Charlie, You can keep them indoors, preferably in a cool, dark place that doesn't get too cold. I've kept them in boxes under the bed in the guest room before and I've kept them in bushel baskets in the floor of the walk-in pantry, back at the back of it in the darkest part of the pantry. I've also kept them in plastic baskets in the weight room and even though I thought that room likely was too hot for them, it is the area where they stored the best---I have had sweeet potatoes in that room last 18 months in storage, which hasn't happened in any other place I've stored them.

They're tropical, so wherever you keep them, just be sure to keep them above freezing. I don't store them any place (like the garage, for example) where the temperatures drop lower than 50 degrees.

Dawn

Thank you Dawn That helps a bunch!

Charlie

Is it alright to keep the small ones for the production of slips?
Charlie

Charlie, wherever you keep them they will store better if they have been "cured", kept at or near 80 degrees F and 70% humidity for several days--until the skins thicken. This is why we don't dig our sweet potatoes until they get a light frost. That's when we fire up the woodstove. We cure the potatoes by leaving them in the living room near the stove, covered in blankets to keep the humidity up around them, before moving them under the bed. And, Dawn, I am not surprised that they kept the best in the warmest place. My great-aunt used to move hers to an upstairs bedroom next to a brick chimney to store them.

Concerning the best size to use to start slips. We have had better success with medium size tubers. The smaller ones haven't made as strong slips--not enough stored energy, I think--and there's no reason to use the biggest ones--although I have cut pieces off the biggest ones to start--since it wastes so much of the stored energy.

Charlie, I dont have a good place to cure and store sweet potatoes either. I try to dig mine a little early (around the first of Oct. and cure them in my metal shed. Last year it worked fine, but not this year. I dug a little later, we have had a wetter fall, and we have had colder nights. I already have some potatoes going bad. I will have to work them up and freeze them, or at least some of them.

I have not had great luck saving small sweet potatoes. The past 2 years I have stored my sweet potatoes in the house. The ones that stored the best were the ones I had in a closet on an out side wall under news papers and old blankets

Larry

Hey, I haven't been able to drop in for a couple days. But I do agree with Dawn's advice. One pound roots seem ideal for sprouting. I sometimes save smaller roots for sending to those who want a start of a given variety. They don't produce as many sprouts as a larger root.

Also, I'd suggest that you save three roots of any variety you want to save. For reasons I don't understand, an occasional root goes bad during the winter.

We don't have a cellar. Traditionally, I store each variety in a separately labeled paper bag... under my bed.

I cure the roots on our sun porch, which heats up during the day and doesn't freeze until the dead of winter.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Hey to all,,, I appreciate the good advice from everyone!

Thanks ,,,, Charlie

Charlie, You're welcome.

Dorothy, I've always tried to keep the sweet potatoes in a slightly cooler room, but that year the guest room was occupied and so they went into the weight room and they loved it. It always is the warmest room in the house, getting morning sun through two large east-facing windows and afternoon sun from south-facing windows. I'd always thought it would be too hot, but apparently it was not. Now I understand why your great-aunt stored them near the chimney.

Larry, When I store potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, winter squash or anything else indoors, I always divide the harvest and store it two different ways in order to increase the chance that some of it will store a long time. I think humidity and air flow play a role in the storage of each type of produce, and they all need different temperatures and different relative humidity so it is hard to know sometimes why one spot offers better storage than another in any given year. I also have found food stores better for me in a warmer, drier winter than in a colder, wetter one and I think that highlights the role the humidity plays.

George, Our sunporch is the same way. It is a great spot for curing produce, and I can control heat and airflow by opening or closing windows.

When I was pulling plants into the greenhouse and sunporch this week in preparation for the coming cold weather, I was thinking back to our early years here when we "only" had the house and a chicken coop. When cold weather threatened, I had very few options about what to do with container plants, and could bring only a few inside the house. Every year we added something new....first the tornado shelter about a year after we moved here, then the screened-in porch the next year after that, then the garage a couple of years later, followed by two new-and-improved chicken coops, then the potting shed, and finally we converted the screened-in porch to a glassed-in sunporch. Now I have so many more options for places to put plants, tools and produce that needs to cure, and I really do appreciate having all those options now.

Dawn