Rainbow Potatoes and Storage

 What’s in a color? Well actually color is extremely important if it’s your hair, or your eyes, or the sweater you’re wearing. But potatoes. I’m David Sparks and we’ll talk about that in a minute. Harvest a red, yellow, or purple specialty potato and its skin color will be shiny and bright. Store it a month or two, and the skin will be duller and so will consumer interest. University of Idaho, post-harvest physiologist Dr. Sanjay Gupta says potato producers who have potatoes that can’t immediately be sold run into difficulty. “The storage problem is there for a very long time…people have been struggling.”   Because rainbow potatoes “need to catch the buyer’s eye”—according to UI Extension Potato Specialist Nora Olsen researchers are helping Idaho’s potato industry maximize their marketability. The team is investigating the in-season, harvest, storage, and packing processes that can potentially influence skin color and quality, including growth regulators, fungicides, harvest timing, disinfectants, and storage conditions.

Now on to other news: Congratulations to TJ Shea of Alturas, CA for winning December's funniest joke award on Today's Chuckle!