After receiving a rich harvest of potatoes, farmers are faced with the problem of storing this vegetable. With proper organization, you can save the tubers until next winter. To prevent the potatoes from spoiling, a number of rules must be observed.
Tuber preparation
In order for the harvest to not deteriorate, you need to properly prepare it for subsequent storage. You should pay attention to such recommendations:
- Drying and washing. Dug up tubers should lie in the sun for 3-4 hours and dry thoroughly. After that, they should be placed in a cool room, in which the sun's rays do not penetrate, so that the peel of the vegetables becomes coarser. If it is rainy, tubers need to be thoroughly washed to eliminate various pathogens. Wash tubers in cool water, and then lay out in the fresh air to dry.
- Sorting. The resulting crop must be sorted by separately decomposing the tubers for consumption, spring planting, feeding to pets and poultry. Potatoes that are affected by diseases need to be removed and destroyed. Vegetables intended for food are also sorted into short (small, damaged, unripe tubers), medium (largest vegetables) and long-term (ripened medium-sized vegetables) terms of use.
- Spraying with antifungal drugs. This event concerns seed potatoes that are planned to be planted in spring. Tubers can be treated with drugs Maxim or Zircon, Alirin-B. At home, it is also permissible to use potassium permanganate or brilliant green dissolved in water.
- You need to make sure that the tubers left for storage are not damaged, dry, healthy and clean, without sprouts and odors.
This video describes how to properly prepare tubers for long-term storage:
Lying potato varieties
The potato shelf life largely depends on its variety. Those types of vegetables that belong to the group of medium-late and late are best stored.
The following varieties are characterized by the ability to long-term storage:
- Gull;
- Crane;
- Slav;
- Saturn
- Asterix;
- Scarlett
- Nevsky
- Gingerbread man;
- Bernadette;
- Blue;
- Tatchinsky;
- Yavir.
Any, even the most immature variety of potatoes, needs certain storage conditions, otherwise the rotting of tubers and the deterioration of their quality characteristics cannot be avoided.
Vegetables that grew on light soils with a significant admixture of sand are stored much longer than those that were grown in low-lying lands with a predominance of clay.
Storage container
Potatoes, which after digging will lie in storage for about six months, must be placed in specially prepared containers.
You can store tubers in:
- Wooden crates. This is the most common option for storing vegetables. When picking up boxes, you need to make sure that the boards are loosely knocked down. The top of the drawers should be open: this contributes to good air exchange. 10-12 kg of tubers should be put in each box. Containers should be placed on shelves or racks. The distance between them should be 10-15 cm. The lower boxes should be at a distance of 15 cm from the floor for better air penetration to vegetables.
- Plastic containers. This packaging is lightweight, so it can be easily transported. Its walls and bottom with a mesh structure also provide a full flow of air to the tubers.
- Mesh bags. Do not choose dense bags made of polypropylene, as they almost do not let air in and contribute to rotting of potatoes. Such containers are placed vertically or stacked horizontally. In the latter case, you can lay the bag on top of the bag.
Potato Storage
You can save the harvest in different ways: both in separate rooms intended for this, and on the balcony or even in the ground.
Cellar
First you need to carefully process the room. Walls are required to be bleached with the addition of table salt and copper sulphate. The cellar must have a ventilation system. Before making the crop, it is necessary to ventilate the room, and the wooden structures should be thoroughly dried and treated with lime.
Potatoes should be laid out in containers: wooden crates, baskets. It can also be emptied into bags or in special compartments.
The advantage of this storage method is the ability to save large volumes of potatoes. Minus - the need to carefully prepare the room for the time of harvest and from time to time to check the condition of the tubers.
If there is no cellar, then the crop can be kept in the basement, which is located in the garage.
Burt
This is a popular way to preserve crops in an urban setting. Burt is a kind of basement. A mound of potatoes is dug up with earth for half a meter, a layer of straw (50-85 cm) is laid on top, on which they lay a heat-insulating material. On the sides of the structure is fixed using boards. Ventilation is ensured by installing a pipe, along the perimeter of which they dig a recess for draining the liquid.
The advantage of the method is storage conditions as close as possible to storage in the basement. The disadvantage is the complexity of the collar.
Trench or pit
This is a fairly outdated method. Vegetables outdoors can be stored in this way: dig a hole or trench to a depth of 1 m. Tubers are laid in layers, each row is sprinkled with moist earth with a layer of 3 cm. The top layer of the earth should reach a thickness of 20 cm.
The advantage of the method is the ability to save a large number of crops. The disadvantage is the need to put a lot of effort into laying potatoes for storage.
Balcony
This is the only place in the apartment where you can fully preserve the potato crop. To prevent the tubers from freezing, place them in a double bag of cloth, which then immerse in a box or box.
After that, place the potato pot into another large container. The space between the walls of two boxes should be filled with foam rubber or old warm things - jackets, blankets.
Tubers can also be stored on the balcony in special boxes that are insulated with foam on the outside and lined with waterproofing material inside.
The advantage of the method is the ability to preserve the crop without affecting the total area of the apartment. The disadvantage is the risk of freezing of potatoes with a decrease in air temperature.
Kitchen in the apartment
If potatoes are stored in the kitchen, then the best place for this is under the sink. A small number of tubers can be placed in a wicker basket. You can also use a bucket or basin, but you need to drill holes in them. Plastic bags are not recommended even for short-term storage.
If potatoes are placed under the sink, you need to regularly monitor the condition of the plumbing so that the tubers are not flooded with water.
The disadvantage of this method is suitable exclusively for short-term storage and allows you to store only a small amount of potatoes. The advantage is the ability to place a small number of tubers without affecting the total area.
Refrigerator
In the refrigerator, a lot of potatoes cannot be stored, but it is in it that the optimal conditions for this are present. The refrigerator can constantly maintain the required temperature. For packing vegetables it is best to use paper bags.
The minus of the method is a small number of tubers that can be stored. A definite plus is quality storage.
Porch
Often residents of apartment buildings carry potatoes in bags into the porch: so it does not take up space in the apartment and is within walking distance. But this is a rather specific place, and the storage of potatoes is associated with a high risk of spoilage of tubers.
To reduce the risk of rotting potatoes, it is recommended to put the tubers in a box and securely fix it on the floor. On top of the container, you need to cover and drill ventilation holes in it so that air flows freely to the tubers.
At the entrance, the humidity level constantly fluctuates, so it needs to be controlled. You can do this with the help of a plastic open dish: you need to put the container in a box and observe its inner surface. If dark spots form on it, then this indicates an increased level of humidity, which is harmful to the vegetable. This is a significant disadvantage of this storage method.
At the same time, it has an advantage: it is cooler in the staircase than in the apartment, and in winter it is warmer than in the street. The temperature here is close to optimal for storing tubers - in the range from +4 to +6 degrees.
Useful Tips for Better Harvesting
To preserve vegetables until spring and prevent their spoilage, one should strictly observe the following recommendations:
- The temperature in the room or structure in which the root crops are laid should not fluctuate sharply. Optimum performance is from 0 to +3 degrees. In such conditions, the tubers do not freeze and do not germinate. A thermometer must be installed in the room to monitor the temperature. It should be borne in mind that different varieties of potatoes require a certain temperature: for example, varieties Temp, Spark, Foran - from 1.5 to 3 degrees, and Table 19 and Start - from 3 to 5 degrees.
- When the temperature drops in the case of severe frosts, you need to cover the tubers with straw or ordinary clean bags. If the area is small, then plastic bottles filled with hot water can be laid out on the floor.
- The humidity level should be between 85-90%. If this indicator is exceeded, then inevitably there will be moldy tubers. If the humidity is reduced, the tubers will lose fluid and dry out. To increase humidity, you need to use a humidifier or hang a wet cloth in the room. If you want to reduce the humidity indicator, you can ventilate the room, lay a layer of beets on the tubers, which absorbs excess moisture, use an air dryer.
- To prevent rotting of potato tubers, you can sprinkle them with chopped garlic. For 100 kg of vegetable, 100 g of garlic is enough. Also, elderberry leaves or fern protect from rot.
- If potatoes are stored in bulk (bulk), then the height of the embankment should not exceed 1.5 m.
- Mint prevents potato sprouting. To do this, shift the tubers with it. The same function is performed by half an apple put in each box in the spring.
- No light should enter the room. The sun's rays contribute to the formation of harmful substances in the potato, which make it green and unfit for food.
- For better preservation of the crop, you can shift the potatoes with fresh rowan leaves or pine branches. They contain volatile, which have a beneficial effect on the condition of the vegetable. Ginger root has the same effect.
Throughout the entire period of storage of the crop, one should visit the room where it is planted and check the condition of the vegetables in order to notice signs of illness or decay in time.
Common mistakes
Improper handling of vegetables, violation of the rules for their storage affects the taste of the vegetable and generally makes it unsuitable.
The most common errors associated with storing the crop include the following:
- Storage of damaged potatoes. A vegetable infected with pathogens is a source of infection for healthy tubers. This causes mass rot. In this case, it is not possible to save the crop.
- Unwillingness to sort out potatoes from time to time. Vegetables need to be sorted with a certain frequency in order to remove specimens affected by pathogenic microflora in time.
- Keep all kinds of potatoes together. You need to sort the early, mid-ripening and late species.
- Poor drying of potatoes. After the crop is harvested, it must be thoroughly dried, otherwise mass destruction of tubers by bacterial ring rot may occur.
- Lack of ventilation in the room. Under such conditions, the tubers quickly rot.
- Insufficient disinfection of the room. Before moving vegetables to the storage room, be sure to treat the walls with whitewash.
- Use tight containers. If too many potatoes are stacked in a box or bag, individual tubers will experience strong pressure from neighboring tubers and shrink. This leads to the formation of gray spotting.
This video talks about sorting potatoes, choosing the right packaging and the place to store it:
To preserve the potatoes from the time of harvest until spring, you need to prepare both the place where it will be stored, and the tubers themselves. Vegetables should be in optimal conditions of temperature and humidity, not to experience mechanical pressure and from time to time to be looked for rot and other diseases.