The Root Vegetable Gardening Guide

Planting root crops in the garden is a very satisfying way to harvest fresh and organic vegetables. Root crops have different growing needs than the traditional plants found in most home gardens. If you follow the advice in this root vegetable growing guide, you will be serving your family gorgeous carrots, radishes and turnips in no time.

The Root Vegetable Growing Guide To Good Soil

One novice mistake many gardeners make when it comes to growing root vegetables is thinking that the soil they use for their tomatoes, zucchini and corn is the right kind of soil for beets and radishes. Root vegetables require a loose soil, so they have room to develop underground.

Closely follow this root vegetable growing guide when it comes to amending your soil, by adding nitrogen in the form of a commercial fertilizer or blood meal. Avoid fertilizers that promise weed control, because the weed killing agents found in those fertilizers will also kill your root crops.

Never put fresh fertilizer in a bed in which you plan to plant carrots, radishes, or other root vegetables. The nutrients found in fresh fertilizer cause your root crops to split and be malformed. You can also loosen your soil by tilling in sand before you plant your seeds.

The Root Vegetable Growing Guide To Seed Starting

Some garden plants do better when they are transplanted as young seedlings into the garden. Root vegetables do best when they are direct sown into the soil. The seeds of root crops are rather small, making it hard to plant without the seeds washing away if it rains before they germinate.

Plan your rows carefully, planting extra seed to make up for any that washes away. You can always thin your plants later to give them room. You can also purchase a device that allows you to sow seeds at exact intervals or buy root crop seed tape.

The Root Vegetable Growing Guide To Planting Times

Most root crops are cool season crops. This means that if you wait to plant and harvest them when it is too hot, they will bolt. When a root crop bolts it develops flowers. While the flowers can look pretty, they sap energy in the plant that should be working to develop the root you want to harvest. Plant root crops in the early spring so that you can harvest them before the hottest months of summer. You can also plant root crops in August for a fall harvest.