A cellar is considered one of the best places to store potatoes, but this does not mean that the crop that ends up in such conditions is 100% protected from rot.
An expert of the online publication BelNovosti, agronomist, landscape designer Anastasia Kovrizhnykh named 3 reasons that can provoke this unpleasant “phenomenon”.
You haven't treated the cellar.
Potato tubers will most likely start to rot if you place them in an unprepared room.
What should be done with the cellar in the fall? In fact, nothing special: dry it out, disinfect it (a sulfur candle will do for this purpose), and it wouldn’t hurt to whitewash the shelves made of boards with lime.
You have sent diseased potatoes into storage
Late blight, fusarium dry rot, black and common scab – the list of potato diseases is not so small.
To be sure of the health of the harvested crop, renew the planting material once every 4-5 years, and before planting, treat the tubers against fungus. Before placing the potatoes in the cellar for storage, carefully inspect them to get rid of infected tubers.
Storage conditions in the cellar have changed
Carefully monitor that the air temperature in the cellar is maintained at 0.. +2 degrees, and the humidity is about 70%.
Expert: Anastasia Kovrizhnykh
