“ I believe more yield and vegetable are recede every year through unlawful store than through any other cause , ” wrote F.B.McLeran of Wrenshall in 1907 . To last a long time , vegetables need consistent temperature ( about 40 degrees ) , dark and proper humidity . For McLeran , root cellars were the answer . At the metre , most storage areas were underground with grunge or wood sides . He trust that cementum was the way of the future , andtoday many who store food over recollective periods use garagesor other cementum lined structures .
About 30 years after , A.E. Hutchins offered more tips on home storage of vegetables .
Storeonly the good . Without processing , some veggie will only last a poor fourth dimension ( consider tomatoes or peppers ) while others can last months . vegetable that do well in repositing let in wry beans , beets , carrots , cultivated cabbage , onions , winter squashand murphy . When pick out vegetable to lay in , pick the beneficial of the unity you grow . This is not the position for damaged or pathological vegetables .

Not quite ripe squash can be ripened by sitting in the sun indoors, but to store them in a root cellar they should be fully ripe on the vine.
mold temperature and humidity . Underground root root cellar worked because the temperature below soil does not waver much . Even in the depths of winter , it ’s about 40 degrees , which is the idealistic temperature for storing most vegetable . Some vegetable , carrots for example , require very high humidity while others — Zea mays everta , dry beans — do best with lower humidness . Research the individual motivation of each veggie you plan to store .
Lengthen the tomato harvest by hanging vines . If a sudden icing is coming and you have many unripe Lycopersicon esculentum , you’re able to hang the plants upside down in a cool storage region and piece them as they ripen , Hutchins suggest . Itried a variation on this estimation in 2012 , give ear the tomato outside because temperature were still moderate , and was capable to harvest a few more ripe tomatoes .
Plan for the root cellar . In her 2019article on a modern root root cellar , Meg Cowdenpoints out that source cellaring starts with planting and harvesting at the correct fourth dimension . While some vegetable take a full season to develop ( squelch , Brussels sprouts ) , others should be sown subsequently in the time of year so they are utterly new when they go into the cellar . For representative , she sow Daucus carota sativa for her ascendant root cellar in late June through mid - July .
What kind of storage method do you practice ?