Sulev, perhaps it depends on the soil. My beets, grown in sandy, rocky soil (enriched with compost and fertilizer), have quite weak root systems but develop normal beetroots with ample green tops (often used as beet greens). They receive ample water during dry spells.
If to moisten consistently top layer of the sandy soil, then beet roots have no reason to go deep. So then these warped roots are not general property of beet root, but adaption to the environmental conditions you create. If that does not generate problems for you, then everything is ok. Here most of beet roots are grown in furrows. This way they get most of their moisture from deeper layers and roots are striving to grow deep.
The beets bit the dust. But no-longer-blooming flowers now offer me space for another attempt. If I use a floating row cover weighted down as the edges will I thwart the vole(s)?
I think that in current season voles have plenty of other food and will not attack beets. In my garden they tend to attack different crops at different seasons.
Yesterday I found 50% of my tigridia plants bit off at the soil line, with the top and the bulb otherwise undisturbed. This morning the other half have suffered the same fate as have many of my lilies. Why would a vole or any other animal cut a plant that it has no interest in eating?
I haven't heard that word since I heard my Mom swearing about them in the 1950s-60s but it sure looks correct!
Voles are rather picky about their food. They often eat just certain parts of the stem. Sometimes they cut plants for carrying into their burrows. Cutworms cut few young plants in the seemingly random order. They usually don't kill all or even most of your plants, unless you have serious infestation. If they take 50% of your plants with just one night, then you should definitely see some cutworms there.
I don’t mean to be flippant - tho ask a deer why it bites off half the tulip and next to it the lily survives (this time) etc Have you asked your neighbors if they have similar concerns re their vegetable patch etc
Whatever it is, it started on my bletilla last night. I expect all of my flowers to be gone by the end of the week.
I wish I had more time to suggest ways you might deal with the critter(s) but I think you would find suggestions online. They often come out after dark so you may even be able to find one or more in action and deal with it accordingly.
I have festooned the garden with traps and we will see what tomorrow brings. I am not hopeful. My wife thinks it is the local racoon.
I caught the mother of all rats in the middle of the devastated area. The next day more plants were bitten off at the place where they emerge from the ground ... but it has not happened since. Could the rat's ghost have lingered for 24 hours? No vole holes anywhere.
I always grow a long row of beets, Detroit Red. I pick the full growing season. I find that beets no matter the size are of the same consistency. I utilize the tops and never cut the long tail or damage the connection between beet root and top until cooked, so they never bleed, and the skin is removed with on hand swoop. They are a perfect vegetable IMO. One or two are added to my various slurry/juices at times. I never have voles in my area, but rabbits can be a nuisance.