Are these potatoes ok?

[willyg]

I dug up last years potato bed that got blight and found some potatoes because i never harvested them, i was very lazy last year and just left them in the soil.
some were just skins they were so rotted but most were ok but seem to have brown spots on them , i dont know if thats normal or not

I dont think i should risk eating them, but just want to know if this is what they should look like for this year

 

[Durgan]

Those potatoes look perfect to me. I wouldn't hesitate in eatng them.

 

[Beth_B]

They look pretty good to me, for being underground that long! Probably fine to eat, really.

 

[Owdboggy]

We often dig up potatoes which have over-wintered in the soil like that. Nothing wrong with them at all. The spots may be a bit of Scab which is again not a problem,just remove the skins.
If you got Blight though, you really need to remove all (if possible) the old tubers from the ground as they are often the source of next years infection.

 

[headfullofbees]

I wouldn't eat them; not because they'll be unsafe, but because they'll likely be unpleasant.
Clear you potato beds better this year; that's how you get disease.

 

[Owdboggy]

One of the old methods of keeping potatoes from one season until the next crop was ready, was to 'clamp' them. This involved burying the potatoes back in the soil and leaving them there until needed. They would keep this way for nearly 12 months. So what is the difference between that and finding some left in the soil over winter? I cannot see any.
As I said the ones here look edible. You can always taste one before serving them up. , We have just had a plate of beautiful boiled potatoes and butter. The tubers were ones I found whilst digging the garden for this years Vegetables. Some of them have been in that part of the garden for 2 years. Missed them the first and second time.

 

[headfullofbees]

A clamp keeps veg above the ground.

 

[Owdboggy]

They maybe above ground in your part of the world but here a clamp is a pit lined with straw and covered over with more straw and soil.

 

[willyg]

i did my best to dig up the diseased tubers, but all of them that the blight travelled down to were just bits of skins so i might have missed some skins but i think i got them all

potatoes are cheap, my friend says, not to risk getting sick over some spuds but it would be nice to sample my own produce maybe if i get drunk some night i will cook them haha

but i am moving the potaotes to a different bed this year, only thing is i wont have time to chit them as i havent bought them yet, will this be a problem?

i think its best to wait till this years harvest and eat those , but a local farmer is adament that you cant grow potatoes in this country for blight, you must spray them with some sort of fungicide. he sprays all his potatoes and i guess all farmers in this country spray all their potatoes too. what fungucide would you guys recommend? cuz i cant think of any other way to stop the blight, the potatoes i got last year were second earlies which is prob what ill get this year if theyre in the shop

 

[Owdboggy]

Sad, but they are your potatoes.
We only grow First earlies and Seconds and do not spray with anything. We dig them as soon as there is any sign of Blight on the leaves. smaller crop, but that way we are not eating nasty chemical residues.
They used to spray with copper sulphate for Blight, but no longer available in Britain.

 

[headfullofbees]

Aspirin and compost tea buy some time against blight, and different varieties have different levels of resistance.

I've been using it the past two years and, since I'm on allotments where blight gets rife, I can say with reason, that I think aspirin can buy you an extra 2-3 weeks against late blight.

Not huge, but enough to make a difference.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...it-nips-pesky-blights-in-the-bud-9349916.html

I also use actively-aerated compost tea as a foliar spray which, apart from it's debateable nutritional value used that way, acts as a barrier against pests and diseases.

It is legal to use any remaining copper sulphate based remedies which you already have, and enough copper sulphate pentahydrate and slaked lime to make enough "Bordeaux Mix" for five years' potatoes, but I decline to use it whilst I can get a reasonable harvest without, reserving it for the possibility of new strains of pests and diseases resistant to all other weapons in my arsenal.
This also helps to reduce concentrations of copper in the allotment left by previous users.

 

[headfullofbees]

They maybe above ground in your part of the world but here a clamp is a pit lined with straw and covered over with more straw and soil.

This is my idea of a clamp:
http://www.1900s.org.uk/1900s-storing-root-veg.htm

but even if we accept that your description is valid, then the answer to the question you ask here:

One of the old methods of keeping potatoes from one season until the next crop was ready, was to 'clamp' them. This involved burying the potatoes back in the soil and leaving them there until needed. They would keep this way for nearly 12 months. So what is the difference between that and finding some left in the soil over winter? I cannot see any.

is, "All those layers of straw."

Perhaps that was superfluous and people were just looking for some way to fill their time, so instead of leaving their veg in the ground, they went to all the bother and expense?

 

[Owdboggy]

Which ever way the tubers are stored is down to the individual. We bag ours in old fashioned sacks and keep them in the Apple store. they are still edible now.
One other way of combating Blight which I have never used I confess, is to grow them under plastic sheeting. The Blight spores which are in the soil cannot bounce up on to the haulms as the cover stops them. No idea if it works, but when we tried it with tomatoes in the tunnel, we found that the plastic was a godsend to the local mollusc population. No blight that year, but very damaged plants.

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

Looks fresh, I like roasted potatoes.

wait, I like sweet potatoes more. still dry them out in the sun for a day or two, then cook them.

 

[headfullofbees]

Which ever way the tubers are stored is down to the individual.
.

Indeed it is, but let's not pretend that leaving them in the ground is the equivalent of fashioning a clamp, because we give many novice gardeners in here advice, which, if incorrect, would lead to real disappointment and food wastage.