What are you suppose to do with potatoes that have sprouted?

First DO NOT throw your sprouted potatoes away, they still have a purpose either for creating more food, storing differently.

Storing Freshly Harvested Potatoes

Potatoes that are firm and newly picked are best for long-term storage.

• Do not wash the potatoes. They last longer in storage, not washed. If they have lots of dirt on them, brush the dirt off and place them into your container for storage.
• Make sure your container for storing has airflow. Brown paper bags or wooden crates work well.
• Store the potatoes cool space. Ideally, you want the temperature to be around 40 to 50 degrees. Once the temperature rises above 50 degrees, they can start sprouting. Less than 32 degrees or freezing will ruin your potato harvest. You do not want the potatoes to freeze.
• Store your potatoes in a dark environment, as in pitch black. Any amount of light could make them sprout. If you keep the temperatures at the optimal temp, then they are less likely to sprout.
• Check your potatoes monthly. If they sprout, you can knock off the sprouts and keep them in storage, providing the potatoes are still very hard.

What to do with sprouting potatoes

First, you need to inspect the potatoes. Depending on what you find will determine what you should do with them. Inspect the entire outside of the potato, as well firmness.

Squeeze the potato to determine how hard or soft they are. Slightly soft potatoes are salvageable. Use super mushy potatoes for chicken feed, other animal feed, or compost. Worms love potatoes. Even if you don’t have a worm bin or compost area, you can put the bad potatoes into an area of your garden. They might start growing. Most likely they will break down, attract worms, and create amazing soil.

Any potatoes that have other issues such as mold, bites out of the potatoes from a rodent, or anything not feasible for human consumption, put into animal food or compost. Make sure you look at the entire potato even if it’s still firm.

From the potatoes that are good, divide them into the following groups.

1. Storing in the original area: If you have potatoes that are still really firm with sprouts, just break off the sprouts and put them back into their storage area. The sprouts will come back, but it buys you some time.
2. Storing differently: Any potatoes that are still slightly firm you can continue to store. The least firm potatoes I like to cook up in butter and freeze for a quick addition to a meal. If you want to can the potatoes, they must be very firm. You can freeze-dry or dehydrate the potatoes which are not super firm. Make sure you blanch them first for best quality.
3. Eating Soon: These are potatoes that are slightly soft, but you expect to eat them within a couple of weeks. Pull off the sprouts and put them in a cool dark place you can get to quickly. You can put them in your refrigerator, but they will go bad faster than out of it.
4. Wanting to Grow: Separate potatoes you want to grow to avoid breaking off the sprouts. If you are planting within a couple of weeks, you can leave them out for more growth. If you have longer, then put them in a cool area to slow down their growth. The sprouts can get super long, because they are actually leaves finding light.