How To Prevent Your Potatoes From Sprouting

Keeping potatoes fresher and keeping longer requires us to prevent them from sprouting or in other words, stopping the “eyes” from growing. Most potato growers will use a chemical growth inhibitor to prevent the potatoes from sprouting, but we can do the same thing in a natural way and avoid all those nasty chemicals. It may not entirely stop the sprouting process but it is reported by the old timers that it will slow the process down some. Inhibiting Eye Development in Stored Potatoes After cleaning and healing wounds from the harvesting process, producers can treat stored potatoes – oftentimes by misting – to prevent the growth of potato eyes or buds. The chosen chemical for this process is chlorpropham, or isopropyl (3-chlorophenyl) carbamate. Other disciplines often employ carbamates as insecticides, preservatives and polyurethanes. The EPA facts sheet for Chlorpropham indicates in its use for potatoes, that it is non-carcinogenic, but is not without risks, and that the tolerance value for post-harvest potatoes should be reduced from 50 ppm (parts-per-million) to 30 ppm. You can read the full article here: http://www.decodedscience.com/chemical-treatment-of-potatoes-to-inhibit-eye-growth/45175 My method of choice will always be to take the natural, chemical free approach. If you don't want your potatoes to bud, then simply place an apple with your potatoes and they will not sprout as quickly. Apples give off ethylene gas which will ripen some fruit quicker and is reported to be said from the old timers to inhibit or at least slow down the sprouting of potatoes. This however is not likely to have been scientifically proven but was a method used a lot in the early days. The surest way that I know of to prevent potatoes from sprouting, is simply to store them in a cool, dark place. A cellar is perfect for this. Myself as well as the farmers of old, used to harvest the potatoes and store them until the next planting season in this way. The smaller potatoes were brought out of the cellars and “started off” by placing them in trays, eye’s up, in daylight. This encouraged the sprouts to begin growing before the potatoes were planted out in the fields.