Note to car enthusiasts: how to store potatoes in the garage in the cellar and without it?

How to store potatoes in the garage

Perhaps potatoes can be called the main food for a person, so everyone tries to stock up on them for the winter. This rather fastidious vegetable contains a large amount of water and starch, so it is sensitive to storage conditions.

We will look at how to store potatoes in the garage in this article. After all, they are trying to equip this very room with a cellar or basement for storing food.

You can also look at photos and videos on this issue and choose the most appropriate option.

Advantages and disadvantages of a garage

• suitable temperature;
• lack of direct sunlight;
• humidity (if the air is dry, as is often the case at home, the tubers will lose moisture and, accordingly, their taste).

If storage standards are not observed, the advantages can easily turn into disadvantages:

• as the temperature rises, the tubers will begin to germinate;
• when it falls below normal, they will freeze and become sweet;
• If there is too much moisture, the potatoes will rot.

Tips and tricks

Experienced summer residents share useful information on online forums - we’ll share with you some nuances:

1. Elevated temperatures are no less harmful when storing potatoes than frosts. Heat coupled with dry air causes dried out and flabby vegetables.
2. Storing different vegetables in one tray is not the best idea. But the proximity of beets and potatoes will bring a positive result, because... the beets will absorb excess moisture, improving the keeping quality of potato tubers.

Storage in a garage without a cellar and with a cellar: what is the difference?

Fully recessed storage facilities are optimal for storing crops. After all, the temperature in the garage cellar is more constant throughout the year.

• No costs for the construction of additional structures.
• There is no direct sunlight, which means that the tubers will not produce solanine, a toxic substance chemically equal to steroids.

There are also disadvantages:

• Before placing potatoes in the cellar, they must be carefully sorted and dried.
• If your cellar is not equipped with a temperature sensor, then it will be impossible to adjust the temperature.

Types of potatoes for storage

High humidity, cold and heat are the main reasons why root crops can rot.

Experts say that almost all varieties of potatoes can be stored, but the timing will be different for everyone:

• Early and mid-season varieties (Housewife, Aurora, Pirol) cannot be stored for too long; their shelf life is from three to six months;
• Late as well as mid-late varieties (Slavyanka, Kolobok, Atlant, Chaika, Zdabytak, Scarlet) can last until spring.

Attention: Before sending potatoes to the garage cellar for storage, you need to prepare all the tubers for storage.

To do this you need:

• First, do not forget to dry the potatoes in the fresh air, and then place them in the sun for several hours. Ultraviolet rays will destroy all pathogens and promote long-term storage;
• The entire harvest must be sorted most carefully. In this case, damaged tubers should be removed and sorted by size. Medium-sized root vegetables can be stored.

A variety of species provides an increased percentage of crop storage.

The following are considered optimal conditions:

• Maintaining the temperature in the room where the tubers will be stored is from plus two to plus four. In this case, the potatoes will not take root and freeze;
• Air humidity should not be more than seventy to eighty-five percent. Increased humidity will lead to the growth of fungi (see Fungus has appeared in the garage. How to get rid of fungus), as well as the formation of mold. To do this, the bottom of the cellar must be covered with crushed stone or pebbles;
• Lack of light (in the light, solanine begins to be produced in potato tubers, after which they can no longer be eaten).

Attention: If these parameters are not followed, it will cause spoilage and sprouting. If the room temperature is more than seven degrees, the potatoes will begin to germinate. When it drops to zero, the starch in the tubers will turn into sugar. At sub-zero levels, freezing and unsuitability occur.

How to store

Here are the conditions that must exist here for wintering of potatoes to be possible:

• Ideally, you need to know where the groundwater flows - the bottom of the storage facility should be two meters away from it.
• The most favorable temperature for storing potatoes is from +2 to +4 degrees.
• Air humidity is no more than 85% percent.
• Lack of light.

There are several ways to organize the storage of tubers in the garage; let’s consider them in order. By the way, read our article on how to store potatoes in an apartment.

This is a popular option, which is a long mound of potatoes, which is fenced on the sides with boards. The following are laid out layer by layer on top:

• straw 60–80 cm;
• ground 45–70 cm;
• heat-insulating material.

For ventilation purposes, a vertical pipe is installed, and grooves are dug around to remove moisture. Such storage is considered temporary, and can be seen in naturally ventilated garages.

Cellar

To make it suitable for storing vegetables, the following should be taken into account when equipping it:

• if soil moisture is low, the walls are made of brick;
• if, on the contrary, it is high, preference is given to concrete walls with waterproofing;
• the floor consists of three layers: crushed stone, bitumen and concrete mixture;
• for moisture insulation, the walls are covered with lime;
• the ceiling is sloped towards the hood to prevent condensation from settling;
• lighting should be low voltage.

You can store potatoes directly in the garage basement in bags, boxes (wooden or plastic) or nets.

Boxes

They should not be “deaf”; a distance of 3 cm is maintained between the slats for ventilation. A gap of 20 cm is required from the floor of the room to the bottom of the box, and 30 cm from the wall to the box. This will ensure better ventilation. The distance between the boxes themselves is 10 cm.

Thermal box

Using the built-in thermostat, you can set and maintain the desired temperature regardless of weather conditions. You can purchase this design or make it yourself:

1. Make two boxes of different sizes from wood.
2. Place one inside the other, and put about 10 cm of thermal insulation between them.
3. Lay strips of film heated floor on the bottom; they are synchronized with a thermostat, which is attached to the outer side of the box.

Nets or bags

Storage in nets is the simplest and most common option. Air circulates freely between the tubers, so the potatoes do not become moldy.

Equally often, tubers are stored in bags. Here, air also penetrates well inside, and in addition, the burlap itself performs a heat-protective function. The bags are placed on a wooden rack or on a pallet, lying down or in a circle, no more than five rows up (up to three meters). The top is covered with straw.

Alternative methods

If you don’t have a garage or the ability to place potatoes in it, take note of other options for long-term storage of vegetables.

On the balcony

To do this, you can build a storage box yourself. It is insulated with polystyrene foam and foil for better thermal insulation. The bottom of the container is raised from the floor, thereby creating an air cushion and avoiding hypothermia.

If the loggia is not insulated, for more efficient harvest storage it is better to use a chamber with additional heating. It is easy to assemble from two boxes, one of which is smaller than the other and fits inside it. The air cushion between them is sealed with polystyrene foam or construction foam, and the pallet with polystyrene foam, sawdust, rags, and cardboard. Such a box is heated using electric light bulbs - the light in the container is turned on for 4-5 hours a day.

On a note

An old refrigerator is suitable for wintering potatoes, and it is not necessary to plug it into the network. By itself, it already performs the function of a thermally insulated box.

In the apartment

Here storage should be organized in the coolest places - near the balcony door or windows. The tubers are placed in bags made of coarse fabric that allows air to pass through well. Straw or beets are placed on top so that they absorb excess moisture and the potatoes do not rot.

If there are no cool places, then a closet or hallway will do. The tuber cannot be stored in a warm place for a long time, so it is placed in a plastic container with holes for ventilation. Place a damp cloth inside so that the vegetable does not dry out and become limp. Only small volumes of potatoes can be stored this way.

Cellar in the garage: what can you store?

If the cellar is made correctly: using heat and waterproofing materials, with forced or natural ventilation installed in it, with the construction of special shelves for storing food, then it can be stored in good condition until the end of spring as canned goods in jars and other containers and fresh vegetables: carrots, potatoes, beets, cabbage, etc.

In this case, not only the conditions created in the room are taken into account, but also the requirements for food storage . The lids should tightly close the jars, the potatoes should be placed in boxes with holes (if they are dry, they rot less), apples and large ranetkas should be wrapped in parchment paper, etc.

What does a cellar look like in a garage - photo:

Advantages

It makes sense to build a basement if the garage space is owned and expected to be used for many years. What are the advantages of a cellar in the garage?

1. It is under lock and key. To get supplies for the winter, you first need to get into the garage. Therefore, “raids” of dubious individuals are excluded.
2. The vegetable pit is located directly under the garage in a warm zone , so the cost of thermal insulation is minimal.
3. Winter preparations and vegetables are close , just a stone's throw away. There is no need to go somewhere far to your summer cottage or dig out snowdrifts to provide access to the basement.
4. The entrance to the cellar can be made directly from the inspection hole. Thus, 2 problems are solved: the workpieces are in the right place, and you can easily repair the car.
5. With its compact size, such a room can become a storage facility for a large number of products .
6. Since there is no need for a room for storing food supplies, the cellar can be easily converted into a workshop or storage room for things .

See the photo below for an example of a vegetable pit in the garage :

in excellent condition until late spring . But it is worth paying special attention to ventilation . Natural, usually consisting of 2 pipes, one of which is installed above the floor level, and the second above the ceiling, does not always save the situation. It would be better if these were modular systems controlled by a mini-computer. Then the conditions in the basement can be controlled artificially .

How to prepare a garage for storage

Before sending potatoes for storage, you need to treat the room. In addition to the usual cleaning of litter and dirt, it involves the use of lime whitewash:

• 150 g table salt;
• 2 kg of slaked lime;
• 1 kg of copper sulfate;
• 10 liters of water.

A pre-prepared mixture is used to whiten the walls of the cellar or the area inside the garage reserved for harvest storage.

Reference. Whitewashing will prevent the possible spread of mold.

The second important point is the ventilation system. It needs to be cleaned and the operation of the exhaust system checked. Before directly planting potatoes, the room must be thoroughly ventilated.

Arranging a basement in a garage

Not everyone knows how to properly store potatoes in the basement or garage. In order for it to be suitable for storing vegetables, it must be properly equipped:

1. If the soil moisture is low, the walls can be built of brick, but for high humidity, concrete walls with waterproofing are more suitable.
2. Ideally, the floor should consist of three layers: crushed stone, bitumen and concrete mixture. This will provide the necessary drainage and air capacity.
3. For disinfection purposes, the walls are covered with lime.
4. To prevent condensation from settling on the ceiling, the upper plane should be tilted towards the hood.
5. Because Bright light has a detrimental effect on the keeping quality of potatoes; it is better to give preference to low-voltage lighting.

When equipping a cellar in a garage, you need to know where the groundwater passes - to avoid moisture seepage, the bottom of the storage facility is located no closer than 2 m from them.

Arranging a garage without a basement

If the garage does not have a basement, this is not a reason to be upset. By properly organizing the space for storing crops, you can use almost any free space for these purposes:

1. The garage should provide the possibility of thermoregulation, because... severe frosts or, on the contrary, elevated air temperatures can ruin the harvest. For this purpose, thermometers and heaters are installed.
2. The tubers are covered with breathable material (straw, burlap, etc.). On the one hand, this will protect vegetables from light, on the other hand, it will serve as additional heat and moisture insulation.
3. If possible, potato trays should be raised above floor level. As a last resort, make a thick base of straw, newspaper, earth and heat-insulating material.

Like the cellar, the garage must be cleaned, ventilated and dried before use, and then treated with a disinfectant.

Arrangement of the cellar

Shelving can be located along the entire wall (as a rule, in this case they are not portable) or occupy only part of the space near it (we are talking about non-bulky portable structures).

The floor in the cellar should be 25-30 cm higher than the bottom of the pit. This allows you to build a sand “cushion” and cover the base of the floor with waterproofing material (mainly 2 layers of roofing felt are used, the sheets of which are glued together with molten bitumen). This way, the floor will be protected from underground water entering the cellar , and the vegetables will remain dry.

What is it intended for and what characteristics should it have?

Fruit and vegetable products purchased or grown by yourself must be stored somewhere in the winter. Refrigerators are used to store winter preparations and fresh vegetables in small quantities. However, the refrigerator will not fit a bag of potatoes and several boxes of garlic and onions. Therefore, you have to independently build a special room where you can place the twists with vegetables. The microclimate in such cellars allows you to keep the crop fresh for 4-5 months.

Sizing

Before equipping your garage space with a vegetable pit, you need to decide on its size.

When determining the area of ​​the cellar, the thickness of the base and walls is taken into account. Also, when calculating the optimal area, it is taken into account that the size of the room for storing vegetables should be comfortable for the person inside. Therefore, experts advise digging a pit, the width of which will be 70-80 centimeters.

This is enough for a person to move around the cellar without problems. However, in large garages that are designed for trucks, the pit can be made larger.

Since the pit should be located under the garage, its length directly depends on the length of the garage space, as well as on the number of products that will be stored in it. For example, if a cellar is built for a small amount of pickling, then its length can be 2-3 meters.

The minimum depth of the cellar for storing pickles is one and a half meters. However, if the owner of the premises is too tall, they dig a pit 160-170 centimeters deep.

Preparing the storage area

Most often, basements and cellars are used to store this crop. As a last resort, an underground or pantry is suitable (and only assertive people, with great desire and opportunity, allocate a place for potatoes on the balcony or at home). Vegetable storage must be properly prepared for the winter. First of all, it is thoroughly cleaned. To disinfect walls and ceilings, we use a solution of lime or an aqueous mixture of lime and copper sulfate. These substances perfectly protect against the development of pathogenic microorganisms. In some cases, gardeners and summer residents fumigate their premises with sulfur, but in recent years this method of disinfecting storage facilities has been used less and less, since it requires long-term ventilation of the premises.

We treat shelves, racks, drawers, panels, stairs, hoods, vents 2-3 times with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate. After this, ventilate the room well so that all surfaces are completely dry. The storage must be well thermally and waterproofed.

Folk tricks

Experienced summer residents often use folk methods of preserving potatoes. This is a well-known folk method in which the leaves and grass of plants containing phytoncides are placed in a room with tubers. They suppress the growth and development of pathogenic microorganisms. These include fern, rowan, tansy, basil, peppermint, horseradish, and wormwood. You can also place branches of coniferous trees in the storage area with vegetables. Sprinkling the tubers with dry onion peels also prevents the development of pathogenic fungi and bacteria.

Necessary tools and materials for arrangement

Before arranging the cellar under the garage, prepare the necessary materials and tools.

Among the tools that will be used during construction work are the following:

• Bayonet shovel. Used to dig a pit in which the cellar will be built.
• Shovel Used to clean a dug pit from excess soil.
• Hacksaw. An indispensable tool used for sawing wood beams from which the basement walls will be sheathed during insulation.
• Fastening components. To fasten wooden and metal structural elements, nails and screws are used.

You will also need the following materials:

• bricks for creating walls;
• cement mortar;
• insulating materials that will protect the cellar from freezing;
• iron corners;
• wooden beams.

How to design a vegetable pit in the garage with your own hands

To build a vegetable pit correctly, you will have to understand the main stages of construction.

We build a hole

The cellar begins to be created by digging a pit in which a basement will be built for storing vegetables and preserves. After this, the floor is arranged. To make the floor covering reliable, it is made of several layers. First, the bottom is covered with a small layer of crushed stone, which is compacted with a vibrating plate. Then the compacted crushed stone is covered with construction sand and filled with concrete.

When the flooring has hardened, the walls are finished. A solid brick that is resistant to high humidity is suitable for this. The walls are laid out in such a way that the seams of each subsequent row of bricks do not coincide with the previous one.

After creating the walls, a reliable ceiling is created that can withstand any load. When making a ceiling, boards are laid at the top of the pit, on which reinforcement is laid and concrete is poured. Having finished with the ceiling, you can make a staircase, which is installed near the entrance inside.

Drainage

Before using the vegetable pit, dry the room so that the walls, ceiling and floor are completely dry. There are several methods that help dry out the cellar:

• Place a metal bucket in the center of the basement, fill it with firewood and build a fire. When using this method, you will have to maintain the fire for an hour and a half.
• Place a metal pipe outside and place a burning candle underneath it, which will provide natural draft.

Waterproofing

Sometimes vegetable pits are made in areas with high groundwater levels, which increase humidity. In this case, you need to install waterproofing inside the basement, which will help keep the humidity level within normal limits.

Experienced builders advise taking care of waterproofing at the stage of creating walls and floors. To protect against high humidity, special waterproofing compounds are added to the concrete mixture, which close all cavities in the concrete.

Choice of insulation

To maintain the optimal temperature inside the cellar, additional thermal insulation will be needed. The selected thermal insulation material must have the following properties:

• environmental friendliness;
• chemical safety;
• reliability;
• protection from moisture.

To insulate storage for vegetables, use polystyrene foam or polystyrene foam.

Ventilation opening design

Any cellar must have ventilation, since it is responsible for the circulation of oxygen inside. When organizing a ventilation system, they install supply and exhaust pipes. The supply air is located near the floor, and the exhaust is led out through the roof.

How to make a box yourself

Well, here we come to the question of how to make a potato box with your own hands. In fact, constructing a box is not difficult. Moreover, even a beginner with a minimal understanding of the carpentry industry can cope with the task.

To make containers with your own hands, you will need the following:

• prepare timber for the frame base measuring 50 by 30 cm;
• purchase plywood sheets for sheathing;
• improvised tools for installation of all parts.

First, a frame base is made from beams. Then we proceed to covering with plywood sheets. The sheathing must be carried out in such a way as to leave small gaps between the timber and the sheet for ventilation of vegetables in the future.

It would be useful to remind you that it is advisable to use pine needles. Such material protects the crop well and protects it from damage.

It is worth noting that this design is suitable if the winter location of the fruit is the kitchen. But when planning to install the product in cold conditions, additional thermal insulation should be provided. Foam plastic or any other similar material is suitable for these purposes.

To store vegetables in apartment conditions in the absence of glazing, you will need to knock down two boxes and install them as described above. In this case, you will need to line the bottom of a larger container with a 10 cm layer of sawdust. Sawdust retains heat well and absorbs condensation released by potatoes. And it is advisable to fill the sides of the resulting connector with any available heat insulator.

And lastly, when the storage container is ready, do not forget to make a lid. It is desirable that it fits tightly to the walls of the structure and thus does not allow cold air to pass through. This will allow you to store the harvested crop at home without loss, even if it is an apartment.

We suggest you familiarize yourself with Storing wine in the refrigerator