Building Barrel Root Cellars

This is a project building small root cellars out of 55 gallon plastic drums. This is my nephew Ben lending me a hand. It is January and they are working great. Additional info: you do have to put a drain hole in the bottom for condensate. Just pour some water in the bottom and drill a 1/2' hole in the center of where ever the water pools. The lids are uninsulated and in Jan and Feb with nightly lows in the teens, the temperature inside was 34F. This was with 4" of straw thatch and 18" of course thatch, covered with a tarp. Note that 34 degrees is ideal for a lot of vegs like cabbage. However, potatoes and fruits like it around 40-45F. I would recommend additional insulation on the exposed barrel and also insulating the lid. Also fruits like it drier and right now the barrels are at 95% humidity because I didn't put the heavy thatch on until later. I would recommend for fruits to thatch the barrels completely from the start so the temperature is does not go up slightly during the day - which causes it to breath in humid air at night when the barrel top cools. Over time this condenses driving the humidity up.

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[DeanLeatherman]

Very interesting question. I know that ground temperatures for semi-arid states are higher than the average ground temperature. Normally root cellars are only used in the winter months after harvest. I had never thought of using one during the summer months. In this case it might work but you would really have to insulate the lid with deep thatch or straw along with a reflective tarp. Even when well insulated, the minimum temperatures might only be perhaps in the 60s.

[MawWesty]

I like your voice;)

[DeanLeatherman]

@MawWesty Thanks, I always talk to fast and mumble a bit. I was trying to fit everything I wanted to say into the length of the clip which probably should have been longer.

[buffalopatriot]

Hi Dean, my wife and I are moving to a [very small] farmhouse in Virginia which has no root cellar. Overall, would you consider your experiment a success and would you recommend I try your technique as a 'starter' root cellar. Thanks.

[DeanLeatherman]

@buffalopatriot Hi, yes it was very successful. One modification I would suggest is to place a waterproof tarp over the barrel, a 8x8 or 6x6 would work fine. We noticed spring rains will saturate the soil will flood up in the drainage hole in the bottom. Normally this was not a problem because the soil would absorb and spread out the rain. On the barrel that was tarped this problem was not a problem.

[Kashmir2000is]

Absolutely excellent! Thank you.

[furlougha]

Mice will eat through the barrel. I have used them for feed storage is how I know this.

[TexasRoadrunners]

I love this idea. It's been awhile since you did it, would you consider it a success? I'm wanting something like this at my retreat location for storing food and other stuff. Do you recommend it?

[elmergamez]

Do you think it works for the southwest like for Arizona temperatures above 100s?

[armanflint]

This is a cool idea.

I might try this and incorporate a cold frame over the barrel to keep a constant temperature over the winter and make it easy to access the barrel if it snows.

It also might be good to put gravel on the bottom of the hole to pull more water away from the barrel when it rains... Humidity control is usually one of the features of a root cellar with stable cool air flow... Just got my wheels turning...

Thanks for posting. Good video.

[furlougha]

@rebel69society Ha Ha ,,Yeah, my barn is probably full of mice.I do have cats hanging around but maybe more mice than they can eat...Take care and good luck to you too.

[rebel69society]

@furlougha you gotta have a WHOLE bunch of mice for them to get motivated enough to eat thru a blue barrel to find food. Sounds like you need a couple fat feral cats.Good luck!

[Socksee]

very clever . .