Root cellaring without the root cellar

[88GT]

We have a fair crop of potatoes and onions from the garden each year. More than I can store in the pantry and expect it all to last. So I need a storage method that lets me keep them long term, but I don't have a root cellar. Nor do I live where I can construct one, or this would have been a post about making one.

I've read about the option for turning basements areas into root cellars, but for various reasons it's not a practical solution. The garage isn't a good option either because temp and humidity are way too variable.

That leaves me with using the shed--not really an option based on the role it is currently playing--or constructing something outside. I'm fine with an outside access storage. I want something semi-permanent in terms of durability (not going to deteriorate from the elements in a season or two), but not so permanent that I can't dismantle it in an hour or two if needed.

I don't need much space maybe 2 or 3 cubic feet.

What can ya do for me INGO? Thanks.

 

[Clarity]

I think I've seen plans for sinking trash cans into the ground to use as root cellars. You sink them a little deep, so you can insulate the tops with dirt, straw, or whatever.

 

[bass pro]

Do you have a crawlspace section accessible from the basement? Cool , dry, no light.

 

[88GT]

Do you have a crawlspace section accessible from the basement? Cool , dry, no light.

Nope.

 

[lordjackel]

How about something as simple as a buried barrel?

http://co.nezperce.id.us/images/Root_Celler.jpg

 

[mrjarrell]

Potatoes can often be left in the ground and dug up as needed. Onions can be easily stored by braiding them and hanging them in a cool, dry area, away from direct light. Find a corner of the kitchen for them.

 

[PAMom]

I recommend a book from Rodale Press
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Stocking-Up-III-Americas-Preserving/dp/1567310737]Amazon.com: Stocking Up III: America's Classic Preserving Guide (9781567310733): Carol Hupping: Books[/ame]

There is a section on storage with some creative ideas for storage as well as good information on storing individual fruits and veggies.

One of my favorite books - lots of information on fruit and vegetable varieties, along with canning, freezing, and drying information and even some recipes. She discusses dairy, meat,and nuts and seeds, too.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I know some older folks who have told me that when they were little, their families dug shallow trenches in the garden in the fall and lined them with staw, then put in potatoes, cabbage, turnips, etc, then covered with more straw, then with dirt. I remember one early spring, I was turning my compost for the first time and I rolled out a half head of cabbage that I'd put in there the fall before, and it was just as good as the day I put it in there.

Every year I tell myself I'm gonna try that to see how well it works, but I think that by the time fall gets here, I've put in so many hours in the garden that my motivation has ebbed.

I also have seen online articles about burying a plastic barrel, with the top even with the surface of the ground, and then covering it with a couple of bales of straw. The barrel idea may work best in areas like where I live, which is a poorly drained clay soil. If I just dug a hole for vegetables, it would fill up with water and rot everything.

 

[smokingman]

1.5 gallon bucket.
2.4 empty tuna cans
3.Kitty liter or baking soda
4.Wire fencing(wire rack ect..)
5.Good lid(Gama)

Sterilize the bucket with bleach water.Dry.Place the 4 empty cans(clean and sterile also)in the bottom of your bucket.Place in Kitty litter or baking soda almost to the top of the cans.Cut wire fencing (chicken wire or similar)to fit down in the bucket on top of cans.Add clean dry potatoes.Place the lid on them.Bury the bucket with at least one foot of soil above the lid(mound the dirt above it to help locate later).The depth of the bucket is for more temperature control,the deeper the better.

The kitty liter/baking soda is to cut down on moisture.Make sure the potatoes are clean and dry when storing them in this way.Check on them every few months and replace the kitty litter/baking soda and discard any potatoes that are questionable.Picking out questionable potatoes will lengthen the life of storing them this way.

You are controlling the light,moisture,and temperature.

 

[Expat]

I am sure smokingman's method is the best if you are going to keep them out in the garden. Grandpa just dug a deep hole put the potatoes in a mound with some straw, then covered them deep. You have to keep them below the frost line as once a potato freezes, it is going bad quick. I did the faux root cellar in the basement here.

 

[Titanium_Frost]

If you do the tire or box stack method is it possible to just leave them in it or will it likely freeze since it is above ground?

What keeps the potatoes from growing when they are in the ground anyway?

 

[Expat]

If you do the tire or box stack method is it possible to just leave them in it or will it likely freeze since it is above ground?

What keeps the potatoes from growing when they are in the ground anyway?

That might help them make it through frosts but once a freeze hits, they are gone. Same way with just leaving them in the ground where they were planted.

 

[cosermann]

Potatoes can often be left in the ground and dug up as needed. ...

My dad uses this method with carrots. He mulches with a foot or so of leaves, to keep the ground from freezing, and covers that with plastic to keep the leaves dry (so they don't freeze into a big block).

 

[Titanium_Frost]

So root vegetables go dormant in the winter if they are cold?

 

[smokingman]

So root vegetables go dormant in the winter if they are cold?

If you control the light,moisture,and temperature they will go and remain dormant.This is the reason people used to have root cellars.The 5 gallon bucket method I described earlier in this thread works well as an easy replacement.

 

[Titanium_Frost]

If you control the light,moisture,and temperature they will go and remain dormant.This is the reason people used to have root cellars.The 5 gallon bucket method I described earlier in this thread works well as an easy replacement.

Thanks. I figured that was the point but I didn't know if that was ALL that was necessary. I will have to practice in my basement and then try the buried bucket method.