Should you wash carrots before storing them for the winter

What experienced gardeners say

Frankly speaking, there is no consensus on this matter. Some insist that you absolutely must wash them, and that carrots keep better that way. Others claim the opposite: only a root vegetable left with its soil won't rot until spring. To get to the bottom of the question, let's consider the pros and cons of different ways of storing the vegetable.

What's good about clean carrots

• After washing, all the damage and diseases of the root vegetable become visible. This allows you to immediately weed out specimens unsuitable for storage.
• Along with the dirt, microbes, pests, and fungi that could infect the whole harvest are washed away.
• Less debris accumulates in the storage area, and it's easier to maintain the necessary humidity there.
• Clean carrots look more attractive, and in winter it's much more pleasant to take out a vegetable and get straight to cooking, rather than spending time getting rid of the soil.

And what are the advantages of leaving everything as is

You spare yourself a labor-intensive process, especially if you've harvested a large crop. After all, all the root vegetables need to be not only thoroughly washed but also just as thoroughly dried in order to avoid premature rot. At the same time, you can't wipe the carrots with a cloth, nor lay them out in the sun, otherwise it's easy to damage or over-dry them. It's better to leave the vegetable in a well-ventilated space and make sure it dries evenly on all sides

You save money. Carrots can only be washed under running water (or, if you soak them, change it at least 5 times), otherwise disease-causing microbes won't be washed off but will be spread among the vegetables. So a lot of water goes into this procedure

You avoid the risk of damaging the vegetable's skin and thereby opening the way for an invasion of infection, which inevitably triggers the appearance of rot

You spend less time preparing containers: for clean carrots these should be cleaned, disinfected receptacles (wooden or plastic boxes, baskets, etc.)

And still: to wash or not?

There's no need to bother if you harvested the carrots in dry weather (at least a week without rain), dried them, sorted them, and then put them in a cellar or basement. In this form the vegetable will keep beautifully until spring. Especially in boxes filled with sand, so that the root vegetables touch one another as little as possible.

And if the amount of harvested carrots is small and you can easily dry it all well, feel free to make the decision in favor of washing. This way you'll be able to examine the vegetables closely and immediately sort them into those that can be put away for the winter and those that need to be used first. This will only benefit successful and long-term storage.