Storage
How to store your vegetables
The short answer
Most roots keep in the ground over winter on well-drained soil, or in boxes of moist sand somewhere dark and frost-free. Onions and garlic are dried and kept somewhere cool, dry and airy. Pumpkins and winter squash are cured in the sun and stored at 10 to 15°C. Maincrop potatoes go in paper or hessian sacks in the dark. Store only sound, undamaged produce, and check it every few weeks.
Different crops keep in opposite conditions: potatoes in the dark, onions in the light; carrots moist, garlic dry. This page puts them side by side, with the source for each.
Crop by crop
| Crop | How | Conditions | Keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maincrop potatoes | Paper or hessian sacks, or slatted trays | Dark, cool, dry, frost-free | Until early spring |
| Early potatoes | Use fresh | Best eaten soon after lifting | |
| Onions | Dried two weeks, then net bags, trays or plaits | Light, cool, dry, airy; not dark | Autumn-planted to early winter; spring-planted into the next spring |
| Garlic | Dried two to four weeks | Cool and dry, 5 to 10°C | Hardneck 4 to 6 months; softneck up to a year |
| Carrots, beetroot | In the ground under straw, or boxes of moist sand | Dark, frost-free | Until about March |
| Parsnips | Leave in the ground | Frost improves the flavour | Until spring |
| Pumpkins, winter squash | Cured in the sun first | Ventilated, 10 to 15°C, not touching | Three months or more |
| Dried beans | Pods dried, beans shelled into paper bags | Dry | |
| Peas, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks | Blanched and frozen | Freezer |
Rules that apply to everything
- Store only produce in good condition.(RHS, RHS)
- Check stores every few weeks for rot.(RHS)
- Many vegetables freeze well, but larger crops may need other storage.(RHS)
- Blanch in boiling water first, and freeze in manageable quantities.(Garden Organic)
- Keep onions and garlic away from potatoes, which can absorb moisture.(Garden Organic)
Leaving roots in the ground
- Most root vegetables on well-drained soil can stay in over winter, though it leaves them open to cold damage, and it is not recommended on wet soil.(RHS)
- Parsnips improve with frost, which starts turning their starch into sugars.(RHS)
- Beetroot only in mild places where the soil will not freeze, says the RHS beetroot guide.(RHS)
Dried beans
- Leave the pods to go brown and hang the plant upside down to dry.(Garden Organic)
- When the pods are dry, shell the beans into a paper bag.(Garden Organic)
Know what you grew, and what it gave
Log what you pick, and how much, bed by bed. Vercro keeps the record, so next year you know what was worth the space.
Keep going
Where this comes from
The growing advice on this page comes from the published sources below, each linked beside the point it supports. Where two good sources disagree, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.
- Potatoes: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Onions: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Garlic: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Root Vegetables: Storing, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Beetroot: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Pumpkins and Squashes: Storing, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Squash: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Harvesting and storing vegetables, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
- French bean, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
- Bust a glut: how to harvest and store your veg (news), Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.