ROOT CROPS - Agronomy III

Learn to grow root crops

Understand how to grow and manage a variety of root crops. 

Root crops are, arguably, some of the most important food crops produced throughout the world. 

Root crops:

• Are nutrition dense.
• Store well.
• Can be processed in various ways. 
• Are cherished throughout the world. 
  

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Scope and Nature of Root Cropping and the Botany of Roots
   • What are root vegetables?
   • Human nutrition and root vegetables
   • Botany of roots
2. Cultural Practices A: Soil Management, Crop Scheduling and Soil Water
   • General guide to growing root vegetables
   • Improving soils
   • Sampling soils
   • Cover crops
   • Cultivation techniques
   • Soil fertility and plant growth
   • Plant nutrition
   • Fertiliser
   • Soil and water
3. Cultural Practices B: Weed control, Pest Management
   • Weed and weed management
   • Methods of weed control
   • Pest and disease management
   • Toxicity
   • Diseases
   • Common environmental problems
4. Potatoes
   • Growing conditions
   • Nutrient requirements
   • Planting
   • Care
   • Watering
   • Problems
   • Harvest and post-harvest
5. Carrots and their Relatives
   • Carrots
   • Parsnips
   • Bulb fennel
   • Turnip rooted chervil
   • Skirret
   • Celeriac
6. Turnips and their Relatives
   • Turnips
   • Rutabaga (swede)
   • Radish
   • Horseradish
   • Daikon
   • Kohlrabi
7. Beets
   • Growing conditions
   • Nutrient requirements
   • Planting
   • Care
   • Watering
   • Problems
   • Harvest and post-harvest
8. Taro, Yams and Sweet Potato
   • Growing conditions
   • Nutrient requirements
   • Planting
   • Care
   • Watering
   • Problems
   • Harvest and post-harvest
9. Other Root Crops
   • Salsify
   • Scoronera
   • Scolymus
   • Mashua
   • Jerusalem artichoke
   • Potato bean
   • Arrowroot
   • Oca
   • Dandelion
   • Chinese artichoke
   • Water chestnuts
   • Yacon or jicama
   • Root chicory
   • Ullico
   • American groundnut
10. Harvest and Post-Harvest Management
    • Harvesting root vegetables
    • Cooling methods
    • Storage

Root crops are an important source of carbohydrates in the human diet; in a global sense they rank second in their importance after grains as a staple food crop. Root crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and cassava fall into the top ten most produced foods in the world. 

In developing countries, some types of root crops (for example yams and cassava) which are relatively high in protein (about 6%), contribute to the diet as a substitute for other, less obtainable, protein foods such as fish or meat. 

They are also increasingly more important as food security crops for both humans and animals - as climate change changes the agricultural environment and we turn to resilient carbohydrate and protein rich, easily grown crops to replace those that are highly dependent on water (e.g. rice) for their productivity and survival. 

WHAT ARE ROOT VEGETABLES?

Root vegetables are often botanical oddities; unlike other plants most of them develop specialised plant parts at or below ground level with the purpose of storing nutrients for the plant during difficult times.  Root vegetables, in the culinary sense, includes more than what botanists term as ‘true roots’ - they may also include rhizomes, tubers, swollen roots and swollen stems (discussed in more detail in lesson 2).

Commonly grown root vegetables include:

Beets (sweet beets, beetroot)

Carrots

Daikon (Japanese radish)

Potatoes

Parsnips

Radishes

Rutabaga (Swedes or Swedish turnips)

Salsify - Scorzonera hispanica (black salsify), Scolymus hispanicus (Spanish salsify)

Sweet potato

Turnip rooted chervil

Yams

This course contains information on all of these as well as many others.

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