Beet, how do you grow them?

[Lizmom]

I would do peat plugs

The worst way possible to start seedlings is in peat pots or blocks. They tend to wick the moisture away from seedlings. Research shows that seedlings started in peat are only about 80 to 85% as large as ones started in pots. Try it yourself next year, if you don't believe this. Alternate the same plants, half in pots, half in peat, in a checkerboard pattern in the same tray.

 

[Lizmom]

I have learned that Americans are so totally resistant to improving their gardening techniques that they produce a fraction of what they could produce in the same time and area. They insist on doing things just like their great-great-grandfather did, when he had to carry a musket to the garden in case he was attacked by Indians.

I study agricultural research, and I apply the improved techniques. In a community garden, my plants are at least three times the size of other people's, and they're wider, stronger, more robust, and more heavily loaded with fruit. I get between 5 and 10 times as much produce from each plant as the average person in the community garden. I'm telling you this so you'll understand that what I'm suggesting really, really works.

You're definitely right to stop old-fashioned tilling. Turning the soil destroys the mycorrhizal fungus and bacteria network under the soil. The network feeds and waters the plants in a symbiotic relationship. Every year you avoid tilling, the network gets stronger, and your production increases, if all else is equal.

However, one of the worst things you can do to a garden is to put fresh wood chips in it. When wood starts to decay, it steals every tiny bit of nitrogen that it can possibly get, making your garden as mediocre and poor producing as possible. It's too late this year to improve production by removing the fresh wood, but next year, rake it off and compost it. Once it starts to rot, it will stop stealing nitrogen from the plants.

I know someone, who has no gardening knowledge, so he tried using fresh wood chips to try to keep down weeds. The weeds grew better than his seedlings in the nitrogen-deprived soil, and he got very, very little production. I don't think he even got one single tomato.

I'm assuming that some of your plants are sort-of doing okay because you planted them as seedlings, rather than as seeds.

Any plants you plant as seedlings should be mulched with black plastic to totally eliminate weeding and to dramatically maximize production. Black plastic, as a mulch in a vegetable garden, is so wonderful that the prevention of weeds is a minor benefit. It improves your garden in so many ways. AND YOU GET A LOT MORE PRODUCE, with less work.

* It warms the soil in the spring, giving the plants a serious boost, which increases your production pretty dramatically throughout the summer.

* It saves water (which saves you work).

* It evens the availability of water, preventing periods of wetter versus drier soil. This is really important for your cukes, melons, tomatoes, and peppers. If watering is uneven, calcium is not continuously distributed to the nightshade and cucurbits, and the bottom of the fruit starts to rot.

* It reduces certain destructive insects. Some insects lay their eggs on your plants, then the larva hatches and goes into the soil to grow and produce new generations of bugs to attack your plants. The black plastic barrier minimizes that, and you have fewer bugs without using insecticide.

Stake down the black plastic with landscape staples. Plant first, then cover with black plastic, cutting an X for each seedling. Gently pull the seedling through the plastic. Place two staples by each seedling to keep them from slipping under the plastic.

That's it! The garden takes care of itself for the rest of the year, giving you much more produce than you would get without the plastic.

DON'T USE FAKE LANDSCAPE CLOTH instead of black plastic. The fake stuff, that they sell to amateur gardeners, isn't uv-treated. It also allows some weeds to grow. Get big sheets of black plastic at Lowe's. Drill some holes in it through multiple layers when it's still folded.

If you want to really improve production even more, you can try to buy a product called IRT. It's a very dark green/brown plastic that is even better than black. It still keeps down weeds, but it let's in more UV light in the spring. It is a university-researched product that professional growers use, so it comes in enormous rolls. But a few online retailers will buy the big roll, and sell you however much you want. (I think Pinetree and Johnny's.)

BEETS! Beets are one of the easiest things there is to grow. It's pretty impossible not to be able to grow them. It takes no fancy growing techniques, and you certainly don't need to start seeds early for transplants. (Transplants aren't very successful with root vegetables, anyway.) But you do have to weed them a little right after you plant them.

The best way to plant beets is by "square foot gardening" which really minimizes weeding. Old fashioned planting in rows doesn't work nearly as well. Scrape the nitrogen-robbing mulch off a 2-foot-wide section. Scatter the seeds about a half-inch to an inch apart covering this whole section, so you'll have a 2-foot wide section of continuous beets. Cover with a little soil. Keep watered. As they grow, a few weed seeds will also germinate. Initially, you have to pick baby weeds out by hand, which is a lot less work than fooling with transplants, they're not going to work well anyway because it's a root vegetable. As the beets grow, they will shade the ground, and you won't have to keep on weeding. You plant the seed so close together so the beets shade the soil. As you thin the beets, you have some tender little plants to add to salad or to cook with mixed vegetables.

If you insist on old-fashioned row planting of beets, mulch with black plastic right up to the row on both sides, and you will minimize weeds.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I live in roughly the same climate as you @archeryrob and this time of year you're not likely to start seeds very successfully, but perhaps in a few weeks when it cools off you can. Beets are very much a seed you should directly sew in the ground or a permanent pot without the intent of transplanting. Beets are a cool weather crop and should be sown about 4-6 weeks before your average last frost. They do like to have warm soil for germination, and then cooler growing temps after. To simulate this, you can sow the seeds 1/4" deep, water well, and cover with black plastic for 3-4 days to improve germination rates. Beets take a long time to germinate. I've had delayed germination up to 3 weeks before! A beet seed is actually a cluster of beet seeds so numerous beets will sprout from a single seed and you must pinch these off at the base once the seedlings are 2-3" tall. Chopped straw works very, very well as garden mulch. You can mulch very lightly, maybe an 1" when you sew the seeds. Once they are about 3-4" tall, remove any impeding weeds and layer another 2-3" of mulch. You can add more straw later when they grow a bit more. They also make mats with pre-cut holes that act as mulch and are reusable so this comes down to personal preference.

 

[Kusanar]

The worst way possible to start seedlings is in peat pots or blocks. They tend to wick the moisture away from seedlings. Research shows that seedlings started in peat are only about 80 to 85% as large as ones started in pots. Try it yourself next year, if you don't believe this. Alternate the same plants, half in pots, half in peat, in a checkerboard pattern in the same tray.

I did say or something that can be planted with the plant. If you have to disturb the root systems a lot of plants dont like that but they are ok with being transplanted if the entire pot gets moved.

Wick the moisture to where? If you but all of the plugs up against each other with little to no air gap, the entire flat will stay moist. Yes, if you just set a peat plug by its self with air all the way around, it will get dried out...

 

[archeryrob]

The beets grow in the mulch, but they don't start in the mulch. Anyone use the Winstrip seed trays yet? I am growing all from seed this next year. Maybe suggest another one? These say they stop spiraling roots

My nursery plants got root bound and never took off until now. I grew indeterminate tomatoes from seed and they are doing better than the determinate I got from the nursery.

I'll grow beets next year in trays and relocate after they are taller.

I'm keeping the wood chips and I can add nitrogen if needed and I as wood ash all over it in the winter and will lime it. I save the last bucket every year and put it around the plants.

 

[Boppo]

I have noticed the same problem with peat pots and even more with cow pots (made from sanitized cow poo). I had not diagnosed what was going wrong, but wicking the moisture makes a lot of sense. Even using paper pots I make at home is worse than the little plastic seed starter trays or pots. I clean and reuse these, so it's not so bad for environment or my purse. I love the idea of planting the started plants right into the ground without disturbing them by unpotting them ... and I really, really wanted cowpots to be great. But they just do not work very well, neither peat nor cowpots. Sigh.

I have grown beets, only in growbags. My beets did not get very big roots. Maybe I need a different soil mix to encourage more root growth?? Same with carrots. I thought using nice, soft, non-compacted soil in a growbag would be great for root veggies. I also tried both in a large grow container I have mainly for strawberries, with same results. I will try both again this spring, and hope for better results! Thanks for this thread!

 

[Boppo]

By the way, "wicking" the water away from the plants just means it lets the water out to evaporate into the air, rather than keeping it for the little seeding roots.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I have grown beets, only in growbags. My beets did not get very big roots. Maybe I need a different soil mix to encourage more root growth?? Same with carrots. I thought using nice, soft, non-compacted soil in a growbag would be great for root veggies. I also tried both in a large grow container I have mainly for strawberries, with same results. I will try both again this spring, and hope for better results! Thanks for this thread!

For anything I start indoors, I use 4" plastic pots (saved from various purchases at the nursery) but most plants including beets and carrots I seed directly into my raised beds. So you might consider seeding them into the soil instead - seeds are cheaper than starts and you won't risk disturbing the roots this way.

Also assess your soil - I have quite a bit of inclusions in my soil mix (some wood bits plus pumice) to help with aeration and drainage, and I amend it each spring with homemade compost plus a bit of nutrient mix from a local farm supply store in lieu of synthetic fertilizer.

My beets get enormous, like softballs, and I've pulled up carrots the size of my forearm (still edible).

 

[Boppo]

Thank you! Very helpful.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thank you! Very helpful.

Best of luck! And one additional thing - might want to try a few different varieties and see what does best in your soil/climate. For beets I've tried Golden, Chioggia, and Cylindra and plan on doing all 3 this upcoming spring - Cylindra seems to grow the best for me and is hubby's preference so I'll seed more of those vs the other 2.

For carrots I find Amarillo gives me bigger, sweeter carrots much faster than any of the orange varieties I've tried, though I'll be trying New Kuroda this spring for an orange carrot. My previous orange go to's were Nantes and Imperator, however they have a harder time pushing through the inclusions in my soil mix.