Spuds are living organisms, which produce heat through respiration and desiccation through both respiration and evaporation. Having this in mind, an efficient storage environment must be built if the tubers are to be stored for up to 10 months.

By Ionel Văduva

In their “Storage structures and Ventilation” paper, D. Small and K. Pahl mentioned that cultivars go through four different storage phases (curing, cooling, long-term storage, and marketing), each requiring a different environment.

To meet all of these requirements, the tuber stockpiling facilities must be designed to maintain spuds at the desired temperature by exhausting the heat of respiration and circulating cool fresh air through the pile, to keep a high relative humidity to promote wound healing at harvest and to prevent tuber desiccation (shrinkage). Also, the spud storages must provide oxygen for tuber respiration, remove carbon dioxide which affects tuber quality, and deal with adverse storage conditions where the tubers are wet, rotting, chilled, frozen, or too warm.

The potato industry experts say that the utmost weight loss from spuds usually happens during the first two to three weeks of storage. During this period, high respiration rates, high moisture loss, and high heat production occur. To minimize the amount of weight loss or shrink during early storage, proper ‘suberization’ or wound healing must occur. All of these processes must happen in design efficient storages.

The Big 4: Structure, Insulation, Ventilation and Humidification in Building Spud Storages

AHDB specialists as well as the aforementioned experts agree that there are many factors to consider when choosing a potato storage design, the four most important elements being the style of structure, insulation, ventilation, and humidification.

The type of building used for potato storage varies from area to area and frequently is influenced by the availability of local materials and climatic conditions. Popular types of buildings include wood frame, vertical stud wall, gable truss roof, laminated wood arch rafters, braced rafter frame (gambrel roof – a type of gable roof with two slopes on each side), frameless steel arch buildings, pre-engineered steel frame building, and temporary pole frame, earth banked.

The most common storage buildings are concrete, wood stud, pole frame, and metal quonset (a building made of corrugated metal and having a semicircular cross-section). The factors that vary between various building types are capital cost, durability and longevity, and the type of insulation required for the exterior building envelope.

You can read the rest of this article in your complimentary e-copy of Issue 3 of Potato Business Dossier 2021, which you can access by clicking here.