How to store potatoes in a city apartment?

Probably, each person asked himself the question of how to store potatoes in the apartment. Of course, the ideal option would be to store potatoes in the cellar, but even in urban housing the root crop can be found.

Storage preparation

If the potatoes were harvested on their own personal plot, then after harvesting the tubers, it is recommended to dry them in the sun for several hours. Firstly, this will significantly reduce the risk of their subsequent decay, and secondly, adhering earth will separate much more easily. When choosing a potato in a store, you should remember that it should be of medium size and without damage or disease noticeable to the naked eye. For storage, later varieties of potatoes are optimal, and ripening early are able to lie a maximum until November - early December.

Potatoes are being transported, damaged tubers are eaten in the first place, since they will not survive long-term home storage. You should not wash the potatoes before laying them for storage, you just need to shake off the adhered soil from the tubers.

How to store?

It is recommended that within a couple of weeks - a month to arrange a kind of preventive period for the potato, during which all previously undetected diseases usually appear. During this period, tubers should be stored in a well-ventilated place and inspected regularly.

Potato storage requires good ventilation, so you can pack the potatoes in cloth bags or in boxes with holes. Use polyethylene is not worth it - in it the tubers quickly damp, mold and rot. For the same reason, it is not recommended to keep tubers in the refrigerator for a long time. To protect against all kinds of pests in a bag or box for storing potatoes, it is recommended to put aromatic herbs - leaves of mountain ash or daisy, wormwood twigs, etc.

At what temperature and humidity should potatoes be stored?

Like many other vegetables, potatoes do not like heat. It should only be stored in a cool place as far as possible from heating appliances. At home, it can be an unheated balcony or a loggia, a pantry, an entrance hall, but not a refrigerator.

At what temperature should potatoes be stored? Although she should be low enough (5-6 degrees), she should not fall below zero.

To absorb the accumulated moisture, the potatoes are transferred to carefully dried straw, sawdust, or beets are laid with it. But with other vegetables, storing potatoes is undesirable.

Why is low potato storage temperature so important? With it, all life processes in tubers slow down. It should happen a strong warming, and the potato will begin to germinate, its breathing will become more intense, as a result of which the tubers will lose moisture, become flabby. Therefore, maintaining optimal conditions for storage at home - 3-4 degrees Celsius and humidity in the range of 85-90% - is mandatory.

Tip

Maintaining comfortable temperature conditions during storage will be easier if you put a thermometer in the box with it.

How to store potatoes on the balcony in winter

If the balcony is unheated, then during severe cold on the street frost can reach potatoes. How to store potatoes in this case? To prevent freezing, bags or boxes can be wrapped in an old cotton blanket. Some warm tubers with tubers with electric lamps or a hairdryer. The latter not only warms the potatoes, but also provides additional ventilation.

If severe frosts occur in the region for a couple of days throughout the winter, then such storage of potatoes, of course, is possible. But if the cold lasts for months, these methods will be uneconomical.

Potato storage box

The best way to store potatoes on the balcony in the winter is to build double-layer containers for it. To do this, you need two boxes of different sizes, where one of them must be at least 15-20 cm less than the second in length, width and height. At the bottom of a larger box, either sawdust or even any artificial insulation, except mineral wool, because its small particles can fall into the potatoes, should be poured. Next, a smaller box is placed inside, the gaps between the walls of two boxes are sealed with the same sawdust or other insulation. The top is covered with an old blanket or just a thick cloth. In such boxes, the storage of potatoes is possible even when in the cold at 10-15 degrees.

Other conditions

It is equally important that the tubers do not get light - in addition to starting to sprout from this, the poisonous substance solanine is also produced there, the appearance of which is easy to notice - the potatoes begin to turn green. Throwing out the whole potato is not worth it because of this, but it will be necessary to cut off the green layer before eating it.

In late winter and early spring, eyes often begin to sprout on the potato. And so that all the nutrients from the tubers do not go into them, these seedlings must be removed.

Tip

Mint is considered to be an effective remedy against the germination of potatoes during storage - its leaves in a dry form are poured into bags or boxes with tubers.

Potatoes in the apartment are best stored in small portions. Then it will be much more convenient to inspect the potatoes for safety, and if it has deteriorated in one box, the rest will not be affected.

Each potato storage box should be located at least on a small elevation from the floor (15-20 cm), and also not be moved close to the walls.

Can I store in the refrigerator?

Small potato stocks are often sent to refrigerator drawers. As a rule, they are quickly eaten, and nothing has time to happen to the tubers. But is long-term storage of potatoes in the refrigerator permissible? No no no. There are several reasons for this.

• Too much space will be taken in the refrigerator, for other products it simply will not remain.
• The temperature in the refrigerator is usually below 5-6 degrees, and under these conditions, potato starch breaks down to sugars, and the potato becomes sweet. Not fatal, but unpleasant.
• The refrigerator is an enclosed space. Even though it is opened several times a day, it does not provide normal ventilation, and the potatoes damp quickly.

As you can see, storing potatoes in an apartment is not at all difficult. The main thing is to create suitable conditions for him and regularly sort out. Even if at first glance the tubers look healthy, but an unpleasant odor emanates from the box, and small midges fly around it, this is a sure sign that not everything is okay with the potato and should be examined more carefully.