Potatoes are rotten inside!

I've been growing potatoes for years and have never had them rotten inside. This is the first year I tried to grow Yukon Golds and was really looking forward to cooking the first nice big golden potatoe. After pealing it, I saw a rotton spot at one end and just hoped it was a small spot. But no! The entire inside of the potatoe is rotten and black. With a hollow space inside.
The plants were SO healthy and in large well drained wooden containers. What could have happened? I've reading all about potatoes this evening and nothing mentions this problem or it's causes. The only really strange thing about this summer has been the lack of sunshine and warmth. So the squashes didn't do well and the tomatoes are just now getting some color on them. I figured the potatoes would be even better than ever with all of this cool weather. Could it have been overwatering that caused this? Even with excellent drainage? Help! I don't want this to happen again and now I am not looking forward to checking on the red potatoe bin......

It's called hollow heart and is usually caused by irrigation or excess rainfall that causes the tubers to grow rapidly. You can cut the black part out and eat the rest of the potato. It might take on a grayish color when cooked, but it's fine to eat.

Scroll down to cultivation practices: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/rowcrops/ae1040w.htm

Here's some more on that, but I've never heard that hollow heart caused the whole potato to be black inside.
http://www.veseys.com/us/en/learn/forum/message13200
http://www.blurtit.com/q146648.html

I was always told that too much nitrogen fertilizer was used. Learn something new every day. Luciee {;^)

Thanks Joan! And you are right, the "entire" inside of the potato wasn't black like I described. Just seemed that way! There was about 1/2 an inch of good flesh all around the black center. I cut another one open tonight and it wasn't any where near as bad. Just a slit split open space down the center with a slight off color to the flesh along the space. I will be more careful with watering. Something that normally wouldn't be a problem if this summer hadn't been so cold and overcaste!

I have experienced a similar problem this year as well. I concluded it was from too much water due to early rains and over irrigating, however I did have a row of newly purchased seed potatoes which are purple skinned and many were as large as grapefruits. The meat of these purples skinned potatoes is white and even the largest ones are excellent tasting. I have yet to find a single one of the purple skinned potatoes which has shown any indication of rotting. My Yukon Gold, Reds and Russets were all planted from seed potatoes which I have saved and grown for more than four years. I have heard it recommend that you should purchase new seed potatoes after four years. Why I don't know, but possibly this too may be part of the problem we have been seeing with the black insides of a number of our other potatoes!???

I use wooden apple bins for my raised veggie garden. They are huge. Almost 4ft x 4ft x 3ft deep. Filled with sandy soil and compost. They have excellent drainage and I get the best veggies out of them. I have one bin which has been producing red potatoes for me for over 10 years now. Every year I harvest all but the marble sized ones, add a bit more compost in the spring, and maintain the same way. I haven't had to buy new seed potatoes ever since and I've never seen this problem before. But this has been one foggy and cold summer. Tomorrow it is officially autumn and I never had to turn a fan on even once to cool off..... So I am going to blame it on the weather ;-)
I'll post again when I see if the red potatoes suffered the same fate as the new Yukons.

PedricksCorner, we found no external evidence on the potatoes which had the internal rot so it's going to be difficult to tell how many were affected. After four days of digging, the potatoes were left to dry in the sun for a few hours each day before moving them to a large tarp in the attached garage. From there they were placed in cardboard flats with meat wrapping paper placed on the bottom of the flat. Some are already beginning to rot through. I rotate these potatoes frequently to check for an external damage. We have decided to make hash browns from as many potatoes as possible and freeze them. Even bought another 7.5 cu ft freezer from Lowes. Good thing our kids and grand kids like the 'added value'. If we're not careful we will be hand feeding them all next!