Beets, or beetroot, are a staple of my vegetable garden. I love them roasted with oregano and a grind of the salt mill - just delicious! They're very easy to grow from seed and you won't have to wait long until harvest time.
Beets can be grown in containers of quality potting soil, but for best results grow them in well-prepared soil that has been raked to a fine tilth.
Beets need a sunny, open position and moist, fertile soil conditions. There are lots of types available. If you're a beginner, look out for bolt-resistant varieties which are less likely to produce flowering stems rather than the tasty roots in hot summers.
For the adventurous, there are many interesting colors. Varieties with concentric rings such as 'Chioggia' look particularly impressive in salads.
Sow seeds outdoors from mid-spring until the middle of summer. You can sow a couple of weeks earlier by using crop protection or a greenhouse, either by growing them in greenhouse borders or by sowing into trays or pots to plant out once temperatures outside have improved.
In areas with scorching summers, you'll want to avoid growing them in the hottest months, but you may be able to squeeze in a fall crop.
If you add a cloche, hoop house or row cover to your beets, you can extend the season and grow them longer due to the additional warmth.
To sow, first mark out seed drills into prepared soil. You can use a long-handled tool to make depressions into raked soil like this, or for shorter rows simply use a hand trowel to create your drills.
These should be about an inch (2cm) deep, with subsequent rows spaced one foot (30cm) apart.
The seeds are quite big and knobbly which makes them very easy to sow. Unlike other crops, beet seeds are actually clumps of individual seeds so you'll often get several sprouts from each one.
Simply drop the seeds into the drill so that they are about 1 or 2 inches (2-5cm) apart. There's no need to be too precise with this, as you can always remove excess seedlings once they've germinated.
Now cover the seeds back over, patting the soil back down with the palm of your hand or the back of a rake. Don't forget to label your rows.
You can also sow seeds into trays of potting soil. Sow 2 or 3 seeds into each cell, then cover with potting soil, and water. Keep the potting soil moist as the seeds germinate and grow on into young seedlings.
Growing in trays allows plants to be set in place at their final spacing and is great for early crops started off undercover.
Tray-grown seedlings should be planted so that each cluster of seedlings is about 8-10 inches (20-25cm) apart in each direction. Don't worry about thinning the seedlings - the plants will naturally push themselves apart as they grow. Rows of seedlings however, should be thinned in stages until they are around 4 inches (10cm) apart within the row.
Keep plants watered in dry weather. As well as encouraging good, even growth, this reduces the risk of bolting - when the plants flower, rendering the crop useless.
Carefully remove weeds between plants by hand or by using a hoe. Beets can be harvested from about the size of a golf ball up to the size of a tennis ball. To harvest, gather the base of the stems and twist the root out of the soil.
You can also use a fork to dig them out. Leaves can be twisted off and cooked in the same way as spinach, or just snip the leaves off into the compost heap. Our rabbits and goats love the beet leaves as do the chickens.
In areas with mild winters, roots sown later in the season can be left in the ground to dig up as required. Alternatively, store roots in boxes of sand in a cool but frost-free place.
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