Storage Starts Before You Dig
Potatoes store best when they are fully mature, carefully harvested, sound, and properly cured. New potatoes are intentionally harvested with thin skins and should be used promptly rather than placed in long-term storage.
Wait for Maturity and Skin Set
For a mature crop, allow vines to yellow and die back naturally when weather and plant health permit. Test a few tubers: the skin should resist rubbing with a thumb. If hard frost, prolonged rain, disease, or pests threaten the crop, dig before conditions cause more damage.
Harvest Carefully
- Choose a dry day when soil is workable.
- Begin digging outside the hill to avoid spearing tubers.
- Lift soil gently and collect potatoes by hand.
- Keep harvested potatoes out of direct sunlight.
- Separate cut, bruised, green, soft, or diseased potatoes.
Do not wash potatoes intended for storage. Let surface soil dry, then brush it away gently.
Which Potatoes Should Be Cured?
Cure only sound, mature tubers. Use lightly damaged potatoes promptly if they remain wholesome. Discard potatoes that are extensively green, bitter, leaking, moldy, foul-smelling, or badly decayed. Do not cure new potatoes with the storage crop.
Curing Conditions
Hold mature potatoes in darkness with good ventilation at approximately 50–60°F and high humidity for about 7–14 days. Curing helps minor harvest injuries heal and allows skins to finish setting. Avoid condensation and stagnant air.
Move Potatoes to Storage
After curing, store potatoes in darkness at roughly 40–46°F with high humidity and ventilation. Temperatures near freezing can damage tubers. Warmer conditions encourage sprouting and shorten storage life. Ordinary refrigerators are often too cold and dry for best long-term quality.
Choose a Storage Container
Use ventilated boxes, crates, baskets, or perforated containers that exclude light without sealing in moisture. Do not use airtight plastic bags. Avoid deep piles that make it difficult to inspect lower potatoes or restrict airflow.
Keep Potatoes Dark
Light exposure can cause greening and increased glycoalkaloids. Cover ventilated containers with light-blocking material while preserving airflow. Read Keep the Green Out of the Potato for more guidance.
Inspect the Crop Regularly
Check stored potatoes every week or two. Remove soft, leaking, moldy, or badly sprouted tubers promptly. Storage life varies by variety, maturity, harvest damage, curing success, temperature, humidity, and airflow. A variety described as a good keeper still needs suitable conditions.
New Potatoes Require Different Handling
Thin-skinned new potatoes are not a storage crop. Refrigerate them for short-term use and handle them gently. Do not attempt to extend their life through curing; their value is fresh eating.
Storage FAQs
Should I wash potatoes before storage?
No. Washing adds moisture and can encourage decay. Brush away dry soil instead.
Can damaged potatoes be cured?
Minor skinning may heal during curing, but cut, crushed, soft, or diseased potatoes should not be mixed into long-term storage.
Why are my stored potatoes sprouting?
Warm storage, variety dormancy, and time all affect sprouting. Keep potatoes dark and within the recommended storage range, then inspect them regularly.
Can I store green potatoes after peeling?
Do not rely on peeling to make an extensively green or bitter potato acceptable. Prevent greening through darkness and discard heavily affected tubers.
For harvest timing and digging technique, use Perfect Timing for Potato Harvest. For storage-focused variety selection, see How to Choose Seed Potatoes.
