Storing potatoes: 5 professional tips

 If you want to eat home-grown potatoes even in spring, you have to store your potatoes properly. With these five tips, storage is successful. 

how to store potatoes correctly? If you want to store the tubers of 

the nightshade family for a longer period of time, 

there are a few points to consider already at harvest time. 

No question: Potatoes taste best when they are fresh from the ground on the table. 

Nevertheless, you can only harvest your ripe potatoes until 

the fall as needed. Before the first ground frost comes, 

they must all be cleared and stored frost-free, 

because the vegetables are extremely sensitive to cold. 

Even slight sub-zero temperatures destroy the cell 

structure - the tubers then become soft and begin to rot. 

Therefore, potatoes should only be frozen if they have been cooked beforehand. 

With the following professional tips for storage, 

your potatoes will still be edible next spring.

Storing potatoes: The most important things at a glance

• Do not harvest storage potatoes too early, so that the skin can harden well.
• Allow the tubers to dry in an airy place protected from rain.
• A cool storage location is important. A potato rack in an unheated, airy, frost-free cellar is ideal.
• Dark storage prevents the tubers from germinating prematurely and storing toxic solanine.
• Do not store potatoes next to apples - this promotes sprouting.

Tip 1: Do not harvest storage potatoes too early

Even before the foliage of the potatoes has completely died off, 

the first tubers can be harvested for the kitchen. 

However, one should wait at least two weeks after the shoots have died 

before harvesting storage potatoes. 

During this period the skin hardens. 

This makes it more resistant to putrefactive agents 

and the vegetables stay fresh longer during storage. 

The earliest harvest time for storage potatoes is usually mid-September, 

depending on climate and weather conditions. 

Occasionally one hears the recommendation to remove foliage 

infested with late blight early. 

However, scientific studies have shown that this does not 

affect the infestation of the tubers. Therefore, wait and see: 

the premature removal of leaves and stems ends the ripening 

process early and thus reduces the storage life of the potatoes. 

Potato varieties such as 'Algria', 'Linda' or 'Bamberger Hörnchen' 

are only removed from the soil when the leaves of the plants turn yellow or brown and die.

Tip 2: Dry potatoes well before storing

A gentle harvesting technique is important for storing potatoes. 

It is best to lift them carefully out of the bed with a digging fork. 

If possible, harvest your potatoes only in dry weather and allow 

the tubers to dry a little before storing them in an airy place 

protected from rain. Important: Sort out the damaged 

tubers - they are only suitable for immediate consumption. 

The remaining ones should not be cleaned, because the adhering 

dry soil is a natural protection against rot. 

In professional cultivation, potatoes are often washed after harvesting 

and then preserved with various rot-proofing chemicals such as Chlorpropham, 

Imazalil and Thiabendazol - the telltale addition on the label 

reads "treated after harvest". Although the clean tubers are 

visually more appealing on the supermarket shelf, 

they are also less healthy than natural potatoes.

Tip 3: The right storage temperature for potatoes

Whoever wants to store potatoes must know that the tubers 

have a natural sprout inhibition. Depending on the ambient temperature, 

they decompose within five to nine weeks after harvest. 

After this period a temperature below five degrees is necessary, 

so that the tubers do not germinate prematurely. 

A so-called potato horde in an unheated, 

frost-free and airy cellar is ideal for storage, 

but a garage is also suitable if necessary. 

Here the tubers should be stored in a box isolated with dry straw, 

so that they do not freeze and are not exposed to too 

strong temperature fluctuations. 

In the past, potatoes were often stored in specially dug holes in the ground. 

These were previously covered with fine wire mesh as 

protection against mice and insulated with straw all around. 

Especially at the level of the earth's surface, 

a thick straw packing is necessary to prevent frost from 

penetrating into the middle of the potatoes.

Tip 4: Potatoes need absolute darkness in the warehouse

Keep the storage location dark: storing the potatoes too light not 

only promotes premature sprouting. 

The skin also turns green under permanent lighting and stores solanine. 

The toxin can be found in the leaves and partly also in 

the fruits of almost all nightshade plants. 

Small amounts are not alarming, 

but all green parts of the tubers should be cut off during peeling. 

High concentrations of solanine result in a bitter taste of the tubers.

Where can potatoes be stored in the apartment?

A cool, dark and airy cellar is not always available to store potatoes. 

If you want to store vegetables in the apartment, 

they must be protected from heat and light even there. 

An unheated pantry or storage room is a good place to store them. 

To prevent premature germination, 

cover the tubers with paper or a jute fabric. 

Good ventilation prevents the formation of mold. 

In the refrigerator, potatoes should be kept at a temperature 

between four and six degrees Celsius for a short time at most. 

If you have a balcony or terrace, store the potatoes 

in the dark in a covered wooden box outside, insulated with straw.

Tip 5: Do not store potatoes and apples together

In winter storage, apples emit ethylene, a so-called ripening gas. 

This also promotes the ripening or budding of potatoes and other fruits and tubers. For this reason, 

potatoes and apples should never be stored together in the cellar, 

if possible even in separate rooms. 

Nevertheless, almost all potatoes stored in the cellar will 

sprout to a greater or lesser extent until spring. 

At the same time, the starch stored in the storage tissue of 

the tubers is broken down and converted into sugars - 

therefore sprouting potatoes slowly become wrinkled, 

soft and lose volume. 

However, there is no need to dispose of them immediately: 

as long as the sprouts of the potato are not longer than a finger's 

breadth and the tuber is still reasonably firm, they can be eaten without hesitation.