very rooty root veg

[ashleighParticipant]

hello,

we have harvested our xmas roots now (carrots, swedes, celeriac, beetroot) and much of it has LOADS of fine tiny roots coming off it, some to the extent that it doesn’t look as pretty as i’d like it to for the shops.

the carrots in particular have a fine root that is 200% longer than the main body of the carrot. the celeriac is really covered in webs of fine roots (as well as the tangled nobbly thicker roots which i know are normal), as is the beetroot. the turnips are quite normal looking though.

is this just a normal thing that happens on non-supermarket, non-sanitized veg? or –

is it because we didn’t really water during 6 dry weeks in the summer? (knowing that we are essentially growing in a bog, we didn’t bother hauling water around, thinking that the veg could just grow its roots down with the receding groundwater, so is that what’s happened?)

if it’s the latter we might need to think about watering more carefully in order to get prettier, less furry veg. hmm.

[charlesModerator]

 I think it is the result of recent warmth. We had some cool weather in late November and a few frosts, so plants thought "winter is here", but they don’t seem to measure time and then the mildness of December has made them think "Spring!".

Hence all the fine, white hairs: new growth from previously dormant winter roots, and these hairs are fuelling the first stirrings of spring shoots, flowering stems ultimately, not fatter roots.

So it is not your fault and nothing to do with watering or not watering in summer. You just need to rub the hairs off, annoying extra job!

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