Hello! I recently harvested my sweet potatoes, because the leaves were wilting and turning yellow. The haul was meager (it's a damn good thing my fami...
Knowledgebase
Sweet potato danger? #888906
Asked October 28, 2024, 1:50 PM EDT
Hello! I recently harvested my sweet potatoes, because the leaves were wilting and turning yellow. The haul was meager (it's a damn good thing my family isn't depending on my garden to feed them!), and of course, I had an issue with my four best, biggest potatoes.
All four were sticking out of the ground about 2 or 3 inches (see attached photo). I seem to remember that prolonged exposure to the sun can cause them to go bad and even be poisonous? Is that correct?
As you can see in the picture, there is a slight discoloration on each potato, ranging from just a paler orange, to slightly gray-greenish.
Are these safe to eat if I cut off that portion? If so, is it OK to cut off that part before I cure them? Will it heal over?
If not, can I save them for making slips next year? Will curing them (80 degrees and high humidity for 7-10 days) have an impact on whether they work for slips or not?
Thanks!
Mike
Prince George's CountyMaryland
Expert Response
Potato skin can turn greenish if exposed to enough light, but potatoes (a cousin of eggplant and tomato, in the nightshade family) are not related to sweet potato (a cousin of Morning Glory), so any concerning chemicals produced by greened potato skin won't be the same for this plant. Especially since they're presumably being peeled and cooked, they should be fine. The paler skin patches seem to just be areas where the tuber skin was inadvertently scraped off. The darker areas are hard to diagnose but might be due to a fungal disease called "scurf." If so, it doesn't affect eating quality.
If you wanted to keep a tuber or two for slips next year, curing it first should be fine (as that's probably the only way they would survive the winter without degrading anyway).