I have grown Mangels for several years now. I actually won first place with one in our local fair this year!! I grow Yellow Intermediate Mangel. I plant the seeds in April, thin as needed, ( they do need space!), and harvest before we get our first really hard freeze. They can take light frosts easily, but, I'm not sure they will tolerate a real freeze. This year, I planted about a 20 foot row of them. That gave me a heaping wheel barrow full in fall!! They are very productive!! Most of the root is above ground, so, they are easy to dig. I dig them, them take them into our barn, where I cut the leaves off. The leaves are good eating for man and beast alike, I feed them to our sheep, goats, chickens, etc. You want to trim the tops off, but, don't wash them. They need cold, moist storage. I put a plastic feed sack into a bulb crate, then, carefully pack it full of mangels. I don't tightly seal the bag, just loosely fold it over. I put the crates in the stairwell that leads down to our basement, which is covered by those metal door things, so it acts like a root cellar. They will easily keep all winter. The biggest problem is keeping the humidity high enough, so they don't shrivel and dehydrate. Hence, the plastic bags. To feed them, get a scrap piece of 2 x 4, and nail a long, 6-10" long nail all the way in/through. Then, nail the 2 x 4 bit onto your barn wall, so the big nail is sticking out, like a spike. You impale the mangel on the spike, and the birds will eat it no problem. They are related to sugar beets, and are very sweet. You can eat them yourself, but, they are almost sickeningly sweet. If you want to grow your own seed, save at least 20 of your best from the prior year, and plant back out in April. They will flower, and go to seed. The seeds are the small brown spiky balls, technically, dried fruits. If I feed them to our sheep, etc, I just throw whole ones in for them.
