WAUPACA COUNTY NEWS

October 13. 1921

DIG POTATOES WHEN SOIL IS QUITE DRY

Tubers Are Matured When Vines Begin to Drop Off

Care Should be Taken to Avoid Spearing or Cutting Them

Store in Cool, Dry and Well Ventilated Cellar or Pit

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture)

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            Potatoes require 90 to 100 days after planting before any will be ready for use.  The tubers are not fully matured until after the vines die, or at least ripen and shed most of their foliage.  Late potatoes in the Northern and Northeastern states are frequently, caught by frost before the vines ripen, so should be dug just about the time frost first strikes them.  Potatoes should be dug when the soil is reasonably dry, so that it will not adhere to them.  A spading fork or a potato hook is best for digging them and great care should be taken to avoid spearing or cutting them in digging.  Only a small quantity should be turned out at once, as they will become sunburned if exposed more than an hour to two.

            Store potatoes in a cool, dry place where they will get plenty of ventilation and be in the dark.  Potatoes must not be allowed in freeze either before they are dug or while in storage.  A good, cool, well-ventilated cellar or storm cellar forms a suitable storage place for potatoes and under proper conditions will keep through the winter, and into the early summer.  Another method is to bury the potatoes in a pit outdoors and cover them so that frost cannot get to them.