Learn How To Grow Beets In Your Garden – That You Can Try!
Beet roots grow easily in your garden and the best part is you would not have to wait longer until harvesting their delicious roots. Also, you can consume their green tops, which makes beets a dual-purpose staple. So, find here all you have to learn about how to grow beets from cultivation to harvest.
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Beet roots or beets are a cool-season, colorful crop. You can easily grow this crop from seeds in well-drained soil. This crop grows rapidly in full sun. Beets are perfect for north gardeners as these plants can endure frost and even near-freezing temperatures. If you are growing beets for the first time, search for varieties that are bolt-resistant, which do not mature too fast in warm weather. You will find many beet varieties, showcasing white, yellow, deep red, and striped roots having different shapes.
Beets can be harvested even when they are just the size of a lemon to the size of an orange. However, larger roots might be woody and tough. Also, beet greens feature a distinctive and delicious flavor and are more nutritious than their roots.
Different Kinds of Beets
The leaves’ veins and stems are red, which get ready in a month like edible greens. For feeding livestock, you can grow forage beets that turn into giant beet roots. This variety is perfect for your farm animals. Meanwhile, storage beets might be good in an urban or suburban homestead environment. You can grow this variety during the fall to stock in a cold cellar.
If you love beet roots and cook them every now and then, then go with light color varieties like yellow, orange, and white. These varieties do not bleed, which tend to dye the entire recipe red. When you cut into your beets, they could be amazing, with ranges of stripes and colors. Incidentally, these colors exhibit loads of nutrients and antioxidants that add up to the healthful diet of your family.
Beet roots are just more than odd vegetables that most people like. These crops could be edible in every part and versatile.
How to Grow Beets from Seeds
While thinking about planting beets from seed, you should never neglect your soil. Beet roots work best in well-drained, deep soil. Do not go for clay as it turns to be heavy for big roots to grow. For softening it a bit, you should mix clay soil with some organic matter. Hard soil could cause the beet roots to be quite tough. Also, sandy soil works best for beets. If you are planting beet roots in the fall, go for a bit heavier soil for protecting them against early frost.
If you want to grow beets from cuttings, then watch this video!
Where Gardeners Can Grow Beets
Beets belong to the spinach family. So, you can place beets at a place where you may grow similar leafy plants. This crop does well in cold weather. Plus, it is a light feeder. All this makes it an amazing crop for following heavy feeders in the crop rotation.
Beet roots are quite robust in drought. They prefer soil that has been exhausted a bit of nitrogen. Let these crops chase melons or squash that will take nitrogen out of your soil. As this crop is edible, you will like to plant them near to the kitchen for rapid dinner harvests. Also, you can even tuck them into a landscape for a color pop in your greens.
Beet roots also thrive best as a shade-tolerant vegetable. This opens up great possibilities of slipping beets under tall plants and container gardens.
When Gardeners Can Grow Beets
If you are thinking about when you can plant beets, you can grow them all winter in various southern states. In northern regions, beet roots should not be grown until the soil temperature is at least 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Beets prefer cold weather and so, it is best to grow them throughout this time. This crop does well in cold temperatures of fall and spring and does poorly in humid, hot weather.
While planting beet seeds, you have to plant them about 2 inches apart in a row. Now, cover these seeds lightly using loose soil and sprinkle some water. You will be able to see them sprouting in a week or two. If you like to have a continuous supply, then grow beets from seed in various plantings, around three weeks apart from one another.
Gardeners can grow beet roots in partial shade. However, while growing them, you need the roots to reach around 3-6 inches deep. So, it is best to not plant this crop under a tree as they could run into the roots of the tree.
When Gardeners Can Pick Beets
Gardeners can harvest beets in 7-8 weeks since the establishing of every group. When your beets reach the size you want, you can dig up the beets gently from the soil. You can even harvest the beet greens. Harvest them while the roots are small and the beets are young.
Growers can harvest beet greens and also use them when the leaves start to thrive well. If you have farm animals, then you can let them enjoy these beet tops as they like, while their roots grow strong and nice. The leaves of beets do not have to reach more than about 6 inches in height.
The beetroots’ tops will begin to look out of your soil when the harvest time gets closer. Do not wait for them to grow into big bulbs as you can harvest the smaller ones too. They get ready about 50-70 days after you have planted them, based on the variety. If you harvest small beets, they offer you better texture and flavor than the ones who get more mature and bigger in size.
Gardeners can pull out the beets by hand after watering them in a day for making sure the soil gets loose. Also, make sure that you do not cut their skin if you are harvesting them by digging.
How to Store and Use Beets
Beet roots that you like to store need to be dried without even washing off the soil before you place them into cold storage. It is best to wash beets right before you use them.
There are lots of ways to prepare beet roots, from roasting and steaming to adding them to salads. If you are not a big fan of beets, you should try them often. Also, your garden will admire this new twist and you will also have lots of fun experimenting with fresh recipes.
Conclusion
So, this is how to grow beets in your garden. It is pretty easy to grow them from beet seeds. You have to water beets evenly and do not let your soil become dry. Otherwise, the roots will become stringy, tough, and stunted. Also, add compost before seeding to planting beds. Beets feature no serious disease and pest problems. You can check beetroots for insects like leaf miners who tunnel inside the surface of leaves and leave gray streaks. Plus, thin beets while they reach around 3 inches for avoiding crowding, which could hinder the growth of roots. Now, grow beets and make your diet more nutritious.
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