Biennials naturally go dormant over the winter, to flower in the spring. Do you think it would be possible to select for plants that went dormant once they ran out of water?
In my climate, most of the rain comes in the late winter and spring. Late summer and fall are very hot and dry. I could probably raise crops of biennial root vegetables like beets and carrots without supplemental irrigation if I planted them early and spaced them widely. But the soil water would end up used up by some time in August; still far too hot to preserve them by burying or root cellaring. Could one select for plants that simply went dormant in the heat and drought, and, importantly, remained edible under such conditions?
I don’t see why not. I planted some beets this spring. Accidentally mowed them and thought they were dead, but they popped back in the fall.
It suggests that it’s possible. Although the mowing was the initial cause of the dieback, they survived through the heat and drought of summer. I don’t know if they’ll have the reserves to get through the winter.
Beets, turnips, carrots, other root biennials tend to rot in summer heat, in my zone 6a garden. A lot of my leafy brassicas rotted in high heat and humidity this summer. Swiss Chard, which really is a leafy beet, has fared better for me.
I noticed a couple of turnips (out of hundreds that i seeded in spring) made it through the summer so I’m hoping they make it through the winter as well. If they do, they should bolt next year and i will collect seed.
I would expect heavy losses, and to compensate with large quantities of seed. There are sources of bulk seed online, often not much more expressive than buying several small packets.