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Early spring is a great time to start beets. They are a cool season crop and will withstand a surprise freeze or two, but should generally be planted when you know temperatures will remain in the 50-60 degree range. (The soil temperature should be at least 40 in order for seeds to sprout.)
Beets need lots of nitrogen, so try planting them where beans, peas or a winter cover crop grew the season before. Like all root crops, they love loose, sandy soil. If you have heavy or poorly drained soil, use raised beds.
Space beets about 2 to 4 inches apart in rows that are 12 to 20 inches apart. When the plants are 2 to 3 inches tall, thin them to 4 to 6 inches apart.
Keep the soil evenly moist but not wet. Apply 4 to 8 inches of mulch when plants first emerge to help maintain soil moisture and limit weeds. Uneven moisture and/or dry soil can result in tough, stringy roots.
Once the first set of leaves is open, begin a weekly spraying of liquid fish and seaweed fertilizer. If your beets start showing their ever-broadening "shoulders" above the soil surface, hill up the soil to keep the beet fully covered.
Beets come in a variety of colors, and there are even a few types with a cylindrical, rather than globe, shape.
Beet greens - the leafy part of the plant - are rich in vitamins and a great addition to your diet, either raw or cooked. In fact, back in the olden days, beets were grown exclusively for the leafy top, not the bottom. A couple of the favorite beet leaf varieties are "Lutz Green Leaf" and "Bull's Blood" (heirloom).
Beets themselves are incredibly versatile. They can be cooked and eaten warm with butter, roasted, stuffed, pickled, chopped and served raw in salads, or pureed into the popular Russian soup known as borscht.
The Beet Goes On
Some fascinating facts about beets:
Beets (beta vulgaris) are a member of the order of flowering plants called Caryophyllales, which also includes bougainvillea, cacti, amaranth, carnations, spinach, and venus fly traps.
Beets were an important plant for both the ancient Greeks and Romans. Beets of this period were white or black rather than red. The Roman name for the beet plant was "beta" while the Greeks referred to it as "teutlion."
It's believed that ancient Greeks first cultivated wild beets; some historians relate anecdotes about Greeks offering beet greens to the god Apollo on a silver platter at the temple of Delphi.
The Romans considered beet juice to be an aphrodisiac.
Modern beets are derived from wild sea beets that originated around the coasts of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Since the 16th century, beet juice has been used as a natural red dye. It was even used as a hair dye.
Beets are beautiful, versatile, and good for you. Be an "up-beet" gardener and grow some for yourself!
About Tamara Galbraith
I am an avid organic gardener and certified Master Gardener for Collin County, Texas (that's North Dallas).
Despite those lofty titles, I still manage to kill stuff on a regular basis. My gardening experiences are periodically chronicled on my blog at: http://can-u-dig-it.blogspot.com
Posted by TamaraFaye (from Fritch, TX) on February 26, 2008 at 10:31 AM:
i needed that! ...jolt back to gardener reality [been involved with baby chicks!]. time to get those beets planted for livestock feed! we'll eat the greens, and puree the beets into pulp for feed additives. i am the only one who likes cooked beets in our family, so now with all these chickens and goats, I have someone to plant beets for. they grow so fast, and are my favorite crop to watch, besides corn!
i esp lliked the facts about beets, i had never heard! looking forward to your next articles...
tamara
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Subject: Nice Article
Posted by phicks (from Lakeland, FL) on February 23, 2008 at 4:50 PM:
Really good reading Paul
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Posted by TexasTam (from Plano, TX) on February 26, 2008 at 9:39 AM:
Thanks Paul!
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Subject: Great article
Posted by doccat5 (from Fredericksburg, VA) on February 23, 2008 at 5:36 AM:
Pickled beets is the best! Good article and great veggies. Thanks for the info
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Posted by Dutchlady1 (from Naples, FL) on February 23, 2008 at 6:31 AM:
Thanks for the nice article; would have liked to have seen a recipe.....
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Posted by Dea (from Frederick, MD) on February 23, 2008 at 6:24 PM:
Love our beets - think it may be our favorite root vegetable....close at the top anyway - we love to grow and eat them. Roasted and then sliced with goat cheese and the greens as a bed, doesn't get much better !
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Posted by Lindawalkabout (from Holden, MO) on February 24, 2008 at 1:23 AM:
The Beet Goes On, love it and those beets , good artical
? you mention thinning and every body says to thin if you want to get a nice crop . So instead of planting 2 to 4" and then thin, why not plant 4 to 6" instead and not bother with thinning? Is there a reason why they need to be planted close together in the first place?
This is my biggest problem, I don't thin and I don't plant far apart either,lol. So I'm going to try it your way this season. Thanks again.
I'll show pic's of my crop of nice beets this season : )
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Posted by TexasTam (from Plano, TX) on February 26, 2008 at 9:38 AM:
Linda, you bring up an excellent point - and your comment also reminded me of a very important fact about beet seeds which I neglected to address in my article.
Each beet "seed" is actually a pod containing several seeds. So when you plant one, you're really planting about five seeds...thus the need for eventual thinning, no matter how far apart you space them.
Thanks for the nice comments,everyone. Dutchlady, I've got a great recipe for Borsch if you'd like it. : ) I'm thinking of trying Dea's roasted beet and goat cheese concoction this weekend!
