ok. the tubers have all been checked, the bad/soft ones discarded, and the rest spritzed with a bleach solution. Left them to dry on towels on my kitchen counter and have turned them. so far, so good.
since this is a major lesson learned for me, I might as well expand my knowledge some more.
what exactly is the purpose of packing them in peat? is it to keep them from drying out too much? I have a lot of shredded white paper. would that work as well?