All About: Roots

🧬 Family Traits: What These Plants Share

Root crops thrive in cooler soil, grow slowly and steadily, and store their flavor deep underground. They’re some of the most rewarding crops for mountain gardeners—resilient, colorful, and built to last through cold snaps.

Shared characteristics:

• Cool-season friendly

• Direct sowing preferred (except for leeks and onions)

• Require loose, well-drained soil and consistent moisture

• Easy to store and preserve post-harvest

• Roots run deep—and so does their flavor

🪴 How to Grow Roots in Mountain Conditions

🌱 Seed Starting

• Direct sow most root crops 2–4 weeks before last frost

• Thin early and consistently to give roots room to swell

• For leeks and onions, start indoors and transplant later

🌦️ Sowing & Transplanting

• Keep soil evenly moist for good germination

• Use row cover to protect from flea beetles and root maggots

• Leeks: Transplant deeply into trenches for long white shanks

🍽️ Feeding & Soil Support

• Roots prefer well-drained soil enriched with compost—not fresh manure

• Avoid excess nitrogen (can lead to leafy tops and poor roots)

• Mulch to retain moisture and regulate temperature

✂️ Harvesting

• Carrots, beets, and turnips: harvest when roots are usable

• Leeks: harvest when shanks are 1–2\" thick

• Curing: Let roots dry slightly post-harvest before storage

🥕 The Veggies in This Group

Beets

Fast-growing, cold-tolerant, and sweet when roasted.

🌾 Seed Saving: Biennial—requires overwintering and isolation for seed saving.

🌱 Varieties We’re Growing:

• Bold & Beauty Mix

• Golden Grex

• Kestrel

Leeks

Long-season alliums with frost tolerance and deep sweetness.

🌾 Seed Saving: Biennial. Isolate for purity.

🌱 Varieties We’re Growing:

• King Sieg

• Lincoln

• Siegfried Frost

Onions

Sweet and storage-worthy.

🌾 Seed Saving: Biennial.

🌱 Varieties We’re Growing:

• Yellow Sweet Spanish

Carrots

From High Desert Seeds, grown in Paonia, CO.

🌾 Seed Saving: Biennial. Isolate from Queen Anne’s lace.

Radishes

🌾 Seed Saving: Easy! Edible pods before full maturity.

Turnips

🌾 Seed Saving: May behave as annual or biennial.

Celeriac

Full of roasted flavor and easier than celery.

🌾 Seed Saving: Biennial.

🌱 Varieties We’re Growing:

• Monarch

Root Parsley

🌾 Seed Saving: Biennial.

🌱 Varieties We’re Growing:

• Arat

Garlic

Fall-planted for summer harvest.

🌾 Seed Saving: Clonal from cloves.

🍴 From Garden to Table: Why They Matter

Roots are incredibly versatile in the kitchen. Roast them, shred them, ferment them, or boil them into brothy goodness—they hold up to almost any method.

Preserving Tips:

• Store in damp sand, crates, or plastic bags in fridge

• Freeze grated carrots or blanched beets

• Ferment radishes, beets, or turnips for gut-healthy sides

Key Takeaways

• Discover top root vegetables for mountain gardeners including beets, leeks, and carrots

• Learn planting, soil, and moisture tips tailored to high-altitude climates

• Explore seed-saving methods for root crops like onions and radishes

• Use frost-friendly varieties and row cover for cool-season success

• Get post-harvest storage tips like curing, fermenting, and root cellaring