Vegetable / Cool season
Beets
Also called beetroot
Two crops from one row: roots and greens
Plant out byMay 18zone 6
- Family
- Amaranth (Amaranthaceae)
- Sun
- Part sun (4+ h)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Days to harvest
- 50-70 days
- Spacing
- 3 in apart, rows 12 in
- Pot size
- 3 gal pot (fine in pots)
- Frost
- Half-hardy
- Start
- Direct sow
- Water
When to plant
Showing .
Averages for a typical garden in the region. Your local frost dates may differ by 2-3 weeks, check a local source.Too late this year (try fall)
In zone 6, sow or plant outdoors Mar 23 to May 18; sow again for fall Aug 11 to Sep 22. Average last frost Apr 20, first fall frost Oct 20.
Units
Every beet seed is a small lie. What looks like one seed is a dry cluster holding two to four, so a neat row comes up as tangled clumps. Thin them to 3 or 4 inches apart when the greens are a few inches tall, and snip the extras with scissors instead of pulling. Skip that chore and you get a row of leaves with roots the size of marbles. That is the main way beets go wrong, along with too much nitrogen and patchy watering.
Beets like cool weather. Sow them straight in the ground about 2 to 4 weeks before your last spring frost. Sow again every few weeks while days stay under about 75 degrees F. They hate being moved, so leave the seed trays in the shed. A second round sown in midsummer carries on through light frosts in fall, and the roots handle cold better than the tops do.
I like them for kids because the thinnings are dinner. Baby greens go into a salad the same night, and a pulled root stains small hands red for an hour. In a pot, go for at least 10 inches of soil depth and water often. Pull roots between golf ball and tennis ball size. Leave them longer and they turn tough and woody, a lesson most growers learn once. Short rows sown a few weeks apart keep that from happening to the whole crop.
Things to consider
- Leaf miners tunnel through spring greens and leave pale, winding trails. A row cover laid down at sowing keeps the flies off. It stops flea beetles too, which chew tiny holes in young leaves.
- Don't follow spinach or chard in the same spot. All three are close cousins and share pests, plus Cercospora leaf spot, which spreads fastest in warm, damp weather and shows up as small spots on older leaves.
- Seed is slow in cold soil and sprouts in 5 to 8 days once the soil reaches about 50 degrees F. A 24-hour soak before sowing speeds it up, and so does keeping the row damp until the first sprouts show.
Good neighbours
Keep apart
Pests to watch for
Flea beetlesLeaf minersLeafhoppersWireworms
Questions about growing beets
Why are my beets all leaves and no root?
Crowding is the usual cause, followed by rich soil, too little sun or seed sown too deep. Cutting too many greens also stalls the root, since the leaves feed it. Thin early to 3 or 4 inches, go easy on nitrogen and leave most of the leaves on each plant until the roots have some size.
Can I eat beet greens?
Yes, starting with the first thinnings, which are tender enough for salad. After that, take one or two outer leaves per plant at a time so the root keeps growing. Older leaves get tougher, so cook them down like chard in a hot pan with a little oil and garlic, the same way you would cook spinach.
Will beets grow in partial shade?
Yes, within limits. Leaves grow fine with four or five hours of sun, but roots stay small when light runs short. If your bed only gets morning sun, grow beets mainly for greens and pick the leaves young, while they are still soft and mild.
Save this crop
Pin it to a garden board so it is there when planting time comes round.
Similar crops
Sources
General guidance for home gardens. Frost dates are averages for a zone or region; check a local source (in the US your county extension office) for local timing.