We were lucky this year: the potatoes have freed very well. I have several beds in my dacha, from which I managed to collect as many as 3 bags of potatoes. Naturally, I wanted to save this crop for the long winter.
Since I live in a high-rise building, the storage problem is acute. In an amicable way, the potatoes need to be taken out to the basement or cellar, but I don't have it.
Do your potatoes spoil during long storage? So it used to spoil with me, but now it remains fresh and beautiful until spring! Hear how I manage to preserve a valuable vegetable!
As a resident of an apartment, first of all, such places for storing crops as a pantry, a balcony and a niche under the window came to my mind (in old Khrushchev houses there is such a place, in modern apartments it is unlikely).
Tubers must be thoroughly dried before storing. You shouldn't wash them. Next comes the sorting stage, during which we select the varieties that ripened earlier. They have the shortest shelf life, a maximum of mid-autumn. They must be eaten initially.
I put these tubers in a cupboard under the sink. A great option is to store potatoes in wooden boxes. I didn't find such, so ordinary cardboard boxes were used. I cover the bottom of the boxes with newspaper, crumpled office paper, or cover them with sawdust. I put vegetables on top.
Here are my secrets to long-term storage of potatoes:
- 1. First, I put beets with the potatoes.
This root vegetable draws moisture out of the potato, as a result, it does not deteriorate.
2. Secondly, I put several activated charcoal tablets in the box. They need to be replaced periodically with new ones.
3. If there is mint in the house, then I also put a few dry twigs in a box with potatoes.
A basin or bucket is quite suitable for storing vegetables, the main thing is to make several holes in them for the circulation of air flows.
I have a friend who makes special boxes on the balcony, displaying them in the form of a nesting doll. It leaves a few centimeters of empty space between the bottom, walls and lid.
In the resulting voids, he puts pieces of foam or pours sawdust. He sheathes the entire structure with a sheet of linoleum, and inside the boxes he processes with potassium permanganate.
By the way, I also once carried potatoes to the balcony. He took cardboard boxes, covered the bottom with a blanket, then put potatoes with vegetables on top and wrapped it all in another blanket. Until spring, I always had fresh potatoes!
Share your way of storing potatoes!
Hope you enjoyed this article. I will be infinitely happy about your like 👍 and subscribing to the channel.