The optimal temperature for storing potatoes in the cellar. What temperature and humidity is needed for storing potatoes

Planting, growing and harvesting potatoes is far from all the tasks facing the summer resident. It is necessary to try to keep the harvest until the new season, and special attention should be paid to tubers intended for future sowing.

If you have harvested potatoes and do not know how to store them in an apartment, our article will help you deal with this problem. We will tell you where and how to properly store potatoes in an apartment, and photos and drawings of cellars and boxes will help you keep vegetables until the new harvest.

How and where to store potatoes in the apartment

For winter storage select healthy tubers, without any damage. Collect it in dry weather and leave it for outdoors for a few hours, after which they are collected.

Note: If drying in the open air cannot be carried out, the tubers are laid out indoors for 2-3 days to dry, constantly ventilating the room.

After drying, the crop is sorted out again, putting aside vegetables with mechanical damage.

In order for the crop not to rot, certain conditions must be observed.:

The room should be well ventilated to slow down the breakdown of starch.
The air temperature should be 5°C, for a short time 7-10°C. At temperatures below 5°C, starch turns into sugar, which leads to a change and deterioration in taste characteristics.
Also, vegetables can be stored in a refrigerator drawer, but a few days before use, it is moved to warm place to turn the sugar into starch.

Figure 1. Options for crop placement at home

Subject to all the rules, the harvest lasts up to 6 months, but at home this period is usually only a few weeks. Figure 1 shows the main options for the location of potatoes in the cellar and at home.

After harvesting, the tubers are heated in the sun to separate the earth from the tubers, then they are sorted out. In the first weeks after harvesting, there is a treatment-and-prophylactic period, during which diseases appear, lesions are healed during digging. Suberin appears on the damaged areas, which prevents the penetration of pathogens. Preparation of the crop for laying in the cellar is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Preparing potatoes for laying in the cellar

The main enemies of a vegetable stored in an apartment or cellar are fungi and bacteria that cause rot. For prevention, the tubers are shifted with fresh leaves of wormwood, mountain ash or gout. You can also treat the tubers with boiling water: they are pre-washed, folded into nets and dipped for a couple of seconds in hot water. After that, they are dried in a dark place, periodically inspecting and sorting out.

Terms

How to store potatoes in an apartment so that vegetables remain usable for a long time? For this, it is necessary to provide optimal conditions(Table 1).

Note: When in the basement, the vegetable emits carbon dioxide, moisture and heat - that is, it breathes. The more saturated the breath, the faster it loses moisture and ages. You can stop such breathing by lowering the temperature.

Table 1. Storage conditions for vegetables

To learn how to properly store potatoes, you need to provide the right temperature. In autumn, potatoes are stored on the balcony, and when the temperature drops, they are stored in cool places in the apartment. In this case, it is better to use bags made of non-woven fabric or burlap, as they allow air to pass through. To prevent the tubers from sweating, beets are placed on top (it absorbs excess moisture), straw or shavings.

Term

The average storage time for potatoes in an apartment is only a few weeks. But if the humidity and temperature regime is observed, vegetables can remain fresh for six months.

We have already found out where to store potatoes in the apartment, it remains to determine how to extend the freshness of the tubers. To do this, you can put a ginger root on the vegetables, and to stop the germination time, lay the halves of apples nearby.

The author of the video will tell you how to properly store potatoes at home.

Storage methods

There are two main ways of storage: directly in the apartment or outside (in the garage, basement or on the balcony). Let's consider each option in more detail.

How to store potatoes in the cellar

The best place for vegetables is the cellar or basement, as solanine is not produced in a dark and cool room. It is toxic to humans. A large amount of corned beef is found in green tubers, which should not be eaten.

Note: Before sending vegetables to the cellar, it must be removed, dried and whitewashed, and the hoods checked.

Figure 3. Cellar for potatoes

You need to store potatoes in bins or boxes that are installed on shelves. In case of frost, the boxes are covered thick cloth. For the whole winter period the harvest is sorted out several times. A vegetable harvested from autumn under such conditions can be stored for 8-10 months (Figure 3).

Potato box

As an option for placing vegetables in an apartment, a box is used. You can make or buy ready-made plastic or wooden boxes for vegetables, with special holes for ventilation.

If the balcony is not glazed, then the box is insulated with foam plastic from the inside and old warm clothes from the outside to keep warm. For placement in the cellar, the box can be sheathed with boards and metal galvanized or painted mesh (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Types of boxes for vegetables

To make a simple box, you need to mark the material based on the number of vegetables. The height of the sides of the box should be 1-1.2 meters, the bottom of the structure should not be on the floor, so it is better to attach a bar to the bottom or make legs. The base of the structure must be sheathed with thin boards or plywood. Boards need to be stuffed at intervals of a centimeter, and holes must be drilled in plywood for ventilation. If there are a lot of potatoes, the box can be made long and divided by partitions.

From the video you will learn how to make a box for potatoes with your own hands.

How to store potatoes on the balcony in winter

On a glazed balcony, potatoes are stored better than in a pantry. The optimum temperature will be an indicator from 0 to 7 ° C.

It is folded into cloth bags and placed in boxes stacked on racks. Between the boxes and the wall leave a gap for ventilation. When the temperature drops, the boxes are covered with warm clothes.

Storage temperature for potatoes in winter

Regardless of the method you use for vegetables, you must strictly adhere to certain requirements.

Optimum temperature should not exceed +7 degrees. If this value is lowered, the vegetables will freeze and become unfit for eating. If the indicator is higher, they will begin to rot and germinate.

The most common fungal disease is phytophthora, which appears on tubers in the form of brown spots. First, grayish-brown, dull spots appear on the tuber. Soon this place becomes dry and rotten, the skin is wrinkled, voids form. Infection is carried out by an infection that is located on tubers with adherent soil. Tubers with mechanical damage are often infected. The infection is transferred to other tubers.

Figure 5. The main diseases during storage (from left to right): late blight, darkening of the pulp, rot

Also, damaged or diseased vegetables can develop a secondary disease - internal rot.

An excess of nitrogen or a lack of potassium can cause the flesh of the tuber to darken, but this is not considered a disease. In addition, darkening can be caused by low or high temperatures, or hot and dry weather in growing season. Examples of diseases are shown in Figure 5.

In most cases, potato diseases occur when not proper storage and damaged tubers. Therefore, when laying vegetables in storage, you need to carefully inspect them and remove all damaged specimens.

Buying potatoes all year in stores turns out to be quite expensive, it is more profitable to stock up for the winter. For the preservation of the root crop, a dry cellar or basement is best suited. But many live in apartment buildings where there is no basement, much less a cellar. Summer residents who are going to save this vegetable in an apartment or other warm place will not be hindered by a few useful advice. How to store potatoes if there is no cellar will be discussed in our today's article.

Preparing potatoes for storage

An important role is played by the quality preparation of tubers. Well, for the very beginning, you need to grow potatoes, and with what you can plant potatoes. To begin with, they should be dried, preferably on fresh air to prevent the development of diseases and decay. Next, you need to sort out the tubers. For long-term storage medium-sized potatoes are selected, on the surface of which there are no darkening and flaws. And all injured and not very healthy tubers will go straight to food.

Root storage on the loggia

Loggia or balcony - this is the most appropriate place storage of vegetables for a city dweller to. In autumn, tubers can be kept there in bags or boxes. But in order to create favorable conditions protection in winter, you have to work hard:

The root crop is placed in insulated boxes or boxes, which you will have to buy or make with your own hands. Styrofoam is great for insulation, they need to lay the bottom and walls of the boxes, and you also need to make a lot of holes for ventilation.

The boxes must be installed on an elevation from the concrete floor and at a distance from the walls of the loggia.

You can install heaters to maintain the required temperature plus 2-6 ° C. Minor changes in the degree in one direction or another (from 0 to + 10 ° C) will not harm the vegetable, provided that such changes are not long in duration.

From above, the boxes should be covered with warm old blankets and rags.

Storing your favorite vegetable in the apartment

If it is not possible to equip a balcony, then when the temperature drops to 0 ° C, the potatoes should be brought home and placed in the coolest places in the apartment: balcony door or by the windows. At home, tubers should be kept in bags made of coarse fabric (burlap), they pass air well. So that the root crop does not dampen and does not rot, you can put beets or straw on top, which absorb excess moisture well.

If there are no cool places in the apartment, then you can put the prepared potatoes in the pantry or vestibule. But in the heat, the vegetable will not last long, in order to prevent it from drying out and extend its life, you can resort to this technique. Immerse a plastic container in the potatoes, having previously made holes on its walls. Put a wet cloth in the container, the water from which will gradually evaporate and allow the tubers not to wither and dry for a long time. But this will not protect potatoes from germination, therefore, in this way, it is worth storing the tuber in small volumes and eating it faster.

Root storage in your garden

To preserve potatoes, you can use your own vegetable garden or country cottage area. To do this, choose the highest and driest place on the site. Dig a hole up to 1.5 meters deep, up to 2 meters in diameter. The bottom of the pit should be laid out with boards, then the tubers are poured with a layer of 1 meter, and on top again the boards, on top of the boards - a layer of straw 5-10 cm. And all this should be covered with earth. It is also worth considering a way for ventilation, install plastic pipe to the bottom of the pit, sawing a hole in the boards. The pipe should not be clogged with snow, so a visor must be made for it. In such storage, potatoes will lie perfectly until spring. But this storage method is more suitable for seed potatoes, as it does not involve digging a hole in winter. We remind you that potatoes can be planted in the fall, but about how to do it

Summer residents who do not have the opportunity to store crops in a cool place should also rationally approach the choice of root crop varieties and give preference to varieties with a long dormant period of tubers. This also contributes to the greatest safety of the resulting crop.

Potato is a tuber, whimsical not only in terms of cultivation, but also in terms of storage. Getting a bountiful harvest from the site does not guarantee that you will not have to buy potatoes in the market in winter. Improper storage conditions can lead to the loss of the entire supply of this root crop. Often, when part of the crop dies due to freezing, root formation, rotting.

Potatoes should be stored in a dark and cool place.

This root crop is so demanding on storage conditions due to the fact that it contains a large amount of water and starch, and the more of these components, the more difficult it is to preserve it for a long period. In addition to the basic requirements for potato storage conditions, it should be borne in mind that at high humidity, this root crop can be affected by mold and fungus.

Separately, it should be said that not all varieties of potatoes are stored equally well. Optimal for long-term storage are mid-ripening varieties of table potatoes with yellow flesh. If you plan to store different varieties they should be placed in separate boxes.

Many gardeners make a serious mistake by leaving the tubers in the ground until mid-autumn, believing that in this case the root crops will be better stored. In fact, overripe potatoes are more saturated with water and quickly succumb to rot and decay. molds, therefore, it is necessary to dig and bookmark potatoes for storage on time, preventing them from overripe.

The ideal temperature regime for storing potatoes in the cold season is from +1 to +4°C.

At this temperature, the potatoes will not freeze and will not take root. Usually, potato tubers begin to sprout roots at temperatures above 7 °C. In addition, care must be taken to ensure that the humidity in the cellar in which the potatoes will be stored does not exceed 70%. high humidity air has a detrimental effect on potatoes and leads to the growth of fungi and mold.

Potatoes stored in the cellar should not be exposed to direct sunlight. Of course, in most cases there are no equipped windows for ventilation in the cellars, but some still do, so when placing potatoes in the basement, you must either hang the window or make sure that the tubers are not illuminated by the rays of the sun penetrating through it. Stale air and lack of adequate ventilation also have a negative effect on potatoes, so site preparation is a top priority.

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How to lay potatoes for long-term storage in the cellar?

Diagram of the glacier device: 1 - a layer of sand and crushed stone, 2 - an ice storage, 3 - a cellar wall, 4 - a well for melt water, 5 - a clay-straw layer, 6, 7 - ventilation pipes, 8 - a pipe for water drainage.

Potatoes are very susceptible to various negative impacts environment, therefore, it is necessary to start preparing for laying root crops for storage from the arrangement of the place, since it is impossible to store potatoes on the cellar floor. Tubers are best stored in wooden boxes or baskets. In addition, it is very important that wooden containers do not stand on the floor, but are at a height of 20 cm. To prevent the boxes from standing on the floor, bricks can be placed under them, and when stored in baskets, these containers can be placed on the lower shelves of the racks. Before planting potatoes, the cellar and boxes must be well dried to reduce the number of pathogenic fungi that are present in any cellar.

Potatoes should also be prepared for laying in the cellar for storage. Firstly, it is necessary to sort it out, carefully cleaning the existing clods of earth from the root crops. Secondly, you should sort the vegetables by size - this will increase the shelf life. In addition, during the sorting process, damaged and diseased root crops should be immediately selected, sending them to the table, since even slightly spoiled potatoes will not be stored. Potatoes are poured into wooden boxes in a layer that should not exceed 1 m.

In order to protect vegetables from freezing, as well as to create an additional barrier to moisture, it is necessary to cover the root crops. Burlap combined with hay or a layer of sawdust can serve as a shelter. Potatoes laid out in boxes are first covered with burlap, and then sprinkled with hay or sawdust. Hygroscopic materials quickly absorb the moisture available in the basement, while allowing the potatoes to breathe.

Often in storage a large number potatoes and other root crops in the basement, condensation begins to form on the walls and ceiling. This phenomenon is observed due to the fact that the roots release moisture during their respiration, which condenses on the walls. It is very important that no condensation drips from the ceiling onto the potatoes, as this a short time will lead to its deterioration. In order to reduce the amount of condensate, it is necessary from time to time to additionally ventilate the cellar, and in addition, make suspended ceiling from polyethylene.

The best ways to store potatoes
Rules for preparing storage facilities for laying potatoes, their arrangement and disinfection.

Many labors are worth growing decent harvest potatoes, which would be enough until the next harvest and for planting. No less worries for the vegetable grower is the storage of this important vegetable. We will analyze how to properly prepare the storage, bookmark potatoes and reduce losses in this article.
Harvesting potatoes

Potato is a stale vegetable and collected in optimal timing, with proper storage, it is quite capable of preserving its taste and nutritional properties until the new harvest and even longer.

Optimum storage temperature for potatoes

Optimum storage temperature for potatoes different terms maturation is as follows:

early varieties (Timo, Impala, Borodyansky) - 1.4-2.5 ° C;
mid-early varieties (Odysseus, Russian souvenir, Nevsky) - 3-4 ° C,
mid-late and late-ripening varieties (Kolobok, Chaika, Temp) - 5-6 ° C.

Advice. If the potatoes have become sweet, they should be brought to a room with a temperature of about 10 ° C for a couple of weeks, and their taste will be restored.

When growing and harvesting, you need to follow a few important rules.

1. If potatoes are grown for long-term storage, they are planted on nutritious, well-structured and sufficiently moistened soils, free from gnawing pests - wireworms, grubs, and bears.

Advice. To get rid of pests and improve the soil, you can sow the area with mustard or other green manure.

2. Dramatically reduces the shelf life of tubers and adversely affects their quality fresh manure or nitrogen fertilizers.

3. You can not harvest potatoes too early or too late - unripe tubers did not have time to form a thick peel and correspond to the type chemical composition. Tubers left on the beds for a long time after the leaves die off, overexposed, quickly begin to deteriorate and lose their taste.

4. In the period between harvesting and storage, the potatoes are poured into cool rooms (15-18 ° C), in a thin layer - no more than 0.4 m and covered with a tarpaulin. Before laying in cellars or piles, potatoes are sorted, removing cut or spoiled tubers.

Advice. During the period of intermediate storage, potatoes affected by pests or damaged during harvesting will manifest themselves by starting to rot, and then it can be removed in time without bringing spoiled tubers into storage.

Where is the best place to store potatoes?

Usually potatoes are saved in cellars, piles or trenches. When constructing them, you need to take into account some important points.

Storage of potatoes in the cellar

Before building a cellar for storing potatoes, determine the level of occurrence ground water, on the basis of which, choose the design: buried, semi-buried or elevated. This applies equally to trenches and collars.

1. When choosing the type of cellar, take into account that its floor should be 0.5-1m above the water level in the wettest season.

Important! The occurrence of groundwater should not be determined in the summer, when they are at their lowest level, but in the autumn rainy season or in early spring.

2. Concrete or red brick is used to build a cellar for storing potatoes for the winter. White silicate brick and wood are less durable. Choosing a wooden base, they stop at more reliable and strong logs.

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3. From above, the cellar is covered with boards or reinforced concrete slabs, falling asleep with earth at 1-1.2 m.

4. Arrange ventilation to maintain the temperature in the range of 2-6 °C and relative humidity of 80-90%. To ensure high-quality ventilation, two pipes are constructed - exhaust and supply.

Advice. You can get by with one pipe with a height of at least 1.7 m and a diameter of 25 cm, arranging a lid at its end, which is kept ajar.

5. It is necessary to build a reliable strong staircase, and to protect against precipitation, equip a canopy with a visor of at least 50 cm.

Storage of potatoes in a vegetable store

Burts and trenches for storing potatoes for the winter. They are long stacks of vegetables in the form of shafts, which are placed on the surface of the earth or shallowly buried, covered with straw, earth and equipped with ventilation pipes. With a collar length of 5.5 m, a width of 1.3 m and a height of 1 m, it can hold about 1 ton of potatoes.

These vegetable stores are prepared in this order.

1. For a collar, a shallow base pit is dug, 20 cm deep, 1.3 m wide, and of arbitrary length, the surface is cleaned and compacted.

2. Inside the collar, along its axis, an inlet channel with a triangular cross section is laid, designed for rapid cooling of potatoes in autumn period. The channel should protrude beyond the edges of the collar on both sides by at least 0.5 m.

3. Every two meters, install vertical ventilation pipes with covers and protective grilles.

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4. At several points, wooden tubes with thermometers placed in them are immersed in the shoulder to control the temperature.

If the collars are partially buried, then the trenches are completely dug into the ground. In fact, these are narrow long pits with vegetables. The difference from collars is that the trench is dug to a depth of 1-1.2 m, there is no supply channel, ventilation is equipped similarly to the collar.

Important! The ends of the supply channel and ventilation pipes are laid with nets to protect the crop from mice.

Storing potatoes in an apartment, at home

Conditions for storing potatoes for the winter

Whatever the place of storage of potatoes, it must be properly prepared and this must be done in advance, even in the summer. To do this, perform such work.

1. Remove plant residues, debris, dry and make the necessary repairs.

2. Two weeks before placing vegetables in storage, fumigation with sulfur (40 g / sq.m.), treatment with 5% bleach (500 g per 10 l of water) or 1.5% formalin (150 g per 10 l of water) . For processing solutions use a sprayer.

3. The treated room is closed for two days, then aired and dried.

4. Parts of wood are whitewashed with blue whitewash using freshly slaked lime (3 kg) and blue vitriol (120 g) per 10 liters of water.

5. Removable shelves, floorings are taken out into the sun, cleaned and, if necessary, treated 5% blue vitriol or bleach, depending on the material.

6. If the storage has an earthen floor, the top layer is removed and clean sand is poured.

7. Straw removed from piles and trenches is burned at the end of the storage season, the floor is covered with fluff lime at the rate of 0.5 kg per 1 sq. m.

Laying a crop of potatoes for storage

Before storage, the potatoes are sorted out, damaged and diseased tubers are removed and cooled. When placing in storage, consider the following points.

1. Store potatoes in bulk or in boxes, leaving a distance of 20 cm from the storage walls and the floor. To do this, limit vegetables to boards, use boxes and wooden decks.

2. The distance from a pile of potatoes to the ceiling of the cellar should be at least 0.5 m. In trenches and piles between root crops and the shelter, a gap of at least 20 cm is left.

3. To avoid dripping of condensate on potatoes, equip special coating with a slight slope to the side. To do this, wooden supports or boxes are obliquely placed on the potatoes, covering them with a film or roofing material, arranging a water drain.

What to do after storing potatoes in a vegetable store

1. After placing vegetables in a pile or trench, they are covered with straw from the bottom up, so that each next layer overlaps the previous one. The thickness of the layer at the foot of the collar is about 40 cm, and on the ridge - 30 cm. Upper layer the straw is bent on both sides, arranging a kind of skate.

2. A layer of earth up to 25 cm is thrown over the straw to protect it from being blown away by the wind or washed away by rain.

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Important! At night, the piles are heavily ventilated, protecting the tubers from warming. In dry autumn, you can leave the top without land cover.

3. Before a cold snap, a layer of earth is added so that the thickness at the base of the collar is at least 70 cm, and at the ridge - 50 cm.

Advice! To protect vegetables from rodents, you can cover the stack with spruce or juniper branches, and then lay the main cover.

4. With a rapid cold snap and a temperature inside the pile of about 1 ° C, they supplement the shelter with a layer of peat or simply throw in snow.

5. In a thaw, if the temperature in the storage is 6°C or higher, remove excess snow and increase ventilation. It is convenient to regulate the intensity of ventilation by placing or removing bundles of crumpled straw into the supply channel and ventilation pipes.

Regular inspections are carried out in the cellars, they monitor the appearance of rotten tubers, which can be determined by bad smell. If available, vegetables are sorted out. In spring, sprouts are removed from root crops intended for use, seed tubers are taken out of storage in time.

In the spring, immediately after removing the remains of vegetables, it is necessary to clean up their storage places, sprinkle the floor with lime and ventilate the cellar, open piles and trenches for disinfection in the sun.

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Foreword

To enjoy your favorite root crops all winter, you need to provide competent storage potatoes at home. We will tell you how to properly equip a practical storage for fruits in the cellar or on the balcony.

Although the potato is not perishable product, he needs to create suitable conditions for long-term storage. If you are wondering why your favorite root crop is rotten or turning green, then most likely you have not followed the rules for laying vegetables for the winter. The main condition for normal storage in an apartment or cellar in winter is that the chosen place should be cool and dark.

Conditions for long-term storage of potatoes

The ideal storage temperature for potatoes in storage is around +2 ... +3 °C. If you create the right conditions, potatoes can lie underground and in any other place for a long time, retaining all their vitamins, usefulness and taste.

Why shouldn't it be allowed temperature conditions when laying root crops constantly changed? If the potato "survives" a hard frost, it will become sluggish and acquire a sweetish aftertaste. If the temperature in the cellar or apartment is too high, shoots will begin to grow from the root crops, the potatoes themselves will deform and wrinkle. Another important point, which should not be forgotten - optimal humidity. Permissible level- about 90%. If this indicator deviates, rot may appear on the tubers.

studying suitable ways storing potatoes in an apartment or in specially created warehouses, do not forget that not all varieties of this vegetable are suitable for laying in the basement. It is best to choose medium and medium-late varieties. These are Ufimets, Favorite, Asterix, Adretta.

Medium-late varieties of vegetables

Also remember that the length of storage depends largely on how and when you harvest. So, root crops should be harvested after the tops have dried. Finding out if a vegetable is ready is quite simple - dig up a few tubers and check the degree of maturity. If the skin is removed poorly, the root crop is ready for laying. A week before harvesting, it is recommended to mow the tops, which will protect the tubers from diseases. It is best to dig up a crop on a fine day, using a pitchfork or a shovel. When performing work, be careful not to damage the tubers - damaged root crops should not be stored in the cellar for storage.

Potato storage technology and phases - what you need to know?

In order for the root crops to lie in the basement or on the balcony without any problems, not to get sick or deteriorate, it is very important to know about the five phases of vegetable storage. The bookmark scheme is as follows:

Drying. First you need to sort the tubers: put the crushed and diseased fruits in a separate container, clean them from the remnants of the soil. After that, we dry the wet root crops in the cellar at a temperature of no more than +17 ° C for one to two weeks.
treatment phase. The treatment period lasts about 18 days - during this time, you need to store root crops in the underground at a temperature of about +20 ° C and a humidity of about 95%. During this period, the potato will strengthen, the existing damage will heal.
cooling period. At this time, the temperature in the storage place should be reduced to +4 ° C, while lowering it by 0.5-1 degrees per day.
Technology of permanent storage in the cellar. This period will continue until the sale of root crops or their subsequent preparation for planting. It is necessary to ensure a constant temperature, air humidity should not exceed 90%.
The last phase is heating. Chilled potatoes can quickly become sick and easily damaged. Therefore, before unloading root crops into boxes, you need to raise the temperature to + 10-15 ° C.

First of all, prepare the room for laying root crops. The ongoing complex of works will reduce the risk of rot or any other diseases. You need:

Treat the room properly. Whitewash the walls of the room twice a week. To do this, you need to prepare a mixture of 150 g of salt, 2 kg of slaked lime, a bucket of water (per 10 l) and 1 kg of copper sulfate.
Verify ventilation system. If it does not work well, be sure to clean the hood to ensure proper ventilation of the room.
In conclusion, the cellar needs to be ventilated. Storage of potatoes in the underground can be carried out in several ways: in boxes, bags and in bulk.

Let's study each of them in more detail. This will allow you to choose the most attractive option. If you decide to put the tubers in boxes for the winter, then here the technology will be as follows:

In order for the contents of the boxes to be ventilated, the distance between the slats of the container should be about 3-5 cm.
It is best if the container is made of pine or spruce. Why choose this wood? And all because the needles contain substances that inhibit the development of bacteria and fungi.
The distance from the floor to the bottom should be approximately 20 cm, between the box and the wall - 30 cm.
The space between the containers is at least 10 cm. Such a layout will prevent the “running” of diseases and pests from one box to another.

The main advantage of the boxes is that you can quickly build them with your own hands in different variations. For example, the container can be divided into sections, which will allow the tubers to be sorted into varieties when laying. In order for the fruits to release less moisture during storage, it would be right to sprinkle them with sawdust or peat. If the temperature in the basement does not exceed +2 ° C, and the humidity is about 90%, sand should be poured into the storage with vegetables.

Container with sections

Storage of potatoes in winter can also be carried out in nets. This method also has its advantages. Air freely penetrates and circulates. Thanks to this, the risk of developing diseases can be significantly reduced. Nets should not be laid directly on the floor - it is better to put them on top of pallets. And to keep warm in winter, sprinkle them with straw.

If you want, use bags - this option is considered the most practical. The main thing is to use bags made of natural fabric - in this case, they will let air through, warming the roots from frost. To further protect the potatoes from the cold, the bags must be placed on a wooden rack, and they are covered with old things or hay on top. By the way, this option is also suitable for laying tubers in the apartment.

Bookmarking in the cellar can be carried out in bulk. This technology is considered the easiest. To do the job right, you need to take only two steps:

Potatoes are poured into bins, the height of the "mountain" should be no more than a meter.
Root crops are covered old clothes or fabrics.

The disadvantage of this method is the difficulty in adjusting and checking the temperature inside the pile of fruits, the large area occupied, which can lead to the appearance of fungus and rot. And do not forget to regularly check your stocks in the cellar, sorting through potatoes and selecting rotten fruits. By the way, seed potatoes are stored in the same way.

If you are unlucky and there is no cottage, you will have to store root crops in the apartment. There are several options here. So, the storage place should be dark and cool. Should avoid using plastic bags that don't let air through. If you decide to put the root vegetables under the sink, use a wicker basket or a large plastic container.

But it is best to store potatoes on the balcony using wooden boxes. When the loggia in the apartment is not glazed, the container will have to be insulated with polystyrene foam, and after filling the potatoes, just cover the box with old things - a jacket or a fur coat, you can use an old blanket. Thanks to this, you will be able to keep warm inside the box, protecting vegetables from frost.

Storing potatoes on the balcony

To avoid tubers sprouting, place a few mint leaves or apples in the container along with the potatoes. This will ensure the safety of the fruit and protect them from spoilage.

Also, for storing fruits in an apartment on the balcony, you can purchase a household thermal container. It is a double bag made of durable fabric. The product is insulated with synthetic winterizer and equipped with an electric heating system that automatically maintains the required temperature conditions. Thanks to this, vegetables can survive frosts with temperatures down to -40 ° C. You can control and regulate the temperature using a thermostat with a screen.

How do fruit growing conditions affect storage?

You need to understand that the shelf life of tubers largely depends on the conditions under which the vegetables grew. If the summer was rainy and cold, this will lead to losses during storage of the fruit. Vegetable growers have found that if soil moisture has increased to 85% during the growing season, the shelf life of root crops can be halved.

Potatoes grown on light sandy soil will last longer in the cellar than those planted on loamy soil. Affect the shelf life of the fertilizer that was used for top dressing. If the plant was oversaturated with nitrogen fertilizers, it copes worse with diseases. The same applies to fruits that, when grown, experienced a lack of potassium.

To prevent your fruits from being affected during storage, be sure to remove the affected tops before digging up this root crop.