After all of the harvesting, trimming, curing, washing, and grading, it’s time to place these veggies into storage. Simply toss them in, proper? Not precisely. As with different elements of storage farming, there’s some logistical planning that may ease the method of really putting crops into their winter abodes.
A part of that’s making certain you’re arrange beforehand—that you simply’re ready to provide the assorted crops what they want when it comes to storage situations and house. The primary 12 months I saved crops commercially, I didn’t give sufficient thought to storage containers nor learn how to prepare them in my chilly room. I compelled myself to make choices on the fly, a few of which I regretted later within the winter.
There’s additionally that essential interval simply after crops go into storage. Within the first days and weeks, the veggies will present indicators of softening if the air is just too dry and would possibly start sprouting if the room is just too heat. Condensation will kind inside containers and on the crops if there’s insufficient air flow. It’s essential to be observant throughout this time and to make adjustments if mandatory. By appearing rapidly, you possibly can normally treatment small issues earlier than they balloon into insurmountable ones.
Storage Room Circumstances
Success in long-term storage comes right down to nailing the storage situations, of which temperature and humidity are an important. The objective is to take care of dormancy in our crops whereas minimizing decay and desiccation (moisture loss). When you develop many alternative crops, then it’d look like a frightening job to supply the proper temperatures and humidities for all of them.
Fortunate for us, many frequent storage crops choose related situations. Relying on what you develop and retailer, although, you would possibly want to supply 4 or 5 completely different units of situations to finest meet your crops’ wants. If that’s not doable, you’ll have to resolve which crops get preferrred storage situations and which crops don’t.
The Chilly and Damp Group
32°F (0°C) and above 98 % RH
Many traditional storage crops hold finest in chilly and damp situations. By chilly, I imply as near the freezing level as doable, proper at 32°F. This may appear precarious, however primary chemistry offers a safeguard.
The freezing level of water decreases once you dissolve issues in it—issues corresponding to salts and carbohydrates in greens. The typical freezing level of carrots and beets, for instance, is definitely round 29°F (−1.7°C). Maintaining the storage temperature at 32°F provides you a small buffer in opposition to insufficient airflow and chilly spots, in addition to energy outages ought to they occur. It additionally prevents any water used for humidifying the house from freezing. As for relative humidity, damp signifies that it ought to be at or above 98 %.
Many of the root crops fall into this group, together with beets, carrots, celeriac, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas, sunchokes, and turnips. So do leafy and fleshy brassicas, together with Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi. Some homesteaders advise storing brassicas and different crops individually to keep away from imparting a cabbage-like taste to different veggies. I’ve by no means had a problem with this regardless of a few years of storing these crops collectively. In reality, I don’t know of any industrial farmers who separate these crops for the aim of odor safety. Maybe it turns into a problem at comparatively heat storage temperatures.
The Alliums
32°F (0°C) and between 60 and 70 % RH
Basic allium crops, together with garlic, onions, and shallots, have related responses to completely different temperatures and humidities in storage. Alliums can deal with a variety of storage temperatures above 32°F and nonetheless preserve acceptable storage lives. What’s essential is protecting them dry, ideally between about 60 and 70 % RH. Regardless of what you would possibly learn or hear, alliums retailer finest when stored chilly, round 32°F. There’s quite a lot of analysis to again this up, in addition to firsthand accounts from farmers. Temperatures close to freezing inhibit each shoot and root development—that are the principle causes for moisture loss that results in squishy bulbs—whereas additionally slowing down pathogens.
An issue shared by many storage farmers who develop a various set of crops is making a separate, chilly however dry space for storing for the alliums. Many people don’t develop alliums in giant sufficient portions to justify this, and we retailer our alliums at less-than-optimal temperatures in comparatively dry hallways, sheds, barns, or pack-room corners with out modifying temperature an excessive amount of. So, what occurs at increased temperatures?
Very heat temps (above 86°F, or 30°C) additionally inhibit each sprouting and root development. At these excessive temps, the relative humidity must be round 80 to 90 % to forestall drying, however this mix may also promote pathogen development. Most farmers, although, aren’t recurrently heating areas into the 80s and above.
Garlic and onions reply in a different way to storage in intermediate temperatures. If nicely cured, onions normally do nicely in temperatures as much as about 50°F (10°C), however you’ll see earlier sprouting and rotting the hotter it will get. Garlic, alternatively, sprouts rapidly when saved between 40 and 50°F (4 and 10°C)—round three to 4 months after harvest, relying on the range.
Potatoes
38 to 45°F (3 to 7°C) and above 95 % RH
Potatoes retailer finest in damp situations above 95 % RH, however the optimum storage temperature relies on your objectives. Potatoes are in their very own storage group as a result of cold-storage temperatures— close to freezing, from 32 to 35°F (0 to 2°C)—can injure potatoes over time, manifesting as browning flesh and floor mildew, and temperatures above 45°F (7°C) result in early sprouting. Since most small-to-medium farms aren’t promoting potatoes for fries or chips, their preferrred storage temps vary from 38 to 45°F. (Sources differ on the decrease finish of the optimum vary; I’ve gone for the center floor with 38°F.)
On the decrease finish, potatoes will purchase extra sweetness and should excessively brown when fried, however decrease temperatures have a tendency to extend storage life. On the increased finish, the potatoes will convert much less starch to sugar (stopping browning when fried), however they can even sprout sooner.
Candy Potatoes
57 to 60°F (14 to 16°C) and between 85 and 90 % RH
Candy potatoes, in contrast to the opposite root crops, can not tolerate low temperatures. They begin accumulating chilling damage under 54°F (12°C). It solely takes two to 3 weeks at 45°F (7°C) for outward indicators of chilling damage to point out. The very best storage temperatures seem like between 57 and 60°F, and humidity between 85 and 90 % toes the road between preserving moisture and stopping mildew development. Storage temperatures above 66°F (19°C) will result in extreme sprouting after just a few months.
Winter Squash and Pumpkins
50 to 55°F (10 to 13°C) and between 50 and 70 % RH
Winter squash and pumpkins, regardless of their ubiquity, are tropical crops and can’t tolerate low temperatures in storage or in any other case. Their candy spot is between 50 and 55°F.
At decrease temperatures they accumulate chilling damage, which normally reveals first as pockmarked pores and skin. Greater temperatures velocity up their deterioration and trigger inexperienced varieties to yellow.
The decrease the storage temperature, the sooner chilling accidents develop; at 41°F (5°C), chilling damage begins exhibiting after a couple of month, whereas some squash saved at 50°F (the low finish of the optimum vary) would possibly present indicators of damage after a number of months.
Humidity ought to be between 50 and 70 %, however there are trade-offs at every finish of the vary. Relative humidity nearer to 50 % results in extra moisture loss, whereas RH nearer to 70 % results in increased losses from storage rots.
The excerpt above is from Past the Root Cellar: The Market Gardeners Information to Rising and Storing Greens for Off-Season Gross sales and Meals Safety by Sam Knapp. It has been tailored for the online.
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