Storing Veg

[littlegreenman]

Im still pretty new at this, and i still have some carrots and parsnips in the ground, and have been told that i should dig them up now. Can someone please tell me how best to store them, cheers.

[Sue]

LGM
Hi, don't know about parsnips but depends on your carrot variety, I still have plenty of carrots in tubs, autumn king which can be left in the ground over winter - or so I've read.
Sue

[rustylady]

A lot depends on where you live, Littlegreenman. I garden in East Anglia and never lift my root crops for storage. Leave them where they are and use as you need them, unless you need the space. Both are hardy and won't suffer from frost (although it will make it difficult to lift them if the ground is frozen).

[Janco]

I always leave all mine in the ground and dig them as and when required.

[Snadger]

I never leave them in the ground..........but this year I'm going to give it a try.
A touch of frost is said to improve parsnips flavour anyway, but not sure about carrots!
The only problem I expect to encounter is slugs and other creepy crawlies making a meal of them...but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained!

[moggssue]

I have it on very good authority that the flavour of parsnips is greatly improved by a frost - something about the cold turning the starch to sugar - so I'd definitely leave those in the ground, I know I am! Not sure about carrots though, sure someone will be along to help shortly!

[dasantillo]

I have also heard that parsnips are better after frost, but ours are tasting fantastic now so I don't know how they can be improved! We had a light air frost a few weeks ago but I don't think that counts.

We've had carrots rot in the ground right next to parsnips that are prefectly OK. I think carrots can be stored in moist sand? Not sure about that. I've definitely read that parsnips store in the ground over winter.

[littlegreenman]

Thanks guys, like i said i am pretty new to this, and its just i have heard that you should dig them up, but to be honest the temperature hasnt dropped to much, but should i be worried that the soil is pretty damp, will that cause rot at all.

[vegnut]

You could always put a couple of inches of straw over them. Just in case.

[littlegreenman]

Cheers vegnut

[Cutecumber]

How about digging some and leaving some?

I have some Autumn King carrots in a very large container which are still growing strongly. It's the first time I've tried to grow large carrots to maturity but all seems well so far. They appear to be bulking up still so I will be leaving them as long as possible (i.e. until my itchy fingers get the better of me!!). I plan to top them up with some compost.

[Paulottie]

In my experience carrots don't do as well as Parsnips in the ground. It seems that once there is little else about, every slug etc in the district feasts on them. Often in Winter they are frozen in, or you must go out to the lottie in sideways rain.

Much more convenient is to store them in sand, Use either a dustbin or wooden boxes with dryish sand, fly free topped carrots, and try not to let them touch. They will store for months in a cool place. If you've got lots you might build a clamp...although, my neighbour tried this and there seemed quite a lot of carrot fly in there. Possibly depends on quality of imput harvest?

[littlegreenman]

Cheers, havent got huge stock left, but still enough left to last into New Year, so didnt want them to go to waste.