How to Grow -Beets
11 March 2012, by gj
Beets are a wonderful cool-loving and quick growing crop.
The oddly-shaped seeds can be planted in early spring (here in Zone 5/6) when the ground becomes workable and the temperatures are still cool.
Note that you can continue to plant beets well into the summer, they can take the heat as well.
Just be sure to give them a good 60 days to mature.
ready to plant
The seeds should be about 4″ apart.
Since you can eat the beet even when they are small, you can pick every other one and give the others more time to grow.
ready to eat
You can also eat the greens, just pick sparingly.
In one of my favorite books, Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte (Storey Books 1975,1998) she recommends inter-cropping with kohlrabi because (except for the storage variety kohlrabi) they have similar growing times and conditions.
I’ve never done that before, but will give it a go this season and let you know.
What I do know is that when planted mid-March, they will be harvested before the end of May- the time when most of the garden gets planted.
Succession planting=more veggies in the same space. 
Botanical name: Beta vulgaris
Yield: one seed produces one and sometimes two seedlings, thin to one
Storage: Can (whole, chopped, pickled or relish), freeze or dehydrate. Can be held in cold holding for months under the proper conditions. Mine never last that long.
How about you?
Are you a beet-nick like me? Or a beeter-off without ‘em like Mandolin?
Beets and Chard recipe
Categories: beets, how to grow
