My garden veggies taste yucky.

[Fluffy&Cutie]

Hi all you lovely folks. Today I harvested beets and carrots from the backyard. I made a salad, but to be honest...they weren't very good. They didn't have a lot of flavor. I was wondering, what can I do to grow carrots that taste sweeter and beets that taste better. Thanks in advance.

 

[MsDarkAngelKisses]

Did you put manure and fertilize ?

 

[IamRainey]

I'm no sort of master gardener but I think the flavor is pretty much a trait of the variety. But to make the most of what you plant you want lots of sun and to make sure they get the water they need.

How's your soil? Root crops, and carrots especially, want soil that's loose to about 12". And anything you can do to improve your soil improves everything about your garden. Do you compost? Best thing in the world for soil!

Meanwhile, if you soil is dense you can work on adding organics (rotted leaves, pine savings from your coop) into the top of your soil and look for shorter carrot varieties to plant next time. There are even little round ones. Don't worry about peeling round ones. If you take them fresh from the soil while they're still young a simple wash will be enough.

Better luck next planting! The promise of the next planting is what always keeps me going in the garden through all my mistakes.

 

[jane s chickens]

I always take pecan leaves from my back yard down into the top rows of my garden in the fall & plant root crops there in the early spring. I put my chicken pen litter below that--slightly downhill & let it decay over winter before planting acid loving tomatoes & peppers.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I mixed top soil, mushroom compost, composted sheep manure and a little peat moss.
I sifted everything with a 1/4" mesh and planted carrots in 10" diameter by 12" deep pots.
They grew very well and were sweet.

Might be worth a try.

Just water gently every day while they are young and every other day once the tops are about 4" high.

I do agree variety has a lot to do with it. I grew Nantes 1/2 long and Tender Sweet.

 

[RhodeIslandRed5]

What varieties did you plant and what type of soil do you have?

 

[blackandtan]

Also most roots benefit from a frost, they’ll get much sweeter

 

[rosemarythyme]

The variety is important... my golden beets are tasty but albino beets weren't. Some of my carrots (purple dragon) were so disliked by my hubby he asked me to pull them up, other varieties like amarillo and danvers grown in the same soil are nice and sweet and juicy.

 

[21hens-incharge]

The variety is important... my golden beets are tasty but albino beets weren't. Some of my carrots (purple dragon) were so disliked by my hubby he asked me to pull them up, other varieties like amarillo and danvers grown in the same soil are nice and sweet and juicy.

We did not like the purple ones either. I had thought I did something horrible to make them so icky.
Good to know it wasn't just us that found them distasteful.

 

[rosemarythyme]

We did not like the purple ones either. I had thought I did something horrible to make them so icky.
Good to know it wasn't just us that found them distasteful.

I used to buy them just because of the novel color, and then got some free seed so planted a couple rows, but after I thought about it the "pretty color" was just that, appearance. They're firmer, spicier and drier than a typical carrot, whereas I prefer sweeter and softer. Also they went woody too easily.