Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: sam on lewis on August 21, 2009, 12:50
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We have a goodly amount of carrots, swedes, leeks, to store for winter, it isn't really possible to leave them in the ground or to clamp them as the winds up here will get up to Storm Force regularly, so we need some ideas for storing in sheds and a caravan for the winter period. We put the carrots into sand last year and they started sprouting again. The sand was very dry. Any help would be appreciated.
:D
Sam
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Don't know about the carrots & swedes if dry sand doesn't work, but leeks can be lifted & heeled in somewhere more sheltered perhaps, but outside & they will keep for ages.
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I have made a number of sacks from an end of roll of black hessian type material, to store potatoes but I shall use these with dry sawdust to store carrots. Cardboard boxes should work in the same way and can be stacked.
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Never tried it, but I have read that you use moist sand so the root veg don't dry out :blink:
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Think you're right, if you read up, all storage medium is quoted as cool and damp.
Here's a good article on storing carrots:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/edible_gardening_plus/50989
Wouldn't have thought you'd have to do anything with the leeks as they are extremely hardy, unless you want some nearer to home, in which case bring a batch at a time & heel them in, as already suggested.
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What comes out in the suite 101 article is that you should wait until Autumn when the soil has cooled down before storing. I am sure that if you store them now they will continue to grow.
One interesting point was leaving the carrots to dry in the sun to kill hair roots and induce dormancy. Never heard of that but I can see the logic.
For storage short term the carrot packers reckon that they store best washed, bagged and in the refridgerator. This apparently stops the bacteria in the soil causing rot.
I have light soil and my carrots stay in the ground slightly earthed up or with a covering of whatever is to hand. Last year the cut off asparagus tops did the job.
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:D
Thanks everyone for responding, because we don't get frost on the Isle of Lewis we can leave our carrots in the ground, our neighbour was digging carrots up at the end of feb last year !!
We put our spuds in thin paper sacks in our caravan last year (not in use in winter) they seemed to do ok, but this year we have lots more.
The swedes are doing great and it's those, cabbage and parsnips we are most concerned about.
Cheers,
Sam