A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

I don’t know how cold your basement is but I keep carrots quite successfully in an outhouse in slightly damp sand. I guess an outhouse for you might be colder than your fridge, but I wonder whether a box of sand in your basement could be OK?

It's definitely something I'm thinking of considering @Decoy1. It is definitely coolest directly on the cement floor, and the basement in general is certainly cooler than upstairs. If I stored them in a single layer in sand right on the floor, in something long and shallow I just might succeed. I could try a couple places and hope for the best.

I would even consider getting a little mini fridge and keep it on the warmest setting, if I thought it'd work. My sunroom goes to -35C for sure, and the carrots that I kept in there this winter I checked today and they are toast. Mush with skin. And I had one lot stored in lots of peat and one in garden soil, both gone. I honestly wonder how pioneers kept their carrots in root cellars in this climate.

 

[Alasgun]

Im sure folks are successful using a number of methods. Our commercial carrot producers tell me 32 degrees, 95 % humidity and some air movement.
I cant exactly replicate that but have very good success by storing in heavily perforated bags in refrigerator's set at 35 degrees. I have two fridges set up just for this and will usually still be eating my own carrots well into the growing season. I monitor the bags and if any condensation is showing up i’ll open the seal on that bag for a couple days. Typically this only happens shortly after going into storage.
I’ll add a picture after bit.

Mike

 

[heirloomgal]

Well, 2 more new species on the horizon for 2026. Though I'm not actually much of a melon person, I decided to grow one this summer. I do like a nice watermelon, like Cream of Saskatchewan or Yellow Doll, but Cucumis melo varieties have never tasted good to me. Passable at best. That we don't have smokin' hot summers and the season sometimes being cut short doesn't help, I'm just not in good melon growing country.

That said I see 2 melons that look intriguing, both small short season types. I like that the description is mostly honest and doesn't claim they taste like maple syrup but rather faintly pear like. Another says, hints of lychee/pear/Greek yogurt. Even better. That sounds within the realm of a taste that appeals to me for Cucumis melo's. (I don't care for Asian pears, so I'm hoping it isn't referencing those.) I like most of all that they're tiny melons and will mature their seeds.

The wee Kajari's were all the rage for a couple years, I'm not sure why I was never struck with the bug to try them. Seeing Sakata's Sweet & the Kiku Chrysanthemum melons I think I may just try them. I think some vines running in the front yard edible garden would look nice too. (It will be fun to annoy the heck out of DH with them too, as I know it will drive him batty to have to mow around the vines on the lawn, lol) I admit that I think some of my motivation is that I just like the look of these things.

And there is an interesting celery called 'Kin Tsai' I think I want to try too. It bolts easily, so, a good celery for seed. One of the things that has always been a bit of a drag with celery in my garden is that it grows so slow, painfully slow. And no seeds. Really not a great short season veg, but maybe with this one there's some hope.

 

[heirloomgal]

Im sure folks are successful using a number of methods. Our commercial carrot producers tell me 32 degrees, 95 % humidity and some air movement.
I cant exactly replicate that but have very good success by storing in heavily perforated bags in refrigerator's set at 35 degrees. I have two fridges set up just for this and will usually still be eating my own carrots well into the growing season. I monitor the bags and if any condensation is showing up i’ll open the seal on that bag for a couple days. Typically this only happens shortly after going into storage.
I’ll add a picture after bit.

Mike

Wow, thank you so much for this info @Alasgun. I had no idea that perforated bags were important, I definitely did not do that with my carrots. This is fabulous info, 32 degrees with high humidity. I'm guessing that its working well for you with the fridges means that air movement is not super important?

 

[Alasgun]

Here’s the whole ball of wax. 1x4 with grinder sharpened construction screws on 1/2 inch spacing; protruding 1/4 inch. A thin piece of foam backer and a top board to lean on.

This “tool” is sized for gallon bags. Stack 4-5 bags onto “tool” then foam then push board and rock on it a bit. Peel the stack off and move over and repeat. Takes 3 times to cover the bag well.

Early on i was not getting big enough perforations which allowed moisture to build. The last two years have gone much better.

After getting this storage information from the grower i looked into small fridge fans and decided to try larger perforations first which worked well enough that i ignored fans. At the commercial level they use large bins or totes so i can see where better ventilation would be helpful. As previously mentioned i look in on mine often enough that i can correct a moisture issue before it becomes a problem.

I’ve used the fridges for 8 years and before perforation they sweat and molded after just a couple months which led to un-bagging, washing, drying and re-bagging several times during the winter AND we still lost up to 40%!

The pictures show the tool and some Orange and White carrots which seem to store better. The last picture is close enough to see the perforations in a bag.

There are commercially perforated bags available but in a material type we don't favor; so i just “lean on” a couple dozen each year. They last very well and are only replaced when the seals give up. Otherwise they just get washed, dried and re-used.

As usual, probably more than you needed?

Mike

 

[heirloomgal]

This is incredible @Alasgun, you've literally perfected the art of home storage for carrots. This is an enormous help!! I'm glad to know that it is somewhat of a complex science to get it right and prevent the roots rotting, because I was feeling like quite the failure to throw out so many fridge carrots and then losing everything in my sunroom (though I wasn't shocked about those ones perishing, it was so cold in there, way below freezing.)

I'm honestly curious given that moisture in the bags can really snowball into a major problem, and its taken some time to perfect the technique of storage in the properly perforated bags, what do you think the effect of storage in sand might do? Even though I have 0 experience with this I saw at some point the carrots in my bags sweating so I cracked them open a few times, and I had some peat in the bags and hoped that would help manage moisture fluctuations. Even at the correct temperature it seems like this is the factor to be contended with most. Is there a reason you don't use sand? I've read that it was the storage medium of choice in the days of root cellars, along with wood shavings? I see that your white carrots in particular are alive and well and sprouting, this is what I dream of achieving.

I so appreciate your input on this, and definitely not too much info; I've always felt that I have an inner machinist, at least to some degree. I revel in not only dancing across the surface of topics, but mining them. To the earth's core, if possible.