Gardening Basics: Root Crops

How Root Crops Grow
Root crops are cool-season vegetables. Their tiny seeds germinate best in damp soil that's between 50o and 60oF. Early spring and fall are the best times to plant.

Germination

Germination is the sprouting action of seeds, and some root crops germinate more quickly than others. Radishes sprout in just 2 to 3 days; turnips and rutabagas in 5 to 10. The rest are slower, taking from 7 to 20 days to germinate. When they do, tiny seedlings push their way up through the shallow soil covering.

While the seedling develops into the greens above the ground, a large, edible taproot forms and grows downward. It's also the major storage organ of the plant, although it does form smaller, branching side roots to help it gather food, oxygen and water. Some root crops have more of these hairlike roots than others, but you can scrub or wash them off before eating the vegetable.

Growing On

As the root grows, it expands down, out and up; often showing its shoulders above ground. The sun discolors the exposed root, turning carrots green and turnips purple. Green shoulders on carrots are hard and bitter, so pull the roots before they're big enough to show above ground or cover them with mulch or soil. The colorful top on turnips or rutabagas taste fine.

A cross section of the roots shows that these plants are formed in three layers: a hard core, the edible fleshy part and the skin. The best-tasting roots have the least amount of that tough center, and quick, steady growth helps here.

All root crops need food, water and air. They also develop best if they meet no soil clumps or rocks to check their growth. Give them good growing conditions, and you'll enjoy straight, thick, good-tasting produce. Poor or improper soil preparation is usually to blame for crooked or forked roots. If you've ever bitten into a woody, fibrous carrot, you'll understand why good growing conditions are so important.

When root crops grow wild, some are biennials, forming the root in one season and producing a flowering seed stalk the next. In the garden, we interrupt this natural process by harvesting the roots before they start the reproduction process. Once the roots send up a flower-bearing stem, they're beyond the eating stage.

Differing Growth Rates

Root crops all vary in their growth rates, as do the individual varieties. Short, stocky carrots or beets mature fairly quickly, whereas long, tapered vegetables take longer to fully develop. You can eat the roots as soon as they're finger or marble size, so you have a lot of flexibility when it comes time to harvest.

Root crops could be called the "polar bears" of the garden because both the seeds and the plants are well adapted to sudden drops in temperature. Even hard frosts won't hurt them. In fact, parsnips and salsify need about a week of cool nights to sweeten them. This is because the carbohydrates in the roots change to sugars when the soil temperature is between 34o and 38oF.

Don't Transplant Root Crops

Even though you can transplant all vegetables with some success if you're very careful and you know what you're doing, there's really no need to transplant root crops to the home garden. If you want earlier carrots or turnips, get out in the garden earlier and plant the seeds.

Generally it's hard to keep the sensitive roots of any root crop from being upset during transplanting, and this interrupts their growth too much for them to recover completely. Chances are you'll end up with stunted or misshapen roots. And it's really not worth the time or effort when they grow so well started right in the garden.
Planting Root Crops
With the planning and soil preparation taken care of, you're ready to decide whether to plant in raised beds or trenches, and whether to use wide or single rows.

Easy Raised Beds

The simplest raised beds are nothing more than well-worked garden soil raked into a mound. They're easy to make, even in the smallest garden, and they enhance vegetable growth.

Raised beds work because they make an ideal growing environment. Here's how:

The soil in a raised bed has room on the sides to give with little or no resistance as the roots grow, even if it's hard-packed or wet. Roots develop easily, which makes them healthy, well-formed and better tasting.

You can plant much earlier in the spring on raised beds because the soil warms up and dries out in the bed before it does in the rest of the garden. If you make some raised beds in the fall, you can plant on them very early the next spring. This way, you may be harvesting baby beets and carrots almost before your neighbors have planted a single seed.

If your garden stays waterlogged for a long time after each rain, raised beds solve that problem. On level beds, standing water cuts off the oxygen supply to the roots, and the weight of the water packs the soil so tightly it stifles root growth. On raised beds, water runs off and into the walkways in between. The soil in the bed dries out quicker, and the water seeps gradually back into the soil from the sides.

The added height makes the soil deep and loose, so you can grow longer carrots and parsnips than is possible on a level bed. In making raised beds, you place some of the valuable topsoil from the walkways onto them. This increases the total amount of topsoil on the seedbed.

Wide-row growing makes sense on raised beds to make the most efficient use of all that growing space. If you're going to do the work making them, you might as well make it worthwhile by getting as much food from them as you can.

Raised beds are convenient and attractive. Your crops are 10 to 12 inches closer to your hands, saving you some bending and kneeling. It's easier to keep children and pets from walking on the garden soil and packing it down or stepping on plants, because they can easily tell the walkways from the seedbeds.

Last, but not least, raised beds give your whole garden a neat, well-tended look that is very pleasing to the eye.

Raised beds are as easy as one-two-three! Once you have the soil well-tilled or spaded to a depth of six to eight inches, you can probably make a raised bed in less time than it takes to read this page. Here's how:

Determine the width and length of the bed and the walkways, using stakes for guidelines. The dimensions will depend on whether you plant in wide or narrow rows.

Use a hoe to pull the loosely tilled soil from the walkways up onto the bed until it's four to eight inches higher than the walkway.

Rake the top of the bed smooth, leveling the surface as you go. You're all set to plant.

You fertilize, plant, thin and harvest in the same ways on raised beds as on level ground. You can add fertilizer to the whole plot before you make the beds -- the fertilized soil will end up on the beds anyway. You can also mulch between the beds to prevent weeds and keep the soil moist.

There's no need to brace the sides of beds six to 10 inches high unless you have the materials handy. For taller beds, railroad ties or planks give a neater appearance.

Raised beds work in almost every kind of soil, in just about any part of the country and with all of your garden vegetables. They dry out faster than normal beds, however, so raised beds aren't recommended for very dry areas or sandy soils.

You don't have to turn your whole garden into raised beds, but try growing a few root crops on some this year and you'll be convinced -- raised beds make sense!

Wide-Row Planting

Once you've prepared the soil, follow these easy steps for wide-row planting:

Mark the row by stretching a string close to the ground between two stakes spaced the length you want. You only need one string for a straight line -- the width of your rake will determine the width of the row. Garden rakes are usually 14 to 16 inches wide.

Hold one edge of an iron garden rake next to the string and drag the rake down the length of the row. This marks off the area where you'll broadcast the seeds.

Rake just the seedbed a few times to remove lumps and stones and get it really smooth and level before you plant. There's no need to rake your whole garden. Don't walk on the seedbed once it's prepared or you'll pack it down again. A smooth, clod-free, loose seedbed is one of the most important elements for gardening success.

Add extra bonemeal, rock phosphate or superphosphate now, raking it into the top inch of soil.

Sprinkle the seeds onto the planting area, trying to broadcast them thinly and evenly. Root crop seeds are small, and you'll have to develop your own system to keep from sowing them too thickly. Beet seeds are larger than the others, and they're easier to control. But once you get the hang of it, the rest are no trouble, either.

You'll be thinning the row when the seedlings first come up, so don't worry if a few extra seeds slip out of your fingers as you go. In fact, more seeds will ensure not having any skips or bare spots within the row.

Lightly sprinkle radish seeds in with your main crop. Use about five percent as much radish seed as the other vegetable.

Firm all the seeds into the soil with the back of a hoe. This anchors the seeds and gives them good contact with the soil, helping them germinate.

Cover the seeds with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil pulled from the side of the row with a rake, leveling the top of the seedbed as you go. The rule for all seeds is to cover them with fine, moist soil to a depth four times their diameter. These small seeds don't need much soil over them. Only cover them more (with an extra 1/4 inch of soil) in midsummer plantings, when the weather is hot and dry.

Gently firm the soil again with the back of a hoe.

Single-Row Planting

Stake out a single row just as you would a wide row, stretching a string along the ground between two stakes to mark off the length of the row.

Rake the seedbed smooth right over the string, then mark your planting line by making a furrow beside the string. Do this with the corner of a hoe or the end of a rake handle, or by laying the hoe or rake handle beside the string and pressing it lightly into the soil.

Sprinkle the seeds thinly along the planting line, then sow radish seeds in the same line (again about five percent). Firm the seeds into the soil, cover with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil, and firm again.

Whether you plant in wide rows, single rows or multiple rows, you should keep the soil around the seeds moist for the first week after you plant. Root crops won't germinate well in a dry seedbed. If the soil is dry, give the rows a light sprinkling of water right after planting. Because the soil is drier in the late summer, try this trick when planting for fall: Soak the seeds for an hour or so before planting to give them a head start on germination. Place them on a saucer or plate, barely cover them with room-temperature water, wait awhile, then plant. Once you've soaked the seeds you must plant them, because you've started the germination process. The wet seeds are a little harder to plant, but the results are worth it.

Keep an eye on the soil the first few days. If it rains, check it for a hard crusting when it dries. If the seedlings have to struggle through a crust, they'll suffer. Make it easy for them by carefully scratching the top 1/4 inch of soil in the row with an iron rake, a weeding tool or a piece of wire (a coat hanger works well).

Tips on Sowing Root Crop Seeds

The easiest way to sow root crop seeds is to sprinkle them by hand, keeping your hand two to three feet above the row. This scatters the seeds more evenly than if your hand is down very close to the row. (If it's a very windy day, of course, move a little closer!) Mix some fine soil or sand with the seeds to help even out the distribution.

You can also broadcast the seeds, mixed with dry sand, from a salt shaker if the holes are big enough, or right from the packet by tearing a tiny hole in one corner for them to slip through.
Growing Root Crops
Three essentials to a healthy crop of roots is thining, weeding, and watering.

The First Thinning

Thinning is a must with root crops. Crowded conditions cause them to become stunted or twisted around each other, and that's not good. You have to thin if you want roots that are big enough to eat. Starting when the seedlings are approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall, you can thin by hand or use the simple but effective iron-rake method.

Thinning with a rake is a snap. Just pull an iron garden rake once across the row with its teeth going into the soil about 1/4 inch. The teeth are spaced at intervals to catch just enough seedlings, pulling them from the row. Don't look down as you're doing this -- it's a horrible sight. You may think you've destroyed the whole row of plants, but don't fret. The remaining ones will perk up in a day or so. You can thin a single row this way, too.

Raking also cultivates the soil, stirring up and killing "weedlings." Most young weeds haven't had time to develop a deep taproot, so this initial thinning will dislodge them before they come up, exposing their shallow roots and killing them. Some of the worst garden weeds (pigweed, lamb's-quarter and many others) have very strong taproots, and the idea is to catch these weeds before they put down deep roots.

By thinning with a rake, you also break any crust on the surface, aerating the soil at the same time.

You can thin by hand if the rake technique seems a little too drastic. Simply pull up enough plants that the remaining ones will stand one to two inches apart. You may not trust the rake method at first, but try it on at least part of a row. With the rake you can thin (and weed) all your root crops in just a minute or two, whereas thinning by hand seems to take forever.

The best time to thin is a few hours after a rain or a thorough watering, when the soil is damp but the plants have dried off completely. (Never weed, thin or harvest around wet plants, because you can spread disease from your hands and clothing without knowing it.) Damp soil permits seedlings to be pulled without disturbing the roots of the remaining plants, and any weeds that start to germinate after a rain will be uprooted, too. If it's very dry on the day you decide to thin, water the surface of the soil, so you don't pull up more seedlings than you intend.

Because beet seeds produce clusters of seedlings, the simplest way to thin them is with an iron rake. The rake teeth will uproot just the right number of seedlings. If you thin by hand, don't try to remove any of the seedlings from within a single cluster. It's too easy to disturb the remaining ones. Instead, pull up whole clusters, leaving two to three inches between them. If you like beet greens, sow the seeds a little thicker than is usually recommended on seed packages. When the beets are a little bigger, thin them again; along with the greens, you'll also get a great harvest of marble-sized baby beets.

Thinning always seems more traumatic for the gardener than it is for the plants. People don't like to pull up those helpless seedlings that have just barely made it through the soil surface. Think of it as helping your whole crop and giving you more food to eat, and it will soon be a natural part of your garden routine.

Weeding

Most root crops grow very slowly the first few weeks, and they can't compete with weeds. But there are several time-saving ways to stay ahead in the weeding game.

Try this trick in the early spring before you even plant a seed: Wait a week or so between the initial soil preparation and planting day. During this time, go out several times and till or stir the soil. This exposes and kills the first batches of tiny "weedlings" lurking near the surface that may try to overrun your young seedlings.

Once your plants are up, you should stir up the soil within the rows every four or five days until the seedlings are well established. You can save a lot of bending over by using special hoes for weeding. Many have a strong, narrow blade with a curved gooseneck to let you pull weeds from even tight spots in the row without damaging the stems or roots of vegetables.

Once the plants get too tall to use a weeding tool, buckle down and hand pull every weed as soon as you see it. Keep in mind that any weed that grows in your garden is a robber, stealing sun, water and food from your crops, and in the end, stealing food from you.

To keep down weeds between the rows, stir the soil surface there, too. Or, you can put down a two- to three-inch layer of mulch (shredded leaves, straw, lawn clippings or even newspapers) between the rows to do the work for you. Mulch has the added advantage of keeping the soil moist and at an even temperature. Your root crops will really appreciate this.

Naturally, the more weed prevention you can accomplish early, the easier it will be later on. And by planting in wide rows, you'll have very little hand weeding to do. But you're bound to get some weeds, so go out to your garden daily and keep them pulled!

The Second Thinning and the First Harvest

Thin again by hand several weeks after the first thinning to give the remaining plants space to reach their mature size. (Enjoy the thinnings of these sweet, tender "baby" carrots and beets.) This is also when you would harvest the radishes planted as companion plants. In heavy soil, leave the White Icicle radishes until they're quite large, then pull them to create that beneficial void in the soil. The beets, carrots, parsnips or turnips left in the row will push the soil around them into the gaps as they grow.

The third time you go out to thin, you'll be harvesting for real. See how you can kill a few birds with one stone, as each chore combines with the others?

Watering

Root crops need about one inch of water per week. If you can supply this water evenly, with no long dry spells to inhibit the growth of the roots and greens, you'll encourage a healthy crop. The exception to the one inch per week rule of thumb is the light sprinklings you should provide after sowing the seeds and until the seedlings emerge. Once the seedlings are up, return to the following watering habits:

Water when your garden needs it, not just by a calendar schedule. Don't be tempted to water your plants if the greens are drooping occasionally in the late afternoon sun -- this is normal. But, if they look wilted before eleven o'clock in the morning, they need water.

Another mistake gardeners often make is to give their gardens many light waterings instead of a few thorough soakings. Once your seeds are sprouted, soak the soil when it needs it to a depth of four to six inches. By watering deeply you encourage the taproot to grow down seeking the moisture. Shallow waterings promote shallow root growth, which is exactly what you don't want, especially if you live in a drought-prone area.

How much does it take to water your garden to a depth of four to six inches? If you're using a sprinkler, set a pan in the area you're watering. When the water is an inch deep in the pan, the nearby soil will be sufficiently soaked-about six inches down.
Harvesting Root Crops
After all your hard work, it's time to enjoy your harvest. Here's how to pick your crops.

Time to Eat!

Start harvesting beets and turnips early for their greens, and baby carrots when they're the size of your little finger. This will give you a good start on a long harvesting period; the roots left in the row will have more room to grow; and you won't be faced with an entire row of vegetables ready to be pulled on the same day. Besides, the smaller the root, the better it tastes!

For a few extra meals of beet or turnip greens, just go out and snip off the leaves you want. As long as you leave some greens on the plant, it will continue to grow more of

them -- as well as growing a nice big root, too.

Pull the largest roots every time you harvest. People are tempted to leave the biggest ones, so they'll grow even bigger. Don't do it! By pulling the largest roots, you're sure to have them before they're so big they're all woody and bitter. Again, this encourages the remaining plants to fill in and grow bigger, giving you what seems like an inexhaustible supply of medium-sized, savory roots.

Once some root crops get bigger, you may have to wiggle them back and forth (or loosen them with a trowel, pitchfork or spade) to get them out. If a top breaks off in your hand, don't give up. Dig down into the soil and pull that root! If you water the soil before harvesting, the roots will pop out more easily.

Harvest whenever you need fresh roots, picking just enough. You should be able to enjoy all your spring-planted root crops in this fresh, garden-to-table fashion.

Where's the Biggest Carrot?

If you want to find the biggest carrot in the row just by looking at the greens, remember this: the bigger the root, the darker the greens and the thicker the stem. If some of the greens in the row look darker than the others, you can be sure the largest carrots are underneath. With beets, radishes or turnips, the greens with the thickest stems will point the way to the biggest roots.