Root Crops

Root crops such as beets, carrots, celeriac, kohlrabi, rutabagas, turnips, and winter radishes should not be put in storage until late fall. Root crops keep best between 32 and 40 F. They require high humidity to prevent shriveling. Continued storage at 45 causes them to sprout new tops and become woody.

Large and overmature root crops may become tough and stringy in storage. Small and immature root crops probably will shrivel.

Dig root crops when the soil is dry and the temperature consistently low. Prepare them immediately for storage. Cut the plant tops about a half inch above the crown. Beets will bleed unless 2 to 3 inches of the top is left. You may wash the roots if you let them dry again before storing. Do not expose them to drying winds, and be sure they are cool when put in storage.

Prevent bitterness in carrots by storing them away from fruits such as apples, which give off volatile gases while ripening.

Turnips and rutabagas give off odors, so don't store them in your basement. Find a separate spot, or store them with other root crops and vegetables in an outdoor cellar or pit. Turnips may be left in the garden longer than most other crops. They withstand hard frosts, but are damaged by alternate freezing and thawing. All other root crops can be stored together in your basement storage room.

Root crops keep their crispness longer when bedded in layers of moist sand, peat, or sphagnum moss. However, perforated polyethylene bags and box liners are easier to use than bedding. Root crops can be stored in crates or boxes in moist air, but they gradually lose moisture and quality unless polyethylene liners are used. Carrots and beets may be stored in 10-gallon crocks or any container that Will prevent excessive shriveling.

Quick dipping of dried and trimmed turnips, rutabagas, or parsnips in wax Will prevent shriveling. Float a layer of jelly-type paraffin on top of a kettleful of heated water which is deep enough to cover the vegetable. Dip room temperature vegetables quickly through the layer of wax.

For a thinner, harder wax film add a little salt and 10 to 20 percent clean beeswax.

Potatoes are the principal root crops you will probably store. Potatoes are eaten from the time they are of sufficient size for early use until storage time, and during storage when the vines have fully ripened.

If potatoes are harvested before maturity the skin may flake off easily. They are all right for immediate use, but not for storage. Immature potatoes shrink badly, bruise easily, and will not keep well very long.

For storage, potatoes should be allowed to mature and develop a thick skin. When the tops lie down the tubers should be mature enough for storage.

Dig potatoes carefully to avoid bruises, for better storage life.

Handle newly dug potatoes with care until the surface has dried or cured a few hours or more. You can keep them in baskets or slatted crates in single layers at first.

Store sound mature tubers in darkness at a minimum relative humidity of 95 percent and 45 to 48 F for highest quality. For very long storage keep at a temperature of 38 to 40 to prevent sprouting. The starch changes to sugar if potatoes are held below 45 . Potatoes may not show any external effect from exposure to these lower temperatures, but sometimes darkened tissue will be seen if the potato is cut and exposed to air.

Light causes considerable "greening" in potatoes. The green portion contains an undesirable substance that gives a bitter flavor.

Sweet potatoes that are well matured, carefully handled, properly cured, and stored at 55 to 60 F can be kept until April or May.

Sweet potatoes are easily bruised and cut. Handle them carefully and as little as possible. Put them directly in storage containers at harvest.

Cure freshly dug sweet potatoes by holding them about 10 days under moist conditions at 80 to 85 F. In the absence of better facilities, sweet potatoes can be cured near your furnace. To maintain high humidity during curing, stack storage crates and cover them with paper or heavy cloth. If the temperature near your furnace is between 65 and 75 , the curing period should last 2 to 3 weeks. After curing, move the crates to a cooler part of your basement or house where a temperature of about 55 to 60 can be maintained.

In houses without central heating, sweet potatoes can be kept behind a cookstove or around a warm chimney. If you keep sweet potatoes this way, wrap them in fireproof paper (to slow down temperature changes) and store them in boxes or barrels.

Sweet potatoes are subject to damage by chilling. Do not store them at 50 F or below.

Outdoor pits are not recommended for storing sweet potatoes, because dampness of the pits encourages decay.

Tomatoes

Even though the home canner has canned plenty of tomatoes, it may be desirable to keep some of the fresh fruit. Keep tomatoes in the garden as long as possible. You can protect against early fall frosts by covering the plants with burlap or old carpets in the evening when frost is predicted. Polyethylene may also be used but injury will occur wherever it touches the plant.

In the summer, tomatoes should be harvested when fully vine-ripened for best quality. Pick when the color is a dark red in red varieties. During fall when frost is likely, mature green fruit can be picked and it will develop a red color when kept in a fairly warm place. The fruit is in the "mature-green" state if the tissues are gelatinous or sticky when the tomato is cut and the tomato interior is yellowish. Immature green tomatoes don't ripen satisfactorily.

To check your judgment, cut a tomato in half that you feel is mature Green. If the pulp that fills the compartments is jelly-like, it is mature green. The seeds are dragged aside easily by the knife and not cut through. In immature green tomatoes, seeds are easily cut through and the jelly-like pulp has not yet developed. Usually you can recognize the mature green ones by their glossiness, less hairiness, and more whitish green color.

You can pick mature-green fruits and bury them in deep straw or place in a room where the temperature is 60 to 70 F. The tomatoes will ripen over a period of 3 or 4 weeks. Sunlight is not needed to ripen green-ripe tomatoes, so don't bother to put them on window sills. They ripen satisfactorily in the dark. Generally, tomatoes store best at 55 to 60 and ripen at 70 or room temperature.

You can wash the mature green fruits in a weak solution of household bleach and then wrap in paper to store and ripen.

Some people pull up the vines just before frost and hang them in the basement or garage to ripen their fruit.

Onions

Harvest onions for storage when the neck of the plant dries down, the tops have fallen over, and the roots are dry and have stopped growing from the stem plate. At that time the outer scales of the bulb are drying out and do not cling tightly (outer scales of yellow-skinned varieties change to a darker color).

Pull the onions by hand and lay in a windrow to cure with the tops placed over the bulbs to prevent sun-scald. onions may also be cured in an open shed. Remove onions with thick neck (seeders) before storage and discard all diseased bulbs.

After curing, place onions in open-slatted crates or burlap bags for further field curing or drying. Then place in storage. You may use either common storage or refrigerated storage.

Low temperatures in storage reduce shrinkage due to moisture loss and stop disease development. Keep the humidity as low as possible. Good management of ventilation is important. Ventilate storage early in the morning.

Onions held in cold storage should be placed there immediately after curing. A temperature of 32 F is ideal and will keep onions dormant and relatively free of rot. If sprouts grow it indicates too high a temperature, poor curing, or immature bulbs. If you have root growth the humidity is too high. The humidity should be 65 to 70 percent.

Do not store onions with produce that is likely to absorb the odor. Onions stand slight freezing, but do not handle or move them until they thaw. You can store onions in a dry, well ventilated attic or unheated room. Maintain as near 32 F as you can and keep as dry as possible. You can hang open-mesh bags, about half full, from overhead hooks or nails. Slatted half full crates of onions may be stacked on cross bars.