic Gardening it sounds like you may have Ring rot - a "highly infectious bacterial diasease that is not generally obvious aboveground. Underground it starts with a 1/8" ring of decay UNDER a tuber's skin; eventually the whole interoir decays, leaving a shell of firm tissue. " Doesn't offer any solutions! I would burn the taters and not use that plot for potatoes for several years.

 

[closet squirrel]

Great, I thought this would be easy, I didnt realize I had a crazy potato burning fungus poision thing going on.

Actually, I have these bad potatos growing in one area, and I have another patch in an opposite area of the garden. Is it possible that those would be ok, even though they were planted from the same batch of seed potatos.

I guess I will check tonight

Bummer. We have been eating them too. The first couple plants were fine, and last week I started to get a few bad ones but figured it a fluke, until yesterday. My whole family will probably grow an extra arm out of our foreheads

 

[Gingergirl]

SQ,

I wouldn't worry about the potatoes you've eaten or that are still good. To salvage what I could, I would consider cutting them open and any that are ok, can or dry them, right away. If not enough to make it worth while,


"My whole family will probably grow an extra arm out of our foreheads."

OTOH, during harvest time, I could always use an extra hand.

 

[summerthyme]

CS- get them harvested NOW. Take them away from the patch, spread them out a bit and cover them to keep the sun off them. (the best is to take them down cellar and spread them on sheets of plywood or something, as long as you can keep the cellar dark. If not, cover them with dark quilts or something- this is important, because sunlight will turn them green and make them poisonous. (BTW, if you get a bit of greening skin on a tuber, just cut it off deep enough so you don't see any more green color in the flesh. The rest is fine)

Check them every day or two, and the bad ones will become obvious.... soften (and unfortunately, get stinky if you don't get them out of there.

The good ones should stay good. You MAY be able to save a bunch to eat if you can do this immediately, because I think this particular disease is carried in the soil.
'
If it was late blight, it would be apparent on the SURFACE of the tuber, but if you get them peeled quickly, it's obvious that it's only surface, and you can eat the rest without problem. If you let it go, the entire potato rots (and boy! do they stink!) and also infects any others that are touching it.

This is why if you have a partially infected crop you spread them into a single layer for a bit until you can weed out the bad ones.

Good luck!

Summerthyme (fighting the same battle with late blight 'taters, except it's only an occasional hill)