Kamila Součková
15. 1. 2025
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3 minutes
video
Experienced gardeners have long known the techniques and procedures for storing potatoes so that they last until the new harvest. But what about those of you who buy a bag of potatoes for the winter, or pick them up from grandma, and lo and behold, the potatoes shrivel up and start sprouting? We bring several types of how to store them properly. And one of them will completely surprise you.
Make two absolutely essential actions your own. First – find for potatoes dry a place with an ideal temperature of 7 to 10 degrees Celsius. A slightly lower temperature does not matter, but do not go below 4.5 degrees. Keep it as constant as possible, otherwise you risk not only that your potatoes start to sprout, but also mold.
Video on how to store potatoes so they don’t sprout here on this YouTube channel.
Source: Youtube
The darkening darkness will help
Second – choose a place where there is not much light. Of course, a basement is available, but for those who don’t have one, or simply don’t want to go to it often from the upper floor, an unused closet or perhaps a dressing room are also suitable. In short, make the potatoes dark. This is desirable because light causes germination in potatoes, and also provides ample ground for the disorder called solanine, which is the chemical that causes the bitter taste and greening.
In addition to a dry, dark place with a consistent temperature, also forget to wash the potatoes well and then store them. This is wrong! Careful cooks might think that this will make it easier to process the potatoes for cooking and save time, but really, don’t. Reason? Once moisture reaches the skin, the potatoes will soon begin to rot.
What to put the potatoes in
Forget about today’s exceedingly popular plastic bags. They ensure warmth and humidity in the environment of the stored potatoes, and we thought that this is highly undesirable. Instead, choose readily available cardboard boxes, paper or mesh bags, or cotton bags. A wicker basket is also a good choice. The essence is ventilation, in short, to allow air to flow, and plastic certainly cannot do that.
Hand out with herbs
Do you make sage tea when you have a sore throat? Do you have rosemary or lavender at home? If your answer is “no”, run to the store. According to one of the foreign studies, putting a cotton bag with one of the aforementioned herbs on the potato box is a simple and, moreover, purely natural method of protecting potatoes from rotting.
But that’s not all! The results of the study also proved that peppermint essential oil effectively combats germination. Then it is enough to drip a piece of absorbent napkin and add it to the potatoes. Researchers recommend repeating every three weeks.
And one more interesting thing
Try not to store potatoes in close proximity to apples, onions, pears, bananas and any fruit or vegetables at all. Namely, apples and onions in particular emit ethylene gas, which not only accelerates germination, but is also not good for the potatoes themselves, because it simply softens them.
Source: wikihow.com, sciencedirect.com
