Grow Your Own Magazine

I have often read about, and have personally suffered the consequence of, sowing root veg in shallow containers to pot up elsewhere.

Most of the time it has been fine, but I did ruin a crop of Autumn King carrots - they stopped at about two inches in length, bless 'em.

So, what I want to know is...

When does the root which swells into our vegetable begin to grow?

Is it the first root to form, or does it come along later?

Come on you botanists!

I would say it's the first! I have dug carrots with what looks like, only one root!
As far as I know carrots usually only make one root from the crown? The tiny roots sometimes seen at the end of a carrot are there solely for absorbing nutrients to swell that first root!

Aint no botanist though!

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My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

Tap root system

The first root produced from a seed is called the radicle. In many dicotyledonous plants this root greatly enlarges to become the most prominent root of the plant and is known as a tap root. Many smaller branch roots may grow from the tap root.

Fibrous root system

In monocotyledonous plants, the radicle is short lived and is replaced by numerous roots of more or less equal size. These roots are adventitious which means they can grow from plant organs other than roots e.g. stems.

Carrots and parsnip have tap roots and if restricted IE hitting the bottom of a pot or a stone/ very firm ground will then start to produce the body of the plant,

I've never successfully grown carrots for transplanting, although my daughter has. I suspect you would need to use very deep cells, such as roottrainers (or toilet roll tubes). I have grown beetroot in cells and transplanted (very successful), and I suspect the secret is in the timing of planting out.

Ooh! lots of info - thanks.

I always presumed the the first root was "the one", but thanks for the confirmation.

I have actually managed to transplant carrots in the past but I find them particularly fiddly to manage so 99% of the time I sow them in situ. I suspect that doing it with the round carrot types is probably more likely to work than the longer varieties for the reasons outlined by Paul.

Beetroot seems to work really well started in modules, I have even done long rooted types in this way and they have never failed to produce a decent root.

I've grown and transplanted carrots in Paper Pots (or toilet rolls). The tap root isn't restricted, you plant out the whole thing, plant and pot together. I can't grow carrots "direct" cos the slugs munch them as they germinate.

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