Is there a trick to growing beets?
By Nykkee
@Nykkee (2522)
Canada
May 30, 2008 6:21am CST
I have been starting a vegetable garden this spring and so far all I have planted is beets. I followed the instructions on the seed packet and planted the seeds as soon as the soil was thawed. They have come up but the leaves are sooooooo tiny that you have to pretty much have your face on the ground to see them. I recently bought some multi-purpose fertilizer but I haven't put any on them yet. I was wondering if anyone knows and trick for growing beets? Is there something specific I should put on the soil? Do they need a whole lot of sunlight? Because I only have partial sun on that garden. I hope someone can help me because I am not going to have much of a harvet at this rate. Thanks in advance for any tips you can offer.
1 person likes this
1 response
@dodoguy (1292)
• Australia
30 May 08
Hi Nykkee,
Beets are normally pretty easy to grow.
How old are your baby beets now? Have they had long enough to show some decent growth? I'd expect you should be seeing some decent vegetation on them maybe a week or so after they'd first sprouted.
I guess another question is how well has the soil been dug, and is it loose and friable, or hard and compacted? Generally speaking, if your soil is health and has lots of worms and organic matter dug into it, then veges are just about guaranteed to produce a nice crop for you.
Anyway, I hope if there is something unusual about your garden, that someone here is able to help you sort it out.
@Nykkee (2522)
• Canada
30 May 08
Thanks for your response and info. Well my husband loosened the soil up for my before I planted them but it's settled back down now. Should I keep lossening it? Wouldn't I end up digging the plants up if I tried to do that? We don't have alot of worms here. Should I try to buy some somewhere and put them in the garden?
1 person likes this
@dodoguy (1292)
• Australia
30 May 08
Hi again,
I wouldn't worry about trying to loosen the soil again once the veges are in - your hubby probably did a good job breaking it up a bit in the first place.
You might like to try putting some good mulch down over the garden bed to retain moisture, keep the soil warm and feed the worms. Just dried lawn clippings will do, but shredded newspaper and leaves or anything similar (dried, shredded organic materials with a lot of cellulose in them, generally speaking) will do just as well.
If there's not many worms there now, don't stress out, because they'll multiply in a friendly environment, and gradually improve the soil as they eat decomposing mulch at the surface and take it down into the soil with them. Over a few months to a year, the worms can really improve the quality of the soil.
The worms are your best friend in the garden, because they do 90% of the work for you, once they get established and get to work.
Potatoes are a good crop to help break up the soil deep down and improve it (but make sure to shift the potatoes to a new part of the garden each year, otherwise they might get a bit sick).
And legumes like peas and beans and clover add nitrogen to the soil, and so help out other plants around them.
As for those beets, I'd be just treating them nice and watering them a few times each week, to see how well they go. Hopefully they'll come to life and grow into big healthy plants for you.
