DarkGrowSeed Bank
Seed saving · Daucus carota, Beta vulgaris, Raphanus sativus

Saving root crop seed

Carrot, beetroot and turnip are biennial — the root you eat is year one, and seed comes from the same plant the following spring. Radish is the exception and sets seed in one season.

Saving root crop seedBiennial
Life cycle
Biennial (carrot, beet, turnip) / annual (radish)
Pollination
Insect-pollinated
Isolation
500 m–1 km
Seed life
3–4 years
Yield
1 root gives 100s of seed

Root crops are saved by a method called steckling: you grow the root, harvest it, select the best ones, store them over winter, and replant them in spring. The plant then flowers and sets seed.

This is more work than an annual, but it has an advantage — you can assess the root before deciding to keep it. You cannot do that with a tomato.

The protocol

  1. 1

    Grow and harvest the roots

    Let them reach full size. Lift carefully without damaging them.

  2. 2

    Select on the root, not the top

    Choose for shape, colour and size — the traits you actually want. Avoid forked carrots or fanged beetroot.

  3. 3

    Store over winter

    In damp sand in a cool, frost-free place, or replant immediately into a sheltered bed. They must not dry out or freeze.

  4. 4

    Replant in spring

    Set them with the crown just at soil level. They will send up new growth and flower within weeks.

  5. 5

    Bag and hand-pollinate

    Carrot flowers are umbels — flat clusters — and are insect-pollinated. Bag and brush, or rely on distance.

  6. 6

    Harvest seed as it browns

    Carrot seed ripens unevenly across the umbel. Cut whole heads into a paper bag and let them finish drying there.

What goes wrong

Wild carrot. The most insidious problem with carrot seed. Wild carrot is a common weed, flowers at the same time, and crosses silently. If there is wild carrot within 500 m, bag your plants.

Beetroot crosses with chard. They are the same species. If you save seed from both, neither comes true.

Losing the roots in storage. They rot if too wet and shrivel if too dry. Damp sand, cool but frost-free.

Uneven ripening. Carrot umbels ripen from the outside in. Harvest the whole head rather than waiting for every seed to be ready.

Growing it first? The full cultivation guide — sowing, feeding, harvest — is at Growing root vegetables.
DarkGrow forum

Saved seed from this crop?

Germination rates, what came true and what crossed — post it and let other growers learn from it.

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All 14 protocols

Annual, biennial and vegetative crops all save differently. The index compares them side by side.

Seed saving index Isolation distances