Learn how to plant, grow, and harvest beets
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Planting
Beets should ideally receive at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. While they grow best in well-prepared, fertile soil, they tolerate average to low soil fertility. This root vegetable will NOT tolerate acidic soils (pH below 6.0). A soil pH between 6.0 and 7.0 is best, and slightly alkaline (7.0+) soils can be tolerated.
Avoid planting beets where Swiss chard or spinach has recently been grown, as they are cousins of beets and are susceptible to similar pests and diseases.
When to Plant Beets
- Start seeding your first round of beets in early spring, as soon as the soil is workable. To allow the round beetroots to develop properly, the soil should be free of rocks and other obstacles.
- Make successive plantings every 2 to 3 weeks until mid-summer.
- Successive plantings are possible through summer as long as daytime temperatures don’t exceed 75°F (24°C).
- Germination takes place in 5 to 8 days in soil that’s at least 50°F (10°C). In soil colder than that, it may take 2 to 3 weeks.
- Tip: To speed up germination, or when planting in areas with low moisture and rainfall, soak the seeds in water for 24 hours before planting.
- For a fall harvest, sow beet seeds from mid-summer through early fall, starting about 4 to 6 weeks before your first fall frost.
- Winter crops are a definite possibility in Zone 9 and warmer. Plant beets in early to late fall for a winter harvest.
How to Plant Beets
- Sow beet seeds directly into the ground. They do not like being transplanted.
- Sow seeds ½ inch deep and 1 to 2 inches apart in rows about 12 to 18 inches apart. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil after sowing.
- Make sure the soil remains moist for optimal germination. Soak seeds for 24 hours prior to planting to speed up germination.
Beet seeds are capsules that contain several seeds, so each one may yield two or three sprouts.
Check out this video to learn how to plant beets:
Types
Beets come in quite a few shapes and a rainbow of colors. Deep red is typical, but yellow and white varieties are also available, as are red-white ringed ones (pictured below)!
- ‘Chioggia’: red skin; when sliced open, reveals red and white concentric rings.
- ‘Detroit Dark Red’: Sturdy, traditional variety with a round, red root.
- ‘Formanova’: Long, cylindrical beets that grow in the same fashion as carrots. Excellent for canning.
- Yellow varieties include ‘Bolder’ or ‘Touchstone Gold’.
- White varieties include ‘Avalanche’ or Dutch heirloom ‘Albino’.
Harvesting
- Days to maturity tend to be between 55 and 70 for most varieties. In other words, plan to harvest beets about 2 months after planting.
- Harvest roots when golf ball-size or larger; very large roots may be tough and woody.
- Loosen the soil around the beet and gently pull it from the earth.
- Harvest the beet greens at almost any time, beginning when thinning seedlings. Take one or two mature leaves per plant, until leaf blades are more than 6 inches tall and become tough. (Roots will not fully form without greens, so leaving some is necessary for proper development.) The leaves can be twisted off and cooked like spinach. Or, see our recipe for Beet Greens Salad.
- If you experience mild winters, you can leave roots sown later in the season in the ground to dig up as you need them. Or, store roots in boxes of dry sand in a cool, frost-free place.
How to Store Beets
- Fresh beets can be stored in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days.
- Tip: Clipping the tops off beets will keep them fresher for longer. Leave about 1 inch of stem on each beet, and store the greens separately.
- For long-term root cellar storage, make sure you brush off any soil clinging to the roots, then bury them in layers (but not touching) surrounded by dry sand or sawdust.
- Store in a cool, dry place. An unheated closet might do, or put them in a cooler in your basement. Read more about a new way to store beets in the root cellar.
- Sprouting is a sign of poor storage and leads to decay.
- Beets can be frozen, canned, and pickled, too!
- You can also freeze beet greens to use at a later date!
Gardening Products
Cooking Notes
Beets are a nutrient-dense food considered especially beneficial for health. Learn more in “Beets: Health Benefits!”
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Usually, beets that get this big taste woody, but have you tasted them? Why not? Try it. We've never grown beets this big so we'll look to the community for ideas. Enter these monsters into a state fair? :-)
Beets grow from seeds, but you can save beet seeds from the prior year if you wish (as long as the variety isn't a "hybrid"). Store a few good-size beets through winter and replant them in the early spring. Let the beet plants grow flowers. The flowers will be quite tall so you'll need to stake them. After they grow spikes, snip off the ends to help the seeds mature. As the spikes turn a brownish color and dry out, cut them and place them in a paper bag in a warm, dry place. After two weeks, rub out the seeds. Store in a cool, dry area of your house such as the back of a large refrigerator.
A part of the beet will often swell above the ground and that is fine. Plant about half-inch to one-inch below soil.
First time's the charm, as they say. In so many ways.
It's a pretty sure thing that the problem is crop rotation, Howard. Failure to rotate crops leads to nutrition-deficient soil. Repeating most crops in the same place will almost inevitably lead to increasingly poor-performing ones. And failure to rotate is a common hazard because most people think more or less like you: It did so well here, this must be a perfect spot for it! Alas, no.
As it happens, we have an article on exactly this in the 2014 Almanac, which will be available in stores around the end of August. Essentially, most edible plants should grow in a "new" spot in the garden every year. There are rotation patterns to follow (some are cited in the article) that are advantageous to the soil and disadvantageous to plant pests, and the article includes a chart putting every crop into its family to help you plan year after year..
It's really too late to do anything now; that is, during this growing season with these seeds/plants. You might try a new late summer/fall crop our sources suggest that this is a strong possibliity in your state. Be sure to prep the soil, etc., in a "new" area of the garden, if you do.
For the time being, in advance of next season, make a map of your current garden, showing where the various plants were set. (This practice is noted in the upcoming Almanac article.) This will aid you in developing a rotation plan for next few years—and with luck and such planning, you will have wonderful harvests for years.
BTW, if you read the article in the 2014 Almanac, please let us know if you find it useful.
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