Beets are nice because you can eat both the tops, as greens, and the bottoms as root vegetables. About ten feet of row will feed the average person per gardening season. Since beets can be canned, pickled, or eaten fresh, you can have some all year.
Where to Plant
Beets will do okay in partial shade, but their taproots go down 36 to 48 inches, so do not plant them where tree roots, pipes, or other objects will compete with or block the root. Well-drained soil that is easy for the root to penetrate is best. Beets will not grow well in boron deficient soil, so a soil test to tell if you need to add that is important.
How To Plant
Beet seeds will produce 2-6 plants, so you need to plant them half an inch deep and 1 to 2 inches apart on the row. In 7-14 days, you should see little beet plants coming up. You will need to thin them so they are an inch or so apart or they will not have room to grow. Further thinning is necessary as the beets continue to grow and crowd each other. The thinned plants make good eating as the tender greens compliment the tender root.
Harvesting
After 7-8 weeks, beets may be harvested. Pull them and cut off the tap root, leaving the globe and greens. If the greens are going to be eaten, they need to be washed and put in plastic bags in the refrigerator. They will keep a couple of days that way. The root will keep 1 to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Beets can be cooked and served fresh, canned, or pickled.
Harvest Early
One caution is not to let them get too big. Those big globes in the grocery store are not very tasty. According to the Grumpy Granny, she had always hated beets until she grew her own baby beets. She shares a couple of good recipes that are new to me too, so check that post out.
Want beets but can’t grow things outside? You are in luck. According to BStone, beets are the perfect container-grown vegetable. They do not require much maintenance and like not having to compete with weeds for food.
Want to learn to garden? My first attempt at gardening ended up in failure. The weeds took over and squeezed the vegetables out. I was very frustrated by this waste of good seed, time, and money. So I became a master gardener and spent a lot of time helping other people avoid or overcome problems in their garden.
In order to help others garden successfully, I have written a book, Vegetable Gardening from the Ground Up, available in an ebook or a paperback from Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.
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