[AlaninCarlisle]

I'm getting them(mainly Italian Chiogga) almost up to football size without a hint of woodiness. I've not been trying to grow monster veg so can only put it down to loads of manure, a bit of Growmore and a good summer.

Anyone else grown monster veg without trying?

[Trillium]

The secret is in the manure     When I add lots, I get a regular triffid crop, like 3 ft tall chard, 7 ft tall tom plants, etc.

[pigguns]

Roots in manure? I keep hearing about  this not being such a bad thing as they might have you believe (forking etc).  Tell me more 

[Wiltshire Worms]

I think beetroot are okay with some manure. Carrots and parsnips fork when in contact with fresh manure

[JayG]

Some say that manure causes parsnip and carrot roots to fork as they seek out nearby tasty morsels of food in the manure, others say it's just the obstruction caused by lumps of manure which causes them to fork just like coming up against stones does.

She'll correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember Trillium saying that she grows them in manure with no forking problems at all! 

Beetroot don't depend on an uninterrupted root run to develop their nice regular globe shape, so manure is not a problem for them.

[chickpeacurry]

I had a poor crop those who got huge beetroots did you sow direct or transplant I transplanted mine and they were very small.  Is it worth soaking the seeds first. Would really like to get a good crop next year

[Yorkie]

I think I started mine in modules.

[gavinjconway]

I did modules and seed.. no need to soak them tho. When I thinned the seed planted patch I planted the thinnings. So I got 3 different crops. All grew well and pulled the last lot yesterday and bottled last night.

[sunshineband]

This year some of ours were massive too. Not sure what was different in what I did. Even the same packet of seeds as the previous year.

Nine inches across was the largest and some of it is still in the fridge    Not woody at all

[A Reyt Tayty]

Just got the last of mine up yesterday. Kestrel F1. All very small, about ping pong ball size. Odd one or twohave been bigger. I set them off in modules and transplanted. Could this be why they stayed small? I had 3 dozen plants in and only got about 3lb off them in total.

[AlaninCarlisle]

Mine were sown direct. I think that what made them monsters was the heavy manuring of the soil, the good weather and the Growmore. I used three varieties: Chiogga, Boltardy and Detroit. The real monsters were the Chiogga at about 10" across. The dark ones were about grapefruit size

[sunshineband]

MY huge ones were Boltardy, started in modules and then planted out. Plenty of organic matter and BFB. Maybe the weather helped 

[Mr Dog]

This year I've grown Boltardy, Chioggia, Golden Detroit and Albino - all started in paper pots; 3 seeds to a pot and planted out and grown on without thinning. All but the Boltardy have produced clumps of 3-5" roots, which has only produced 1-2" roots (the plants are much more stunted too). All 4 varieties were sown at the same time and grown next to each other. Only 2nd time I've grown non-red ones, but usually get decent roots from Boltardy using this method. Anyway, there's always some pickled baby beets to look forward to