Overly radical supporter beginning to blow up crop (8)
I believe the answer is:
beetroot
'crop' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both plants as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'overly radical supporter beginning to blow up' is the wordplay.
'overly' becomes 'too' (to too great a degree).
'radical' becomes 'r' (chemistry abbreviation).
'supporter' becomes 'tee' (a golf tee acts as a support).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in down clue: letters go upwards).
The initial letter of 'blow' is 'b'.
'too'+'r'+'tee'+'b'='toorteeb'
'toorteeb' in reverse letter order is 'BEETROOT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for beetroot that I've seen before include "vegetable's produced" , "salad ingredient" , "Dark red root eaten as a vegetable" , "one to get pickled" , "Food" .)