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It is customary in almost every family to prepare potatoes for the winter. To do this, they harvest from the fields in the fall or buy vegetables at the fair and store them in the cellar. Unfortunately, a situation often arises in which potatoes rot during storage, lose moisture, and begin to sprout. Such troubles can arise due to improper storage conditions, certain characteristics of the variety, hidden tuber diseases and other reasons. We will talk about how to store potatoes in the cellar correctly and avoid all possible troubles below in the proposed article.
Optimal storage conditions
Not every owner manages to preserve potatoes until spring without losing quality. More often this is due to the lack of necessary storage conditions. But how to properly store potatoes so that when spring comes, the product in the bins remains fresh? And it’s better to do this in the cellar, where it’s dark, dry and there are no temperature fluctuations.
Optimal storage conditions for vegetables require a temperature of +2-+40C. At elevated air temperatures, potatoes begin to germinate quickly, lose moisture, and wither. Its consumer qualities are deteriorating sharply.At temperatures below the recommended values, potatoes acquire a sweetish taste. When cooked, frozen tubers become a little slimy.
Air humidity in the cellar plays no less important role than temperature. Its optimal rate is 80-85%. An increased level of humidity promotes the development of fungi and viruses, as a result of which the tubers rot and become covered with mold. In an excessively dry room, tubers lose moisture, which also negatively affects the quality of the product.
It is possible to understand to what extent the above requirements are met only if a thermometer and a humidity meter are installed in the cellar. You can regulate the temperature and humidity in the storage in the following ways:
- To reduce the temperature, you can open the air vents in winter or place containers of frozen water around the perimeter of the room.
- You can warm the potatoes in the cellar with a cotton blanket, burlap, and a layer of dry sand or straw. Bottles of hot water placed around the perimeter of the cellar will also increase the air temperature.
- You can reduce the humidity in the cellar by placing containers with slaked lime or covering the tubers with hygroscopic material (burlap). A layer of beets on top of the potato mound will also absorb excess moisture.
- The easiest way to increase the humidity level in the cellar is to spray its walls with water from a spray bottle.
Thus, by choosing a place to store potatoes, if necessary, you can regulate the temperature and humidity levels of the air in it. However, it will not be possible to constantly maintain an optimal microclimate in the cellar artificially. This will unjustifiably take a lot of effort and time, so the measures listed are rather a way out of a force majeure situation when weather conditions change dramatically. In general, the characteristics of the cellar must initially meet the above requirements.
Not every potato variety is suitable for storage
Even in conditions with optimal humidity and temperature, potatoes can deteriorate during winter storage. The fact is that not all varieties are suitable for long-term storage:
- Early and mid-early potatoes can be stored for no more than 2 months. This category includes such well-known varieties as “Aurora”, “Mistress”, “Rocco”, “Peter’s Mystery” and some others.
- All late potato varieties, as a rule, are stored without any problems until the harvest of the next season. The leaders in terms of shelf life are the varieties “Zhuravinka”, “Atlant”, “Chaika”, “Slavyanka”.
- The exceptions to the rule are the Scarlett and Nevsky varieties. These potatoes do not belong to the category of late varieties, but at the same time they demonstrate high shelf life and taste.
The shelf life characteristics of potatoes depend not only on the selected variety, but also on the conditions in which it grew:
- Growing potatoes during the rainy season can result in a 50% loss of yield;
- vegetables grown on sandy soils are stored much better than on heavy types of soil;
- an increased amount of potassium and a low amount of nitrogen allows you to grow crops with increased suitability for storage;
- various diseases that affect potatoes during cultivation can damage up to 70% of the crop during storage. Moreover, even careful selection of tubers does not always reduce the percentage of losses, since fruit defects can be hidden deep inside.
When storing potatoes in the cellar, it is necessary to take into account all of the listed factors and, if possible, take all measures to reduce their impact. Thus, you can improve the storage of potatoes in the cellar by following certain rules for harvesting and preparing them at the stage even before storing them in the cellar.
Preparing potatoes for long-term storage
You need to make sure that storing potatoes in the cellar is long and successful even before harvesting. Thus, on the leaves of the tops there may be viruses and bacteria that accidentally fall on the surface of the tubers during the digging process and intensify their harmful activity after storing the vegetables.
Tubers, being in the ground for a week after mowing, acquire a rougher skin, which is resistant to mechanical damage and facilitates long-term storage of tubers.
After harvesting, you should not rush to store it, because before putting the potatoes into the cellar, they must go through the following stages:
Treatment stage
Immediately after the potatoes are on the surface of the ground, there is no need to pour them into bags or boxes, because the tubers must go through the so-called treatment stage. To do this, they are left to dry at the place of cultivation. Potatoes can be exposed to direct sunlight for no more than two hours without loss of quality, after which the crop must be moved under a canopy. Unimpeded access to fresh air will allow all wounds and damage on the surface of the tubers to heal, their skin will become rougher and more resistant to mechanical damage and disease.
Sorting
As a rule, owners who grow potatoes on their own plots of land select planting material for next year in the fall. Seed potatoes are scattered on a sunny plot of land for 1-2 days, so that solanine is produced in the tubers and they become slightly green. Such seed potatoes will be stored well until spring. Rodents and other pests will ignore it.
Further sorting consists of selecting the most “beautiful” potatoes for storage for long-term storage. They must be mature, dry, without visible damage on the surface and the presence of sprouts. Very large tubers, as well as damaged tubers, are stored for a medium-long storage period. Crushed, disease-damaged and other “dubious” specimens of tubers should not be placed in the cellar at all, since they can damage a large number of vegetables around them during the storage process.
Cooling
The cooling period precedes the storage of potatoes in the cellar or basement. This stage consists of a gradual change in temperature. Over the course of two weeks, reduce the temperature to +2-+40C. This allows you to slow down the biochemical processes in the tubers and prepare the vegetables for long-term storage.
By carrying out all the listed stages of preparing potatoes, it will be possible to store only a high-quality, selected product, which, even with the arrival of spring, will not significantly change its characteristics.
A clean cellar will preserve the harvest
Each owner has the right to decide how potatoes in winter in the cellar: in bulk, in fabric bags or boxes. At the same time, there are general rules for preparing premises and containers for the winter period. Yes, before storing potatoes for storage it is necessary to disinfect the premises. To do this, walls, stairs, shelves and all other elements of the cellar are treated with a solution of lime with the addition of copper sulfate. For disinfection, you can also use a concentrated solution of potassium permanganate. After treatment, the room must be dried. To do this, open the vents or hood.
You can learn more about cellar processing from the video:
Potatoes are stored in bulk, without using special containers, as a rule, if the amount of harvest is not too large, since this method has one significant drawback: if there are 2-3 spots of rotting, you can quickly lose a large amount of potatoes.Before storing vegetables in bulk, care must be taken to install pallets that will provide ventilation at the bottom of the cellar.
Many owners believe that it is better to store potatoes in containers and boxes, since they can be easily installed in several rows, making the most of the free space in the cellar. Such containers provide good ventilation for vegetables, preventing rotting and the development of diseases.
Bags and nets are most often used by farmers to collect crops for subsequent sale. The use of bags made from natural materials also ensures the necessary air circulation. When a rotting area appears, only a small amount of potatoes are damaged.
Potatoes can be stored correctly in the cellar only if the rules for preparing the room and container are followed. Otherwise, fungi, bacteria and viruses will cause increasing damage to the crop during storage from year to year.
A video on how to store potatoes in a cellar in winter can be useful not only for beginners, but also for experienced owners:
Spring sprouts
Having studied the above material, even an inexperienced owner will know how to properly store potatoes in the cellar. However, with the arrival of spring, the tubers inevitably begin to awaken. The time of awakening depends largely on the variety and storage conditions: early varieties awaken already in mid-February, late potatoes can be stored unchanged until April. You can slow down the process of sprouting by lowering the temperature to +1-+20C. When large sprouts appear, they should be removed mechanically.
Conclusion
Thus, it becomes clear that it is not enough to simply grow a good potato crop on your plot or purchase it at a fair. It is much more important to know how to preserve potatoes in winter. After all, the quality of the product during storage can deteriorate significantly and then all the work and effort will be wasted. To prevent this from happening, it is important to know and remember the basic rules for sorting and preparing crops for storage, and take into account the recommended storage conditions. Only by fulfilling all storage requirements can you stock up on good potatoes that will delight you with their taste until the new harvest ripens.
