# Seed potatoes sprouting too early



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

How do you keep seed potatoes from sprouting?

I've got a bunch of left over small potatoes that I plan on planting this spring but we are at least a month to a month and a half away from planting time and my potatoes are sprouting like crazy. Some sprouts are a foot long.

They are on the floor of my basement and are partially covered. The air temp is around 60 average and the floor is probably close to that.

We're still freezing at night so I can't move them to the porch.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

No problem, break off the sprouts and force the potatoes to start over again. 

Martin


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Commercial seed potatoes are cured down first, then placed in darkness, at 36--38 degrees, at 90 percent humidity. Early, short season potatoes are planted late, left in the ground as long as possible, then stored, since they will be the most likely to be ones that have short dormancy periods.

For your situation, there may still be some dormant sprouts(eyes) left on the surface, so you could pinch off the long ones, maybe place them in a dark fridge at a temp of lower than sixty degrees, and hope to retard them.........

( I have the same basement problem, so I plan on buying fresh certified seed every year.........I just make it an annual spring ritual)

geo


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Do I pinch off the sprouts now or wait until I plant?

The last time I bought seed potatoes they were $.50 each and the size of a golf ball. At that price I'm RICH!


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I wonder if the removal of sprouts causes a drop or at least a delay in growth of seed potatoes. 
I planted three beds of potatoes I had stored but had taken off the shoots as they started too early to plant out in the first week of March.
I bount 4 new kinds of seed potatoes that were planted out at least three weeks later than the ones where I removed the shoots. 
The rubbed out ones are just now coming up while the non-sprouted one I bought are already inches high.
Might be due to variety but since the ones that had sprouted were short season, it did make me wonder. Not that it's a big deal anyway.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

The main reason that you don't want long sprouts is production. Any sprout over 3 or 4 inches long is already predetermined as to how it is going to grow. All of the stolon nodes will be confined to a very short portion of the stem just above the roots. If a sprout which is a foot long is planted 11 inches deep, the potatoes are going to also be found 11 inches deep. 

Martin


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

fishhead said:


> Do I pinch off the sprouts now or wait until I plant?
> 
> The last time I bought seed potatoes they were $.50 each and the size of a golf ball. At that price I'm RICH!


Yes, pinch them off now; no sense wasting the remaining energy that's inside the tuber on them. The remaining, small to nearly dormant sprouts/eyes will fire up.

If you find a store that sells certified seed directly from the burlap bags with the blue certified tags, they should be at this year's prevailing price of around a buck a pound. Hen egg size are what I look for, so I don't have to cut them.

geo


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## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

I have a couple/three questions on potatoes. 
What is the best red potato to plant? The guys were saying that there is a red potato that has yellow meat and it doesn&#8217;t taste too good. Are red norlands any good? 
Third question can I use cow poop mixed in with the dirt when I plant the seed potatoes. Someone said that you can&#8217;t use poop when you plant potatoes.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Thanks. I'll snap off the sprouts this weekend and see if I can't stash a bunch in the fridge.


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## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

I want to apologize for hijacking this thread I didn&#8217;t mean to. When I read it, It gave me some questions to ask and I wrote my questions using word and then cut and pasted it to what I thought was a new thread. I know I don&#8217;t know what happened when I looked at the garden stuff I saw I had posted on this thread. I guess I can&#8217;t remember what I have done a few minutes in the past. Sorry.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

davel745 said:


> I want to apologize for hijacking this thread I didnât mean to. When I read it, It gave me some questions to ask and I wrote my questions using word and then cut and pasted it to what I thought was a new thread. I know I donât know what happened when I looked at the garden stuff I saw I had posted on this thread. I guess I canât remember what I have done a few minutes in the past. Sorry.


I didn't bother me so don't worry about it. I would have answered your questions but I don't know anything about what you asked.


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## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

My questions were answered in another thread. 
Thank you.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Paquebot said:


> The main reason that you don't want long sprouts is production. Any sprout over 3 or 4 inches long is already predetermined as to how it is going to grow. All of the stolon nodes will be confined to a very short portion of the stem just above the roots. If a sprout which is a foot long is planted 11 inches deep, the potatoes are going to also be found 11 inches deep.
> 
> Martin


Can you plant them sideways rather than deeper?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Callieslamb said:


> Can you plant them sideways rather than deeper?


Yes, but the results are the same. Only difference is that all of the tubers will be formed where the roots are and that would be where the seed piece is. Put 2 and 2 together and think of all that you've read about why planting in tires or barrels fail so often. It's because tubers only form on stolons and those only develop below the branches. Lay a foot-long sprout in a trench and you are covering up 11 inches of aboveground stem which can normally only produce branches.

Martin


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Well, I'm not planting mine that way then. LOl!!! I have some in the fridge but I have a few in a basket that resemble the OP's....I'm gonna just toss them. I have way too many anyway. I've never tried them in a barrell or tires. I have a friend that puts her potatoes in a 4x4 enclosure and covers them with straw. When the stems peek up she adds more straw. She says she can get 50 lbs that way. I stick with my rows.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Callieslamb said:


> I have a friend that puts her potatoes in a 4x4 enclosure and covers them with straw. When the stems peek up she adds more straw. She says she can get 50 lbs that way. I stick with my rows.


Believe it or not, that can be done. Start with rich soil and a late variety. Equally space 25 seeds pieces in that 4x4 area. If there's enough nutrients in the soil, 50# harvest is _only_ 2# per hill. When you look it that way, you should get more from conventional planting with same variety.

Martin


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I don't get nearly as many potatoes from my rows as I'd like. I's like to produce more in less space so I can use some of the potato space for melons or something else. However, we will eat every potato I produce and I'm the only one that will eat melons. So I keep putting the potatoes in. I'll look for late varieties this year. Maybe that's my problem I've been using early ones. The vines are dying by Late July.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Just like that 50# from a 4x4 section, I found the same or more from 25 pieces planted in 20' of row. Planted in rich soil and atop several inches of compost at about 9" spacing. Hilling was just one long mound. In a normal year, lots more than 50# of Kennebec but that would be about top production for Red Norland.

Martin


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