How to Store Potatoes, Carrots, and Beets Over Winter
Carrots, beets, parsnips, and turnips keep for months at 32 to 40F and 95% humidity. Cure potatoes 2 weeks at 50 to 60F in the dark, then store near 40F.
Published by ThriveThyme
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The Short Answer
Root crops want it cold and moist. Cut off the tops of carrots, beets, parsnips, and turnips, and keep them at 32 to 40F with 95% humidity or higher. Use perforated bags in the fridge crisper, damp sand or moss in a cellar, or leave them in the ground under mulch. Potatoes are different: cure them 2 weeks at 50 to 60F in the dark, then store them dark at about 40F.
Check off each crop on the Harvest Storage Desk.
How Long They Keep
| Crop | Store at | Humidity | Storage life | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Carrots | 32 to 40F | 95 to 100% | 3 to 6 months | | Beets | 32 to 40F | 95 to 100% | 3 to 5 months | | Parsnips | 32F | 95 to 100% | 4 to 6 months | | Turnips | 32F | 95% | 4 to 5 months | | Late cabbage | 32F | 95 to 100% | 3 to 4 months | | Potatoes | about 40F | 90 to 95% | 4 to 9 months |
Every 10F above the ideal temperature can cut storage life by up to a quarter, per University of Minnesota Extension.
Carrots, Beets, Parsnips, and Turnips
- Dig before the ground freezes solid. Carrots and parsnips taste sweeter after a few frosts. See vegetables that taste better after frost.
- Cut off the tops. Leaves pull water out of the root.
- Brush off soil. If you wash them, dry them before storing.
- Store only sound roots. One rotten root spreads to the rest.
- Keep them away from apples and pears. Ethylene from ripening fruit makes carrots and parsnips bitter.
Potatoes
- Dig after the vines die back so the skins set.
- Cure about 2 weeks at 50 to 60F in the dark with high humidity. Cuts and scrapes heal over.
- Store at about 40F with 90 to 95% humidity, in the dark. Light turns skins green, and green parts taste bitter.
- Colder than about 40F turns starch to sugar. University of Minnesota Extension suggests 40 to 50F for potatoes you plan to fry.
- Do not wash potatoes until you use them.
Three Places to Store Roots
1. Fridge crisper. Perforated plastic bags hold humidity without trapping water. Sealed bags cause condensation and mold. 2. Root cellar or cold basement corner. Layer roots in boxes of slightly moist sand, sawdust, or sphagnum moss so they do not shrivel. Give some ventilation and keep rodents out. 3. Outdoors. Leave carrots and parsnips in the bed under a thick straw or leaf mulch and dig as needed, or build a pit. Colorado State Extension describes a barrel set in the ground, lid loose, covered with 1 to 3 feet of straw held down by soil, in a spot that does not flood.
Next Steps
1. Run the Harvest Storage Desk for squash, onions, and the rest. 2. Put empty beds to bed with Garden to Bed.
Shop carrot seed for next season at Seeds Now.
Sources
- University of Minnesota Extension, Harvesting and storing home garden vegetables
- Colorado State University Extension fact sheet 7.601, Storage of home-grown vegetables
- UC Davis Postharvest Technology Center storage chart, based on USDA Agriculture Handbook 66
- University of Wisconsin Extension A1135, Storing vegetables at home