HOW TO KEEP CARROTS FOR THE WINTER IN THE GROUND: ON THE GARDEN OR IN THE PIT?

Preserving the crop throughout the winter until the new crop is received is one of main concerns gardener.

This also applies to such root vegetables as carrots - proper organized storage allows you to enjoy the fruits of your labor even in late spring superior quality.

If you have not only sent your rich harvest of carrots in fresh storage, but have already managed to freeze it in the freezer and also dry it for the winter and even make dried carrots, then all you have to do is leave the roots right in the garden in the ground.

But this is not such an easy task as it seems at first glance. One of the most non-trivial ways can be called ground storage. In our article we have already talked about how and in what time it is necessary to harvest carrots for storage, now let's talk about how to leave it right in the garden.

Leaving Rules

If you do not have enough space for storing root crops in the cellar or pantry, you can use this the old methodlike storing carrots in the ground until spring directly in the garden where they were grown.

This method is good if you have a large crop of root crops or feel acute shortage of time for their cleaning and subsequent processing for storage.

Among cons storing carrots in the ground for the winter can be called:

possible damage to vegetables by omnipresent pests;
difficult access during snowy and cold winters;
the impossibility of sorting carrots and determining the quality of vegetables.

But if you plan to eat vegetables left in the garden no earlier than spring, then with the observance of storage technology after a long time, you will receive fresh carrots, as if freshly grown.

How to keep carrots for the winter in the ground? Should initially walk carefully to the choice of that part of the garden where you decided to leave the roots. This site must meet certain requirements, which are as follows:

the bed should not have any soil diseases, there is no infection with a wireworm or a medvedka;
need to make sure that it will not spring to be warmed up;
plot with left roots should not spring interfere with spring work in the garden and planting early crops.

Now you can start preserving carrots in the garden during the winter period. These works are postponed until late autumn - especially since carrots are capable to sustain small frosts and without additional hiding.

On top of that, it contributes to the accumulation in vegetables sugarsthat makes carrots even more delicious.

Step-by-step instruction

How to keep carrots in the ground until spring in the garden? Vegetable preservation technology is as follows:

in the last month before pruning the foliage should stop watering beds;
choose a day that was preceded by a period without rains for at least a week so that the soil not accumulated excess moisture;
remove everything from the garden weedsotherwise, in the spring you will receive carrots and well-preserved weed seeds in addition, and their rotting products will reduce to no your work;
cut right under the root the tops that have already started to turn yellow, the ground level should coincide with the place of the crop;
fill the bed with sand large fraction. A small layer is enough, no more than 2-5 centimeters thick, but completely covering both the plot with root crops and the surrounding area - about 1 meter from the bed. Sand will allow oxygen to flow to the surface of the earth;
cover with plastic wrap - this can be done already by the next stage, immediately before the onset of frosts;
next layer is materials for warming plot with root vegetables. In their quality can be leaves, fallen from garden trees, peat, sawdust;
the warming layer is covered again plastic film or roofing felt - This allows you to create a so-called heat pad, which allows you to protect vegetables from the cold in winter. Roofing material or film is well fixed by any available materials.

Subsequent snowfalls will create extra cold protection, and after their melting you will get well-preserved root vegetables.

Special attention should be removed. protection of carrots from rodentswho will not miss the opportunity in the hungry winter time to eat vegetables.

To protect against them, it is necessary to use as one of the elements of insulation spruce branches and scatter them on top of the last layer of insulation.

Additionally installed scarers, and trapsIn which the poison is laid - this is to prevent the possibility of pests to break through to the vegetables laid down for storage.

Despite careful preparation, there is always the danger that the roots will be partially damaged by rotting or eaten by pests. However, the part of the crop that is preserved is usually marked high consumer performance.

However, there is another feature - after the roots are dug out of the ground, they do not have a long shelf life, and therefore it is recommended to dig them out immediately before use.

How to keep carrots in the garden until spring? The way to store carrots in the garden in the ground until spring in this video:

Features savings in the pit of earth

How to store carrots in a pit in the winter outside? Equally good is the method when storing organized in a pit dug on the site. In this case, it is important to observe not only the technology of organizing the storage site, but also digging the crop and preparing root crops for laying. These rules are simple, but help to preserve the harvest for a long time with good quality indicators:

before digging out of the soil products that will be stored, it is not necessary watering;
digging should using forkscarefully and carefully;
no need to shake soil from root crops - as shaking forks, and striking vegetables together. With such a mechanical effect, the roots get microtrauma, which impairs their safety and leads to premature rotting;
carrot decomposed to dry - as they usually do with potatoes;
after drying, carefully remove excess soil;
to produce pruning - It would be better if it is cut to the very top of the root. The maximum that can be left of the foliage on the root is greenery not more than 2-3 cm high.
to produce sorting root crops.
Separating for laying in storage underground, flat vegetables that have no damage, signs of rotting and deviations from the norm in the form of excessively lean or twisted root crops.

After that, it is necessary to make a selection for laying in a hole - for this purpose they are selected small specimens.

After that, prepare a place for bookmarks. Should choose a place that not subject to flooding melt water in the spring.

Phased organization

How to store carrots in the ground in winter? After the vegetables for the bookmark have been selected, you can start laying them in storage. For this:

dig out pit. Its depth in the latitudes, where winter is rather mild and there is no deep freezing of the soil, can do not exceed 30-35 cm. Where the winters are more severe, that is, in central Russia, it is necessary to equip a pit with depth not less than 50-60 cm. The width in both cases is approximately 50 cm;
at the bottom of the pit fall asleep sand large fraction thickness 2-5 cm - it protects from contact with the soil and provides air exchange;
then a layer of carrots is laid, which covered with sand - and so on until the edge of the pit will not remain 10-15 cm;
filling the last layer with sand covered with earth so that the top layer protrudes about 8-10 cm above the edge of the pit. If winters are quite severe, the upper layer of the earth can be increased to 50 cm;
after that proceed to weatherization, which act as fallen leaves from fruit trees, peat, sawdust, and fir branches - for protection against pests. Additionally, you can install poison scarers and feedersso that rodents do not have the opportunity to reach the storage facility.