Root Crops in October

Radish Quick Pickles
Photo by Bridget Aleshire

Root Crops to Plant in Central Virginia in October

We have now passed our last chances to sow root crops outdoors. But the exciting season in the hoophouse has just begun. In early October, we sow radishes in our hoophouse. See Root Crops in September for more about our succession of hoophouse radish sowing dates. We like Easter Egg (a multi-colored mix of red, plum, pink, purple and white varieties, that matures over several weeks), Cherry Belle, the fast, uniform red globes, and White Icicle, like baby daikon about 3” (7 cm) long. These three varieties all stay crunchy and tender. We have a dread of fibrous radishes! Most years we make a sowing at the beginning of October and another at the end, and these will feed us from early November until early February. The late October sowing lasts for 8 weeks, so it’s good to make sure we plant enough. Radishes do a lot to brighten up meals in December and January!

White Egg Turnips.
Photo Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

In mid-October (10/10-10/25), we sow our first of three plantings of hoophouse turnips. We like the very fast-growing and tender Hakurei hybrid. It has short hairless tops which also make good eating. We sow this variety on the south side of the bed, leaving the other 3 rows for the taller varieties. We also like Early White Egg and Oasis, which are not quite as uniform as Hakurei, but are OPs and the seed is much cheaper. They produce more greens, which we value too. In the north row we often grow Red Round, a beautiful red-skinned turnip with tall attractive leaves. We also like Scarlet Ohno Revival, which has the advantage of hairless leaves. This is an Open Source Seed Initiative variety. The OSSI pledge: “You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.”.

We thin the turnips as needed. If we sowed thickly, the first thinnings become baby greens for salad. Once the turnips are the size of marbles, we like to thin the plants to 3” (7 cm) apart and cook them whole, roots and greens together. The next thinning is to 6” (15 cm) and from that point on, we harvest the greens and roots separately. We get a ratio of one bucket of roots to two buckets of greens, which fits our needs perfectly. We like to mix the roots, as the one quarter of red roots adds a pop to the appearance.

Root Crops to Harvest in Central Virginia in October

Misato Rose Winter Radish.
Photo Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

We can continue harvesting beets (and beet greens), carrots, horseradish, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips (and turnip greens), and winter radishes outdoors. Once we have had a decisive frost we can harvest parsnips – the frost really improves the flavor. Our 9/6 sowing of hoophouse radishes will start to mature.

See Washing, sorting and storing root crops in Root Crops in September

We tackle our process of clearing root crops and storing them, starting with celeriac (if we grew it this year). We start with the least cold tolerant roots and work our way to the most cold tolerant. This list is root crops only. See my list of Winter-Kill Temperatures of Cold-Hardy Winter Vegetables 2020 for a more complete picture of “Harvesting in Time”

Clear and store (in this order):

  • Sweet potatoes 50°F (10°C)
  • “White” Peruvian potatoes 32°F (0°C) approximately
  • Celeriac 20°F (°C)
  • Turnips 20°F (°C)
  • Winter radish 20°F (°C)
  • Beets 15-20°F (°C)
  • Kohlrabi, 15°F (°C)
  • Carrots 12° F (°C)
  • Parsnips 0°F (°C)
Bucket lid with holes for sorting root vegetables for storage.
Photo Wren Vile
  • Wash, and store roots in perforated plastic bags in refrigerator or root cellar. We use a special measuring bucket lid to help new workers determine if roots are big enough to store.
  • Harvest sweet potatoes before soil temperatures go much below 55°F (13°C), or night air goes below 50°F (10°C). See the Special Topic below.
  • Harvest white potatoes when the skins have thickened. (When the skin is undamaged after rubbing two together. About 2 weeks after the  tops die). See Harvesting Potatoes and Root Crops in June. Two or three days before harvesting, we spend the day removing the hay mulch from our 1600 row feet (488 m) potato patch to the compost area. Our potato digging machine can’t deal with mulch or heavy weeds. To fit with using machinery, we clear complete rows. We have a Perfect Potato Harvest Checklist. For fall harvesting we do the tractor work in the morning and pick up the potatoes in the afternoon, avoiding leaving any out overnight if it will be frosty. (When harvesting the March-planted potatoes in July, we do the tractor work early in the morning and start picking up the potatoes as soon as possible. We aim not to be outdoors after lunch when it’s hot, but if we need to, we will, as we don’t want ready-baked potatoes sitting on the soil!) Tractor time is 4 hrs x 2 people. Picking time is 30 people-hours.
  • For beets, we allow 6 people-hours per bed (360 row feet (110 m), and expect 2-3 50-pound (23 k) bags per bed. Cut the stems about ¼” (6 mm) above the root, to reduce “bleeding” when you cook the beets. I was reminded recently that not everyone knows that the easiest way to cook beets is to scrub them, boil them in the skins, drain and immerse in cold water, then simply slide the skins off. Hardly any wasted food and no wasted time.
  • Bucket of freshly harvested Detroit Dark Red beets for storage.
    Photo Pam Dawling
  • For carrots, we allow 4.5-6.5 people-hours per (large) garden cart for washing, trimming and sorting. Plan to keep the last 15 minutes for clean-up. Divide the rest of the time available by 3. Use 1/3 of the time for digging, 2/3 of the time for washing and sorting. Add time to take to storage. Record yields. We take the carrot tops back and spread them across the beds. (fall harvest only ). In the spring and summer we take carrot tops to the compost pile, as the smell can attract carrot rust root flies. In late fall it is too late to sow cover crops to protect the soil, and the flies have gone to overwinter wherever they do that, so we spread the tops over the beds to provide some protection for the soil.)
Carrot rust fly damage (or possibly carrot weevil) Photo Jessie Doyle
Carrot pest larvae: carrot rust fly I think. Maybe carrot weevil.
Photo Jessie Doyle

Special Root Crop Topic for October in Central Virginia:

Harvest sweet potatoes

Here’s our method:

First roll up the drip tape. Harvest on 3 mild days – generally in the week that your first frost usually occurs (10/7-14). We expect our whole harvest of 800 row feet (244 m) to take 80 people hours. Allow 1/3 of the time for snipping, 1/3 for digging, 1/3 for crating and schlepping. Digging takes a bit less time than either of the other jobs. Even a few hours exposed to temperatures below 50°F (10°C) will cause chilling injury. (Frost on the leaves does not of itself damage the roots). Don’t leave clipped plants uncovered overnight. Don’t leave sweet potatoes outdoors. Clip the vines, dig carefully, set the tubers in plant-clusters to dry on the soil. Select seed tubers (healthy med-size tubers from high-yielding plants, no rat-tails).  We save a generous 100 Georgia Jet, 100 Beauregard, 20 each of Bill Shane’s White and Jubilee. (These last two are unofficial names for varieties we were given and are maintaining for genetic diversity.)

Sweet potato harvest.
Photo Nina Gentle

Other Root Crop Tasks in Central Virginia in October:

Curing sweet potatoes and white potatoes

Cure sweet potatoes in collapsible, stackable holey crates (or in wooden flats with spacers for ventilation) and cover with newspaper on top, in a basement with the heater on, for 10-14 days (85-90°F, 27-32°C, 80-90% humidity) or longer if it’s cooler and drier.  Use fans. Splash water on floor. Curing is complete when the skin is undamaged after rubbing two together. Restack the boxes (in a rodent-proof storage cage, if you are using an outbuilding).

Cure freshly harvested white potatoes in a root cellar at 60-75°F (15.5-24°C) for 2 weeks, with good ventilation, then cool cellar to lower temperature. See Special Topic for July. For weeks 2-4, the temperature goal is 50°F (10°C), and fresh air is needed about once a week. Our method of providing an air change in our cellar or adjusting the temperature is to leave the door open when the temperature will be closer to our goal than the current reality. It works well enough.

Cold-hardy vegetables, carrot harvest, maybe snow on the way.

 

Wintry garden beds. Credit Ezra Freeman
Wintry garden beds.
Credit Ezra Freeman

For some years, I have been keeping a list of temperatures at which various crops get killed by cold weather. I update it each winter, and with two nights in the past week below the 14F we experienced on Saturday 11/15, I’ve started on this year’s update.

You can download a pdf here: Winter-kill temperatures 2014

See my 2013 posts about what survived when:

What’s still standing after two nights below 0F?

What’s alive at 14F?

Cylindra beet. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Cylindra beet.
Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

After the night at 14F (10F degrees colder than any previous night this season), the Cylindra beets were still OK, the Danvers carrots too. Our Tribute and Kaitlin cabbage were OK. All our broccoli shoots were rubbery, and knowing colder weather was coming soon, we went ahead and did one last harvest. We also harvested all the beets (we didn’t have many this year).

On the night of Tuesday/Wednesday 11/18-11/19 we got a brutal 10F. As often happens, our cold-weather low was 5F degrees colder than our nearest weather forecast station at Louisa Northside. After the 10F, there was a lot of damage. Some of the Tribute and Kaitlin cabbage had freeze damage. We made a big batch of kimchee from the cold-damaged cabbage. The Melissa savoy and the Deadon cabbage looked OK.Some of the senposai leaves have frost-killed patches, and most of the bigger chard stems got frozen. None of the plants are dead though.The Ventura celery under thick rowcover sustained quite a bit of damage. The Morris Heading collards are fine.

China Rose winter radish. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
China Rose winter radish.
Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

The winter radish (daikon, China Rose and Shunkyo Semi-long red-skinned radishes) were all OK, and we decided it was time to harvest them anyway, rather than risk forgetting them.

We have one bed of outdoor lettuce left, with thick rowcover. The Outredgeous was a slimy mess, the Olga romaine damaged but good inside. Still looking good were Salad Bowl, Red Salad Bowl, Red Cross, Winter marvel, Sylvesta and Pirat. Add those to your list of cold-hardy lettuce varieties.

Rouge d'hiver lettuce. Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Rouge d’hiver lettuce.
Credit Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Various patches of oats sown in August and the first half of September as winter cover crops have all suffered some damage. Not a complete kill, but some bleached downed stems. For many years, I mistakenly believed 20F was the kill temperature for oats, and repeatedly forgot to track what actually happened.  Now I’ll think of 10F as the beginning of the end for oats.

Our biggest worry was the carrots.We had 5 beds 180′ long with 5 rows in each. 4500 row feet of carrots, with one every 3″ – 18,000 carrots to dig by hand. We considered what to do during the day on Tuesday, before the cold night. We had cancelled the shift on Monday due to rain, and Tuesday was very cold and windy. If we harvested some on Tuesday, it could only be a small percentage of the total. and then we’d have to deal with them on Wednesday. We considered putting a load in the truck and driving the truck into the garage for the night, where there is a woodstove. (Meanwhile we were part-way through planting garlic). I didn’t want people to be outdoors for longer than necessary on Tuesday. The forecast was calling for 17F, meaning 12F was likely here. That’s the temperature I expect carrots to die at. But rowcovering them all in windy weather didn’t seem like an option. Overhead irrigation was almost unthinkable, as we’d stored away all the hoses and sprinklers. I watched the forecast. It crept up one degree. I decided to do nothing except cross our fingers, hoping the foliage would protect them for one night, and that the forecast might be “warming” slightly. But by 7pm the forecast was for 16F. I felt quite stressed. Losing all our winter carrots was an awful possibility.

Were the carrots frozen? After the 10F night, the leaves were very flopped over. I pulled a few carrots and sliced them. It was hard to tell. They did have a glassy margin around the edges. It takes a bit of time for frozen plants to “declare themselves”, so I looked again on Thursday. Many leaf stems showed bleaching caused by the cold temperature, and the leaves remained flopped over. I consulted with two of our main crew people, and we decided to wait till Monday, by when it should be obvious. We considered and discounted various versions of trying to harvest them in a hurry and finding a use for so many frozen carrots before they started to rot.

Meanwhile I went to the fridge and got some carrots we’d had in storage since the summer. When I sliced them, they looked just the same as the ones outdoors – translucent edges are normal!! So we decided to start harvesting as soon as possible (Friday). We’ve had crews on the job for three afternoons now, and we have harvested about three-quarters of them. They look great! Very little bug damage. (For some years we’ve been wondering whether we have carrot rust fly). No rodent damage. And happiest news yet – our soil has improved enough that we rarely needed to dig them. Mostly we could pull them, which is so much faster.

We’ve been debating the relative efficiency of several methods. My favorite is to pull the carrots, put the handfuls straight into carts, haul them to the washing area. Then snip the tops off with scissors and wash the carrots. Others favor laying the pulled carrots in piles in the field, cutting the tops off there, and bringing the trimmed carrots to the washing station. We have been timing ourselves. It’s a question or reducing how many times we handle them versus hauling the carrot tops away then bringing them back. (We spread the tops thinly over the beds to protect the soil from heavy rains, as it’s too late to sow cover crops now).

danvers-carrotNext, we may get snow tomorrow night. But I’m not worrying. A cover of snow won’t hurt any remaining carrots. I’m done worrying for this week!

Harvesting carrots, covering spinach

Hope those of you in the US had a good Thanksgiving holiday. We had a lovely meal here at Twin Oaks, and followed our tradition of going round the room giving each person a few minutes to say what they feel thankful for or appreciative of this year. Naturally, with about 90-100 people in the dining room, that takes a while! Many people appreciated the efforts of the garden crew and other food producers.

Since then, back to work! We stop having garden shifts for the year on December 6, so we are focusing on the tasks we really want to get to done by then. One big one is harvesting all our fall carrots.

One of our long carrot beds earlier in the year.
Photo credit Kathryn Simmons

So far we have dug 15 bags (about 50 pounds each), and are about a third of the way up the plot. We reckon we need at least 30 bags for the winter, so we are in very good shape, looking at getting maybe 45 bags, if we keep moving. The carrots have a great flavor, thanks to the cold nights we’ve been having. And they are in good shape. Not many voles in evidence this fall, or tunneling bugs.

This year we didn’t manage to finish the second thinning, so we started the harvest at the unthinned end of the plot. They are a surprisingly decent size for carrots that only got one thinning. After sowing, we flameweed the carrots before they emerge, then as soon as we can see them we hoe between the rows. It really helps to have evenly spaced parallel rows. Next we weed and thin to one inch, taking away the weeds to the compost pile. Leaving broken carrot leaves and roots can attract the carrot rust fly (root fly), and we don’t want those! After a while we hoe again, including using our Valley Oak wheel hoes in the paths. Then we weed again and thin to 3 inches, saving the bigger thinnings for salad carrots. After that we leave them to size up. It takes about 3 months from sowing to final harvest, with carrots.

Young carrots after their first thinning.
Photo credit Kathryn Simmons

Another of our main jobs now is weeding the seven spinach beds and covering them with wire hoops and rowcover. I do like to weed first, as weeds under rowcover grow so well, hidden from sight. We use double hoops for our overwintering spinach. The inner hoop is thick wire with an eye made at each side at ground level. the rowcover goes on top of this, then the thinner wire hoops which hook into the eyes of the inner hoops. (I have a drawing in my book, but I can’t seem to copy it here.) The hoops hold the rowcover in place when it gets windy, and the rowcover can be pushed up between the hoops while we harvest. In our climate (USDA winter hardiness zone 7a), spinach not only survives the winter; it grows whenever the temperature is above about 40F, which happens quite often under the rowcover. So, provided we don’t over-pick, we can keep the plants going all winter into spring. The hoops also hold the rowcover away from the leaves, preventing abrasion damage.