This reminded me of something our Dad did when we were kids back around the mid-50s in the Kentucky mountains. He did it not so much because we had no other choice, but to teach us. That fall we had a lot of apples from an old orchard on the land we rented. He gathered us around out in a garden area and dug a fairly deep hole in a bowl shape. He lined it with clean straw and we began to layer the best apples in the straw until we had about a bushel of apples worked in. He covered them with another thick layer of straw, and then covered the straw with the dirt taken from the hole. Several months latter at Christmas time we went out and opened the apple bed. I still remember the smell of apples as we took them out. They were fragrant and fresh and crunchy. Precious memories... and delicious too. Thank you. Love your ideas and experiments.

@247KW

4 жыл бұрын

Loved this. Thank you for sharing your memory with all of us.

@pby1000

4 жыл бұрын

Awesome! I will try it.

@lazygardens

4 жыл бұрын

It's called a "clamp" ... you can do it with potatoes, carrots and turnips too.

@rebeccapettifer6553

3 жыл бұрын

@Russell Gerdes This makes me so sad. My uncle Sam was in WWI and they experimented he found out later with mustard gas on him and a bunch of his fellow soldiers. He was sick the rest of his life and he was just like your dad. Worked and worked in a garden and sold potatoes. It was the easiest for him to just plant with a lot of help from his many nephews and nieces. Then come harvest they all came and helped him dig them up and put them on hay wagons, picnic tables they all brought and the porch to dry out. It was the easiest crop for him to grow since they don't take a lot of work in between. He then would plant his home garden for him and Aunt Adena. Although instead of people coming to him for potatoes; he piled them in his wagon and delivered to people. In our small farming area all the people knew him and most didn't plant potatoes so he could have some money to live on. Its amazing how kind people can be. He was my favorite great uncle. He was a man of faith and kindness. He could have been bitter but he wasn't. I don't know if this will reach you after 2 years but I wanted to talk about Uncle Sam. Loved him so much.

@elmtree33

3 жыл бұрын

I also would like to thank your dad: he taught you this, you shared it, and now I've learned something new which could prove valuable to survival.

Be sure to put screens on the intake and outflow vents to prevent rodents and pest.

@kristenoberhauser8228

5 жыл бұрын

Exactly what WE forgot to do and now we have so many nice!@Mark OnTheBlueRidge

@judyhowell7075

5 жыл бұрын

My beds are deep so no weeds will come from bottom, covered and smothered with cardboard first after hardware cloth. I’m in panhandle of Fl and through some potatoes in ground temperatures about 50-60 currently and I have many heading up, I may get potatoes this late in year.

@pby1000

4 жыл бұрын

Great idea.

@pby1000

4 жыл бұрын

Mark OnTheBlueRidge Another great idea.

@altha-rf1et

3 жыл бұрын

@@judyhowell7075 Altha Fl here

To preserve some of your harvest, you may want to consider canning some of your potatoes. After peeling 10 pounds of them, cut into chunks about 1.5 to 2 inches square, roughly, then place in a large stock pot adding water to cover. Once the potatoes are heated through, but not cooked, ladle them into a warmed quart canning jar, add the hot liquid from the pot, seal with canning jar lids and rings and process in a pressure canner. See the Ball Blue Book for specific canning directions. The finished project nets you potatoes firm enough to slice and fry, yet soft enough that if they were reheated, they could be mashed and served. 10 pounds of potatoes fit into 7 quart jars which is exactly the number of quart jars that fit into most pressure canners. These poatoes will keep for a minimum of 5 years if kept in a cooler, dark place like your basement. There is more to know about the canning process than described here so read the directions in the named book above for more specific info, especially if you have never used a pressure canner before. The only great canner to own is the All American. It is the safest.

You don't need the fan! You simply need to rise the exhaust tube a off the ground couple of feet higher than the intake tube, and paint the exhaust tube black (it will turn into a solar chimney). Also, you can put a 3 inch layer of wet sand on the floor of the freezer, so it acts as an evaporative cooler (like a zeer pot). That will greatly boost the efficiency of your system.

@IowaKim

4 жыл бұрын

I was thinking that too, for the "chimney effect".

@ItAintMeBabe99

3 жыл бұрын

I also was going to suggest that, but you beat me to it. The higher the exhaust tube, the greater the flow.

My grandparents stored Apple's and potatoes buried in straw in a smallish, unheated shed. I have an unused bedroom where I set up shelves(that I already had), closed the vent and drapes and store pumpkins and squash. Potatoes and tomatoes in paper bags, plus all the canning. There is a window ac incase the winter sun heats up the room. This is the first time using this system and so far it's working great! It's all about being creative within your skill set!

@suzettecalleja3122

5 жыл бұрын

exactly

@susiearviso3032

5 жыл бұрын

ZZZzzzzz ..............

@rtjs14

3 жыл бұрын

@@susiearviso3032 that was mean, but it made me laugh. lol

@rtjs14

3 жыл бұрын

thank you for sharing

@geod3589

3 жыл бұрын

Probably one of the better ideas for those have no basement or storage shed.

I hate when videos waste my time BUT having just discovered your channel and watching a half dozen of your videos, I am very impressed!. No endless chatter and brevity to boot. You are a great teacher.... Very helpful. Thank you!

Tell you from Hungary. After one real farming season as a rooky, I used my rootcellar for potato, zucchini, pumpkin, betroot, melons. It is an old house and I try to keep it simple. Potatoes lay on the earthy floor. After weeks I came for a look and on top of the potatoes sat a toad. She did not move at all. She watched her food (isopods, woodlice) eating my food (potatoes). I like your title "back to reality", thats what I feel again and again.

@kvitravn6354

5 жыл бұрын

What part of Hungary, I was born in Budapest but raised in Rakoskereszten.

I really Like your experimental approach to learn :)

@grantquinones

5 жыл бұрын

Your name is so original haha

Wish I had you as a teacher when I was a kid, I would have got better marks! 😉Excellent video! 👍

Wow. I spent my entire life not understanding how root cellar ventilation worked. I had it wrong in my head all along. This was the simplest and best-explained example ever. I feel so dumb and much smarter now at the same time. Thanks!

Great idea. Thank you. Root cellars are named “root cellars” because they’re for storing root vegetables . . . not because they’re built underground. 😉 Edit: Watched this again. Really quite brilliant!

I think the freezer idea is genius!

@seanhenderson8870

5 жыл бұрын

You could skip the freezer and just make it any size, just using that stiff pink insulation.

so thorough and useful and without drama or distracting music. Thank you.

My family stored hundreds of pounds of potatoes in a ventilated, open bin in the basement. Never had a problem.

@judyhall2736

4 жыл бұрын

@Russell Gerdes That was very intreasting!!

@MFaith777

3 жыл бұрын

Depends on the house/basement/humidity/geography.

Florida here, I am using your idea about rolled over sod as planting beds, I just took it step further since I have moles. In layers, plastic ground cover, 1/4” hardware cloth, 3’x6’x2’ box, filled with compostables and turned the grass onto that, planted my garlic and covered with more grass/leaves clippings. Thanks so much for the great, in-depth details that you put into your videos. I’m a visual learner so it helps me a lot. Thanks again.

@judyhowell7075

5 жыл бұрын

Brandy Gallegos I’m in Florida too, raised beds with hardware cloth for the bottoms when we plant our next potatoes, moles, voles get ours

@plurmingo1

5 жыл бұрын

Judy Howell reason we (I) use the plastic ground cover is it’s good for weed barrier, plus I want to be able to pick up my soil (turn) without loosing it to the ground. The here burrow threw the roots and have destroyed so many flowers before I ever planted anything else.

This is the second video I've seen so far and I must say I love everything about your channel. The logo, the name, the presentation of the videos and the empirical nature of the experiments. Wishing you millions of subs!

Awesome presentation! The Children's tv network should hire you to teach the small children, life at the homestead by showing your videos. There's lot's to learn that they can apply in life. This will help our future generations get more healthy. I enjoyed watching, thank you. (P.S. Contact the children's tv people and tell them about this idea who knows how many kids you'd be able to help maybe millions...)

Watched your video on planting potatoes then this on storing them and absolutely enjoyed both. No nonsense and just down to facts. I'm 66 yrs old with a bit of commonsense and you woke up my rusty old brain and l learned something. Thanks a lot. Hope there will be more practical tips like this in future. God bless from South Africa.

Amazing little gem of a recommendation. Thank you KZread. Not sure how I ended up getting this recommended from watching an UK documentary on homelessness; I'm glad I did. I've been wondering about storing my potatoes in an unused crawl space within my basement (used to be the spot where a fuel tank was housed). It may be too cold as there is no insulation just bare block walls similar to what you'd find getting into a basement through an outside bulk head. In any event this has given me an idea that may resolve my storage issue. Thank you!!!!

Love how your initial idea was thoroughly explored and challenges addressed. Caution on the burlap, however. My extensive research shows majority of available burlap contains chemicals you might not want food to touch. A safe alternative is hemp matting…the kind sometimes used as a substrate for growing microgreens. It comes in sheets and rolls. I prefer the roll and cut as I need. Thicker than burlap, and, yes, a little pricey, but hemp matting has many uses, including outdoor gardens. And it’s reusable in many non-microgreen applications. Right now, hemp matting is laid out around my tomato and pepper plants… (I have a small garden)…doing a great job protecting the soil from drying out during our current scorching temperatures. I think the roughness of the hemp is also discouraging crawly creatures from getting near the plants. Win-win! Something to consider. Happy growing…and preserving!

One of the best things I've learned to 'keep' potatoes is to dehydrate them. 3 years ago I dehydrated sliced for scalloped, shredded for hashbrowns, cuts for fries, and mashed. 3 years later and the slicded and shredded are great, am going to try the fries and mashed over the next few weeks. I waited a while to see how they'd hold up for storage and flavor. So far so good. And if you're concerned about electrical costs, there are several videos on different solar dehydrators out there. ;)

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

Funny enough, we've been thinking about dehydrating some too! We have dehydrated many other veggies in the past, so we're already somewhat set up for it. I'd be really curious how the fries work out for you, so please let us know, once you try them :)

I liked learning about this experiment, because: -- It uses something that would otherwise be thrown away. Chest freezers of all sizes can be found for free. Instead of them becoming landfill material, you have developed a way to have a well-made insulated box at your service. -- It does not cost much money or work to convert the chest freezer into a mini-root cellar that will probably last for the rest of your life! -- Light will not shine on root vegetables every time you enter and use the basement. That matters a lot. -- It isolates stored root vegetables away from rodents, insects, and other pests -- It is likely to lengthen storage times before sprouting or rotting. This increases the number of both food potatoes and seed potatoes that you can use. That can be critically important if you only have a small amount of a great, but uncommon heirloom strain of potatoes that you want to increase by growing them for multiple years. -- It makes it easy to check the crates of potatoes for rot/sprouting -- There is no need to carry lots of bushels full of straw, sawdust, or dirt into a residential basement. They can be heavy (especially if they are filled with dirt or sand), they tend to make messes over time, and they encourage life forms to move in when they are left out in the open in crates of root vegetables. --This solution is easy to clean and disinfect, and that is SOOOO important when it comes to storing root vegetables. -- Humidity is more regulated than it would be in an open air storage system in a basement or shed. -- You can build them one at a time, try them out, and make improvements as you learn more about what works best for you. Well done! I've been a homesteader and gardener for many years. I like seeing your videos.

This is the most satisfying video I've watched in a long time. Great job!

Thank you. I live in Alaska and curently have the exact same conundrum and freezer idea as a solution. I am so very glad i watched your video first. Excellent execution on your part

This seems like a nice practical method for storing smaller items. We live in Ontario as well, and totally relate to the problem of things getting to cold in winter. For me the idea of a thermally controlled cold room makes sense. We have a heated basement, part of which has had the normal warm air duct closed off. This area is our food pantry where we also store canned and or packaged food, some of which is prepared for long-term storage. Our plan is to actually build a full cold room in a corner of the pantry area, vented with outside air. A solar powered fan, with automated valves will be used to maintain a constant temperature of +10C. during those parts of the year when it is cold enough outdoors.

I love the side by side experimentation. This kind of content is great. It helps everyone learn. Well produced video, too.

Planted 40 cloves of garlic and 30 seed potatoes into mulch I've been moving into the yard all fall. Thank you both for the inspiration. Its going to be a long winter with just some hydo lettuce and red wigglers to hold me over.

Nice video. I would pick away at digging a root cellar by hand or get a machine to do it. Looks like you have the land. Yes, it is super satisfying to grow and store 100's of pounds of potatoes on your own land. I store my potatoes and apples in the cool, damp and insulated basement on shallow plywood shelves lined with newspaper. I put my apples in large but shallow cardboard boxes on the insulated bench. I also store up to 500 units from 7 varieties of jam along with jars of peaches and tomatoes stacked on my heavy duty wall shelves. Works well. Thank you, I am going to try this method of potatoes production. Good work.

Try to run the fan on a potato battery, that's another experiment for you

@mariannewyles2501

5 жыл бұрын

Now that's creative thinking

@Draakdarkmaster6

5 жыл бұрын

plenty of potatoes for it, thats for sure

Here is a useful tip. If you want to preserve raw potatoes for a long time and you want to inhibit sprouting. Smoke them. Simply expose them to wood fire smoke for some time - about 1.5 - 2 hrs .... do not heat them - simply expose them to smoke. This will inhibit sprouting . This idea comes from the fact that potato farmers have noticed that forest/grass fires on or near their farms have inhibited sprouting in their seed potatoes.

This is the best explanation on root cellars I have seen. Thanks!

Your animations are so pleasant and enjoyable to watch, really great timing, never a lack of visual interest for my short squirrel attention span. And on top of that your hair is looking awesome in this video! Great job all around! (-:

Great idea and good execution. My comment is simply that keeping food in cellars is pretty forgiving. The temperature and light being most important. Few cellars are perfect and food tends to do fine if not left to years before being consumed. Controlling moisture accumulation is a big problem in underground situations and can cause mold. But your solution should work really well as the vent pipe lifts the potatoes above any moisture accumulation. Thanks for sharing the video.

Just found this channel today and in love already. These are really well produced videos! Reminds me of a professional DIY channel tv show but more genuine! Great graphics and great commentary

Kind of off subject but I'm using a broken freezer to store dry goods while I figure out a mouse problem. Works great. Also people don't think about the fact that you can paint appliances however you want. I've painted a sort of chevron on mine in black and I love it.

@alicel3992

4 жыл бұрын

V. Hansen, thanks for the ideas😀

@EllieChristine744

4 жыл бұрын

As far as the rodent problem is concerned, we live in an old house, and we had mice in every fall.. we did our best to cover up any and all openings larger than the width of a pencil... but could still hear them galloping around in the walls and sometimes they found a way in .... Then i bought several small bags of Ammonium Bicarbonate... if they smell this it gives them a really painful "sting" up their little noses... try it yourself, he he. I left some under the zinc, along the wall here and there... and even in the wall a couple of places before shutting it up.. I have heard no more running around, and no more mice. My son had the same experience when he tried it. As long as it is dry, the smell will linger on for a loooong while. Good luck!

I watched your carrot onion and radish experiment results and thought planting your carrots and onions together was very clever! I did think you might have gotten better results if you had worked the soil with a broadfork beforehand because they loosen the soil at greater depth without tilling.

Do nicely done! The thoroughness, the computer aided graphics, methodology and overall production, better than some network professionals. Watch out, you may be approached by HGTV!

2 years ago I saw your 337lb potato 🥔 haul. I just saw this video. I think it’s cool and functional. I think it was your channel and that video that gave me the confidence to start growing in my small backyard. And Derek, I greatly enjoy how you explain everything, I can follow it all the way through and the graphics are perfect. Keep up the great work. 👍🏼

Could you leave an open mason jar full of water in there, and let the water evaporate as needed? You could then look in and quickly top it off as needed.

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

That's a great idea. I'll give it a shot! Thanks!

Very well thought out! Thank you for the time, the video and the advice. I’ve been wanting a cold room for years, (I’m in Alberta,) but now I see I won’t have to go through all the trouble and expense. (I’m widowed and have a bad back, but love my garden!). I can try something similar to this! So many thanks to you brilliant individuals for such wonderful ideas! Bless you!

I have this same dilemma right now- I planned to have a walk in cooler for my cutflower & vegetable farm products by now, but my husband & I are still working on it... it may not be until next year... i thought about ising my crawl soace but I'm afriad that will freeze everything in the coldest part of winter. Thank you for thos awesome video- from the editing, to the "root cellar" build, to the experimenting woth the several different options...

We ate a lot of potatoes growing up. My dad purchased a house that had an amazing basement. Between food storage and tornadoes, Id say he did good. He had to build another room on upstairs every time a new baby was brought about! We ended up in a large house w/lots of mouths to feed! Gr8 video!!!

Great video and I so enjoy learning from you. I will never be one to utilize what you are sharing about root cellars but I do to refer others to your site. Have you and Paula thought about dehydrating some potatoes? I have a vacuum sealer that I can use with quart canning jars to remove air and seal jars for dehydrated veggies. I'm sure that this is probably "preaching to the choir", but you never know....someone may find this useful. Again, thanks for sharing with the rest of us!

Changing the subject for a moment, I found a different use for a defunct chest-type freezer: A vermicomposting bin. These freezers have a drain, so I elevated the freezer enough to collect the liquid run-off, then put some logs in the bottom, topped that with plastic fencing (with holes about 1.5" square), topped that with black garden fabric, and then with whatever compost was handy. In went some shredded autumn leaves, kitchen compost and red wiggler worms. But in cool weather, the worms aren't happy, so I added a 100W incandescent light bulb for heat -- which is plenty to keep the bin warm in freezing weather, even with the lid barely cracked to provide a bit of air for the worms.. That worked well, but the bulb burned out twice before I repurposed an old 4-socket photobar device with a "dim" setting in which the four lamps run in series -- at about half voltage. With 100W bulbs in each of the 4 sockets, this provides roughly 150W of heating. (If one bulb burns out, the other three will continue burning, providing heat.) Now, however, I was concerned about keeping the worms warm without overheating them. So I got an ebay $15 special, a 120V thermostat, mounted it in a weatherproof electrical box (maybe $10 more) and ever since the worms have been warm and toasty, through snow and rain and weather. I feed the worms mainly kitchen scraps, though I did add some clean scrap paper when I felt the compost was too damp, and added a half gallon of water when I felt it was too dry. Very little maintenance.

THANK YOU for this! I have all the materials already including a broken freezer of the same size! I had thought about this but wasn't sure how to make it work. I have a detached garage/work studio that I had replaced a window frame with plywood and an exhaust fan. There's room below the fan to set up 1.5" pvc intake and venting. I have a heat pump that I use to keep the place about 40 degrees unless I work in it, which shouldn't have the heat increased long enough long enough inside to affect the freezer contents, potatoes and perhaps a few sunchokes in case I can't pull those direct from the ground. Again, thanks for this practical solution!

We are new to homesteading...just moved in about 4 months ago, so we missed being able to do a fall/winter garden - 9 horses and 6 dogs (rescues) had to be taken care of first...so now, Feb. 6, 2019, we have built our greenhouse and also want to plant tons of potatoes, tomatoes, and onions just to name 3...we don't have a root cellar but we do have a shed on concrete with a new window a/c that may be able to work the magic you have shared...thanks!

Excited to hear the results!

Great video, I will show my husband and see if he can make one of these next year. We don't have a basement, probably can use our barn though, Thanks.

Great explanation of root cellars. Thank you

Wow as a child of the 1950s I remember my grandparents having a root cellar. A few potatoes I retrieved for cooking had some potatoes a green spots. My grandma would just cut the green spot off before cooking them. Thank you now I know why there’ were green spots. Awesome thank you for sharing this video, very informative and educational ,

Would suggest a cheep solar panel attached directly to a 4" fan, that way the fan runs itself and only pulls air out (and therefore cool air in) while its light outside, meaning you only pull in the relatively 'warm' winter air rather than the really cold night air. Great videos BTW.

@curtb.

5 жыл бұрын

Or use that PC fan you showed, very low amps, and would run only daytime on a small panel without a battery... Thanks for the great vid, learned a lot about root cellars from your comments! Thinking of digging one in a hill below the house one day.

@ml9517

5 жыл бұрын

@@curtb. Sorry, should have said a pc fan was the best option. The 4" size (100mm for the young folks out there!) should fit quite nicely on the end of the ducting. Or even be butt jointed between 2 pieces inside to avoid weather damage.

@curtb.

5 жыл бұрын

@@ml9517 yay! Good stuff...

Hey brother. I'm a homebrewer with a kezzer. I like how you crossed hobbies by using that design. I am currently attempting the box sand technic in my attached heated to 40F garage with beets, carrots and winter radishes. Can't wait to compare results.

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

I figure if the root cellar experiment fails, then maybe a beer keezer will be next ;) Please let us know how the sand storage works out for you. I have high hopes for that part of the experiment too!

Free-keeng brilliant! I clicked on this video thinking, "Neat idea. Maybe I could try it." Half way through, I was like, "Holy cow, there's no way I could do that!" You've explained it all very well, though (and I love the graphics). It's just beyond my skill level.....

I think this is one of the all-time best KZread videos I've seen!!!

neat little idea..my dad would love something like that. He loves having a fresh vegetable garden whenever he can even if it's a small one..largest one he had was when he had a full home back in the day and had a fairly sized garden..like two rows of corn, some tomatoes, various beans and of course taters. My dad and me don't get a long very much but I can respect his desire to try and be self reliant as possible whenever he can.

When I was a Kid I saw my Grandma Farm storage potatos in a hill. Was simple build with straws & sand. 3-4' Hole in the ground & layers was: sand on bottom, straws on top, potatoes on top & again straws, sand, potatoes, and again straws, sand & potatoes. Also was some spots mix w/mint branches between with the layers. All shelter was covered with thickly mount layer straw & sand on top the ground, maybe 4' High. Potato was dig out almost a year..

I think your idea is Great. I stored my last crop in an old seller which I turned into an indoor workshop. The problem was it was heated. I was not aware about moisture and air flow. So my taters sprouted and dried up. With your video I have learned A LOT. THANKS YOU FOR THAT. Around here (Spokane, WA.) I can find many non - working standup as well as chest freezers for free. I too don't have a dirt root cellar. So like you I'm going to barrow your idea,

I cannot wait to see the results from this experiment. Please keep us updated. Thanks

I just love your videos!!! You give tons and tons of pertinent useful information in a well articulated manner, very easy to understand with instructions, and you cover many questions that might be asked and show the processes of what you are doing and why and then the outcomes!!! And I love that you went with multiple possible storage methods and then to follow up with this outcome as well!!! Just super content, super camera work, super editing!!!! You guys are just awesome!!

Wisconsin and Ontario have very close to the same climate. You gave me some really good ideas for use on the other side of Lake Michigan.

Brilliant; love it! I've been trying to figure out how to store food in a condo in the southwest...no basement, no cold space anywhere but I do have a very efficient heat pump/air conditioner. However, it gets so hot here for at least 6 months a year, it probably wouldn't work to do this freezer conversion. But, I've archived it for future reference, should my living situation change.

Yes you will need a way to damper the cold air flow. We did a similar thing. In Wisconsin it gets pretty cold too. We added a ball valve on our pvc pipe. You can make a pretty awesome off grid fridge this way.

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

Ok, good to know. I suspect I will have the same problem. Thanks for the tip!

@bethaddis4377

5 жыл бұрын

Also adding a damp tile sponge will help with the moisture. I use it for root crops and chicken hatching

Great video. FWIW, I've driven a fan like the one you showed with a small solar panel, so you should be able to keep it off grid.

I like your fact/evidence based approach.

I love your approach to farming. I wish I knew all this thirty years ago, I would still be living on my farm now. I am loving watching your videos and they are so informative. Hopefully my grandchildren can use all this knowledge to be successful on their land and help supply me with fresh vegetables. Things are a little different here in Queensland Australia because our temperature is much higher all year round. I have four raised beds where I grow two crops a year of vegetables which are doing the job for now but I don’t grow potatoes or pumpkin which I would love to have.

Well done. Looking forward to results. Good or not so good. Something to learn from all.

My Ex's Father used to store his potatoes and onions in a 55 gallon drum buried under ground in his lawn shed, just a heavy steel lid and he did this for his whole life and no issues. The shed was just a tin shed for a lawn mower type deal about 8'x8' This was Wisconsin as well. And his mother used to grow potatoes in the basement of their old farm house, in old tires, lay out one tire, fill it with dirt, plant seed potatoes and wait, once the plants got about 2 foot tall, ad another tire, fill with dirt and repeat. at the end off the season you have to do nothing, but remove as needed.

Great idea and thanks for a detailed presentation. I have made a simple slatted wooden box and lined it with mosquito mesch. Plan to place layers of potatoes and carrots separated with brown/news paper. We live in a zone5/6 in Telemark, Norway. Our cellar stays fairly constant at 4°C. This will be our first attempt. A couple of years ago, a farmer friend gave us a bucket filled with potatoes. I then hung this temporarily from the basement ceiling and unfortunately forgot about it completely. Found it only mid spring and was surprised that it had grown shoots. That surely means they were OK during the whole of winter?

Hey man, me again. I stumbled across this and thought well that's pretty cool and I have been there and done that. I didn't use a freezer I used a refrigerator, top mount of course. Well I didn't have a basement, but I had an outside block building and the storm cellar. The storm cellar was too moist, but the refrigerator help part of that. The cool thing about the refrigerator is, haha didn't realize I've made a pun, but the refrigerator only has a single coil in the freezer compartment too run your freon through for your Cooling, so you can drill in that baby anywhere you want to as long as you don't do it up one side where the refrigerant lines pass grade up to the evaporator coil. It helps keep them pretty well. And mostly thing I harvest like potatoes and some onions a winter squash I can use the one in the block building because the temperatures in the winter drop down, just nothing like you have way up there! But hey, grab you an old fridge next time. It is tall, has two bins in the bottom, and wire racks all the way up. Good luck I'll be watching to see what happens!

I think an upright freezer or fridge might a better choice for your next root cellar, due to the ease of access to the contents and taking up less floor space. Most fridges are cooled via vents from the freezer section of the design. The upright freezers seem to use coils built into the shelves. Either way, they should be easier to drill into, and the vertical orientation aids in creating height difference for the intake and exhaust. If you want to avoid using a fan, consider using black painted galvanized duct as a solar chimney on the exhaust. A thermostatically controlled incandescent lightbulb,could be enough of a heater to keep the contents from freezing. I use one as chicken coop heater. The bulb is in a ceramic socket,tucked under a stone tile inside the hollow of a concrete block.

I just dry and set my potatoes in the sun when I harvest then put them in paper sacks in my garage on top of carpet and wrap an old duvet around the sacks. I then transfer them from one sack to another, checking the potatoes for any rot every 3 weeks or so, but we don't get very cold weather in Britain.

Looks good, but what a hassle. Here in the NW Florida panhandle, our house is a couple fee off grade. We harvest the spuds in May. I put a layer of pine straw under the house and lay the potatoes in a single layer. We eat them all the way through spring and plant the leftovers. It gets as hot here as it gets cold there, but the heat doesn't seem to hurt them, and the winters are mostly just coolish weather with a couple short freezes. Enjoyed the videos, especially the Ruth Stout garden.

This is a wonderful video! Extremely informative.

I love this! I have also seen one of those old steel soda fridges with the sliding doors on top transformed into a powerless freezer

Very interesting. If going again with the deep freeze method, maybe go with an upright freezer to get the height differential. Thanks for all the research and ideas.

To fix your moisture problem you could line the freezer with cork board like a humidor box for cigars. Hope this tip helps.

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

This tip is VERY helpful. Thanks!

Are you a teacher by profession? You teach so well! Also you need a tag line...I think. “FOR SCIENCE!!” Hahaha

Very excited to see how this progresses, I have thought of doing something similar. A thought I had for humidity (although I like your low tech sand solution): Get one of the low cost atomizers (ultrasonic vaporizers) like are used for aroma therapy, and plug it into a cheap humidistat inside the chest freezer.

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

I love that idea! If the sand doesn't work, then I'll give that a shot! Thanks!

Thank you for all the information. You explained everything so well. I think I can do this.

Looking forward to the results after your winter. I live between the two tropic lines and have been trying to work out a system for storage. I think I might take your idea and build a room in my shed with a working fridge built into the wall with the door taken off (so the cold part of the fridge is on the inside and the radiator is on the outside. I know that will cost me power as the fridge will probably be running full time just to get the room down to 10 or 15 degrees C. Maybe some solar panels, we have lots of sun all year round.

I love all the graphics, and you narrate like so many TV shows on HGTV! I'm really enjoying your videos!

Great idea. I'm growing a lot more potatoes than normal, but no where near your amount. I too am in Ontario so was trying to think of a way to store and I'll have to try something like this. Thanks.

Thanks for posting this video I have found it very helpful. This was our first year of growing potatoes and did it almost the same as you! Love the storage area you built. Definitely will be looking for a deep freezer to try this method.

well done informative video, clean simple approach, can't wait to see the results in spring

Save your best potatoes for next year's planting! Grampa said "Plant big, harvest big. Plant small, harvest small."

Just found your channel and subbed. Found your approach interesting and your delivery of subject matter quite pleasant and humorous 💕💕💕

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much Marilyn! What a wonderful comment! :)

Seems like your best bet is to build the little insulated room you mentioned. It's good you have an existing basement.

This seems so complicated!!! My grandparents just stored theirs in straw or sawdust in bushel baskets (LOTS of them!) put them in their dirt floor "root cellar" basement. No venting, temp watching, etc. just the old timey country way. They never had any probs.

@Andy81ish

5 жыл бұрын

It was explained that a 'Root Cellar' is the best way of doing it. But not everyone has a root cellar or can build one due to local conditions. What if you live on the side of a rocky mountain with only 0.5 m of soil over rock? or near the beach or a river with a water table that comes up to just below the surface and you have to grow in raised beds?

@norxgirl1

5 жыл бұрын

Tools and modifications above my skill level....but good info and ideas....

@suzettecalleja3122

5 жыл бұрын

but he doesn't live in those places.

Wish my husband was as handy as you. Love your videos.

This was super interesting Thanks! I also live in Ontario have have often contemplated rigging up some kind of fridge/unit to take advantage of our cold winter air. This was really intriguing!!!

In the UK it is traditional to build a potato clamp which is a layer of straw with the air dried potatoes on it covered in another layer of straw a drain pipe section is laid flat at one end and another is stood upright with a small cover (like a chimney cover) then the whole lot is covered with earth then you uncover it bit by bit to get your potatoes out.... Of course we don't freeze quite as solid as Canada!

I always wondered how to keep potatoes long term in the city . This is a great idea. Very well explained. Thank you

Great idea! I have a broken upright refrigerator to use ... might just shift it into chest freezer position.

Very clever design. Thanks for sharing it.

Cool experiment. Perhaps also check into dehydrating your potatoes, veggies, etc. I'm sure you can DIY a dehydrating system too. Good job! 😊

@BackToReality

5 жыл бұрын

We've added dehydrating to our to-do list for the next few weeks ;) Thanks for the suggestion!

LOVE the idea AND that you are also checking out other types of storage to find out which is best in YOUR situation.

I love this idea. I would consider making the collar taller to improve ventilation and then just the vent closing /opening apparatus.

LOL! Okay, some people are just naturally, gifted. The thing was bloody perfect. Mine - if I were foolish enough to try - would have resembled a pipe organ that had been dropped down flight of stairs. Do hope you keep us updated - I wanna know how those 'taters are doing. Ps. As of this writing, there are 22 thumbs down. WTF!? The 'root cellar' is perfect? So is the video. (ahem, okay, okay, he neglected to specify what temperature would be best for the potatoes, but the rest is perfect!). C'mon people!!

That was a great DIY man. Great video

@BackToReality

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks 👍 Glad you liked it!

The reduction from 4" to 2" on the cold vent will also help with the vacuum effect as the same volume of air won't come in as quick as the hot goes out unless it goes faster.

@susanlaplante7170

4 жыл бұрын

Robert Boyle, Daniel Bernoulli, and Giovanni Venturi would be very proud of you. ;-)