Building a Root Cellar Hi Stan: Enjoy your show very much! Hope you can help us with this: We are in the process of building a root cellar. We live 45 minutes west of Leduc in the Warburg / Breton area. We have dug into a steep hill in our back yard that faces East and will have a walk in entrance. The cellar will have two rooms (the back room is 4' x 7.5' with a cement floor, the front room is 5.5' x 7.5' with a dirt floor) and an entry area so that there are two doors to open before you get inside. The ceiling will be 7' and there should be 4' of dirt on top of that. It will also have electricity run to it for lights or whatever. My question is regarding ventilation. I've read several different articles all with varying ideas on venting. They suggest a vent pipe anywhere from 6" to 12" in diameter - does that seem over sized? We were thinking maybe 3 or 4". Also, the air vent that will supply fresh (and cool) air at floor level will be drawing air through a pipe 12' - 14' long (to reach surface) - would it be better to run the pipe horizontally toward the front of the root cellar (and also would be at ground level at the bottom of the hill)? We are using styrofoam cement forms with a strong plastic "webbing" inside - the styrofoam provides insulation and the webbing is every 8" and can be nailed to, so building shelves, etc. should be easy. The manufacturer's name is Arxx Building Products, and the forms are made in Edmonton. Any information you could supply on what temperatures and humidities vegetables should be stored at would also help - I know not to store apples with carrots and potatoes, but that's about it. If nothing else it will make a nice bomb shelter ^_^ Thanks for any info you can supply. Keep up the good work!! Regards, Cara and Bill Cara and Bill....Great project... You have overcome the basics of root cellar storage, but found no reference to the space designated to the wine casks. Ventilation is crucial to the health and longevity of your produce. Beginning with the floor... you might consider using a series of pallet- like flooring or walk-way. This type of pedicular access will aid in air circulation and the necessary ambience between artificial and natural environments. Controlled and sustained cooling is the basis of a good root cellar. First... have double doors for each of your zones and in the main entry door. Each door could have a vent that can be controlled by a sliding wood panel about 3 by 10 inches Have these ventings both top and bottom of the door [s]. Invest in two thermometers for each room.. one at shoulder level and one at ground level. Now for the actual venting: you can produce convection venting for both areas, using 5 inch ABS or PVC drain pipe. This material is slightly more expensive than regular gas vent pipe, but easier to work with and no possibility of its squashing or rotting. The idea is to introduce the outside air into the room, using the same principle as fresh air to your furnace burners. You need two runs of pipe. One to exhaust and the other as the intake of outside air. The exhaust can be in the centre of the room and installed as you would a wood burning stove. Projecting 6 inches through the ceiling and extending to 24 to 36 inches beyond the outside overburden. The outside air will be carried down the other pipe, ending just above floor level and fitted with a elbow. Project this pipe the same as the vent one. Each of the individual pipes should have a 'T' fitted to the exterior ends that will act as weather caps and be be covered with window screening on the each of the horizontal openings. This is important.. no birds, small dogs or skunks can enter to over-winter in the cellar. To control and finally fine tune the temps and air circulation, install a flapper or sometimes called butterfly valve to all 4 of the room ends of the pipes. Now you can regulate the incoming and outgoing air by simply opening or closing the flappers. Your aim is to cool without the walls running with humidity which will drastically cause disease then rot. Carrots and cabbage store at plus 3. all others at plus 10. You will have zones or layers of coolness. Use them to establish optimums of best conditions for the produce. Only tomatoes and onions should be stored at regular room temps with a 25 watt light on. In the root cellars...leave an outdoor Xmas. tree light on to maintain better conditions for the root crops.

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