UPDATE: Mini Root Cellar Experiment (after 3 months of potato storage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrlLpaZER7I
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After successfully harvesting 337 lbs of potatoes, we only had one problem: Where to store them?!
Since we don’t have a root cellar, I came up with another idea using an old broken chest freezer and some simple parts from the hardware store. Now to find out if it actually works…
For those wanting to skip the background information, here are some quick links to the content:
00:37 Curing freshly harvested potatoes
02:20 Root cellar basics
05:03 Constructing the mini root cellar
10:28 Limitations to this design
Do you have to run the airflow outside?, could you not just use the air in your basement?
So it just circulates the outside air temperature? Not sure that would work where I live. But what would work is using buried drain tile pipe that's below the frost line to collect the all the earth energy….(constant ground temp) just check out the videos on earth batteries for greenhouses. Same concept. A little more work digging the pipe trenches but it would give you the perfect temperature and humidity. Humidity would pull through the drain tile pipe holes. Cool video! I want to make one!
Changing the subject for a moment, I found a different use for a defunct chest-type freezer: A vermicomposting bin. These freezers have a drain, so I elevated the freezer enough to collect the liquid run-off, then put some logs in the bottom, topped that with plastic fencing (with holes about 1.5" square), topped that with black garden fabric, and then with whatever compost was handy. In went some shredded autumn leaves, kitchen compost and red wiggler worms.
But in cool weather, the worms aren't happy, so I added a 100W incandescent light bulb for heat — which is plenty to keep the bin warm in freezing weather, even with the lid barely cracked to provide a bit of air for the worms..
That worked well, but the bulb burned out twice before I repurposed an old 4-socket photobar device with a "dim" setting in which the four lamps run in series — at about half voltage. With 100W bulbs in each of the 4 sockets, this provides roughly 150W of heating. (If one bulb burns out, the other three will continue burning, providing heat.)
Now, however, I was concerned about keeping the worms warm without overheating them. So I got an ebay $15 special, a 120V thermostat, mounted it in a weatherproof electrical box (maybe $10 more) and ever since the worms have been warm and toasty, through snow and rain and weather.
I feed the worms mainly kitchen scraps, though I did add some clean scrap paper when I felt the compost was too damp, and added a half gallon of water when I felt it was too dry. Very little maintenance.
I think that is brilliant!
I WISH I WAS YOUNGER GOOD JOB ( OH I AM 75 ) LOV TO WATCH THANK YOU
incredible lengths to store potatoes.. i LIKE IT
what about pears and apples????????
Just put up a wood frame and pile dirt on top and presto a root cellar
thx, looks great, got to try to locate a thingy now ! Maybe i'll dig a root cellar… hmm XD
Brilliant. Thank you.
why not just put the crates on the floor? I mean the room already worked the same as the broken fridge did
Thank you for all the information. You explained everything so well. I think I can do this.
Oh, if I had a basement….
Great video. Subscribed
You sound so much like the guy Josh from Destination Truth!
I believe the OPERATIVE WORD here is REcycling. A smart use of something no longer in its primary use.
Subtitles, pretty please?
Interesting… thank you
If you'll paint the outside portion of the exhaust tube black, it'll vent much better. This actually goes back to the Romans, who had a crude form of A/C using a similar method.
My Ex's Father used to store his potatoes and onions in a 55 gallon drum buried under ground in his lawn shed, just a heavy steel lid and he did this for his whole life and no issues. The shed was just a tin shed for a lawn mower type deal about 8'x8' This was Wisconsin as well. And his mother used to grow potatoes in the basement of their old farm house, in old tires, lay out one tire, fill it with dirt, plant seed potatoes and wait, once the plants got about 2 foot tall, ad another tire, fill with dirt and repeat. at the end off the season you have to do nothing, but remove as needed.
Very good idea.
Can you have a root cellar in the Caribbean
Good way to hide supplies even food, got a house about North of Tampa I done this and put in a garden bed on top of it to better hide it, Can easily move it to get to it.. Back ay my farm know a lot of people who stock pile food when Michael hit they lost everything including the food they stock up on,
Great idea! I have a broken upright refrigerator to use … might just shift it into chest freezer position.
I watched this video over a year ago…just wondered how this worked ?
I just buy instant mashed potatoes.
A) spent more on supplies and labour then buying potatoes from those real farmers all winter…
B) your tats will freeze;
C) all you need is to have a battery-growing tree.
Our family conversion was easier, merely changing a 1960's console television set into a rabbit cage. Tube went out with all the electronic wiringand farm-type finicng wire was installed on the tv sides and bottom. The result was 3 children watching a rabbit that clearly did not enjoy being in captivity, so he eventually got upgraded to the local Milwaukee county zoo petting farm area. The rabbit was rated G, so parental controls weren't necessary on the revised console television.
Good video thanks
I love this! I have also seen one of those old steel soda fridges with the sliding doors on top transformed into a powerless freezer