Starting a root cellar garden is one of the best slipway to give your family independency , nutritive meals , and security during lean times – whether that ’s the winter or during a national crisis like the coronavirus pandemic .
While you could just thresh your craw in a cool area and call it a day , to make the most of your stem basement , you require to choose plants that do well in farsighted term storage . Then , you need to eff the right elbow room to harvest and educate those plants .
Below , you ’ll find what you need to love to make the most of your root cellar garden .
The Basics of a Root Cellar
A antecedent cellar is an underground or basement computer storage area that ride out cool and moist during the winter months without refrigeration or electricity . A good ascendent wine cellar quell around 45 ° fluorine with humidity around 90 % . It also needs external respiration and some shelves to store your fruit and veggies .
Check out our article onhow to build a modern root cellarif you want to learn how to make one of your own .
Best Vegetables For The Root CellarGarden
To make a successful root cellar garden , picking the right plants is key . You must pick out fruit and vegetables that can be stored in a root wine cellar for a prospicient meter . It wo n’t do you any good if you stuff your garden with tomatoes and cucumbers , which ca n’t store long .
Potato
There are lots of unlike potato varieties and it ’s important to plunk the correct ones for reposition . Use the delectable former ones for fresh eating and keep thelong time of year tatersfor storage .
expect for the plants to altogether die back . After digging the potatoes , gently brush off the dirt . Then , cure them on a table or CRT screen for two weeks in a coolheaded dark place . I stick mine in a three - sided shed that has good aura circulation .
memory in the theme root cellar at 40 - 45 ° F and they can last up to six months .
Best storage potatoes : Yukon Gold , Kennebec , Satina , All grim , and Elba .
Onions and Garlic
Harvest onion and Allium sativum when the neck become soft and the tops turn browned . Many people braid their garlic and onions and hang them in the kitchen to store them . They store well in a base cellar as well .
The trick is , onion and ail like it a tad warm and drier air than you get in most beginning cellar . Hang them from the root cellar ceiling or place them individually on the top shelf .
Onions and garlic must be cure before storing . Do n’t put in them near root crops .
Best onions for storage : Redwing , Patterson , Cabernet , Cortland , and Yankee .
Best garlic for storage : select softneck kind such as Californian , Corsican , and Inchelium Red .
Cabbage
Not everyone thinks of cabbage when design their root cellar garden , but most moolah computer storage well . Late varieties with tight , firm head do the good . crimson kale typically keep longer than greenish varieties .
Some cabbages have a impregnable odor that may permeate the rootage cellar . you’re able to store them alfresco in unused garbage cans if it ’s not too warm to void this . you’re able to also enwrap cabbages individually in paper or packaging paper , which helps contain the odor .
Leave blank between each mind while storing and they ’ll last 3 - 5 months in the root cellar .
Best for memory board : Brunswick , Danish Ballhead , Kaitlin , Late Flat Dutch , Murdock , Red Acre , and Storage No . 4
Sweet Potatoand Yam
Harvest sweet potatoes and yams and cure them in a warm , moist place at about 80–85 ° F and 90 % humidness . This toughen their skins and encourages the healing of modest scratches before you store them .
Do n’t wash them , just sweep off the dirt .
hive away them in a ventilated box seat or container . you could wrap them in a paper , standardised to apples , or place them in a bin of sand . They prefer a bit warm temperature of around 50 ° F , so place them on a top - shelf .
Sweet potatoes keep up to six month .
well for memory : Covington and Muraski
Pumpkin and Winter Squash
Pumpkins and other winter squash are a basic of the ascendant cellar garden . Cure pumpkins and squash ( except acorn or delicata squash ) in the sun for two weeks after harvest to serve them arise a concentrated rind . Leave the stems on .
Squashes do best on low shelves in the root basement . Keep them several inches asunder .
Best for storehouse : Some squash last longer in entrepot than others . member of theCucurbita pepofamily , which includes acorn , spaghetti crush , and most smaller pie pumpkins last two to three months . Baby Bear pumpkins , in particular , are good for radical cellar storage .
Buttercup and kabocha squeeze belong toC. maxima , and last a bit longer at four months in the root cellar .
Butternut squash vine have hard rinds and the longest storage spirit , lasting up to six months .
Beets and Carrots
Carrots and beet have the same storehouse demand . you could store them in boxes of moist sand or sawdust . After digging your carrot and beets , cool down them quickly by get under one’s skin them out of the sun and into a cool shed or garage .
Brush off loose dirt and cut the tops off to about an inch above the root . Lay them down in the gumption in level . They should not be touching each other . They last around three to five months in a root cellar .
sound carrots to stack away : Bolero , Carson , Kingston , Chantenay , Nigel , Red Core , Royal Chantenay and St. Valery .
Best beets for storage : Detroit Dark Red and Red Ace , Boltardy , Long Season and Lutz Green Leaf
Leeks
Leeks put in similar to carrots and Beta vulgaris , except you demand to keep the leeks whole and place them good in damp sand . A five - gallon bucketful works well . They last up to four months in the root cellar .
Leek varieties that lay in well : Arena , Elephant , Giant Musselburgh , Nebraska , and Zermatt
Brussels Sprouts
Brussels sprouts are another industrial plant that more people should grow in their root cellar garden . It ’s courteous to have some greenish crunchiness in the center of winter .
Sprouts should n’t be harvested until after several instances of frost . The best way to stash away them is to pull up the intact plant life and hang it upside down from the roots .
They can last two months attached to their shuck hanging in the wine cellar . If that is not feasible , pick the sprout and store them in a mesh dish . They last about one calendar month once off the plant .
full storage varieties : Jade Cross , Diablo , and Long Island meliorate
Best Fruits For Root CellarGarden
Veggies get all the aid , but you’re able to lay in fruit as well . You just need to know which potpourri work easily in a root cellar garden .
Apples and Pears
apple and pears both do well in the radical cellar with some forethought . They should be wrapped in newspaper to suppress the release of ethylene gas because the ethylene can cause other produce to go bad .
With that in mind , store Malus pumila and pears in wooden or cardboard boxes on the lowest point of the root cellar . They prefer 40 ° F with a 90 % humidness level . They can last up to five months depending on conditions .
serious Malus pumila change for storage : Arkansas Black , Braeburn , Cameo , Crispin , Fuji , Ida Red , Newtown Pippin , Northern Spy , Pink Lady , Rome Beauty , Winter Banana and Yates
good pear potpourri for storage : Anjou , Bosc , Chojuro , AsianComice , Highland , and Winter Nelis .
Grapes
spill - harvested grape vine keep for up to two months in the theme cellar . Ideally , they take to be nerveless and moist , 40 ° F with 80 % humidity .
Let them mature on the vine and cut stems off with scissor hold . This helps forestall bruising . Place them in a exclusive layer on trays .
practiced warehousing variety : Catawba , Sheridan , and Steuben .
Quince
Quinces are skilful keepers and a less coarse root word cellar garden crop . Allow the yield to tree ripen and turn yellow . Store them as you would apples . They can last four to five calendar month in a root cellar .
Citrus Fruits
If you live in the cryptical south and ineffective to withstand school groups selling citrus fruit during the wintertime holiday , never fear : citrus fruits do well in the root cellar . I have had the best luck with gamboge and birdlime .
Oranges and tangerines last up to two month in a cool place between 32 - 40 ° F . They like high humidity , so stack away them on the base in the back recess of the theme cellar . Lemons and unslaked lime can last even longer .
Tips For Harvesting
It ’s not enough to spring up the right plants , you also involve to get laid how to harvest them to ensure they can be stored a good long fourth dimension .
Curing Winter Vegetables
Many of the veg that stack away well for the winter do so because they are cure first . Curing stand for to bring out them to air and let them dry out a bit before lodge them in repositing . This helps to harden the exterior cutis or rind and make it less prone to bilk .
Squash , potato , and Allium cepa are all veggies that should becured .
Root Cellar Storage Will Help You Eat Well in the Long Term
lay in fruits and vegetable during lean times is the everlasting mode to keep enjoying your harvest no matter the weather or situation .
Plant the proper mixture , know how to worry and harvest them , and you ’ll have fresh produce all wintertime long .
Was this article helpful?
What went wrong?
This article contains wrong selective information
This article does not have the information I am expect for
How can we improve it?
We appreciate your helpful feedback!
Your answer will be used to improve our capacity . The more feedback you give us , the better our Page can be .
