PLANT STORAGE
Plants live from the nutrition provided from the soil and air. As soon as we harvest a plant, they become cut off from their natural sources of food and start to use their own stored food molecules to survive. This is bad news for anyone who wants to eat the plant, because they consume their own flavor-providing molecules fairly quickly. The worst thing is that some vegetables sold in the shops may be so old the original flavor may be reduced by 90%. There is nothing better than a freshly harvested plant! The best bet is probably to buy your vegetables and fruits from local producers, maybe the ones that have their market stands in city squares. In my experience, they usually have the best-tasting vegetables and fruits. Supermarkets usually are bad, and I've seen fruits being imported from countries 10000 km away, wondering how long time it took to get them to the shop, while the very same kind of fruit could have been purchased from a local farmer. Of course, the taste of the fresh fruit was much better as well, and the price was competitive.
There are some exceptions to the rule of freshly harvested vegetables. Some of them are actually meant to be stored and hibernate, for example potatoes and onions, and many fruits can be picked when they are not ripened and then allowed to ripen for a few days before they are sold. This is good to think about when purchasing fruits, as you may pick the specimens of underripened quality and allow them to ripen in your own home. Or choose the perfectly timed fruits if you want to consume them right away.
Once you've bought the plants, you need to store them properly. First of all think about the possible bacterial or mold aggression. If you see any deteriorate vegetable, remove it from the stock as the bacteria or mold will spread to the other veggies. Also, it is a good idea to clean and wash all the veggies and fruits before storage, just to remove the bacterial layer on them. Especially if the veggies have still some traces of soil on them, e.g. leeks. The best bet is still to consume all the plants as fresh as possible, just to avoid the deterioration of flavor. Notice also that some fruits are deteriorating much faster than others, for example avocados or figs are quicker to die than apples and carrots. You surely may have noticed that already!
Vegetables should also be stored in correct temperatures and humidity. One simple law of nature says that metabolism is slowed down at lower temperatures, and that's why people have invented refrigerators. Low temperature also slows down metabolism in microbes. In short, store the fresh veggies of high metabolism in refrigerator. However, avoid doing so with produce that has been grown in warmer climates, since the low temperature may actually be damaging to them - we're talking about tomatoes (the classical error of the beginning chefs), peppers, beans, cucumbers, eggplants, zucchinis, and other sun-loving veggies. Put them in room temperature or even better in a slightly cold room.
You should also store the plant life in bags that don't allow for condensed sweaty water to form, since this is an encouraging place of habitat for microbes. The plants should also be allowed to breathe or at least to have enough of air to play with until you eat them.