Can you eat potatoes right after harvest? Sure can! While we recommend curing them for long-term storage, freshly-dug potatoes are perfect for eating right out of the ground (maybe clean them off a bit first).
A: If the potatoes are still firm and the skin is not green, yes, then you may certainly eat them. When you harvest them, inspect them for diseased looking tubers.
Before placing the potatoes in storage, the tubers should be cured. Cure potatoes at a temperature of 45 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and high relative humidity (85 to 95 percent) for two weeks. Healing of minor cuts and bruises and thickening of the skin occurs during the curing process.
Minimize tuber exposure to light while cleaning. Cure newly dug and cleaned potatoes for a week to 10 days in a dark, well-ventilated area with moderate temperatures and high humidity, and they will last longer. After curing, slowly drop the storage temperature to about 40 to 45 degrees for table use.
Since potatoes grow in dirt, they do need to be washed at some point when harvested out in the fields. We try to keep the dirt on till the potatoes come out of storage, as washing them immediately might trap moisture in the eyes of the potatoes and create a musty or mold smell while stored.
After harvesting, potatoes must be cured. Let them sit in temperatures of 45 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit for about two weeks. This will give the skins time to harden and minor injuries to seal.
Store main crop potatoes in a dark, dry place for a week or two at 55° to 65° F with high humidity of 85 to 85 percent. After two weeks, potatoes that you want to store longer for winter use should be moved to a much cooler– 35° to 40°F—dark room, basement, or root cellar with moderate humidity and ventilation.
Potatoes are best stored in a cool, dark and well-ventilated area. Once harvested, potatoes can be stored in a cardboard box, hessian sack or netted bag. What is this? Keep potatoes away from direct sunlight as this can encourage sprouting and loss of moisture.
Don't leave your crop in the ground for too long after the plant dies, or they could start to rot. It's also a good idea to harvest potatoes before frost. If you can't get to them in time, they should still be fine, but make sure to dig them up before it gets below freezing.
Potatoes. Don't let your spuds see the light of day! Potatoes require cool, dry, and dark conditions for the longest storage life.
Soaking potatoes in water is the best way to keep prepped potatoes from turning brown.
Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes.
You can prepare the spuds up to 24 hours before you need to cook with them.
Although botulinum bacteria cannot grow without the presence of aluminum foil, (or something that prevents the potato from being exposed to air) other bacteria can still grow on the potato if it is left out at room temperature.
Sprouted potatoes that are still firm, have relatively small sprouts, and don't show any wrinkles or shriveling are okay to eat, as long as you cut off the sprouted parts and soft spots. However, there's still a chance you could get sick. If your potato is sprouted and shriveled up, then it's too far gone. Toss, it.
The key is to store potatoes in a cool dry place, like in the cabinet of a pantry, in a paper bag or cardboard box. It's important to keep potatoes at the cool, ideal temperature (but not, surprisingly, the fridge) to prevent them from turning green, getting soft spots, or pre-maturely sprouting.
Small potatoes can be planted whole, but larger potatoes (anything bigger than a golf ball) should be quartered with a clean knife before planting. Make sure each piece planted includes an eye or bud, which is where the new crop will spring from.
Potatoes can be harvested between 90-120 days from planting. In warm climates, harvest potatoes between June-August and in cool climates harvest between December-February.
Harvest. Harvest after about 15-20 weeks, when the leaves start to yellow. If you can't wait, you can sneak an early crop of 'new' potatoes after the plant has flowered by digging gently under the plant with your hands and pulling out a few spuds.
It's generally fine to reuse potting soil if whatever you were growing in it was healthy. If you did notice pests or diseases on your plants, it's best to sterilize the mix to avoid infecting next year's plants.
Furthermore, potatoes are root vegetables, which means that they're grown underground, so it's likely that they'll be dirty when you buy them. For these reasons, it's important to clean potatoes, even if you plan on peeling them.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a minimum, potatoes should be rinsed with water before cutting for cooking. Since potatoes are firm, use a clean brush to scrub them. Do not use soap, bleach, disinfectants, or chemicals to clean produce.
As a general rule, if the plant is healthy, you can expect to dig up about five or six full-size potatoes. Every potato plant will most likely have a bunch of smaller, baby-size potatoes as well.