How to Store Root Vegetables in the Ground

If you have mild winters, you can store many hardy root vegetables in the ground. Leaving them in situ saves time and effort, and you can dig them up if you need them. Putting them in clamps or root cellars can be better for colder climates and if you don’t have undercover space to keep them. Read on for more information on the frost-hardiness of different vegetables and how to care for them in both indoor and outdoor storage.

I can be a bit of a lazy gardener. I love working in the garden, but if there’s something I can save time on, I’m all over it. One thing that I’m a big fan of is not having to dig and store vegetables over winter. Why do it when many of them can be left in the ground? Though temperatures below 25 °F (-2.2 °C) can wipe out root veggies, anything up to that point is safe for beets, parsnips, kohlrabi, turnips, radishes, and carrots. The foliage will die back for the most part, but the tasty bits in the ground will store well enough. Spread straw mulch over the top, and they’re even better protected from ice and snow.

For those who have colder climates, digging and storing root vegetables is a must. If you leave them in the ground, you risk losing your crops. In this case, you can store them undercover or in soil-covered piles or trenches. That way, your crops are protected, you can dig them up as needed, and you don’t have to give up indoor space for your winter food larder.

Store Root Vegetables in Situ

Storing root vegetables where they’re growing comes down to frost tolerance. My garden is in coastal Britain’s Zone 9, which has very mild winters. I don’t worry as much about my hardier vegetables because they rarely freeze here. Even so, root vegetables benefit from a six to twelve-inch mulch of straw or leaves around them to keep them protected from frost and snow.

If you live in a colder zone or your soil is waterlogged, don’t leave root vegetables in the ground. I once saw a friend’s 20-foot row of carrots go to waste because of intense cold. The cold froze the roots solid, and they went to mush when the temperatures warmed. Instead, lift your crops and either store them undercover or under at least six inches of soil.

Storing Root Vegetables Undercover

Each vegetable has a different tolerance to the cold. Some are fine even in deep freezes, and others are toast if the temperature drops to freezing. There’s more information on specific vegetables and their cold tolerance further below. However, in general, dig and pack vegetables away if you expect temperatures down to 25 °F (-2.2 °C). They may get nibbled by pests over winter, but a few holes are fine.

The best way to store root vegetables undercover is in a dark and frost-free shed, garage, or cellar. Carrots are traditionally stored in boxes of damp sand, while potatoes are stored unwashed but fully dried off in bags. Beets, celeriac, and other root veg are relieved of their foliage and stored on racks or also in damp sand. If you store your crops this way, make sure to protect them from rodents and check them regularly for rot.

Storing Root Vegetables in the Ground

If you don’t have space to bring your crops in for the winter, you can store root vegetables in the ground. This is probably the most common practice in the past and is a real space saver. All you do is dig a trench about a foot into the soil, layer your potatoes or other root vegetables inside, and then cover it with a thick protective material. That can be straw, then a six to twelve-inch layer of soil. Or it could be just soil. That covering keeps the vegetables safe from freezing, and you can dig them out as you need them.

Alternatively, you can build a root cellar or clamp. Clamps are simple mounds of potatoes and other root vegetables that you cover with straw and soil. They need to be on well-drained soil and are only really advisable in places with mild to moderate winter temperatures. Root cellars are far more effective at keeping root crops safe in winter. They are outdoor semi-subterranean structures that you can store all kinds of food in during winter. It keeps them cold but not freezing.

Winter Hardiness of Root Vegetables

Beets will stand their ground at sustained temperatures of  30 °F (-1 °C). If left in the garden all winter, the roots will produce very early spring greens. If you’re harvesting for the root only, eat them before they regrow these leaves, or the flesh will be woody.

Carrots can withstand temperatures of down to 20 °F (-6 °C) if properly mulched with straw. They also store well in boxes of damp sand kept undercover.

Celeriac cannot withstand a hard freeze but will tolerate light frosts, especially with protective mulch. Like carrots, you can store them in boxes of damp sand.

Kohlrabi is an above-ground ‘root’ vegetable that becomes sweeter after a frost. It doesn’t like hard freezes, though, so protect it with straw mulch until you need it.

New Zealand Yam (Oca) is a South American tuber that easily survives light frosts. It can’t stand a hard freeze, though, so dig them up and store them as you would potatoes two weeks after the foliage has died back. They don’t begin forming tubers until autumn, so this is one of the last veggies you need to store if need be.

Parsnips are very hardy and usually survive until spring if left in the ground. Temperatures down to 0 °F (-18 °C) won’t phase them if mulched. A bonus of leaving them in the ground is that they tend to be sweeter after a frost.

Potatoes can survive under the ground during a mild winter, but they don’t like hard freezes. In mild winters, dig up as necessary, but for peace of mind, it may be better to dig and store them undercover. Mice and rodents can be an issue in storage, so keep an eye on them.

Winter radishes take longer to grow than salad radishes and will not become woody if left a little longer in the soil.

Turnips are very hardy. Some varieties can withstand down to 10 °F (-12 °C) if properly mulched. Interestingly, the spiciness of summer turnips changes to sweetness with the cold.

Swedes are as hardy as the turnips and a good winter staple.