Howdy, David...
I know a little about potatoes, probably 'cause I like them so much, they are easy to grow– and are a low-maintenance crop– fairly easy to harvest, and certain varieties store well.
And don't get me started on the numerous ways to cook 'em and the various recipes!
" I have always heard that when you store potatoes for long term you should not wash them. Just gently brush off any loose soil and store them like that, if you wash them, they rot faster and won't keep for some reason. Does anyone know if that is true? "
It's true to a certain extent, frillylilly. The idea is to not store wet/damp potatoes OR store them with un-hardened skins (is "un-hardened" a real word?) Yes, if they are damp, wet, or not fully cured they rot much faster than potatoes that are dry/cured. The idea of just letting them dry a bit, or rather the soil attached to them after digging them up, then brushing the soil off by hand is a good one, one I go by. Ideally you'll let them air dry and the skins will harden up, offering more protection as well as holding in just the right amount of moisture (and flavor!) By the way, if you rub your thumb across the potato and the skin rubs off, as it will with "new potatoes" it is not hardened; if no skin rubs off you're good to go.
I used to have racks made of 2x4's with hardware cloth on top and would put my potatoes on those in a shady area to dry. (I also did my garlic the same way.) It worked great but any kind of ventilated area big enough to allow you to lay your potatoes in a single area would do just fine.
Ken/drdawg...
I'm wondering if you harvested your sweetpotatoes too early. Around here it is common to "never harvest sweetpotatoes before the end of September". I'm sure that might be due to our local growing season, and yours is no doubt much longer, but the general consensus is September is when the tubers gain their biggest growth. So, that being said, I wonder if you would consider letting them grow a bit longer this time and see how they do. I'd also suggest, especially since you are growing in grow-bags with store-bought soil or the like rather than in-ground, you give them extra potassium; both "Irish potatoes" (super high in potassium) and sweetpotatoes (containing about half as much as Irish spuds) love potassium.
As for using your saved taters for growing, sure, give it a go!. I'd use the biggest ones and either put them in a container on their side in damp peat or you can just insert one in a jar of water, stem end down. I've had good results doing it either way. When they produce the top growth you can then pull them off and insert the top growth into water for more individual root growing OR stick them in potting soil in containers. Once the weather has truly settled - meaning consistently warm - plant them in their dedicated area. Sweetpotatoes love warm feet ten times more than tomatoes do so keep that in mind. Set them out a month later than your early-planted tomatoes. Or since you have a greenhouse I wonder if you could grow them in there, if given ample sunlight.
Hope this helps.
Shoe (thinking of baked taters, sweetpotato fries, french fries, sweetpotato cake (and pie!), country fried taters, tater casserole, hash browns, taters almondine, mashed potatoes, twice-baked taters....
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