Can seed potatoes be stored?

I have quite a few seed potatoes left after planting and am wondering if there is a way to store them? They were so expensive I'm reluctant to toss them!

Or - can they be sown late season and overwintered in the ground? I'm in the wet Pacific Northwest.

Thanks for any info!

[NathanP]

I have unintentionally overwintered potatoes in the ground. I just dug up a few Yukon Gold's which are from plants which grew last year from tubers which overwintered unintentionally from the year before. This year I am just replanting them.

It probably depends on what potato it is, but yes.

[NathanP]

Come to think of it, I also had some Red Norland and Purple Viking potatoes that both survived this past winter in the ground. I will be replanting them later this week.

[wingnut]

I am also from Western Washington, and have most my potatoes planted, but will continue to plant until early June to be fully completed. I do not think it is reasonable to think you can store them until this time next year outside a canning jar. Just plant them in your landscape and enjoy!

This is all encouraging. It makes a lot more sense overwintering them in the ground, and possibly getting another crop out of them, than in a bin somewhere watching them shrivel up and die. As soon as I free up some garden space in a couple of months, I'll plop them into the ground and see what happens. Thanks, all!

[TZ-OH6]

Overwintering seed potatoes, i.e. those saved from your fall harvest, isn't difficult. Stick them in your garage in a cool place to protect them from losing too much water. But they are tough. I left mine sit out in the mudroom in carboard boxes in the light in the open on the counter all winter. Some shriveled quite badly, some didn't (those in buckets) but I have a garden full of potato plants from them now, even from the ones that looked like raisins when I planted them.


Virused plants are easy to spot so they get pulled early and I don't worry about the seed potatoes being bad. I have gotten virused certified seed potatoes before. Certification just means that the virus load in the field is low, not the each tuber was tested to be healthy. If you get hit with late blight then you probably don't want to save your own stuff.

[joseph]

In my garden, potatoes freeze about 4 years out of 5 if left in the ground where they grew. They survived this winter. I can save fall dug potatoes for spring planting in paper bags in the basement, or in a pit covered by about 18" of soil.