HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN POTATO STORAGE BIN (And storing other root vegetables)

BUILDING THE STORAGE AREA

If an individual decided they were going to plant Irish potatos in a large quantity, and they wanted to keep them at their home in storage, and did not have the facilities to do so this is how to do it.  You can nevertheless also store sweet potatos, carrots, or any root crop in this same type of bin.  But you should put a partition between the two types of potatoes.  I do not recommend storing them touching each other, because it can cause them to spot.

WHERE TO PUT A POTATO STORAGE AREA & PROTECTING FROM VARMINTS
You can make an area right under your home where you can store potatos.  My father had one such area all during the time that I was growing up.  Beforehand install a piece of 1/2 inch mesh steel screen such as rabbit wire the size of the bottom of the enclosure you plan to build.  Install it flat on the ground, being careful not to leave any open areas.  This enables the ground temperature to maintain constant for the potatos, but it prevents hungry varmints from tunneling under and into your store.  Cover this with a 1-2 inch thick straw layer.  This is to pad the potatos and keep the ground moisture off their bottoms.

NOTE: ALL ROOT CROPS LIKE TO BE STORED IN THE DARK.  IN THE PITCH DARK.  COMPLETELY DARK. ENTIRELY DARK.  EXCEEDINGLY DARK. YOU KNOW, REALLY DARK.

Partition and seal off an area underneath the house (This can be in the crawlspace under your home.)  underneath a room that is heated would be best to keep the potatos from freezing.  The easiest way would be to take a 3/4 sheet of plywood, measure the distance from your floor joists to the ground, cut the 3/4 sheet of plywood to fill this area from the floor to the ground.  You can attach this to your floor joists, depending upon how large an area of storage you wish to have.

SIZE OF POTATO STORAGE AREA
Floor joists are normally spaced at 16 inches center, so you would use at least two joists spacing which would give you 32 inches width.  If your plywood is eight feet long, you now have a storage area that is 8 feet by 32 inches.  Determine the thickness of your floor joists.  Normally ten or twelve inches by one and a half inches.  Cut a slot in another piece of 3/4 plywood that will accomodate each of the floor joists in exact measurements.  This will be your back wall.

Do basically the same thing for the front wall of your enclosure, but cut a 16 inch door opening in the front wall, saving the piece you cut out to be used as an exact fitting door.  Hing it, and put a hasp on it so that it will not come open, and always be kept closed.  For best results in maintaining a constant ground temperature, line the inside with one inch styrofoam.  And on the coldest nights, the heat from your floor and the ground temperature will not allow them to freeze.

WHEN THE FREEZE COMES
If you feel that for some reason you’re going turn the heat off at your home and leave for an extended period of time, put a 75-100 watt bulb (depending on the area you have to heat), drop light, in the bin and close it securely.

INSTALLING YOUR POTATOES IN YOUR BIN
Just as soon as you dig your potatos do not wash them.  Wipe the dirt off of them with a clean cloth (because you’re going to wash them before you peel them and eat them anyway), gently put the potatos inside this area, stack them neatly up to approximately 18 inches to 2 feet high, as you desire.  Remember, once you have stored the potatos, if you turn ONE OVER IT WILL ROT within 30 days.  NOTE: This is why I so hate watching the check out person handle my bag of potatos.  So have your opening that you retrieve your potatoes from in such a way that as you take the potatos out you can keep removing slats, so that by the time you get to the bottom you have not caused any of your potatos to roll or change position.

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON SUMMER STORAGE
If you intend on storing your potatos during the summer months, you MUST allow the summer air to circulate over the top of the potatos.  This can be accomplished by putting an additional door at the top back.

NOTE ON DAMPNESS
If your home is built in a low area and you have standing water or dampness problems under your home, then this is not a suitable place to store root vegetables.  If you have a mild dampness problem, install several sheets of six mil plastic underneath the wire underlay before you start construction.  If you intend to store a large quantity of potatos this way to last throughout the year, you should elevate the potatos off the ground approximately four inches by cutting wood slats 1 by 2 inches, leaving a 1 inch space between each one of them for air circulation and to allow air to pass under them.

OTHER VEGETABLES THAT CAN BE STORED THERE
You can store other vegetables of a like nature such as turnips, beets, carrots, etc.  As long as you follow the basic rule of partitioning off each in their own area, and keeping to other rule of not turning them or disturbing them during storage.  If you must turn them over, then take them out and eat them.  If you turn the top vegetable over it will rot and cause the others to start rotting. (This is why I cringe whever the checkout bagger throws my potatos around) Of course, I probably will eat them before they rot anyway . . .
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THE POTATO HOUSE MY GRANDPA BUILT

A community potato house, portable saw mills, preserving fence posts, and sawdust insulation.
OR How my Grandpa built his potato house and stored potatos for the whole community.

During the late 1930’s or early 1940’s Tennessee, my Grandpa operated two portable sawmills.  During and after the Depression the demands of lumber and building materials were high because the war, the railroads, and the housing that was needed, and barn building.  He operated two different saw mills.  One he kept set up at his home place, and one was taken to different wooded areas an operated when large amounts of lumber were to be cut.  They were called “portable saw mills”.

Each base foot frame (there were four of them) weighed in excess of 100 pounds each.  The arbor and flywheel weighed between 400 and 500 pounds.  After he had built his barn from the lumber that he had cut, he started cutting 10″ by 10″ timbers, 16 foot long.

He soaked the timbers in heated oil vats that were troughs made of wood.  I don’t recall what type of oil was used.  As the timbers soaked in the oil for a period of time, they were then brought out and set afire.  Whenever the oil and the heat were sufficient enough to blacken the wood and “seal” it, wet burlap was then thrown on them to put the fire out.

These became ground timbers (to be used in contact with the earth) because they would not rot.

Being the methodic, headstrong person this man was, he continued repeating this process until he had eight such logs.  Every one of the neighbors and visitors kept inquiring:

“You keep blacking these timbers and stacking them in a square, what are you plannin’ on doin’? ”  But Grandpa did not immediately repley . . .

Grandpa started building his uprights, ten foot long.  As he had put the uprights for the door and the corners of the building he was building.  He had been saving from his sawmill, cedar, cypress, and oak sawdust in burlap bags, and storing them in his barn for several years previously to dry.  As he continued putting the “lap siding” on this building he would mix the three kinds of sawdust together with the inside and the inside and the outside of the lap planks being 1 inch thick, and the interior wall filled and packed full of this mixture of sawdust.  He continued this process until he had, from the ground up, a building sixteen feet by sixteen feet, with 12 inch thick walls.

Everyone kept telling him that his building didn’t make any sense. What kind of crazy notion did he have?

He would just look at them and grin, and then go on about his business. He did that a lot.

After he had completed the outer walls, filled with sawdust, he put his ceiling joists in and began filling THAT with sawdust.  Then he went inside the building and started running two by fours from the ground to the ceiling every four foot against the walls, and four foot out from the walls.  Then he started cutting oak slats approximately 1 by 2 inches.  He nailed those between the two by fours putting two by fours every three feet making a ladder in all directions.

In the center of this building he put a coal stove and ran the stack out the ceiling.  The door (that he made) had heavy iron hinges, and was also  made with 2 by tens making it ten inches thick, and filled that with sawdust.  He then took the 1 by 2 inch planks and laid them over the 2 by fours.

He went into his field that he had planted that spring with sweet potatos, and dug out several wagon loads of sweet potatos.  He brought them from the field to this house, and started laying them out on the slats.  He had enough potatoes to fill only one small section of this building.

Grandpa told all of the farmers in the area:

“If you do not wish your potatos to ruin this winter when it freezes, you don’t have to bury them or keep them in a cellar to spoil.  I have built a potato house.  If you wish to pay me to store your potatos in a dry, clean area I will charge you fifty cents a month for each bin that you use.  OR, I will store your potatos right beside mine, and for each four bushels of potatos that I store for you, I will store one for me.  The potatos that I recieve from you are mine.  If you run out of potatos before winter is up, then you can buy back the bushel that you traded me for storage.”

All winter he kept this potato house a constant temperature with just a few lumps of coal because it was so well insulated.  In the summertime all he had to do was open a couple of draft doors at the bottom to let fresh air in, and the thick door in the front being only a screen door in the summer as an entrance door.  And in the middle of the summer when it was 80-90 degrees outside, the inside of this house would still be cool.  The entire community stored their potatos in this house for over 30 years, being able to go to this potato house and get potatos all the way up until the new crop of potatos came in next year.

Grandpa Jones did not allow anybody to go into the potato house and sort potatos after they had been put into the potato house.  If they picked up a potato, they were instructed that was the potato they had to take with them.  The reason for this is, once a sweet potato has been put into a bin, the liquids in it will settle to the bottom side of the potato.  If you pick this potato up after several months and turn it over, within a period of approximately 30 days it will start to rot.

When you put your potatos in his potato house, those were the rules.  And if you got potatos out of his potato house, HE WATCHED YOU, to make sure that you did not cause your own potatos to spoil.

NOTE – In the top of the potato house he had a place at the top of the ladders that you could hang your bunching onions, the ones that were dried and hung over a nail.  Irish potatos had a separate place in the potato house.  Because of the coolness at which they had to be stored, they were put on the bottom level.  Irish potatos are best kept, unmoved, same as sweet potatos, on dry straw, on the ground in this house because of the absolute constant temperature.

SEE ALSO – HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN POTATO BIN AND STORING ROOT VEGETABLES