How to Build a Potato Storage Mound

Potatoes keep best in temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, with ventilation but enough moisture to prevent them from drying out. If you have home-grown potatoes but no location with those conditions, create a potato storage mound in your garden and use the natural warmth and humidity of the earth to keep them from freezing or shriveling. Potato mounds work best where winter temperatures usually stay below 50 degrees but the ground doesn't freeze hard more than 2 to 3 inches deep.

• 1

  Spread a layer of straw 3 to 4 inches deep on a raised, well-drained location, when the weather starts to drop below 50 degrees in the fall. Cover an area large enough to pile your potatoes on.

• 2

  Dig a shallow drainage ditch around the outside of the layer of straw, with several drainage channels to lead the water away.

• 3

  Prop a 2- to 3-foot section of stove pipe or plastic drain pipe upright in the middle of the straw for ventilation, then pile potatoes around to hold it upright. Continue to mound the potatoes to create a pile around the pipe, but leave the top of the pipe sticking up above the potatoes by at least 1 foot.

• 4

  Cover the mound of potatoes with 6 to 12 inches of straw, using a thicker layer for a colder climate. Stuff more straw down the ventilation pipe and lay a few inches of straw over the top of the pipe to prevent too much rainwater from filling it.

• 5

  Shovel 3 to 6 inches or more of dirt on top of the straw to hold it in place and add further insulation. Cover the edges of the straw protecting the top of the pipe but leave the pipe itself uncovered, except for its layer of straw.

• 6

  Remove a few potatoes as you need them by digging into the dirt at the base of the mound and reaching into the straw to remove them.