3

Planted potatoes for the first time. A lot of the potatoes turned out to be like this: enter image description here

What is this, a disease, any deficiency? I guess it is not safe to eat those potatoes, are they? How to cure this thing?

Spectra
  • 967
  • 2
  • 11
  • 27

1 Answers1

5

This is known as 'brown center and hollow heart'. It is caused by abrupt changes in growing conditions (think of temperature or watering regime changes).

You can still eat them, but you better remove the affected parts first. Unfortunately it makes it not suitable for sale anymore.

benn
  • 13,023
  • 2
  • 18
  • 39
  • 1
    I get plenty of those in the big bags of #2 potatoes I buy, along with other blemishes. It's all perfectly edible. – kreemoweet Jun 07 '21 at 03:34
  • "not suitable for sale anymore" -- if it's not visible from the outside of the potato, how would either the seller or the buyer know? Is there an obligation on the seller to cut open a sample of the crop to check? If so, what size sample is sufficient? Or is there a custom that the buyer can demand a refund if the potato is found to have this defect? – nanoman Jun 07 '21 at 06:42
  • 2
    @nanoman not suitable for sale, if you want to build a relationship with your costumers. Unless you tell them what's in there on forehand (see first comment by kreemoweet). – benn Jun 07 '21 at 07:05