GARDENING : Deep Down, You’re Rooting for Home-Grown Vegetables
If you’ve been trying to figure out how to get enough vegetables into your diet, you might find the answer by looking down--below ground that is. Many crops, such as carrots, beets, garlic and onions, are mineral-rich and tasty, yet home gardeners often forget about planting them.
You’re definitely missing out if you haven’t tried vegetables such as turnips and carrots right out of the garden, says Larry Amling, manager of Armstrong Garden Center in Newport Beach. “The taste of these freshly harvested vegetables is absolutely superior to what you can buy in the store,” he says. “Much like tasty home-grown tomatoes, fresh root crops have a robust aromatic flavor that can’t be surpassed by any store-bought vegetables.”
Growing your own root and bulb crops also lets you experiment with varieties not usually found in the store.
Once established, underground crops are fairly easy to grow and maintain. Many of these vegetables store well in the ground, which gives you an extended harvest.
November is a good month to plant root crops in Orange County because the ground is still warm. Plant now and the remaining warm weather will get your root crops off to a good start.
Before planting even one seed, it’s important to consider the secret to healthy root crops--rich, well-draining soil that allows roots to easily penetrate. Unfortunately, many gardeners don’t realize how important soil quality is, Amling says.
“Most people get very frustrated when they plant their first root crop, such as carrots, because they end up with stunted and gnarled vegetables that lost the battle against the hard clay soil that many yards have,” he says.
To loosen the soil, it’s important to amend with homemade or bagged compost at a rate that meets or even exceeds instructions on the bag. Renting a rotary tiller to blend in the amendments is also a good idea, Amling says.
Back-yard gardener Steven Tyreman of Orange has mastered the soil preparation necessary for a good carrot crop. He had poor luck with carrots in his garden until he began amending his soil with a wide variety of ingredients such as aged grass clippings, gypsum and even coffee grounds. He says the latter really helps condition clay soil.
While many gardeners have trouble growing long, well-formed carrots, Tyreman has succeeded and credits that to the attention he’s given the soil.
Another option for building up the soil is to purchase a good sandy loam from a contractor or landscape company, says Robert Callaham, assistant manager at M&M; Nursery in Orange. Although this can be expensive, it’s an ideal way to improve your soil’s structure.
When you work the soil and mix in amendments, loosen the earth at least 18 inches deep. You should also add a fertilizer high in phosphorus, such as bone meal, which promotes healthy root growth, Callaham says.
The location you choose for root crops is also important. Make certain that where you’ll be planting gets sun most of the day, Amling says. “An area with very little sun now will probably be shaded in three months. The best place is a southern exposure against a white wall, which will reflect and radiate heat to the plants. A western exposure is also a good choice.”
It is also imperative that the area chosen is well-draining, because root crops will rot if they sit in a sloppy soil.
As soon as you have a good, well-prepared site, choose from the following tasty crops:
BEETS
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When many people think of beets, they often picture the dark red variety found in the market, but there are many more beets to choose from, says Wendy Krupnick, horticultural adviser for Shepherd’s Garden Seeds in Felton, Calif., a mail-order company that ships seeds all over the United States.
“There are elongated and cylindrical beets and beets that are different colors, such as the sweet, mild golden beet, and the Italian chioggia , which is also mild and sweet,” she says. “The latter has a bright red exterior and an interior of alternating rings of cherry-red and creamy white.”
Beet greens are also edible and very tasty when young.
Beets are planted by seed and take a couple weeks to germinate. Once the plants are three inches tall, make sure to thin them to two to three inches apart, or you will end up with malformed beets. They take about 60 days to mature full-size, but you can begin eating them when they are especially tender, at about an inch in diameter.
CARROTS
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Carrots are another vegetable that is extremely flavorful when home grown. These, too, come in a wide variety of types, Krupnick says. “There are white carrots, purple carrots, round and short carrots,” she says.
Patience is important with carrots because they take several weeks to germinate. Once they are an inch or so tall, thin them to two inches apart.
Even though you’ve amended your soil, you might want to make your odds of harvesting good carrots better by choosing a variety that is suited for our heavy clay soil, Callaham suggests. Try dwarf carrots such as the golf-ball-size Thumbelina, or the red-core Chantenay, which has been bred for heavy soil.
GARLIC
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Most cooks cherish the distinctive flavor of garlic, which is even better when this vegetable is grown in the garden. There is not only white garlic, but pink and red and elephant garlic, to name a few.
Plant garlic bulbs in November and allow the plants to grow until late summer or early fall. They will have multiplied underground and be ready to harvest when the leaves begin to droop and die. At this time the garlic can be removed from the earth, dried out and stored in a cool dry place for many months.
It’s best to get bulbs from the nursery for planting garlic, because bulbs found at the store may have been treated with a growth inhibitor.
Plant garlic by individual cloves with the pointy side up about four inches deep.
HORSERADISH
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Anyone who eats roast beef knows about this flavorful, pungent root. It’s easy to grow and, once established, reproduces easily and provides you with plenty of horseradish for years to come.
You’ll find horseradish in some nurseries about January in the herb section. Plant the roots almost on their side in a shallow trench. Although you can harvest a little in a few months, the bulk of your harvest will be next fall.
Wear gloves when harvesting horseradish, because the root can be hot to the touch, and also has a tendency to burn the eyes, says Villa Park gardener Don Loeffler.
ONIONS
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There are many onions that can be grown in the garden that are hard to find in the store. “I grow the sweet-tasting Walla-Walla, which is really scrumptious,” Loeffler says.
Although onions can be challenging to grow from seed, Loeffler says that it’s well worth it. Patience is necessary, because onions can take three weeks to germinate. Once up, they look like tiny green hairs and must be kept moist and sheltered from the Santa Ana winds. Loeffler lets the onions grow to about 10 inches and pulls some out for use in salads, eventually thinning to five inches apart.
Onions can be eaten throughout their growing period when they are various sizes, but you won’t have full-size onions until next summer or fall.
If you’re worried about small onion seedlings surviving in your garden, you may want to seed them in a flat and then transplant them when they are larger.
It is possible to transplant onions and other root crops if you carefully remove plants from containers and set them in the ground without disturbing the roots, Loeffler says. He also says to transplant in the evening when the weather is cool and to shade the plants for at least two days after.
PARSNIPS
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This is an unusual creamy white vegetable that many people say tastes like oysters. Parsnips are challenging to grow because they take about a month to germinate from seed and grow to a foot or more in length. They also have a tendency to rot out if the soil isn’t well-draining, Callaham says.
For the best luck with parsnips, make sure to till the soil at least 18 inches and test the area before planting to ensure that it drains well.
POTATOES
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The potato is another root crop that has hundreds of varieties, but only a few can be found in the grocery store. Potatoes are also very tasty when young, but new potatoes are hard to find and expensive in the market.
This popular vegetable should be planted from disease-free and fertile-certified seed potatoes, which can be found in the nursery around January. If you would like seed potatoes sooner, some mail order companies will ship at this time of year.
If a seed potato is small, you can plant the whole thing. Large seed potatoes should be cut into pieces, leaving about two or three eyes per piece. Before planting cut potatoes, let them heal over a day or two in a cool dry place.
Potatoes often do well when planted in a trench that is about four inches deep. Make sure to amend the trench with peat moss, which provides the acidity that potatoes need to grow.
Above ground the plant will grow to about three feet, while underground potatoes will form on a network of stems. When blossoms appear on the potato plant above ground, you can harvest baby potatoes. To harvest large potatoes, you must wait until late summer or fall when the plant top dies down.
RADISHES
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Many people don’t know that radishes can also be cooked and add a nice crunchy peppery flavor to stir-fries, says Krupnick at Shepherds. They are vigorous growers that come in a variety of types and sizes, including long pointy white icicle radishes and red and green radishes.
Radishes grow best in cool weather, so November is a perfect time to plant seeds. They germinate in three to five days and produce a crop in as little as 25 days.
SHALLOTS
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Shallots look like green onions but have a hint of garlic and are considered a gourmet delicacy often prized by chefs. Although they are expensive in the stores, they’re easy to grow. They are grown from bulbs like garlic but mature more quickly.
Loeffler grows shallots from autumn to autumn and harvests them throughout the year. He suggests putting them in a semi-shady area because you don’t want them to dry out. Plant them with the pointy end up just below the ground’s surface.
TURNIPS
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The turnip is another vegetable that is often forgotten but packs a lot of nutrition and can be especially tasty when harvested young. Turnips grow best in cool weather and become woody if the temperatures get too hot. Plant them in November by seed in a sunny spot.
Once the root and bulb crops are off and running, keep them fertilized on a regular basis with a fertilizer that has a balance of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. And keep in mind that organic fertilizers don’t work as well in winter when the temperatures drop.
Bulbs Crop Up in Pots
Many root and bulb crops grow well in containers. Pots enable you to provide what root crops want most--fast draining soil and a good sunny location at all times.
Containers do present some challenges to growing root crops, though. Larry Amling of Armstrong Garden Center in Newport Beach advises keeping the following tips in mind when “canning” your produce.
* Use a good potting mix and add a little homemade or bagged compost for extra richness.
* Make sure the container is big enough for what you’re planting. While radishes thrive in small pots, long carrots need containers at least 12 inches deep.
* Try dwarf vegetables when possible. There are a variety of dwarf root vegetables specifically suited for containers such carrots under five inches long, including short ‘n’ sweet, tiny sweet, red-core Chantenay, little finger and the golf ball-size Thumbelina.
* Keep in mind that containers tend to dry out much more quickly than the ground. For that reason, young seedlings especially and container plants in general must be watered on a regular basis. At the same time, you don’t want root crops sitting in water and rotting. Don’t over water and remove container saucers so excess water can flow freely out the bottom of each pot.
* Fertilize container plants about every two weeks with a well-balanced fertilizer that contains a high amount of phosphorus.
