Tag: carrot rust fly

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!

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

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)

• 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.

• 

• 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.)

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.)

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.