Carrot storage without hassle

Without proper storage conditions for carrots, it is invariably threatened by rapid wilting. An undesirable moment to be prevented is the germination of the leaves. Another problem that needs to be considered while storing carrots for the winter is the susceptibility of this root to various diseases. The most common of these are black, gray, white and dry rot.
The causative agent of black rot - an alternative fungus - can be found in soil residues and plant organics. Gray rot affects the carrot tissue in the form of a fluffy coating on its surface. This disease spreads quickly, passes from infected to healthy roots, transforming the storage of carrots into a real catastrophe.
Very dangerous is white rot or so-called sclerotinia. In addition to carrots, it can kill many other vegetables in the vault, softening root crops and covering them with white fluff, as well as mucus.
When affected by dry rot - phomosis - carrots cover dark brown spots, while it remains dry.
Thus, the storage of carrots requires certain conditions, which must ensure the availability throughout the year of whole, healthy, and, most importantly, beneficial roots.

Preparing carrots for storage
Before you send the carrots to storage, it should be sorted, discarding frozen or mechanically damaged root crops.
The water should be cut off so that there are no remaining buds capable of germination. Also it is recommended to cut off the tips, which are the most vulnerable to diseases.
You do not need to wash vegetables. After sorting, they are sprayed with a special solution or dusted with chalk. Then carrots should be well dried in a shady place.
It is enough to prepare carefully and the storehouse, which must be cleaned from the last year's garbage before packing, dried well, lazed with lime and sprinkled with formalin.
When sending carrots for storage, it is important to consider its compatibility with other crops. For example, carrots do not tolerate neighborhood with apples that produce ethylene, which worsens the taste of this root.

Ways of storing carrots
There are many options for storing carrots for the winter. In the cellars, it is remarkably resistant to storage by ordinary bulk, but there are other ways.
In a private house, if there is no cellar, carrots can be stored in a caisson, which is easy to make from a metal barrel, having dug it into the basement of the house. At the top, the caisson should be tightly closed with a lid to protect vegetables from mice. The lid must necessarily be made with a small hole for ventilation of vegetables, and from above to insulate with hay or other material.
It is very convenient to keep vegetables in the winter in boxes. To store carrots, you should take dense boxes, with a capacity of no more than 20 kg. Filling with carrots, they are placed on a stand on a raised platform.
Carrot storage at home is easiest to carry out with the help of polyethylene packaging, which creates the best regime for this root. You can buy ready-made bags, and you can weld them yourself with a soldering iron made of food polyethylene. The optimal size for such a bag will be about a meter in length and half a meter in width.

Variants of intercalation of carrots
Regardless of the chosen method of storing carrots, be it crates or polyethylene bags, or simply pour in a cellar, it must necessarily be sandwiched.
One of the most common methods is sanding. As a rule, carrots are placed in pyramids up to a meter in height outwards with heads. Roots are then poured with moist sand, as it dries, it should be slightly moistened, moistened from above and from the sides. The sand layer between the root crops should be no less than a centimeter to prevent them from touching each other. Also sand carrots in crates and bags.
Claying is another common option for the separation and protection of root crops. Keeping carrots in this way gives the least waste. Root for a few minutes lower in a clay solution consistency of sour cream and allow to dry. As a result, around them a kind of protective covers are obtained, not allowing carrots to wither and protect it from diseases. In such peculiar cases, carrots are placed in baskets or boxes.
For the purpose of interlayer carrots are also used coniferous sawdust. Turpentine, contained in conifers, has antiparasitic and disinfectant properties. Thus, carrots, sprinkled with sawdust of coniferous trees, will be much less susceptible to all sorts of diseases.

Finally
Carrot storage will be successful if you comply with the basic requirements, namely, to properly prepare the roots themselves and the place for their wintering, be sure to rearrange the carrots and determine the most convenient way for its storage.