Carrots & Pears

[submariner]

I know they are a strange pair (no pun intended!), but hang on with me!
I am ready to pick my comice pears, but now they have to be stored. I have tried several ways over the years, but am never sure which is the better way. I have wrapped them, not wrapped them, laid them in shredded paper and without paper. The fruit are wonderful this year, and I know that they have to be picked before they are ripe. Best method, please.
I normaly leave my carrots in the ground until they are all gone (mild winters). However, because of bad planning, I have to pull them from my raised bed soon, in order to prepare the bed for next year. What I need is the best way to store them, please. Having read several books and articles I am a little bewildered as to the best way. Or should I just freeze them?

[John]

Hello Submariner
You might get away with digging up the carrots and heeling them in somewhere else where you've got some spare room. Leave them where they are for as long as you can just to let the tops die back naturally.
Can't help with pear problem I'm afraid.

John

[Beryl]

Pears are best picked while still hard. Don't wrap them or use paper. Lay them out on wooden slats if you can if not wooden boxes. Not touching - in a frost free shed or cool unheated room. Only store undamaged fruits and inspect them regularly.

Don't pull them off the tree - cut with scissors or secateurs.

Beryl.

[peter]

RHS Vegetable Garden Displayed book show how to make a clamp for carrots. Basically a cone using sand and covered with soils. Lay a circle of roots, then sand then smaller circle etc etc. Cover with soil and ensure drainage ditch dound base so bottom layer is raised up above ground level.

Alternative suggestion from same book is in a frost free shed in sand.

Could scan relevant page(s) and PM if wanted.

[Johnboy]

Whilst I appreciate what John and Peter are saying
hereabouts you would lose your crops under both methods mentioned. If left in the ground Keeled Slugs will seriously damage the crop and with Clamps the Rats and Mice would have a field day.
May I suggest as a kind of combination of both methods that you lift your crop and store in boxes of very slightly dampened Peat or Peat Free M/P Compost.
If then stored at a temperature as near to 5C (but not below)as possible they will store for at least 6 months. They are then more accessible and portable.
I store my Pears the same way as Beryl but put them in the latticed type of Mushroom boxes and they do not take up acres of space. Last week when the weather was fine I picked about 100lbs of Conference Pears. Remember that the all important part is to allow good ventilation and as vigilant as you are there will always be a number that will rot and this is why it is important to inspect you Pears very regularly. If these are not removed quickly the rot accelerates at a very fast rate and will affect others.
JB.

[submariner]

Thank you all for the information.
I know now what I can and cannot do.