How to Know When to Harvest Root Vegetables (with Video)

Lately, it seems like everyone is asking when they should harvest their beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas, and turnips. I also see a lot of people harvesting, say, their carrots, and finding them disappointingly small. The good news is, there is a super easy way to know when to harvest these crops!
But first, I want to bring up what I think is the main cause of confusion about when to harvest these veggies: seed packets. On the back of any good-quality seed packet is a bunch of great info, including "days to maturity." I see people planting their seeds and, because their seed packet said something like "days to maturity: 60," harvesting those veggies 60 days later. Trouble is, those seeds were bought by people in Alaska and Texas, Maine and Arizona. In other words, while the seeds are the same, the environments are totally different. So the "days to maturity" on seed packets is only an estimate. Assuming you have decent soil and irrigation, weather makes a huge difference between when a Texan harvests and when an Alaskan harvests the exact same variety of veg.
So if you can't rely on the seed packet to reliably tell you when to harvest your root crops, how can you know when they are ready to harvest?
Answer: When their shoulders rise above the soil. Whether we're talking beets, carrots, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas, or turnips, when the vegetables aren't suitable for harvest, you will only see leaves and stems above the soil line. But when finally you can see some of the part you eat rising above the soil line, you know the veggie is really to harvest.
Here are some examples: This turnip plant isn't ready to harvest. We can only see leaves and stems above the soil.
Photo courtesy of Natalie HG.

This turnip is ready for harvest because we can see the edible part above the soil line.
Rutabagas present in the same way.
Photo courtesy of
Ula Gillion.

Radish shoulders poking up above ground. These are ready for harvest.
Photo courtesy of
meaduva.

These carrots have shoulders above ground and are therefore ready to harvest.
Parsnips present in the same way.
Photo courtesy of
michelle.
This beet has some of the edible part showing above the soil; therefore, it's ready to pick.
Photo courtesy of saiberiac. .

See more in my video: