How to Grow Perfect Root Vegetables | Gardening 101 | Gardening Australia

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00:00 – Why Root Vegetables Are So Rewarding
00:42 – The Secret: Timing Your Sowing Right
01:25 – Preparing the Perfect Root Crop Bed
02:15 – Soil Conditions & Nutrients for Root Crops
03:10 – Sowing Seeds and Spacing Tips
04:05 – Common Mistakes to Avoid
04:55 – How to Keep Soil Moist and Loose
05:35 – When and How to Harvest Root Vegetables
06:20 – Millie’s Final Tips for Healthy Root Crops

Millie shares her tips on getting the best out of your root crops.

Timing is critical for growing root crops, especially in cool climates. Millie waits for the soil to warm up a little and for a forecast of fine weather on the way before sowing.

She prepares the soil by weeding and gently forking over the soil where a hungry crop of radicchio has recently grown – root crops don’t need much in the way of nutrients so planting them after leafy greens is a good rotation.

Millie adds just a light sprinkle of homemade compost to help keep moisture in the soil and then rakes the bed to get a fine tilth. This ensures the seeds will have good contact with the soil.

She makes rows in the soil – about 10cm apart – using a rake she adapted especially for this purpose.

Root crops are usually sown directly into the soil to avoid disturbing the roots once they start growing.

Carrots are especially sensitive to being disturbed. However, the seeds are also very small so it’s hard to sow the seed evenly. One trick that Millie learnt from Peter Cundall was to thoroughly mix the seed into a small amount of fine soil or sand, making it easier to get an even distribution of seed. Sow the soil mix thinly then lightly backfill and firm down to ensure contact with the soil.

Beetroot – Millie soaks the seed in water overnight to speed up germination. The seed is much larger and easier to handle. You can get multiple plants from each seed – the botanical name for this is aggregate seeds – but the seedlings cope well with growing close together. Millie grows the striped variety ‘Chioggia’ as well regular reds. Drop the seed into the rows and then firm down a light covering of soil to ensure they’re covered.

Parsnips – many people struggle to grow parsnips, usually because the seed needs to be exceptionally fresh. As soon as it starts to age, it becomes less viable. The best way to ensure fresh seed is to allow plants to flower and collect your own seed – you’ll often find parsnips self-seeding and they can become a bit of a weed in some areas.
The large, papery seed takes a bit longer to germinate (about a month), so sowing it a bit earlier when the soil is still cool will work well.

To keep the rows of seed cool and moist, Millie covers the whole bed with some old lace curtains. This will allow in some sun and air through while holding moisture in the soil after watering.

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MILLIE: Of all the vegetables I grow, there is one group that gives me more
satisfaction than almost any others and that is the root crops. And while they’re pretty simple
to grow, there is a little bit of a knack
to doing it well and I want to share it with you. While timing is really important
for almost all vegetables, I find it’s really critical
for successful root crops and particularly in our cold climate. In some places you’ll get away with,
sort of, successive sowings that you can harvest
right through the seasons. But here, I find that sowing
in the premium time in spring is always most successful. So, I wait for that warming soil, a nice week or two of moist weather
on the way, and that is the perfect time
to get your root crops in the ground. Here you go, girls. While the girls convert weeds
into perfect nutrients to sow out a root-crop bed,
you actually need very little. And in fact, this garden bed
grew a big crop of radicchio, which is a hungry crop, last, and I’m not going to add much more
in the way of nutrients to it at all. I’m just working my way through
and forking, to aerate, sort of,
fluff that soil surface up. I’m not turning it over. I don’t want
to break up the biology in the soil. Then I’ll add just a really thin
sprinkle of homemade compost. It’s not very rich,
won’t add nutrients, but it will help to keep the surface
of the soil nice and moist. I’m raking the soil level
to ensure it’s a really fine tilth, because I want to make sure that
the seeds make contact with the soil when I sow them. I’m making some rills for sowing
about 10 centimetres apart with my rake. I’ve attached some small bits of hose
to get nice even spacings. Root crops are traditionally sown
direct into the soil because you want that root, and separating and planting seedlings
can often disrupt that development. And carrots are really, really the
most important crop to sow direct. They are, of course,
the poster root crop and they are really sensitive
to being transplanted. Never buy a punnet of carrots
at the shops. But you can see that that seed
is absolutely tiny, so it can be quite difficult
to handle. There’s a bit of a trick
to sowing them. And I learnt this from Peter Cundall.
I’m sure some of you did too. I’ve got a jar of really fine soil.
You could equally use some sand. And I’m going to mix that fine seed
into that, thoroughly combine it, and then I can sprinkle this soil
across those rills and I’ll get much better spacing
for those tiny seeds than I would if I tried to do it
straight from the pack. Now, beetroot also benefit
from pre-treatment. I soak my seed in water overnight. I found that gets them just out
of the ground much more quickly. And they can go straight
into the soil. They are a really big, easy,
robust seed, and sometimes you’ll actually get
a number of plants from an individual seed –
they’re aggregate seed, there’s a number of embryos. You don’t need to stress
about that too much because they’re used to growing
as a clump together. And I grow a couple of varieties –
this is ‘Chioggia’, which is a beautiful Italian
candy-striped variety, and lots of regular reds. One of the last roots that I grow
are parsnips, and people commonly actually
really struggle to grow these and I almost guarantee
it’s for the same reason. This seed needs to be
exceptionally fresh so I save it myself every year
and resow that. And in fact, it’s self-seeds
all throughout their garden. They’re a little bit of a weed. They are a larger papery seed and they will take a lot longer
to germinate than these two, so you can go a bit earlier in the
season in that cooler winter soil. Sow your parsnips and they should
germinate within about a month. The carrot seed mixed with soil
is just sprinkled along the rows. And then carefully backfilled and firm down to make sure I’m making
contact with the fine seed, I’ll drip the beetroot seed
along the rows and then again firm them down
to make sure the seed is covered. And then,
to keep them cool and moist, I’ll chuck on a little bit of fabric. Root crops really are a staple
in the kitchen, and with a little bit of soil prep
and the perfect timing, you can make them a staple
in the garden too.