How do you stop potatoes sprouting?

Mr_Proctalgia

They are OK - Just make sure they have no green bits, they taste yucky anyway,and why waste spuds?

ladygrey_2

as long as they haven't sprouted too much I will pick them off and use to bake
if they are oversprouted I'll peel them instead

Strepsy

Yep, I just scrape them off with my nail if there's only a couple or use a knife if there's a lot. Also just cut off green bits - I'm presuming it's only the green bit that's affected, not the whole potato...

It seems hard to buy a bag of potatoes at the moment without a few little sprouts, don't think it matters at all. I just wouldn't eat them.

patchwork_cat

My mum always told me not to eat the green bits, (she was a doctor). Have always eaten sprouted potatoes with the sprouts removed. The potato council site is much less melodramatic than the american sites.

Linda32

We used to have a problem with them sprouting really quickly.

Now we keep them in a pot ontop of the worktop, no room in cupboard, but with a "lid" of silver foil over them, works a treat.

MrsTinks

Well with my recent bargain from studio outlet (overdoor hanging shelves) I have managed to clear everything from under my sink so I now have room for spuds in a dark place where a) I can't see them which is always a good thing and b) rumour has it they shouldn't turn green so quick

serena

Potatoes sprout this time of the year because they want to grow! Most supermarket potatoes are treated with a chemical that delays sprouting, but they will eventually.

When you grow your own, you buy seed potatoes (grown where there are few aphids, so little chance of disease) but they are essentially the same as the potatoes that you get to eat. You deliberately keep them somewhere light and not too cool, to encourage them to sprout, starting growing before you plant them in the ground and supposedly get an earlier crop.

You could always plant the worst sprouters in a large pot, or in the garden, and then you can dig up your own harvest of potatoes in the autumn!

MrsTinks

AH!!!!! Knew there was something else I could plant in my big new planters from studio outlet :rotfl:

goldentouch

I can now report that we all survived the night and that there were no unwanted toilet incidents (apart from a blocked drain last night but that's a whole other story).

wendy_ann1983

Im sure i remember somebody telling me that you shouldnt eat potatoes once they have started to spout, is this true? If so ive just wasted a whole bag of spuds that i never got round to cooking.