I tried storing my potatoes with fruit to make them last longer - but it worked too well

It's one of life's little annoyances - you've finally mustered up the energy to cook something proper after a long day, instead of just ordering takeaway, but you go to the cupboards and everything's... gone a bit wrong.

Potatoes, in particular, seem to loathe being fresh and ready to eat. Turning your back on them for just a few days can result in a bag full of alien-like tuber nightmares, sprouting into something resembling a shuffling cordyceps undead from The Last Of Us.

Because I spend my day writing about (it's a living), I decided to put one quite popular potato to the test - storing your potatoes with apples.

(yes they exist), will prevent the potatoes from going off for 'three times longer' than if they're stored apple-less in a cupboard.

The science behind it is apparently down to ethylene gas produced by the apples in the . The fruit releases this chemical as part of its typical ripening process, which is slowed by the colder temperature, in turn keeping the potatoes fresh for longer too, say the boffins. This same chemical can be used to delay the sprouting of potatoes because it inhibits the metabolism of enzymes in the starch of the spud.

Dutifully, I bought two bog standard 1KG bags of potatoes from and a pack of Golden Delicious apples.

One bag had an apple shoved in the bag and stuffed in the crisper drawer of the fridge.

Another was put in a dark cupboard in one corner of the , with no apple.

I kept delaying writing this piece for weeks on end, simply because the hack was working too well. I kept on checking and every few days, everything looked the same for the fridge potatoes, while the cupboard ones also looked fine. Until suddenly, they weren't.

Does storing your potatoes with apples really make them last longer?

Two weeks later: the cupboard spuds without apples are completely inedible, covered in sprouts and rotting. I've been known to lop off the odd growth and press on, but these are beyond the pale. They're grossly sprouting into some extraterrestrial lifeform.

The fridge potatoes look as good as the day I bought them, they're flawless and pristine and still fully edible.

In fact, the apple has given its life to protect its earthy comrades because it's shrivelled and starting to rot. But the potatoes are perfectly edible - in fact with the added coldness of the fridge I'm not sure they're ever going to go off, it almost works too well.

So yes: apples really DO save your potatoes - and your fridge even more so.

Note: No food will go to waste for science. The rotten potatoes will be chopped up for compost and the poorly apple will be sliced up for the birds.