I love beetroot and want to have another stab at growing it this year. The last two years have been failures (the few roots that I had were the size of small marbles...).
When is the best time to sow them and does anybody have any tips to help?
I will be growing them in a south-east facing raised bed that has a pretty good mix of compost / manure and soil.
Thanks!
I usually pre-germinate in damp tissue. And then grow on in plugs. The Golden ones are poor germinators so double up.
And plant (or sow) 1" deep.
Thanks for the tip, Tim. The only time my beetroot were successful was the first year I tried them - just shoved them into the last piece of ground (which hadn't been touched for years), cleared a few weeds and hey presto - we had beauties.
Will try pre-chitting and planting in cells.
:) :)
My way; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Beetroot/Beetroot.htm (http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Beetroot/Beetroot.htm)
Sow one seed every 1-2". As they germinate and grow, pull every second one as baby-beet and leave the others to grow on. You can repeat this process once more if you want large beetroot from the same row.
must just be lucky ,chuck em in and watch em grow.... ;D
I must be like N8R the same with me just sow and wait....i do not bother to thin out as beetroot will grow on top of each other quite successfully.
I don't know what you did wrong. They have always grown easily for me too.
I have seen them growing in several way, all of which were successful.
Some people start them off in toilet roll tubes or fibre pots, 1 per pot, others sow them in a line then pick out the little ones, leaving the others to grow on. One person I know puts 5 seeds in a pot, then plants these together when the roots start to fill the pot. They grow in a tiny mound but all seem to get to a decent size.
Beetroot are big seeds and are great for children to put in. Just a nice size for tiny fingers to space them out in a small trough, I every couple of inches, cover with a little topping of soil, water and leave.
If all else fails, make a drawing of the person you hate most and burn it over the row of sown seeds uttering some devilish chant and see if that helps.
thanks for all of your great advice guys! I think I will do a little experiment and try some direct sowing and some pre-germinated seeds.
Having read all of your comments though I do suspect that the most successful will be PurpleHeather's incantation method. My only slight concern with this would be what happens to the person in the picture after you've burned it... ;D
Its the only veg that I'm useless at growing. It must be a soil thing, does beetroot need a specific mineral or something?
I have strong clay soil thats now quite loamy but still heavy'ish. I've been advised to add salt in the past as they're originally a seaside thing.
When we had a plot on clay soil we used to make a furrow about 4" deep and fill it with all purpose compost. They grew really well. Now we are on sandy soil we just sow em straight into the ground
How do I get a tabulation to print out as such??
Crops 32ºF 41ºF 50ºF 59ºF 68ºF 77ºF 86ºF 95ºF 104ºF
Asparagus 0 0 61(53) 80(24) 88(15) 95(10) 79(12) 37(19) 0
Beans, lima 0 0 1 52(31) 82(18) 90(7) 88(7) 2 0
Beans, snap 0 0 1 97(16) 90(11) 97(8) 47(6) 39(6) 0
Beets 0 53(42) 72(17) 88(10) 90(6) 97(5) 89(5) 35(5) 0
Shows that even Beet likes soil a bit warmer than ours is at present. 42 days to germinate. So wait a bit?
Avoid a fresh manured bed. If you dont they will be Mishapen.
Rake in some blood fish and bone where they are going .
Sprinkle some salt sparingly along the drill you have made just before you sow them. I think you will find they grow better for you then .