5 Delicious Root Vegetables You Can Still Plant in October

Just because summer comes to an end, doesn’t mean your garden has to stop flourishing. There are a handful of tasty and nutritious root vegetables that you can plant in October. The best thing about these foods is that they stay edible for months when refrigerated!

Let’s take a look at the five root vegetables you can still plant and harvest in October!

1. Radishes

Delish and crunch radishes grow quickly and also make excellent autumn root crops. Radishes, which love to grow at temperatures between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, benefit from the warm temperatures of the soil at the end of summer.

Before planting, make sure to prepare the bed by digging deeply, using a digging tool to loosen up the dirt, and adding plenty of compost to the mixture. Potting soil placed over the sown furrows deters weed growth and inhibits the development of a top crust after prolonged rain.

As soon as radish sprouts emerge, they must be trimmed to the correct spacing. For salad radishes, this is three inches between plants. Bigger radishes will need an extra inch or two between plants. You can pluck radish seedlings from the garden and enjoy them as microgreens!

2. Beets

The greens of beets that grow in chilly fall soil are especially soft and sweet. Beet seeds can be soaked overnight to hasten germination. We suggest performing a four-hour washing technique to help these root vegetables grow!

To do this, place the seeds in a large glass container. Then, pour in warm water and let that sit for half an hour. Drain the water and replace it with room temperature water every 30 minutes until it’s been four hours. A lot of the organic germination inhibitors found in the wrinkling coats of seeds are eliminated after three to four hours.

Prior to planting these beet seeds, dry them by setting them on a paper towel for about 60 minutes. Beets frequently take advantage of an increase in boron, even though most compost-enriched environments contain sufficient boron for growing vegetables.

Combine a single tablespoon of everyday borax with a gallon of water, then uniformly distribute it over the growing area as an additional step in the soil preparation process. Once the beets have started to grow, take a pair of scissors and be sure to remove any extra sprouts without disturbing the surviving plants’ delicate roots.

3. Carrots

The carrots that are harvested from chilly fall soil are frequently the tastiest of the year because they have fewer defects and have crispy, sweet flavors. Nante carrots are an excellent variety to plant during autumn.

Dragon and Delicate carrots work as well. These will fill your garden with stunning colors! Late summer crops grow faster than crops planted in springtime since the warmer soil helps to shorten the germination period. This usually takes just a week!

Carrots can be grown in places in your garden that are empty, brightly lit, and near water. They are best planted right after spring peas. Mix up some compost and a tiny bit of balanced organic fertilizer when you sow the seeds to make the most out of this crop.

One of the main challenges gardeners face when planting carrots for autumn is keeping the seed bed watered properly. Once you plant the seeds, cover the planting area with a cloth. Make sure to soak the cloth with water daily for five days.

You can then place a cloth shade cover over the bed to make sure the sprouting carrots don’t get too hot. This will also help the moisture hold better.

4. Turnips

Turnips can be planted in the garden from the middle of August through the beginning of October. As a cool-season crop, turnips will thrive at their optimum when the outside temperature is mild, between 40 and 60 °F.

Turnips generally reach maturity in 35 to 55 days, based on the kind of turnip and the climate. This root vegetable may become rough and bitter in scorching temperatures, therefore we advise planting them in the autumn garden.

Place high-quality compost, composted animal manure, or a well-balanced commercial fertilizer with the growing turnips.

5. Salsify

Salsify is renowned for its edible taproot, which is tart and vaguely reminiscent of the taste of oysters or artichokes. It has been grown since around the 16th century. Salsify is also planted for its enticing, purple blossoms and palatable, grass-like foliage.

While this plant is often sown a couple of weeks before a regional frost, in warmer climates, you can plant Salsify in the fall. When you plant these seeds outdoors, place them in rows that are about a food apart from one another.

The seeds should be around half an inch deep. Something to note about Salsify is that it can take some time to sprout. Some gardeners won’t see anything for at least three weeks! When the salsify sprouts, thin the plants so that there are four inches between each seedling.

Summary of Root Vegetables You Can Plant in October