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jdreinstein

Giving up on root vegetables FOREVER! (Help?)

jdreinstein
13 years ago

I am so frustrated.

I have attempted to grow a variety of root vegetables in almost every imaginable soil-based method, and I have never had success.

Here's what happens:

Regardless of which type of root, turnips, radishes, whatever - they only grow a small tap root underground, and then seem to grow the rest of their root (the red portion that should bulb and become the edible portion) ABOVE ground, and then have a stem and leaves. This results in no edible root formation.

I have:

- Direct-sowed via broadcast, in various sized rows (which were thinned), in various sized holes, started indoors in cups, peat pots, and plugs. I have bad clay soil, so I grow in super-amended and well-fertilized beds of peat moss, well-rotted compost, straw, sawdust, and manure. The soil is exquisitely soft and nutrient-filled.

In each of these cases, the turnip (or whatever) would end up exposing the majority of its root with only a small portion underground.

I have actually transplanted several of these results, burying the entire root up to where the leaves start. The transplants grew great leaves, stems, and seemed to flourish. However, even months later (even with RADISHES!), no root forms - it remains small and un-swollen.

Comments (32)

  • sarahkincheloe
    13 years ago

    What was the weather like? This has happened to me when I try to grow radishes or beets when it's too warm.

  • twc015
    13 years ago

    It would help if you tell us when you have tried to grow the root crops. Most of these grow best when high temperatures are 70°F or cooler.

    Also, many root crops grow the edible portion above the ground. I can always see the roots of radishes above the soil.

  • jimster
    13 years ago

    "The soil is exquisitely soft and nutrient-filled."

    You might have better luck growing radishes and turnips in the "bad clay soil" or, at least, in amended soil with a fairly high clay content. I never had trouble with root crops failing to "bulb up" until I moved from heavy clay to light sand.

    You are not alone. A lot of people have posted about this problem over the years.

    Jim

  • tcstoehr
    13 years ago

    Since your root crops never bulb up it's not possible to say how much of it would be above ground or below. It is in my experience very normal for a good portion of the "root" to be above ground early on. Then when bulbing happens I end up with beets 50% above ground and 50% below. Actually more above ground since the top half is wider. The problem you're really having is that your root crops just aren't bulbing up. You need to figure out why. Probably due to lack of general health and vigor. Do your other vegetables grow healthy and vigorous? In the same locations?
    I had to plant beets 3 times this year because they lacked vigor due to something nibbling on their roots. Eventually they became vigorous enough to withstand whatever was eating their roots because the days became longer and I added chicken manure to the bed, or the predation stopped. I can't ever really know for sure but now I have baseball sized beets that stick quite a bit out of the ground.
    Very often when plants fail to thrive it's because of something eating at their roots. Try digging out some of your plants being careful to get all the roots. See if they're long and healthy looking, or on the other hand if they're scarred and knarly. Another sign is roots that are stubbed off while other roots higher up grow to replace them. You may even find the culprit.
    Where I live there are various root maggots that love to eat turnips and radishes. I can't grow a decent radish because of them. However, I can grown monster rutabagas simply because they are so vigorous that they laugh off any root maggot predation. And boy howdy do they grow above the ground. Like they're just sitting on top of the soil with a tap root at the bottom.

  • farmerdilla
    13 years ago

    Concur turnips, rutabagas, kohlrabi, radishes are cool waether crops.In Oklahoma you should be growing these in early spring and late fall. They are also designed to grow with the top portion out of ground. Bury them and they will not form. Good reference is the Purple Top/White Globe turnip. The white portion forms in the ground but the purple portion above ground.
    {{gwi:100882}} {{gwi:100883}} {{gwi:100884}}

  • jdreinstein
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I will try to answer questions posed and provide some additional info. At this point, it seems like they are intentionally throwing the dirt off of their own roots, so I'm happy with everybody's willingness to help so far. If you can SOLVE this puzzle, I have TONS of bed space waiting for fall plantings, and I will personally overnight you my first whole crop of gourmet radishes in 45 days!

    More details about my soil:

    I have tried growing in just clay amended to be light enough for carrots (which are actually doing OK...)

    The "exquisite" bed soil is as follows:

    Well-rotted straw-manure-sawdust with sphagnum and peat compost, some mushroom compost to even the pH from the peat,

    All nutrients are regulated with drip fertigation and soil tests.

    I do grow edibles bulb ABOVE ground - I have wonderful success! My Kohlrabi are great and healthy. I have loads of ripening melons of all varieties. Beans, peas, summer and winter squashes, tomatoes, herbs, lettuces, okra, peppers, eggplant, corn - ALL Of these things I am able to grow.

    To answer regarding vigor and roots - all crops that i took to harvest time had very high vigor, plentiful green leaves without chlorosis or veining, and otherwise good color.

    And yes - I have failed with both Detroit Dark Red beets and Purple Top White Globe. I just pulled up and threw out a mess of seedlings that had about a quarter millimeter of root in the ground.

    From everybody's comments and the pictures above (THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PICS!), it seems as if I should be growing most of the roots above ground. How, specifically, should they look? Should the "purple tops" remain straight above the ground? Mine lay down and become crooked as they grow. Some times the leaves wind up laying all over the ground and rotting. Turnips should be staked, or caged? :)

    Ah - one more note - all vegetables were grown in ideal light conditions, so cross that one off also.

    This year, I have been trying steadily since April. I have not actually heard much on actual heat INTOLERANCE by radishes - is this the case? It's pretty damn hot here - the melons love it.

  • nancyjane_gardener
    13 years ago

    Radishes don't like heat. NT

  • twc015
    13 years ago

    I think the reasons why you are not having much success with root crops is your planting dates. April is too late to start many of them. I would try to plant the root crops in February and March for the spring crop. You could also try planting these crops soon for a fall crop. I would wait on radishes until at least mid-September and October is even better.

  • tomtuxman
    13 years ago

    I had exact same problem. While planting dates/cool weather may be a contributing factor also, I was advised to have my soil tested as it may be lack of potassium, which I think is the root stimulant in all N-P-K ferts.

    Also, my soil can be described much like yours and apparently a lot of these root veggies like lousy soil. Go figure.

  • gardendawgie
    13 years ago

    Everyone gets excited in the spring and plants everything. However, the proper time for half of the plants is fall planting. Late in the year is much better than in the early spring for many veggies.

    They want to bulb up in cool temperatures. Keep working at it until you get to christmas. Eventually you will hit the right time to plant.

    Also radish grow above ground and Daikon grow deep below ground. If you want deep radishes try Daikon. Some will grow 2 and 3 feet down below soil.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Daikon Radish seeds

  • sandhill_farms
    13 years ago

    I think that it's very important to note that there are different planting times all across the country. For example planting times for us here in the Southern Nevada desert are completely different than most of the rest of the country. While we can grow almost all year, fall - winter and spring are our best growing times, so planting seeds and transplants are at different times of the year. It's also not a good idea to go by what it says on the seed packet as it may not apply to where you live.

    Greg
    Southern Nevada

  • jdreinstein
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you all for your advice. With what you've told me about the heat/cold thing, I did more research, and now armed will order further turnip and radish seeds (including daikon) with my fall carrots and my lettuce, spinach, and cabbage. I plant those successively as soon as the weather drops down to about eighty degrees high, which gets us down to the fifties in the lows within a few weeks. Oklahoma has a really rapid drop into crip temps in the fall.

    So, TO CONFIRM:

    I SHOULD have a one-inch portion of red (or purple, whatever) "root" section above the ground - this is the part that should bulb up in correct temps to stimulate "dormancy" in the plant.

    I SHOULD NOT re-bury this portion of the root far below ground, as this will prevent proper bulb formation (with the exception of Daikons, which would be replanted at a different proper growing depth like carrots...)

    Final Questions:

    HOW MUCH should the actual tap root delve into the ground?

    WHEN should I expect the roots to start bulking? (Turnip, radish, beet, etc?)

    WHAT TEMPS are IDEAL for bulking roots? (Daytime high? Nighttime low? Sustained low?)

    Thanks again - I came for information and was not disappointed!

  • farmerdilla
    13 years ago

    "HOW MUCH should the actual tap root delve into the ground?"
    Depends on the cultivar most will go 6-10 inches. Some the big winter radishes will go two feet.
    "WHEN should I expect the roots to start bulking? (Turnip, radish, beet, etc?)"
    European type radishes one month, turnips two months, beets 2-3 months, rutabagas three months, winter radishes two-three months.
    "WHAT TEMPS are IDEAL for bulking roots? (Daytime high? Nighttime low? Sustained low?) "
    day average 84, night average 50. All will stand temps into middle 20's

  • wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
    13 years ago

    I do believe that soil that is too loose isn't as good for some of the root crops...like onions. I have found that out again for the second time.

  • wulfe
    13 years ago

    Particularly when it comes to beets, the tap root can (and should) go quite deep down. Outside of the potential heat issues already mentioned (and that is a valid concern - hot weather and many roots don't mix), I'm curious as to how far down your soil is loosened up. Have you tilled it? Double dug it? Have all your amendments gone into only the top few inches?

  • jdreinstein
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Hello All,

    I'm back, and munching on a well-bulbed turnip planted in November or so.

    I actually planted three beds of cold-weathers; beets, chard, and turnips. I harvested all of the chard in baby form and it was great. I neglected to cover all of these in time to catch the first wet frost (worst than a hard freeze, covers everything in ice - what we get first in Oklahoma), and so lost all the beets - and I thought all the turnips as well.

    So I left them uncovered, never watered, and leaves fell on them. Out of curiosity, I moved some leaves a few weeks ago and WHAM - mid-sized, baby turnip bulbs.

    Note that these were never thinned heavily planted stands, so as soon as I thin these out, start watering (they've had none, believe it or not) weed them, and then cultivate between the stands, I'm sure they'll freak out and bulb up huge in this weather. We're averaging around 40-50 during the days and 30-40 at night, aside from random storms. I have hoops up - just need to put the plastic on after I work on them!

    So, thanks to all for the weather advice! Based on this, I'm tilling out more soil once this current frost breaks and transplanting some (SERIOUSLY hardened) radishes out!

    Best Regards All!

  • glib
    13 years ago

    Way to go JDR. I planted some turnips in 90% shade in August from seed, and they made perfect bulbs of excellent size which I stored under leaves around Thanksgiving. It was just a try, I had no idea. Sure they like more cool and shade than we give them credit for.

  • Emily Wolffing
    7 years ago

    Why do my beets, radishes, turnips and carrots only grow as roots etc.?

  • digdirt2
    7 years ago

    What do you mean Emily? They are all root crops so it is normal for them to grow as roots. Do you mean they don't grow any leaves/tops? Or do you mean they never develop edible roots of any size?

    Are they direct seeded, not transplants? Is your soil loose textured or hard and compact? Is you soil too rich, too high in nitrogen? These are all issues discussed above in this thread.

    Otherwise we'd need more info and best to start a new discussion as this one is quite old.

    Dave.

  • Laura at Rather Square
    7 years ago

    In response to an earlier comment here, I'm also having trouble with my turnips and rutabagas growing "long" roots above ground that lie down and twist on top of the soil and never seem to bulb up. I planted these in July and am starting to harvest the turnips but just reburied the rutabagas up to the leaves out of desperation since no bulbing has happened yet (it's been over two months). Figured I had nothing to lose by trying. It's like the plants were leggy from the start. Could that be the problem?

  • digdirt2
    7 years ago

    They are both cool weather, cool soil plants so yes, in cases of excessive heat as most of us have right now they just grow into leggy plants with little root development. If the soil is also high in nitrogen you also get lots of leafy top growth but little to no root development.

    Dave

  • FastInk
    7 years ago

    Root veg is notoriously hard to grow. It's almost impossible in certain soils. They say radish is easy but in reality it's damn hard to grow, this is why it's priced so high pound for pound in stores. Don't get worked up or fooled over this, if radish were so easy to to grow it wouldn't be as pricey as it is...


    On the other hand there's turnip, this is another crop that can be hell to grow unless for greens, no wonder it never gets sold in supermarkets, and if so very rare...

    I'd suggest trying to grow Beets and potatoes, go from there


    My advice is

  • LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
    7 years ago

    They say radish is easy but in reality it's damn hard to grow

    Not very hard in my experience as long as you sow at the correct time, depth, don't fertilize them at all and keep well watered. I've been sowing radishes every 4 or 5 days for the last 3+ weeks and just harvested some of the first sowing yesterday at only 22 days. A few of the French Breakfast from the first sowing were a little leggy which is not unusual for them but the Cherry Bell are rooting up great.

  • farmerdill
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Radishes and turnips are about as fool proof vegetable crop as you can get. Both are cool weather crops, so in a warm climate don't grow them in the summertime. very undemanding as far as soil types or fertility. They are subject to cabbage root maggots, so if you have an abundance of those, You are out of luck. While worse on turnips and radishes , they do a number on most other barssicas as well. They do need loose soil., but you can till up just about any type of land, scatter a handful of seed, rake them


    in, water or get a good rain, then get out of thier way until ready to harvest.
    top photos are the radish Amethest, bottom, one my favorite turnips Red Round.

  • digdirt2
    7 years ago

    Agree about the ease of growing most root crops. But just as with all crops, they have their season, their best planting and growing times. Ignoring that need, trying to grow any crop any time you want is asking for failure.

    Those ideal planting times will vary depending on location so it behooves the gardener to first take the time to learn WHEN to plant that crop in their garden for best results. And even then that is assuming the weather cooperates. ;-)

    Dave

  • LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
    7 years ago

    And even then that is assuming the weather cooperates.

    Exactly! That's why I sow radishes every 4-5 days from late August until late September here in the KC area. I know the earliest sowings may not do well if the heat persists into September but I always have a lot of space I can use in beds planned for Garlic planting and eventually the beds that had tomatoes so what the heck. Seeds are extremely cheap if you buy them by the 1/4 lb. (10,000+ seeds for < $10) as opposed to a packet of 250 for $3-4.

  • FastInk
    7 years ago

    Just to add to the insanity, Ya radish is very easy to grow bla bla bla, (we damn well know they read this online) if this was remotely true radishes in the store wouldn't be that expensive, pound per pound radish is one of the most expensive root crops. If radishes were so easy to grow, they wouldn't be priced as high, a little container of radishes around here is almost the price of gold.

  • FastInk
    7 years ago

    Turnips being sold in supermarkets is a whole knew animal because they are full of pests, which is one of the reasons you rarely see them being sold, tho easy to grow.

  • FastInk
    7 years ago

    Mind you there's a reason why turnips/ rutabaga aren't flooding the supermarkets and same with radish,

  • LoneJack Zn 6a, KC
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    So do you get paid by the post Fastlnk? Sorry that you have so much trouble growing radishes wherever you are but it sounds like a personal problem to me. I guess the 3 dozen or so that I harvested last night are worth their weight in gold then? I should have sold them rather than ate them. Oh well...there's another 4-5 dozen that will be ready by this weekend...I'll be a rich man!

  • theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    "Turnips being sold in supermarkets is a whole knew animal because they
    are full of pests
    , which is one of the reasons you rarely see them being
    sold, tho easy to grow."

    Ummm... okay. Like to know where the hell you got that false info about supermarket turnips from. And if they are so easy to grow then why did you say in a previous comment that they were hard?

    "Mind you there's a reason why turnips/ rutabaga aren't flooding the supermarkets and same with radish,"

    Could simply be due to the fact that turnips and rutabagas aren't very popular. Ever think of that? As for radishes, I see them available year round in grocery stores for not that much money. Even daikon radishes.

    Rodney

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