Trashcan Root Cellar
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- It's Week 27 in the garden and in this video I show you how I plant on storing my root crop harvest this. I'm making a trashcan root cellar. I'll show you step by step what I how I created this easy redneck version of a more expansive -- and expensive -- version.
I'm in Zone 7a in northeast New Jersey, but you can do this, too. You'll see just how easy it is to grow supermarket produce in your own backyard!
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• Trashcan Root Cellar
This is such a great idea. It might be cool to maybe drop a tall laundry or wicker basket in there so that you can use the handles to pull up everything whenever needed.
That is a great idea! I'm definitely doing that this year. Thanks!
That’s what I was thinking! It’s not easy to kneel and reach arm length into the can!
That's a great idea!
What I like about this video is it gives the before and after. Most garden videos are filmed running and never give you the outcome. It's a big time investment but makes a much more useful video.
Thanks! I very much agree. Too often I feel we're left hanging as to the outcome and whether whatever we've just watched is actually useful.Cheers!
A family I knew in the Pacific NW planted potatoes and when the green grew through to the top they placed an old tire over the plant & mounded soil over the leaves. When the leaves again grew through the soil another tire was placed on the 1st tire, and so on until there were 6-8 tires stacked. At Thanksgiving they took me out & had me reach in and dig the number of potatoes needed for the meal. Amazing, and minimal ground area used.
I made wood collars that stacked on top of one another one year. I didn’t notice any difference. Just as with my buckets all the potatoes were clustered around the roots. But maybe it’s the varieties I’ve grown
Very clever 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I've seen a similar technique with grow bags. Put enough soil to start the plant, when it gets to a certain height add more soil up to the 1st leaves i think. Repeat. As the plant grows it will create layers of potatoes. I think their results were so so.
This works only with indeterminate potatoes. I've tried it. I built a potato tower and used the wrong potatoes, Yukon Golds. I'll try with Russet potatoes next year.
Great video... Thank you. We love our home grown potatoes here in north of Ireland but have only had enough to storesome in rates in the potting shed. I vaguely remember my daddy and older brother building a clamp of potatoes outside after halloween to save them for use throughout the winter. They put down a good base of dry rushes and straw piled the potatoes on top and happed them up with more dry rushes and straw covered with a deep layer of soil all over the top. Lastly they covered the entire mound with a generous blanket of rushes and weighted it all down with ropes and old tyres and posts. The potatoes were good to eat until the earliest of the new potatoes could be lifted about May.
Thank you for the clear explanation of how to do it 😊
I'm in Zone 7A in NE TN. I harvest whatever I can, but noticed that if I accidentally leave tiny potatoes in the ground, they come up the next year and I have potatoes again. This year I'm making a whole bed of nothing but potatoes with the intent of deliberately leaving some in the ground to see what happens next year. Stay tuned! 😸
I suspect that the garbage can method would probably work better for folks in Zones 6 and below.
You’re probably right. My potatoes survived the ai tree in the root cellar. They mostly remained firm but they did sprout much more than I anticipated.
I know back in the day they used to store potatoes in a clamp, a dirt mound they would cover with straw for the winter and dig them up in the spring. So leaving them in the ground would probably work.
With that said, I had a potato sprout on my last fall that I accidentally left in the ground. I left it there for the winter and it never regrew. However, 3 other potatoes that I didn’t know about and they resprouted this spring and are growing. So you have a good chance of getting potatoes next year
Great idea! I would probably cover the top with an insect net before covering with the lid to help prevent insects. The straw you pull out will be good compost next spring. I'm not sure, i live in the south, so the ground may be too warm here.
I'd guess it probably is too warm. But you do have the benefit of growing things that we can't do up north. And I did use the straw last year as mulch in the garden and let it compost into the soil. The lid is pretty tight, so I'm not too worried about insects, but I added a vent to the top to try and control moisture and covered the opening with some screening material to stop bugs and other unwanted pests from getting in.
If you go to a rental place and rent a two-man auger, you can get that done pretty dang fast and you could do several holes in the day that you have the auger. The auger is about $125 a day. We rented one for some solid tubes for fence posts. I believe it was a 12 inch auger. They probably make them bigger to rent a.
First time here at your ch.😊 Love to see how to grow stuff ? Your family is blessed to have you..😊
Thank you. I keep telling my family that. They seem dubious :)
You have to get the potatoes sprouting eyes to replant them. We've done it and it worked out fine.
Awesome! That should work out fine this year then :)
Thank you so much for sharing. I have recently been toying with the idea of using large enclosed ceramic vessels as in-ground root cellars. Metal may be the way to go instead.
Did you say you are in zone 7A? I'm in 7B/8A and when I dig potatoes, I pick the best one and toss it back in the hole, cover & let it overwinter. It almost always grows the next growing season. Another way you can propagate potatoes is to put them in a warm location on a bed of straw. Give them 12 to 15 hours of light daily. They will pop out eyes. When the eyes are close to an inch long you can pop the eye off and set it in a little pot of soil. It will root and make you a new potato plant. I have gotten as many as 60 eyes off one potato. That is some super propagation! I usually put 8 or 10 potatoes on the bed of straw and get a lot of plants to set out around the middle of March.
Thanks for the demo!
Your welcome. Thanks for watching
Try screened holes for ventilation. Avoid mold moisture.
I’ve seen some people using a pvc elbow on the lid for ventilation but others didn’t so I wasn’t sure it was really necessary. Thanks. I’ll try it this year
It will❤
I layered fresh onions with straw in a banana box and they lasted for months
Wow !!.. Quite amazing!!
😊
Thanks for the idea..
You’re welcome!
Will this work in Phoenix Arizona? You know how hot it gets here, but the winters are very good it does not snow
@@charlesw.5900 I’ve been told it’s not appropriate for Florida because of the mild winters and I imagine it would be doubly so for you
Maybe fill the inside of the lid with spray foam to insulate the lid ?
That's a good idea. I just might do that
Thats a great idea! Im betting the moisture in there was condensation raining from the lid.
Great Video. Definitely need to make me one of those root cellars. I've only been growing potatoes now for about 4 years. This year something eat all the leaves off my plants. Had to harvest early and didn't get potatoes as big as I'd like. Any idea how to stop that in the future? Do I need to cover them at night?
My potatoes have been a bit of a disappointment this year too. Less than half of what I was anticipating based on what I've grown before. I've seen a number of gardeners report similar low yields (and a few reporting bumper crops). Maybe it's a weather thing. As for whatever's eating your leaves, I only saw signs of that at the very end of the plants life so I wasn't too concerned about it. If you have insect netting, covering the plants could certainly help
Did you remove the taproot from the beets, turnips and rutabagas prior to storing them in the can or is that a new root? Maybe they wouldn’t have grown again had the taproot been removed? Just curious. Great idea either way.
Would sand work? I’ve heard of storing carrots in sand.
I’ve heard that too. Damp )not wet) sand is supposed to help carrots store for a long time. I’m planning on growing an excess amount of carrots this year and will be trying that method
I have had potatoes running for months at a time. If you accidentally miss one, you're going to start a new crop. But I'm in Texas.
That year-round growing climate could make a difference, at least in being able to get a harvest out of the plant. I guess the best way to know is for me to just try it. Take a potato I've dug up and stick it in the ground again and see what happens.
Where will you keep all the potatoes after they cured? Do you think you are able to store enough veggies to make this cellar worth it?
I hope so. I recently obtain a community garden plot which will expand my garden size so I should be able to grow more than I previously did. I'm going to try to store the potatoes in the interim in my basement. Of course, if successful, that raises the question of why bother with the trashcan? Hey! It was a fun project! :)
@@gardengrowngroceriesmine chitted that I had in a cool room (50-60) year round. I want to try the trash can method.
@@tammywhite9229 turns out the trash can worked out well. I also stored some in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator. To be honest I think they did better but the trash can worked quite well.
Good experiment...but, store bought potatoes are often sprayed so they won't sprout. Your home grown may still sprout....it would be interesting to see if that is the case.
Not true...all mine sprout... bought directly from the store.
@@sheila9573 sometimes they do an sometimes not. I've had both.
I planted organic potatoes from the store and got a great harvest this year
@@chaseoklahoma7267 Yes! That's what I plant too...organic store bought.
So far I haven't had that experience. My russets, which were all store bought, have been producing nicely. And they were just regular potatoes out of a bag as you can see in the video. The potatoes I had the most trouble with this year were the certified seed potatoes I bought. Crazy times
add a vent and drill holes on bottom of can
Do you and your wife can as well ? Or do you sell your veggies?😊
We don't sell, but we do can. I try to split between canning and freezing
Cans buried in the ground for potato storage... Earwig problem! ☹️ They eat potatoes.
Hasn't been my experience...yet! But it's only been one year
How would earwigs get into a can sealed with a tight lid?
will bears dig something like this up ?
Bears are not a problem that I've had, and I haven't seen anyone else online report a bear issue, but I imagine a determined hungry bear might try. I did find what I thought were mouse holes dug alongside the can, but obviously, they weren't able to get in, which is why I think a metal can is better than the plastic ones I've seen some people use. Cheers!
As a young man love fishing and burying a container for night crawlers and it was working great until a drenching rainfall and my container came floating up onto the top of the hole full of water.. Maybe next spring you might have a special video coming.
I tried storing my potatoes one year in the basement in sand. Thinking! They say put your tools in there and they won't rust right? Sounded like a good idea. NOT.. They had grown all winter in there. LOL Epic Fail
Ha! I did that one year but with straw. By springtime my potatoes had footlong-plus stems sticking out of them. I did see a video by MIGardener where he said "plant 'em anyway!" If it happens again I will try that
What tempature is your basement ?
How about your garage ?
I live in Central NJ and plant potatoes yearly. You mentioned in your video that you start a fall crop of potatoes in July. I would like to give that a try and was wondering if you have been successful with July plantings.
@@theconcretechiropractor Welp…ua-cam.com/video/xNz-1HcJDAQ/v-deo.htmlsi=nz9ts9Dcre3kOGvT
Thank you for the share@@gardengrowngroceries
@@Kwinters thanks for watching!
This wouldn't work here in Chicago. Our frost line is four feet.
Florida, I don't think it will work. To much humidity??? Maybe
That could very well be. I just did a quick internet search and found Florida university extensions saying they are not practical in Florida and much of the south precisely because of heat and humidity. Bummer
@@gardengrowngroceries but don’t potatoes need like 90% humidity, or is it the heat that screws it as don’t they need 45°F. I wonder what the ground temp is at different temps through the year there. I know I can do ice baths inside with 45°F water off the hose from outside in winter (colder than inside faucets) (I just have to drag it inside and have a shut off valve at end) and I can do an ice bath pretty quickly in winter. It’s July now and the soil temp out of the outside hose is like 65°F which is what the inside faucet is at lowest. But it’s is nice that for a certain number of months I have this option to trigger my heat stress proteins and decrease inflamation and increase dopamine and norepinephrine and feel amazing.
Cans buried in the ground... Earwig problem!
It certainly wasn’t an issue last year and that could be because the galvanized can has a tight fitting lid. A plastic can doesn’t provide such a good deal and might invite such problems. But I’ll keep an eye on it over time
Too wet.
@@OneWildTurkey I’m going to try to add a vent this year to see if that will help with the moisture
@@gardengrowngroceries That'd be good to see if it works!