Storing Your Home Grown Potatoes - 6 Tips For the Best Results

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When you've spent a lot of time and effort into growing potatoes, and the time comes to harvest them, you want to make positive that you get the most mileage from your crop.

Clearly, you wont be able to eat them all in one go, so it makes sense to store them effectively so they last lengthy enough for you and your family to appreciate them at their perfect.

Here are 6 recommendations to make certain that you can shop your potatoes for as long as probable.

1. Mature the Skins When you initial harvest your potatoes, leave them somewhere cool and dark for 2-3 days. This will assist the skins to mature and will serve to supply better protection when they go into storage.
2. Cool and dark Your potatoes have to have to be stored somewhere cool and dark. A temperature of between 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit is the ideal to preserve the dormancy period, and delay sprouting for as long as probable.  Any sunlight will trigger the potatoes to go green. Green potatoes are toxic potatoes and not nice.
3. A lot of air When you store your potatoes, they will need the air to be able to circulate freely about every single vegetable as much as feasible. Some folks store their potatoes in tights or pantyhose and suspend them over a washing line in the cellar. Store your potatoes in a hessian or brown paper sack with holes in to aid with the airflow.
4. Inspect each one Ahead of you place every potato into storage, inspect each and every and every 1. Dispose of anything that is green, shrivelled, sprouting, and damaged or with any soft or rotten parts. The baddies will ruin the goodies!
5. Do Nots 
   
   • Do not wash your potatoes, but gently rub off the mud.  Washing them can allow mildew to set in and the damp skin can let bacteria to acquire entry and rot the potato.  
   • Do not shop them in polythene bags-the condensation build up will trigger rotting to start off. 
   • Do not store them with onions or fruit- they all produce gases and hormones which can spoil them all. 
   • Do not shop your potatoes in the fridge. Yes, it is cold and dark, when the door is shut, but the temperature is too cold. This will cause the starch in the potato to turn to sugar and will cause it to taste sweet once cooked and will also cause the potato to turn a dark nasty looking colour when you cook it.
6. Check on Progress When you shop your potatoes correctly it is probable to get them to last from three-6 months. Throughout the storage period you will need to have to check on the progress of your spuds from time to time. Get rid of anything shrivelled, green or rotten before it gets a alter to harm the others.

So there you are, 6 points to follow to help you get the most out of your efforts in the garden.