Own Grown Potatoes - sorting out the good, the bad and the damaged ones

After you have dug up the potatoes, what to do next.

The work does not end when we dig up our own grown potatoes and take them home from the allotment.


Once you get your potatoes home and if you have dug up too many to eat that day; you need to sort them.
The easiest way to do this I find is this -

• I lay them out on old trays or on mesh or grids - this is done to dry out the skins and also to allow any excess soil stuck to them to fall away.
• As I am doing this I sort them into 'categories' keeping the 'categories' on separate trays.

The groups I am sorting them into are -  'potatoes that need to be eaten quickly, these are the damaged ones or potatoes that I suspect will not keep.


The other group of potatoes are the ones that look as if they will store well.


If I am harvesting a lot of potatoes at one go  I might have a sack of potatoes that I think  of as -  'store but will not keep too long'.


This year the blight on the leaves of potatoes on the allotments of my growing plot means that I am in doubt as to how well any of them will store. 


It is important to check any potatoes in store regularly to check for potatoes that show signs of deterioration.

A stored potato that has blight - a 'blighted potato' will rot down and it will cause nearby potatoes to do the same. 

This year, I am 'monitoring' the potatoes that have been dug up and if I suspect they will not store will be giving them to friends and family to use them up as soon as possible.