So if potatoes are stored in the dark for a while they grow eyes and get squishy. Because they start trying to grow, right?
But if they are exposed to the sun they turn hard and green and poisonous to us because they get chlorophyll… because they are also trying to grow???
And then I’ve had sweet potatoes start getting slimy and gross on a counter top, but when stored in the dark they grow entire leaves that survive for weeks.
Someone please explain!
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It is not because they get chlorophyll that they turn poisonous. They turn poisonous because they develop a compound called solanine, which is the most common toxin among nightshade plants like potatoes. It is why we can only eat a few types of nightshade plants that don’t have a lot of it.
Basically it is biologically expensive to produce the toxins so the root doesn’t bother to do that until it is just about to start regrowing in the spring.
Sweet potatoes are not remotely closely related to potatoes, and they just go bad by rotting. Eventually potatoes will also rot, but they tend to go bad by starting to mature instead.
I’m only guessing here. In the dark, potatoes act like roots, so the eyes start to sprout to grow out into the light. The squishy is the nutrients getting used in that process since there’s no sunlight to make energy, so they start to deflate like balloons. In light, there’s a way for photosynthesis, so they start making chlorophyll to get on it and pack more nutrients into the skin, like an over inflated balloon?
As for sweet potatoes, when the fruit flies have access to stuff on my counter, they tend to ruin it.
I am not a botanist
Potatoes are root vegetables. Roots belong in the ground, where it’s dark.