Onion storage & potato storage facilities: their requirements

Storing onions, potatoes and comparable crops

Storage systems:

All crop storage systems have three functions, which are carried out in the same place, without any need to move the produce.

These three functions are:

1. Dry the freshly harvested produce (not always necessary for potatoes).
2. Cure the freshly harvested potatoes. This is only done with disease-free, freshly harvested potatoes, to heal the wounds suffered during harvest.
3. Store the produce, in other words maintain an environment in which the produce does not deteriorate.

To be able to fulfil these three functions, the storage facility must be able to:

1. Ventilate the produce in a suitable way,
2. Maintain a suitable temperature,
3. Maintain adequate humidity,
4. In addition to maintaining the CO2 at an acceptable level.

Before going into the details of how the different storage systems work, we want to show some images of different crop storage facilities.

Bulk potato storage

Bulk onion storage

Box storage for potatoes with lateral ventilation, using Combivents

Box storage for potatoes with lateral ventilation, using air-mix units

Filling a bulk storage facility with potatoes

Box storage, later it will become clear that something is wrong here

Typical Dutch storage facility

Typical Dutch storage facility

Typical Dutch storage facility

Storage facility in Ukraine, using boxes and Combivents. Therefore, it is for storing potatoes, and NOT for storing onions.