Sprouting potatoes? What to do.

If your potatoes are growing sprouts, you have a couple of options: eat them or plant them! There's nothing wrong with eating potatoes which have sprouted. If you're certain that you won't be planting them, knock off all the sprouts. Leaving them on the potato will cause it to dehydrate faster. If the potato has already shriveled, it's still fine to eat.

Shriveled potatoes are fine for eating.

If the potato has a little bit of green on it, just cut it off and eat the remaining spud. if it has a lot of green, it will be perfect for planting. but if you're not going to plant a really green potato, throw it out. You can put it in your compost pile but it might sprout. If it has any signs of rot, throw it out! There's almost nothing worse than the smell of rotting potatoes!

 

Potatoes that are green under the skin can be toxic in large quantities. If it's just a small spot of green, cut it out and you'll be fine. If the whole potato is green under the skin (above), it would be fine for planting...or throw it out.

 

Why grow your own potatoes? Well for one thing, potatoes are one of those vegies that are good to eat organic and buying them organic can be expensive. They are a good use of garden space as a single plant can yield up to five pounds of potatoes. Also, they're fun to grow. This article will tell you how you can turn that scary tangle of sprouting potatoes under your sink, into a meal (or ten!).

Timing: Count backwards from when you wish to harvest your potatoes. Most varieties need between 17 and 19 weeks from planting to harvest. Add another two weeks for “chitting”. Chitting is a way to help the potatoes store up solar energy which makes them more likely to produce a big crop. Exposure to indirect sun hardens the sprouts so they are less likely to break. Also, the green in their skins is bitter and discourages pests from eating your seed potatoes in the ground.

This large potato was cut and allowed to dry on the exposed side before planting.

Sprout your potatoes: Potatoes must go through a natural dormancy before they can sprout again. This can be anywhere from three to six months. Unlike most crops, they are not sensitive to day-length but have an internal timing that can only be altered slightly to suit the farmer's planting cycles. If you wish to delay sprouting, keep potatoes in a cool, dry storage area. If you wish to hasten their sprouting, increase the temperature and moisture of their storage place. Layering them in damp leaves, in a tub kept in a heated part of your house will do the trick. The ideal sprout-length is about ¾ of an inch (10-15 mm). The longer they become, the more likely they are to break when you plant them.

If your potatoes have long, hairy sprouts: If your potatoes already have extensive sprouts, and the sturdy central sprout has many small root-hairs coming off the sides, it's important that you remove those, otherwise you'll get many tiny potatoes instead of a few large ones. These smaller side-sprouts also hasten the dehydration of the potato and weaken its ability to thrive. You can rub off the rootlets with your bare hands, they snap off easily. Multiple, thick sprouts are fine; just get rid of the fine hairs.

Potatoes on left ave too many rootlets. Ones on right have been stripped and are ready for planting.

Best size for seed potatoes: The optimal size for seed-potatoes is the size of a hen's egg. If you have larger potatoes, cut them so they have at least three “eyes” and sufficient flesh. Don't let the freshly-cut sides of potatoes touch each other as this may cause them to rot. (Some browning or blackening is normal for potatoes as they "skin over".) 
 

These are a good size for planting. Note the greenish hue from "chitting".

Chitting your potatoes: You can chit potatoes in your house near a window, or on a covered porch, or in a greenhouse (under a table). Don't put them in direct sunlight and, if there's danger of frost, cover them with a towel or cloth at night or bring them inside. After they have "greened up' a bit, and any cut parts have sealed over, they are ready to plant. 
 

Here are potatoes on a covered porch where they get indirect light.

Green potatoes are mildly poisonous so don't eat them after chitting.

If you have chitted your potatoes and its still too early to plant (the ground is too soggy or there's still snow on the ground) you can store them in a cardboard box or plastic tub, layered between leaves from last fall. You can also use straw. Or follow this link to an innovative way to extend the growing season of your potatoes. Link. We haven't tried this but it seems like it would work.

Some of our 2009 harvest, with seed potatoes stored in a paper sack (on the right).

How many potatoes should you plant? Depending on the variety, you can get five or more pounds of potatoes for each one you plant. You'll need about a foot between each plant in your garden and potatoes like lots of sun and loose, sandy soil. 

Links to our other potato blogs, go to:

Do I need to buy seed potatoes?

Can I Speed Up Potato Sprouting?

"Chitting" Potatoes
How to Plant Potatoes 
Planting Potatoes in Clay Soil

Do I Need to Buy Seed Potatoes or Can I Just Grow Potatoes from the Grocery Store?

Buying seed potatoes from a nursery catalog can be pretty pricey and its not really necessary. The only real advantages are that they sort them for uniformity of size (not a big deal), you know that they're ready for planting (see the discussion about dormancy below) and you can find some exotic varieties. We just use potatoes we saved from last year's harvest or buy them straight out of the produce section at the grocery store.   

The term "seed-potato" can be misleading. Potatoes do, on occasion produce seeds, but growers do not grow their crops from them. Instead, they grow them from small sprouting potatoes. Any potato, with sprouting eyes, that's at least the size of a chicken egg has the means to yield up to five pounds of fresh potatoes (Generally speaking, the smaller varieties of potatoes grow to maturity faster but yield less harvest.)

These green spheres in Chris' hand contain actual potato seeds but rarely do people grow potatoes from seeds

Potatoes are unique in that their growth cycle is not determined by length of day (as so many other plants are.) Potatoes have an internal clock that requires them to be dormant for a prescribed amount of time--different lengths for different varieties of potatoes. They won't sprout until their dormancy cycle has been reached. This is why some potatoes are better storage potatoes, because they won't start sprouting before you've eaten all the ones you want to eat.

When we want to plant more potatoes than we've saved from the previous year's harvest, we start looking for seed potatoes at the grocery store in late January (mid-winter in northern latitudes) and continue to buy them through till mid-spring. Many of the potatoes that have been in storage for the winter start to sprout in the warehouses at that time and you can get them for better prices. When selecting potatoes to plant, look for ones that already show signs of budding/sprouting from the eyes as this way you know they are viable for growing. Choose the variety you like best. Potatoes do not "cross pollinate". This means that, if you plant a russet, by golly you'll get a russet. (Note: one of our favorites is the Yukon Gold. They last a long time in winter storage and we like the flavor/texture too.)

Ideally, seed potatoes should be about the size of a chicken-egg. Larger potatoes can be cut and skinned over before planting. be sure you have at least three "eyes" per potato.

Potatoes need 70-90 days from planting to maturity so count backwards from your first frost date, or when you wish to begin eating your harvest! The exotic potatoes that come into the markets, and the small, egg-sized, common varieties are usually quite fresh; as they don't keep a long time in storage. They too won't be ready for planting till they naturally go through their dormancy cycle—four to six months. We haven't tried this but I read that you can hasten the dormancy by storing the potatoes in a cool, moist place for a few months and then putting them in a dryer, warmer (but still dark) area.

It is important that you buy organic potatoes because many of the commercially grown ones are sprayed with a "sprout-retardant" which gives them a longer shelf-life and this can delay their sprouting until the potato actually rots.

If the potatoes you have are only just starting to sprout and the buds aren't very long, keep them in the dark to encourage more sprouting. Once the buds are at least 3/4 of an inch long, it's time to "chit" them. 

How many to get? Each plant will take up about 12 - 16 inches of row space. If stored well, they will last for up to six months before starting to sprout again. Figure on 3-5 pounds of yield per potato you plant.  

What size should you get? Ideally you will find them that are about the size of a chicken's egg. Larger potatoes can be cut and allowed to skin over so they won't rot when you plant them.

What if they aren't already sprouting? If you can find potatoes that already have "eyes" that are budding, so much the better. This way you know they are viable for planting. As long as you buy organic potatoes (that have not been sprayed with sprout retardant), and allow 3-4 months time for them to begin to sprout, they do not already need to be sprouting.

When is it time to plant potatoes? Here in the S. Willamette Valley, unless you have raised beds, you need to wait to plant them till the ground dries out a bit. We planted them in early-April one year, when things were especially cool and wet and they just rotted in the ground. Depending on the variety you plant, they take 13 to 17 weeks to ripen. You may wish to plant them in succession so you'll have some potatoes to eat fresh and, the later harvests will last longer through the winter.

If you buy them in a plastic bag, transfer them into a cardboard box or paper sack so they don't rot before you get to them. Keep them in a cool, dark place, with good air circulation until they sprout. Layering them in a tub with leaves or straw, or sawdust works too. Just be sure to keep them from freezing.

Potatoes stored in damp layers of damp leaves. These had already begun to sprout and this storage protected their sprouts from breaking off, or the potatoes from drying out until we had the right conditions for planting.

Links to our other potato blogs, go to:

Sprouting Potatoes? What to do.

Can I Speed Up Potato Sprouting?

How to Plant Potatoes 

Planting Potatoes in Clay Soil

The Sharing Gardens is a registered non-profit and tax-exempt organization. We exist primarily through donations. If you have found benefit from our project or our site, please consider making a small donation through PayPal. (Click button below.)

Saving pea seeds - a low tech method to prevent 'pea weevil' damage

 To save pea seeds, grow them to maturity and leave the pods attached to the pea vines until they are starting to turn tan and shrivel. 

Strip the pods from the vines and place them in a warm, dry place to finish drying. If the weather is sunny and dry, we lay them out on nursery trays on the top shelf of our garden shed for about a week. If the wet, cool weather of autumn has already begun we put the drying pods in baskets or cardboard boxes on shelves above our woodstove. Once we are sure they are thoroughly dry, we pop the peas out of their pods, place in freezer-bags (properly labeled with variety of seed and date) in the freezer, way in the back (or bottom) -- in the coldest spot. Be sure the seeds are sealed in an airtight container as if exposed, the dry freezer-air can dry out your seeds and make them less viable. Leave them there until you're ready to plant next year's cycle.

To prevent pea weevil damage to your seeds: Here in the Pacific NW, and in many other parts of the world, varieties of an insect called the Pea Weevil (Sitona lineatus) can destroy the peas you are saving as seed crop. As the peas mature in the pod, the weevil lays an egg in each pea. If you store these pea-seeds as-is, by spring time each one will have a tiny hole bored by the larvae, from the inside out, destroying the seeds' ability to sprout and grow. A year ago, we had a whole stash of our pea seeds destroyed from these weevils and we didn't want it to happen again.

Signs of pea weevils

An on-line search revealed no low-tech solutions for seed-savers. We read about research to create genetically modified seeds (GMO's) and super-cold flash-freezing done with dried ice - neither of which will help the small-scale seed-saver. The dry-ice idea got Chris to thinking so we decided to experiment. 

 

A low-tech solution: We took our whole stash of pea seed (about six cups) and put it in an air-tight zip-lock bag, in a regular freezer, way in the back corner, and left it there from August to January (four and a half months). The seeds were fully ripe and dry when we put them in the freezer. (There was evidence that the weevils had already laid their eggs as virtually every seed had a small, brown spot--a sign of their entry point.)

Pea weevil cycle

In early January, we conducted a germination test. We wrapped about 50 seeds in a wet paper towel and kept them moist in a dish for five days. At that time, we counted how many had begun to sprout (about 40) which means they have a germination rate of at least 80%. This is excellent! 

 

Then, to be sure that there weren't any pea weevil larvae still dormant in our seed stock, we put about 30 in a tightly sealed plastic bag and left them out at room temperature for two weeks to see if any would hatch. None did. Though it appears we have killed the larvae, we're not taking any chances and we're leaving the pea seeds in our freezer till it's time to start plants this spring.

If you have comments or anything to add to this post, please do so directly below so everyone benefits from your experience.

Three Sisters - Winter Storage Crops and How to Grow Them

Many people are familiar with the Native American combination of growing beans, corn and squash; commonly called 'The Three Sisters". 

Here are LINKS to growing them and tips on storage and usage...

Scarlet Runner beans are our favorite beans to grow for dried-bean/winter storage. They're delicious and have a smooth, thin outer skin which makes them ideal for chili, or soups, or just to eat as a hearty winter dish. They do require a tall strong trellis or tipi, space to finish drying the pods in the fall (after harvest) and many willing hands to remove them from their pods (this is a coveted task for our volunteers in the Fall!). But they're highly productive, and beautiful too! Grow Your Own Protein - Scarlet Runner Beans 

Here are instructions for building a simple tipi, perfect for growing pole-beans. Tipis are a great way to support these vigorous climbers and a fun and shady hideout for your smaller garden helpers!  How to build a Bean Tipi/Teepee  

Part of becoming more self-sufficient has been to grow our own corn-meal. We chose an heirloom-variety of blue corn called Hooker's Blue because it's easy to grow, has high yields and makes delicious corn-meal that can be used as hot cereal, and in baked goods such as corn bread and pancake mix. Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn' 

We haven't yet written a post specifically about growing squash, or saving squash seed but here are some LINKS to posts about ways to use the squash after harvest: Making Pumpkin Pie from Scratch - Recipe; Baking Delicata Squash;

Shifting Times

Greetings from the Sharing Gardens! We certainly are in 'shifting times'! Some areas of our amazing planet are receiving unprecedented flooding while others can't seem to break out of a drought cycle. Far more people fall into financial hardship each year and the natural world continues to face threats from all sides. So, how do we respond? We believe each of us has a unique role to play and that ours at the Sharing Gardens is to continue to demonstrate the power of generosity and mutual aid. Read below about the local challenges we are facing and how we are rising to meet them.

Service Learning student

The Sharing Gardens are a unique style of community garden. Instead of separate plots that people rent from the owners of the land, we all garden together, for free! This has great benefits: it makes watering more efficient, one is able to grow pure seed, pest management is simplified, all while growing more food in the same amount of space. Overview and Benefits of the Sharing Gardens. 

Our 'sharegivers' (volunteers) join us through all parts of the food-growing cycle, including: planting, mulching, weeding, making compost, harvesting, processing grains and beans by hand and saving seed. Our garden is a school, and a sanctuary for people and the natural world. 

The food that is grown is shared among those who help grow it or contribute in other ways.The surplus is donated to food charities.

Sharegivers (volunteers) sharing in the harvest - 2016

Over the last several years, the focus of the Sharing Gardens has shifted. In the beginning (16 years ago!) our main objective was to grow the greatest volume of high-quality vegetables as we could (over 6,000 measured pounds annually, from 2012 - 2015!) and share them all freely (no one charged for the food that is grown). When we started out, we were the only gardeners providing significant amounts of produce to the food charities we served.

Llyn, with less than half of one week's donations to our local Food Pantry - 2017 (cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, beans, squash, greens). This was before other gardeners in the community began making significant donations.

Gradually, our town's Food Pantry (S. Benton Food Pantry) began benefiting from donations from other sources: Family gardens began contributing significant amounts of summer-fresh produce: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc. In addition, SBFP also began collecting summer produce from the Corvallis Farmer's Market (produce left over at day's end that the farmers couldn't sell) and receiving staple crops such as potatoes from local small-scale farmers who received grants to grow specifically for Food Pantries. All this on top of the commodity crops provided through USDA support (apples, oranges etc).

Our same Pantry's produce tables, Oct. 2025. Our cabbage, cukes and greens are squeezed in amongst the other bounty.

With all this additional support, for the last five years or so, there were many times during the peak summer months of garden production that it was literally impossible to find room on the tables at the pantry for our donations! (Now that's what I call a 'high-quality problem!'). Also, during this time, our volunteer support began to dwindle, so gradually we shifted away from producing significant surplus of these 'summer-ripening' crops that need tending and harvesting throughout their peak season and began focusing more on storage crops like dried beans and grains, winter squash along with cabbage and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and beets. But it's hard to grow enough of these crops to make much of a difference at food pantries. We primarily only share them with the people who help us grow the food.

Summertime harvest from our gardens at peak season, 2022.

This was what we planned to do again this year when we heard that massive funding cuts have been announced that will reduce the amount of produce coming from government-funded sources including USDA commodity foods and grants for farmers. This has sent ripples of alarm through the food-charity community and will have significant impacts on their ability to distribute fresh produce.

Sharing Gardens donation of lettuce to Local Aid, Junction City - 2015

It's not too late for the Sharing Gardens to step up and return to producing more of the summer-ripening produce. But this would take much stronger volunteer support than we've received in recent years and at this point we're not sure this is the best focus for our energies and resources. The summer-ripening crops (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers etc) with their pruning, watering, weeding and weekly, or bi-weekly harvests, take more energy than growing storage crops like winter squash, dried grains and beans which, once planted, mulched and weeded a few times don't need much attention till autumn harvests and, if the past 5-7 years are any indicator, Food Charities (at least the ones we're in regular contact) with receive lots of donations from local gardeners of these summer-ripening crops anyway.

Elisa and Maiya with a donation to the SB Food Pantry: tomatoes, cantaloupe and greens.

It is our strong feeling that we are in a better position to continue developing methods and mentoring others in the areas that are less commonly addressed through regular gardening sites; things like small-scale dried grain and bean production and processing, and seed saving; and to be available to coach others wanting to start sharing-type gardens in their own communities.

That being said, there is still room this season in the Monroe Sharing Gardens for a handful of committed folks who want to learn how to grow food and save seed in a cooperative environment; in a spirit of mutual generosity. If, after reading this info about our volunteer program, you feel like it's a good fit, we hope you'll be in contact with us.

Meanwhile, we are grateful to see that some of this 'mutual generosity' is already showing up. We are heartened that our neighbor Deb Moss has offered to bring her small tractor and till up a bunch of ground that has been invaded by grasses. This will allow us to use our garden space more efficiently, whatever crops we grow. 

Vincent Drew has reached out to us from Linn/Benton Food Share, the warehouse/coordination-center that distributes food to most of the food charities in our area. He has offered to come help in the gardens when we have a particularly large harvest, to pack it up in LBFS totes and take it directly to the warehouse refrigerators for distribution.

Chris and Joey sharing in the autumn apple harvest.

So, while in some ways we feel a sense of nostalgia for the early days of the gardens with its dynamic pace and sheer abundance in productivity, we're also grateful that our program still has relevance to our changing times. We still are growing impressive amounts of food; all shared freely and our role as mentors and educators continues to expand. We are so happy when we hear of other community gardens shifting to the Sharing Gardens model and like to believe that in some small way, we helped to plant and nurture this seed of generosity by what we've demonstrated here.

Volunteers help with all aspects of growing food: shifting mushroom compost for soil-fertility.

Weeding is a lot more fun with company.

When kids help grow food, they're more likely to enjoy eating it!

Sharing and Abundance - a short video

If you've any doubt about the connection between 'sharing' and 'abundance', please enjoy this marvelous, short video by our friend and partner in sharing Nick Routledge:

Our friend Steve Rose with free tomato starts he grew to share at the food pantry.