In the kitchen in the boxes, in the storage room, in the refrigerator - you suggest these and other storage options for potatoes and recommend how to choose the best grade and prepare vegetables to storage so that they do not deteriorate.
Potatoes are not in vain called second bread. It is necessarily included in the daily and festive menu. Harvesting, depending on the country, falls on September-beginning of October. Holders of cellars without problems retain it until summer. The residents of high-rise buildings there are no such possibility. Tell me where to store potatoes in the apartment and how to do it right.
All about the storage of potatoes in the apartment
Optimal conditionsStorage options
- in the boxes in the kitchen
- in a cold cabinet
- In a refrigerator
- On the balcony
- In the storage room
Proper preparation
Optimal storage conditions
Any vegetables can be bought in the store year-round due to the fact that the warehouses create special conditions for their conservation. In the apartment to create them is very difficult, sometimes impossible. However, they are needed that the tubers do not spoil and retain all their nutritional value. We will analyze all the necessary conditions in detail.
Temperature mode
Vegetable does not like warmth. Better storage temperature of potatoes - 2-4 ° C. This is how it is created in the cellars or basements. Permissible variations of this value. So, if the crop is stored in a cool room, for example, on the balcony or in the corridor, the temperature may rise to + 7 ° C. When bookmarking properly prepared tubers in a closed container, they are well lying at + 18 ° C. We list the rules relating to the temperature regime.
- Potatoes freezes at minus temperatures. If it lies on the balcony or an unopented loggia, when cooling it up to -2 ° C and below it is necessarily listed.
- Store vegetables in the immediate vicinity of radiators or heating devices.
- Bookmarks are chosen the coolest places. But at the same time, such that the possibility of frozen vegetables is excluded.
- It is advisable to omit the thermometer into the potato drawer and regularly check its readings. This will help control, at what temperature the potatoes are stored.
Humidity
Optimal humidity for tubers - 80-90%. If it decreases, they lose moisture, become flabby. Excessive humidity provokes the development of fungal diseases and rot. In addition, heat and moisture become for vegetables to germination. The kidneys are rolling into growth, giving sprouts. This worsens the nutritional value of potatoes, reduces its burning. We give the rules for maintaining normal humidity.- It is impossible to put containers close to the walls on which condensate is collected.
- For the room where storage is equipped, sufficient ventilation is required. From time to time it must be tired.
- Potatoes are shifted by sawdust, which will absorb extra moisture. You can not put them with other vegetable crops. Exception of this rule - beet.
The optimal combination of humidity and temperature is the basic condition of the preservation of potatoes. If the parameters are selected correctly, it breaks half a year. Otherwise no more than a few weeks.
Light
To save the crop, you need to exclude light access. Under the influence of the sun in a potato flesh, a silin is produced. This substance preventing the development of rot and bacteria. For people, it is also dangerous. Vegetables with Solanin, they are easy to distinguish between green color, it is not recommended to eat. In addition, the light activates the growth of shoots, which is also undesirable. Therefore, stored tubers only in a dark place.
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Properly selected packaging will help potatoes to preserve longer. We list suitable options.
- Wicker basket. It is well ventilated, helps to maintain normal humidity.
- Linen bag. Does not interfere with the natural "breathing" of tubers, passes the air to them.
- Wooden box. It is best of the boosters from the boards to delay the light, but to skip the air flow.
- Plastic container. Mandatory with holes or slits so that the roots breathe.
- Synthetic grid. Provides sufficient ventilation, spacious and inexpensive.
Plastic packages cannot be used. The moisture accumulates in them, which becomes the cause of the development of rot. Plastic is suitable only if vegetables are placed in the refrigerator for a short time.
Potato storage methods in the apartment
We must admit that the apartment is not the best place to save potatoes. Especially when it comes to several bags. The main complexity in creating at home the optimal humidity and temperature regime. Nevertheless, there is a solution. We offer five possible options.1. Cabinets in the kitchen
In this room, it is often hot from the preparing meal, so you need to choose the right place where to store potatoes in the kitchen. Let us list the selection criteria.
- Choose the finest place in the room, if possible, removed from the stove, oven and bursting with household appliances.
- It is important that it is without light access, otherwise the production of Solanin and the active growth of shoots will begin.
- The place should be unimpeded air access to ventilating and removing excess moisture.
A good choice is considered a box under the sink. In it put boxes or wicker baskets with vegetables. To prevent the rot, they are shifted by wormwood, sick or mint. If the sizes of the kitchen headset are allowed, stocks are placed on its shelves. These can be retractable or stationary structures on which baskets or containers are placed.
You can use special vegetable stands. These are boxes with ventilation holes, decorated as stools. The lid is made as a soft seat, so it is convenient to sit on such a stool. The container includes about 20 kg of root. Good storage containers of different types. They are made of plastic with mesh covers for air access.
2. Box under the window
Some apartments have the so-called "Khrushchev refrigerators". This is built under the window opening boxes. They are also suitable for laying a potato harvest. Given that the temperature in them can be significantly lowered, it is necessary to constantly control it. If necessary, insulate the structure.
3. Refrigerator
Here they store small stocks, since a large amount on the shelf simply does not fit. The product is packaged in dense plastic. So it will preserve better and does not absorb foreign smells. The temperature on the shelf of the refrigerator should not be descended below + 5-6 ° C, otherwise the nutritional value of the culture is lost. Starch in the cold actively disintegrates on sugar, which gives a sweet taste.
4. Balcony
Well, if it is glazed and insulated. Then the harvest perims without loss. Is that in the strongest frosts it will have to be additionally bought with old blankets or something like that. An open unlocked loggia is not the most suitable place for long-term preservation of vegetables, because the storage temperature of potatoes on the balcony should not be descended until negative marks. Where winter is soft enough, you can make a warmed container for potatoes.
To do this, collect the design of wood or wood plates. The insulation is placed on the bottom: foam, sawdust, minvatu layer 10-15 cm. From above, a smaller bin is installed. So that between the walls of the structures was the gaps of about 10-12 cm. The insulation is also stacked in them. In the smaller in size, the box is laid rooted, covered with a lid. From above, the construction is covered with a layer of insulation. In such a self-made vintage in safety, even at -10 -12 ° C.
5. Storeroom
Well, if there is such a room in the apartment. There are most often no windows and batteries, that is, it is an ideal place to preserve vegetable stocks: cool and dark. In the storeroom you can put a spacious chest. It can be a conventional box with a lid or a container composed of large lobs for ventilation. Such as in the photo below.
To use every centimeter of the useful area, all the walls in the storeroom can be taken by cabinets. In one of them put provisions. Here on the upper shelves put groceries, canned food, other products. At the bottom of the wicker or plated vegetable baskets containers. In such conditions, potatoes, onions, garlic and other cultures are well saved.
How to prepare a crop to bookmark
Careful preparation is the main secret, how to store potatoes for a long time. "Right" technology includes several stages. We will analyze each of them.Select variety
When buying or before landing, it is important to choose the right variety. For long-term storage, only the late or average varieties are suitable. Medium or early rejoices rapidly ripening, but will lay no more than a month or two. With independent cultivation it is easier to influence the lastness of the future harvest. Thus, for example, overcharging with nitric fertilizers reduces disease resistance. This factor must be excluded. When buying on the market it remains only to trust the seller and carefully choose.
Drying
Typically, the collected potatoes are dried immediately after digging. For the first time, the three to four hours is enough to dry up the wet land and fell off. After transportation from the crop field, dried for 3-3.5 weeks in a well-ventilated dry place. At this time, the tubers adapt to new conditions damaged during the coppe areas dried. For drying, the optimal is considered humidity in the range of 90-95% and the temperature is 12-18 ° C. Potatoes periodically examine, remove loading and spoiled.Sorting
Before laying the potatoes in the repository, it is necessarily sorted. Select the tubers in size. Large and small separated from medium. Separately put instances with damaged skin. You can store for a long time can only be medium-sized tubers, without the slightest damage and signs of the disease. It is them that they are stored in the repository. The rest are eaten in a short time, because they will not lay long. Small copies leave for seeds if they are needed for the next year.
Traditionally potatoes are stored in basements and cellars, but not everyone has such an opportunity. Put the storage box in the entrance of the high-rise building, as many are accustomed, illegally. If you wish, you can equip the storage facility. If you do everything right, the tubers will continue for several months.
