Why do my potatoes keep sprouting?

[YippieKayakOtherBuckets]

Not the most thrilling question but I've just had to throw away some badly sprouted potatoes. I keep hearing about people who buy a massive sack from the farm or grow their own and then keep them all winter but my supermarket potatoes all seem to sprout within a week.

I remove them from any plastic packaging, put them in a sturdy paper bag and put them in a dark cupboard. The cupboard isn't any cooler than the rest of the house - is warmth the problem?

Cool is better

Yeah, it must be the warmth. The potatoes probably think they’re tucked up cosy in some soil. I always keep mine in the fridge and they only sprout if they’ve been there a LONG time.

Have you got onions in the same cupboard? Onions in close proximity make potatoes sprout apparently.

Hmm, it must be the warmth then. I read that you should never keep potatoes in the fridge because it has an effect on the sugars?

Keep them out in the light. In a cupboard in the dark is like being underground.

Yes, it better to keep them not in the fridge but in cool place. Also big bags often contain unwashed potatoes, which keeps better

Put an apple in with them. The gases released from the apple slow down the sprouting.

It might not be how you store them, it could be how they have been stored before you bought them. I actually go to a different store to buy potatoes because if I buy them at my usual supermarket, they start to sprout and go green within a day or two (kept in a proper potato bag in a cool room).

Since lockdown, it's been worse, I haven't had a bag of potatoes that isn't already a bit soft and starting to sprout when it arrived, one bag was already going green.

They've already been exposed to the light in the supermarket for ages. Add warmth and you get perfect conditions for chitting.

Unless they're soft or green just cut the sprouting bits off and eat them. They'll be fine.

I keep new spuds in the fridge (they get used within a week), everything else gets stored in a cool dark cupboard.

My spuds and onions are in cahoots both are kept in a cupboard inn the kitchen ( nowhere eles to keep them .
The spuds are sprouting and the onion sprouted so much that I am encouraging it now by sticking it on a bit of damp kitchen roll.

if you can get them from a farm they do keep better...they will be the most recent season

some of the supermarket ones can be from the previous growing season