The canon of potato science: 35. seed and ware potato storage.

Abstract

Potatoes will sustain losses during their post-harvest life as they are living organisms with an active metabolism. Depending on storage conditions potato tubers will – to a lesser or greater extent – respire and transpire and thus lose fresh weight. Maintenance and metabolic processes require energy, and potato tubers use part of their dry matter (mainly starch) for necessary energy supply resulting in dry matter loss. Tubers therefore always show a weight loss due to transpiration (water loss) and respiration (dry matter loss). Moreover, potato tubers show changes in their chemical position during the period of storage. Finally, total weight losses can be increased substantially by storage diseases and pests. Nevertheless potato is a commodity that can be stored successfully for up to 10 months provided the right initial product is loaded, the right storage conditions are created and the right treatments are applied.