Turnips, Beets, Kohlrabi, and other roots

Has anyone ever planted many root veggies? How did they do? What kind of problems did you have?

Little Thumb

Turnips, beets, garlic, onions mainly. This year in the SFG the turnips are tiny tiny. Great green growth, but I don't like turnip greens. Am not doing beets this year. Garlic is doing OK, but not as good as last year in the lasagna bed. I know Mel says it does OK in 6" of soil, but mine seem to like a deeper bed.

We got decent beets and turnips last year, and I even got a kohlrabi that was really happy, but our sweet potatoes were decidedly unhappy, and our carrots suffered carrot fly maggots We're planning to build a bed specifically for sweet potatoes next year that has a lot of sand in it, so we'll see if that helps. I'm hoping to test out companion planting to spare my poor carrots, we'll see how that works.

I am growing potatoes, carrots, and kohlrabi this year. I wanted to do beets but ran out of space. There are onions in with the carrots in hopes of defending them. (No idea if that will work, just read it somewhere.)

Miinva, did you find sweet potato starts somewhere, or just cut up taters from the grocery? Sounds like fun.

I have bull's blood beets in for the greens. They're beautiful and delicious!

Actually I got my sweet potato slips from a sweet 92 year old man who lives down the street from me. We don't have the new bed built for them so I may not get them this year, but I noticed that the guy at the farmer's market I get my heirloom tomatoes from had some sweet potato slips too! That made me really happy, how nerdy am I?! *giggle*

That would make me really happy, too! For greens this year I am doing Swiss chard and amaranth. Plus hopefully the kohlrabi greens will be usable.

I don't know how far you are from Locust Grove, but that's where the little farmer's market I get my plants from takes place, Sundays 10:30-3:00. I have a plant list from the guy I get my heirloom tomatoes from if you'd like to see it.

According to Google, we are about 45 miles north-north-east of Locust Grove, up Route 28. I'd love to see your list.

I planted beets, carrots, potatoes, kohlrabi, radishes, garlic and onions last year. Only the potatoes, and radishes did well, but that was my fault.

This year, thus far, I have radishes, two kinds of beets, turnips, four kinds of onions, two kinds of potatoes, and 2 kinds of kohlrabi. I will plant more onions, rutabaga, garlic, more beets, more radishes, more turnips, three kinds of carrots,sweet potato, and four more kinds of potatoes.

chocolatepop wrote:This year, thus far, I have radishes, two kinds of beets, turnips, four kinds of onions, two kinds of potatoes, and 2 kinds of kohlrabi. I will plant more onions, rutabaga, garlic, more beets, more radishes, more turnips, three kinds of carrots,sweet potato, and four more kinds of potatoes.

Chocolatepop, do you eat the kohlrabi greens? Only a couple of mine have made heads and I'm wanting to pull them all to make room for a second/fall crop....

no i dont, but mainly because they have been shredded by bugs

In my first year SFG, the radishes didn't do too well - I think I didn't water them enough or something...
This year (my 2nd year SFG), my radishes are doing so awesomely that I went out and bought 1 packet of each radish variety the store offered! They are all doing very well. The only problem I've had with them so far is finding these little inchworm-caterpillar-somethings on them, eating little holes in the leaves. I just picked them off and they were fine.
I've also grown "Short 'N' Sweet" Carrots - they do pretty well, but I've always planted them at the wrong time, so they don't ever do as well as I hope (only about 3 carrots made it last year). Next year, I WILL plant them in the spring. Really, I will! They have about 4" roots, so no need for a high-rise.
Last year's SFG yielded exactly zero onions. However, I planted them way too late and the GA sun was too much for them. This year, I planted them too late again, but they have a little shade and I still have 1 growing. I hope he makes it. Next year, I will probably get onion sets instead of seeds.
Trying beets this year for the first time. Seem to be doing okay so far.
Haven't tried garlic or potatoes yet.
I am intrigued with these other root vegetables. I'm not sure if I've ever eaten them before in my life.
I've heard Kohlrabi tastes like an apple. Is that true? Can you eat it raw? Is it sweet? What does it taste like?
Same goes for Parsnips, Turnips, and Rutabaga. They sound interesting, and I'd like to grow them, but I'm kind of hesitant to plant some kind of unknown veggie. I guess I'll have to buy some from the grocery store and try them out!

Weed 'em and Reap wrote:
I am intrigued with these other root vegetables. I'm not sure if I've ever eaten them before in my life.
I've heard Kohlrabi tastes like an apple. Is that true? Can you eat it raw? Is it sweet? What does it taste like?
Same goes for Parsnips, Turnips, and Rutabaga. They sound interesting, and I'd like to grow them, but I'm kind of hesitant to plant some kind of unknown veggie. I guess I'll have to buy some from the grocery store and try them out!

Definitely try them! This website can be a big help: The Cook's Thesaurus

Kohlrabi to me tastes more like a very mild turnip. You can eat it raw.
Parsnips are like carrots, only sweeter.
Turnips and rutabagas.... rutabagas taste milder, to me. They have a brassica taste to them. Like kohlrabi only stronger. (And yes, I realize I just defined them both in terms of each other, which doesn't help you at all, does it??!! LOL.)

Root crops can do well. I've had success with red beets, kohlrabi, carrots, daikon, turnips, sweet potato, etc. The shocker was a two foot long sweet potato that was growing horizontally along the bottom of the box!

Biggest problem for me at the time? Butterflies laying eggs on the leaves, especially the kohlrabi. Fixed that since then with covers over the boxes.

Here's a photo of an early harvest from February 2008. Picked some of 'em young. Couldn't wait!

I am growing red & kennebec potatoes, rainbow carrots, parsnips, red & gold beets, white onion, shallots. I will be planting garlic later in the season. I don't usually do radish, but I may try some later in the season when I have a square open up.