I have about 10 potato plants and the plants are completely dried up and vines have just about disappeared. My question is can I just leave the potato in the ground for a while yet before I dig them up? Will they keep just fine buried rather than dig and store them already?

They'll be fine until frost I dig whatever I want to use and leave the rest.

If it's really dry and no grub worms you might, but here in Mo they would rot gtubs would eat them and very hot days aren't good on them. Here as soon as the plant starts turning brown, we dig them.

Yes, matter of fact that is the way I store mine all winter.

If I dig them they'll green up and sprout long before the ones in the ground will. It just isn't cool enough to store them down here outside of needing special equipment.

Thank You thank you. No grubs here that I know of to dry for anything to live. I'll just keep them under ground and hopefully in 3 to 4 weeks I will dig up and bag what I have. We have eaten some over the last 3 weeks.

I dug mine up and are hanging in the basement already.

We always dug them when vines died. But if you don’t have a basement or cellar to store them dig a hole and line bottom with burlap bags and straw place potatoes in hole and cover with more bags. Then cover with dirt You can make a mound then they shed water more

Thanks.

I do have a place to store them that is dry cool and dark but didn't want to store yet. It is very early here to start that just so darn dry thing are happening to soon with the drought. We will have frost in three weeks or so I will bag them up then.

We used to just mound up a lot fo straw around our cabbages too and leave them out all winter. BTW, my mother lived off of the potatoes they found under the frozen fields in Sweden while she was pregnant with my oldest bother.

Dig them now,. if vines have drawn back,. rack them for a couple weeks,.store dark cellar or corner basement.
When I say dig now, do so, you are not growing bigger potatoes. Dig cloudy days and leave somewhat curing
in field .

That works in colder climates. Not in the south.

Down here the banked soil method, leave in the ground or a freezer on a thermocouple to hold at 37-40 are what works. Just to danged warm.

I can see that.

I would love to have a root cellar and be able to store veggies over winter. But we do have mild enough winters that cabbage does just fine growing all winter, carrots and root crops do fine in the ground. We rarely get a freeze hard enough to kill off a winter garden. The trick is to plant early enough to get some size on them before frost as they don't size up as much once the cold sets in. But those will be the first to bolt come spring. A second planting late winter will go until the heat in May. If you can keep the summer bugs off we can carry some of the spring planted through winter but fall planted do better.

grandma used to keep potatoes and carrots in the ground all winter, just cover them with straw about a foot, got pictures some place her out there digging carrot with 2 feet of snow on the ground,

I have heard that before but wasn't sure if it worked. Thanks!!!

I remember my parents stored carrots in sand for the winter indoors in the cellar. Must keep them dry.

Covering with straw works, unless you have mice and voles , they happily live under the straw and live on your veggies.

I dig them when the plants die off. If I were to leave them in the ground, and conditions turned wet, there’s gonna be some rot occurring. Moles can do a lot of damage to.

I dig them, dry them on the basement floor with a fan. When the skins are set, I bag them up and drop the sacks into a 18 foot deep dug well, tie off the sacks above the water level. The well is covered on top….the temperature and humidity is perfect for storing root crops.

Strange thing I can leave Irish potatoes in the ground and not much bothers them and most will sprout back come spring if left.

Sweet potatoes on the other hand, if I'm not quick in digging them the durn voles will leave me nothing but holes in the ground. They'll start at the plant crown eating the roots leaving just a cavity in the dirt where a sweet potato was.

this won't work for everyone,

I store our potatoes in bins in the garage after digging them in October. I leave a bottle of water on the step of the garage to let me know if it's below freezing in there. When it is the bins go against the wall common with the house with an old sleeping bag over them when it really cold, As it warms, I move them to the far wall of the garage. This way I can keep them over winter even down to 30 below. They last until planting the next year.

Carrots also go in a bin next to potatoes. Layer of moist, dirt layer of carrots. repeat and put the bin cover back on. Any dirt will do. sand is cleaner but I use dirt from the garden as i dig them. Use a mower to top them very short first before digging. clean and bag then move to fridge in May and you'll have carrots until July. Tried the straw thing and needed a jackhammer by the end of December.

Putting a wireless thermometer in the potatoes this year to help move them to warmer or cooler.

Yukon's keep better longer than reds or whites here