You’ll find carrots on nearly any guide to fall gardening or storage crops. When managed, harvested, and stored correctly, carrots can have a great storage life, staying cool and crisp for months. Enjoy carrots well into the winter with these harvest and storage tips.  

Best Storage Carrots

While you can store any carrot, not all varieties are well suited to long-term storage. Some varieties were bred with long-term storage in mind. At SESE, we carry a few heirlooms that were specifically bred for root cellar storage at a time when most people still relied on homegrown produce. If you want to store carrots for a long period, we recommend Danvers 126, Oxheart, Yellowstone, or Purple Dragon.

When to Harvest Carrots

Small carrots are often ideal for salads and fresh eating, but you want well-developed carrots for storage. The tips should be starting to fill out and become more blunt. It is essential to get them seeded on time. Using shade cloth to cool the soil can help you get them growing even if it’s still hot.

Plan and plant so that you will be able to harvest fully developed carrots around your first frost date. Before harvesting your bed, pull a few carrots to check on their size and flavor, as days to maturity can vary with growing conditions. Fall brings shorter day lengths, so sometimes carrots that normally take 70 days to reach maturity could take as much as 100 days. 

Fall storage carrots are often tastiest when harvested after a few light frosts, but heavy frosts can damage any exposed shoulders. According to the National Weather Service, light frosts occur when temperatures dip to around 34°F (-1.1°C), and hard frosts occur when temperatures dip below 28°F (-2.2°C).

Watch the forecasts and try to hit your ideal storage window. Pull them before a hard frost when they’re still easy to dig.

Harvest & Preparation

Stop watering a few days before harvesting to let the soil dry out a bit. Moist soil is fine; you just don’t want to deal with overly wet soil.

If possible, harvest your carrots on a cool, cloudy fall day. The hot sun hitting your roots as you harvest them can shorten their storage life.

To avoid breaking your carrots, especially in heavy clay soil, gently lift them from the bed with a broad fork or garden fork.

Gently shake or brush off any excess dirt. 

Cut the green tops off about 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the shoulders of each carrot.

Avoid cutting root hairs or trimming the roots, as cuts can cause decay.

Set aside any cracked or damaged roots for immediate use and organize roots by size.

How to Store Carrots

Before storing your carrots, you can wash them if desired. They must be handled gently to avoid any damage. If you decide to wash them, you must also allow them to air dry before storage. Washing ahead of time means they’re ready to go when you need them, but it isn’t required. 

Carrots can be stored for several months as long as they are mature, undamaged roots that you keep in the proper conditions. Ideal storage conditions include a temperature range of 32–38°F (0–3°C) and a relative humidity of 98%. This can be tough to achieve on a home scale but the closer you get, the longer your carrots will keep.

Smaller roots tend to start rotting more quickly, so it’s best to roughly organize your carrots by size and use up the smallest first. Check all your carrots every one to two weeks and remove and use or compost any that are starting to show signs of decay.

Storing Carrots in the Fridge

You can store carrots in the fridge if you’re working on a small scale. Place them in plastic bags in single layers and lay them in your crisper drawer.

Storing Carrots in a Basement or Root Cellar

A root cellar or basement is a traditional option, offering high humidity and cool temperatures. To store your carrots in a cellar, you’ll need sand and a container. This method allows you to store more carrots than in the fridge.

When finished, your containers will be extremely heavy, so it’s best to put them in place first, especially if they’re large. Plastic totes or wax-lined cardboard boxes work well for this. 

Place a layer of moist sand in your container, followed by a single layer of carrots. Then, cover the carrots with a layer of sand, repeating this process until your container is full and you have a layer of moist sand over the top.

Storing Carrots in the Ground

Many oldtimers also left their carrots in the ground and you can do the same. Keep in mind that if temperatures are still warm in your area, carrots can continue to mature and become woody, so this may not work well everywhere.

In cooler areas, your carrots may be fine for several months. We recommend covering the tops of the carrots with a thick layer. 

In areas with cold winters where the ground freezes, cover carrots with 12 to 18 inches of mulch like old hay or leaves. Push it aside to harvest. Row cover or low tunnels over the mulched-in carrot beds can offer additional protection. 

Keeping carrots in the ground all winter gives you a fresh supply of produce and can allow you to harvest seed next spring.

Canning or Freezing Carrots

A final option is to can or blanch and freeze your carrots. It’s not the same as having fresh carrots, but crisp storage carrots generally hold their texture and flavor quite well in both the freezing and canning process. 

Keep in mind that carrots are a low-acid food, so to water bath can them, you’ll need to pickle them. If you want to can plain carrots, you’ll need to use a pressure canner. The National Center for Home Food Preservation offers guidance on pressure canning carrots.

 

Carrots are an excellent storage crop that can last for months when cared for properly. Handle your carrots with care and follow these tips to enjoy a steady supply of fresh carrots this winter. 

Season extension is a fundamental element of small vegetable farms across the nation, but we’re beginning to see it more and more in backyard gardens and homesteads, too! Hoophouses, high tunnels, low tunnels, row covers, cold frames, and mulches can offer amazing benefits no matter your growing scale. 

In much of the Southeast, hot summers limit the production of cool-weather crops like kale, spinach, pak choi, cauliflower, and spring radishes. Using season extension can allow you to grow more of these crops during the fall, winter, and spring.

Growing on these “off-seasons” comes with other benefits, too. Crops growing in these cooler seasons may struggle less with pests, diseases, and drought. It can also be more enjoyable for you. Instead of working in the garden on muggy summer mornings when it’s 80°F in the shade, you can enjoy fall’s cool, crisp days. 

While frost dates become less critical with season extension, you still need to think about day length. No matter how warm your soil stays, your plants won’t grow at the same speed with fewer hours of sunlight. You may see a dramatic difference in growth rates as you dip from 12 hours of daylight in early fall to 9 hours in December.

Sow your bulb onions in cold frames or under row cover between September and February.

In the Southeast, getting good production from bulb onions is challenging. We’ve found that giving them time to put on growth in the winter and early spring is critical to large bulbs. They need plenty of time to bulb up before the heat of summer signals them to go dormant for the season.

Continue sowing cold weather crops in hoops and high tunnels throughout the fall and winter.

It’s possible to have a four-season garden. You can continue sowing cool-season crops like mustard greens, spinach, and chard right through the winter. Their growth is slower due to the limited daylight, but it will pick up as the days lengthen.

Depending on your zone, your crops will need different levels of protection. Growers in the deep south may get away with light row cover, while those in northern areas and the mountains will need additional protection. For very cold areas, sowing in a high tunnel or hoop house and then adding row cover on hoops over the crops within the high tunnel provides an excellent buffer.

Lay shade cloth over beds for a week to cool the soil before sowing cool-season crops.

In the Southeast, summer temperatures rarely cool off when we think they should. Often, it’s still hot when we’re trying to sow certain fall crops that take a bit longer to mature. It’s a balancing act between temperature and available day length. 

Laying shade cloth over the beds for a week or two can help cool the soil and encourage crops to germinate. We may use this technique with crops like lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and carrots. 

Start early spring greens under low tunnels and switch to shade cloth later.

Low tunnels or row cover over hoops can allow us to enjoy salad season a bit early and keep enjoying it longer. Start your spring greens beneath plastic or thick row cover when the weather is still cold. This can be removed as the season warms, but don’t remove the hoops yet!

As spring heats up and turns to summer, you can use shade cloth over the hoops to provide a bit of heat protection. This will help you get more season from your greens before they bolt. 

Overwinter biennial vegetables in a hoop house or low tunnel for seed production.

We usually recommend that new seed savers start with easy annual crops like corn, beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. As you move along your seed-saving journey, you may want to work with biennial crops, too. Biennials are crops that produce seed in their second year of life. Therefore, they must survive the winter to produce seed. Some common biennials include hollyhocks, beets, carrots, and leeks.

We give these crops some winter protection to help ensure that they survive to produce seed the following year. Growing them in a high tunnel or placing a low tunnel over them in the fall can help ensure success. 

Use high tunnels or hoop houses to start seeds.

While some crops are highly sensitive to temperature and need to be started somewhere warm, other crops can be started in a hoop house and transplanted into other beds later. Good examples are cabbage, bunching onions, and lettuce. 

You can also use your tunnel to harden off seedlings, such as peppers and tomatoes, that you plan on transplanting into it anyway.

Grow early flowers.

We often think of season extension for vegetables, but flower farmers use it, too. Planting into hoop houses or low tunnels can provide an abundance of early blooms for bouquets. 

Plant fall root crops into high or low tunnels for easy harvest through the winter.

Many dream of eating fresh from the garden year-round. Root crops like fall radishes, beets, and carrots planted in later summer and early fall can help make this a reality. They can be left in the ground and harvested as needed throughout the winter. Unlike summer roots, which may turn woody and tough if left in the ground too long, winter roots will stay sweet and crisp for months. 

Keep row cover on hand for unpredictable frosts.

Frosts don’t always come on schedule. Keeping row cover on hand can help you cope with early or late frosts. It can be draped over stakes or hoops to protect crops or even draped over fruit trees to help protect early blossoms from a late freeze. 

Plant warm-season crops one month early in your hoop house.

Many farmers find that they can plant cucumbers, tomatoes, and other warm-season crops into high tunnels or hoop houses a month before they can transplant them into the field. Setting up a small hoop house this fall may help you achieve early production of your favorite summer vegetables.

 

Using row cover can improve production in various ways. Learn more about how we use row cover to protect our crops from pests and diseases and isolate pollination, too!

Many of you are ready to step back and take a well-earned break from the garden at this point in the year. Still, we often get the question, “Should I till this fall?” Many of our dedicated gardeners continue searching for ways to improve their soil and production. Unfortunately, there’s never a one-size-fits-all approach to gardening. Here are some things you may want to consider before doing any fall tilling or garden clean-up.

Benefits of Fall Tilling

Fall tilling and clean-up serve two primary functions:

• Removing and destroying diseased or pest-ridden plant material.
• Preparing soil for the next planting.

While there are some benefits to letting plant material decompose right in the garden, it is best to remove any diseased material and to till the bed. If your bed was infected with tomato fungal disease like blight or your squash plants were covered in vine borers, clean up is a good idea. Remove and, if possible, burn any affected material and till the bed. Tilling helps remove overwintering sites for some insects and can reduce the insect population in the bed.

Some folks also like to till to prepare for their next planting. This may be garlic, perennial onions, cover crops you hope to put in this fall, or early crops you want to get in the ground next spring. Fall-tilled gardens tend to dry out and warm up more quickly, allowing for earlier planting of cool-season crops in the spring.

Of course, fall tilling has a few downsides, and there are some alternative methods of bed preparation, both of which we’ll discuss below.

Issues with Fall Tilling

Tilling may be the right answer for some gardens, but it comes with a few potential downsides that should be considered:

• Tilling disrupts soil structure and can harm beneficial insects, fungi, and bacteria.
• Bare, tilled soil is more susceptible to erosion and nutrient loss.
• Bare soil provides little habitat for beneficial insects, fungi, and bacteria.
• Bare soil, particularly clay, is more vulnerable to compaction.
• Leaving soil bare means a lost opportunity to improve soil over the winter.

If you decide it’s best to till your garden this fall, you can minimize the negative impacts. While little can be done about disrupting the soil structure, you can protect your soil after tilling.

Most of the issues listed above occur when soil is left bare over the winter. You can cover your beds with mulch like old leaves and straw to combat these issues. These help reduce compaction and erosion, provide habitat for beneficial insects, insulate the soil, and add organic matter as they break down. As temperatures start to climb in spring, you can rake back the mulch to allow the bed to warm up.

While mulch is helpful, our favorite method for winter soil care is planting cover crops. Cover crops are easy to grow and have many benefits, from reducing erosion to improving fertility. Our recent post, Soil Season: Winter Cover Crops, digs deeper into their benefits and how you can select a cover crop appropriate for your garden. 

You may also want to consider leaving other areas in your yard “wild.” So many amazing creatures depend on it. For example, female fireflies lay their eggs in damp, undisturbed soil and leaves. After hatching, the larvae spend several years to several months in the soil, feeding on slugs, snails, and other insects.

Alternative Bed Preparation

Today, we see more organic growers opting for no-till or low-till techniques. Skipping the tiller can be simple for small beds and may benefit soil structure and beneficial organisms. 

To begin, rake all the crop residue and any mulch off the bed. Depending on your needs and setup, this material can be burned, composted, or left to break down in a path. 

Then, you may want to loosen the soil. Without a tiller, you can use a broad fork or garden fork to lift the soil without turning it over. Simply plunge the fork in and tilt the hand back, pulling the soil upward before moving to the next spot. 

Generally, if you’re getting ready to plant right away, we recommend adding about 2 inches of finished compost to the top of the bed. Then, you can plant your garlic, Austrian winter peas, perennial onions, or other fall crops.

If your bed is brand new, you may want to stick to tilling for the first season or use a permaculture method like hugelkultur or lasagna gardening.

To till or not to till? Finding the right solution for your garden can be tough. Hopefully, this information will help you make the right choice so that you can protect your soil and have productive gardens this fall and next spring.