How to keep carrots in the cellar until spring?

How to keep carrots in the cellar? For sure, this question is of interest to almost every gardener, especially after he collected a rich harvest. Naturally, no one wants his work to vanish in vain, and to keep the freshness of vegetables as long as possible - this is a top priority.

Of course, it's not a secret for anyone that only the cold can provide a long shelf life, so the basement is the ideal option for this.

Do not know how to keep carrots in the cellar? First of all, you need to properly prepare the storage space.

Preparation of the cellar

Before you can lay vegetables, you needclean the basement from dirt and debris, disinfect it and ventilate it. The first procedure can be done by quenching the lime. In addition, this method of disinfection will protect the cellar from mold and fungal decay.

Those who are worried about how to savecarrots in a cellar, should know that for this in the room certain conditions are necessary. The air temperature should be from -1 to +2 degrees Celsius, humidity - 90-95%. It is desirable that the basement is not located near groundwater, because excess moisture can spoil the vegetables.

Recommendations for Harvesting

How and in what circumstances will you collectcarrots, also affects the storage time of this vegetable. Dig it is recommended in dry and warm weather, and for several days before the procedure the vegetable is recommended to water - so extracting it from the earth is easier, and the carrot itself becomes juicy. Naturally, when harvesting, you should work with a shovel or fork carefully, so as not to damage the root crop. In a dissected form, it will not be stored for a long time. After you have dug up and collected the carrots in cellophane or kapron bags, you should keep the vegetables in a well-ventilated room for a couple of days, before laying them on a straw mat. In this case, protect root crops from direct sunlight and moisture.

After that it will be superfluous to again sort the carrots, select only whole roots, without rot and damage.

Ways

There is a whole arsenal of ways, throughwhich solves the question of how to keep carrots in the cellar. They differ only in the degree of efficiency, so each truck farmer independently chooses the most suitable option for himself.

One of the most common options is the standard formation of small piles on the floor. It is only necessary to regularly sort out the vegetables, removing the rotten ones.

Boxes

How to keep carrots in the cellar until spring? To do this, you need boxes of a small size with a capacity of about 20 kilograms. In this case, the container must be with a lid and dense walls.

In such boxes root crops are stored better than in boxes with holes. The container itself should be on stands or shelves - at an altitude of about 20 centimeters from the floor level.

Sawdust

Do not have the faintest idea howto keep carrots in the cellar? In the sawdust it is kept by many truck farmers, and they are absolutely right. This solution to the problem in question is often used in cases where there are no boxes at hand.

Pre-sawdust is spilled directlyon the shelves, and then they spread out the carrots. After that, the root crops are again covered with a layer of chips, and the procedure is repeated until 5-6 layers are formed. In this case, note that the last layer should be sawdust. It is better to use shavings of coniferous trees, because root crops last as long as possible (they contain essential oils that slow the process of vegetable germination and minimize the risk of rot formation).

Sand

Those who are worried about how to keep carrots in the cellar for the winter, should know that instead of sawdust, you can use ordinary sand.

To do this, the vegetables are stacked in the form of a pyramidheight of about 1 meter, and then each layer is poured with the above-mentioned bulk material. It will act as an isolation and will not allow contact with root crops.

Fooling

Want to know if there are more solutionsproblems, how to keep carrots in the cellar before spring? Of course, yes. The coating method is sufficiently effective. In this case, the option involves placing root crops in a moist chalky solution, and then follows the process of drying them. Dry coating involves applying a powdered structure of chalk to root crops in a ratio of 200 grams per 10 kilograms of vegetables. The layer of chalk forms an alkaline medium on the surface of the root crop, which prevents the occurrence of pathogens.

Polyethylene

Many truck farmers have information on how to store carrots in a cellar in packages. To do this you will need products made of polyethylene. At the bottom of the bags, several holes must be made.

Root crops should first be mixed with sand, and then placed in a prepared container, while closing the bags should not be to ensure high-quality air access.

Clay

You can increase the shelf life of carrots ifto process the surface of root crops in clay composition. It is enough to dip each carrot into the mass for a few minutes. In this case, take care in advance that the mixture has a consistency of sour cream. After the root crop is removed from the clay composition, it is dried, and then placed in a wooden container in such a way that the clay shell is not damaged. Of course, the above method takes a considerable amount of time and effort, but its efficiency is very high.

Onion husks

In order to enjoy the taste of fresh carrots in winter,before laying in the cellar, the roots are immersed in a broth prepared on the basis of onion husk, while the ratio is 300 grams of the mixture per 10 liters of water. You can simply pour the vegetables stored onion with dry onion husks.

Conclusion

As you can see, the options for storing carrotsabound. You should also remember that the shelf life of the root crop depends on the variety. As practice shows, freshly ripe vegetables can not be fresh for a long time. The exceptions are the following varieties of carrots: "chanthane", "vitamin", "Moscow winter".