How to prune carrots to prevent sprouting. My grandfather also taught (for which, thanks to him)

Fiery fireworks, fellow gardeners!

Want to keep your carrot harvest in good shape? Take care of the correct preparation of prey for storage. For many years I have been successfully using the method that my grandfather Maksim also favored.

They say that the best temperature for storing carrots is no higher than 2-4 ° C. I just want to answer: “Excellent! So what?"

It is noteworthy that a standard cellar is not a panacea. Temperature and humidity in the strategic stockpile bunker are dancing from side to side.

With our unpredictable weather, it can be quite warm in winter. Because of which, the thermometer in the underground vegetable storehouse persistently creeps up. There is no need to talk about some kind of stability in the region of 2-4 ° C, beneficial for the integrity of carrots.

When the cellar warms up, the carrots begin to sprout. New leaves emerge from the head: weak, pale, but still very real leaves. This metamorphosis, frightening the owner of the cellar, immediately affects the condition of the root crop. Carrots become soft to the touch, begin to lose volume before our eyes and eventually turn into a vegetable mummy.

Not only does it look repulsive. So also root vegetables are useless for use in the kitchen. After all, if it has arrived somewhere, it means that it has disappeared somewhere. The chain of fatal basement events looks like this:

• The air temperature in the cellar becomes slightly higher than expected.
• Carrots "wake up" starting to grow their leaves.
• In the garden bed, the root crop draws strength to grow tops from the soil. In the basement, finding himself without the latter - from himself.
• "Your crop no longer exists."

It's a shame, yes. My grandfather Maxim did not allow such a turn of events. Not that he was a scientific agronomist or that he loved carrots too much. He just didn’t like to lose what he got by hard work. I am very glad that my grandfather passed on his knowledge to me.

How to prune carrots to keep them from sprouting

Very simple. As long as the root crop has a growing point, it will invariably eject new leaves as the storage temperature rises. The only sure way is to cut off the top of the root crop by 1 cm. Do not leave a green tail, and do not even twist the tops. Cut off and dry!

Dealing with objections: "No, it won't rot!"

Or maybe it will rot. Because whether the carrot is cut off or left with the tail of its tops does not affect in any way "whether it will rot or not." The root crop rots if fungus is rampant in the cellar due to moisture. And carrots with a tail or with a cut off top - fungal microorganisms, by and large, no difference.

The algorithm of successful actions looks like this: they collected the carrots - cut off 1 cm of the top - dried well - removed to the cellar, having checked its ventilation in advance. All! There will be no sprouted tops and root crops-mummies. This is what my grandfather did and this is what I do.