Growing Beets
Growing beets, contrary to what you might believe, is not a complex or even inconvenient feat. Beets are grown for their bulbous roots, which are most commonly pickled or candied, and also for their young, tender leaves, which are called beet greens. Both forms of the vegetable are very nutritious, though the leafy young tops of the plants are considerably harder to come by at the market or grocery store. To begin your adventures in growing beets, you must determine whether your soil has a great deal of clay in its makeup, or if it is more to the sandy side. Sour earth should be worked with lime the year prior to planting, no matter what types of plants you plan to sew. This can be determined by the type of plants growing on it, as sour soil will only grow short, bitter vegetation and fungus.
Now then, growing beets can be done in just about any soil situation, but you will need to remove all rocks and stones before proceeding. As beets don’t need much room between them to grow well, this is not as large a job as first it may seem. You will want to dig about ten inches beneath the soil level with a spade, bringing up the soil and removing any rocks. Next, you can sprinkle the piled soil with a touch of fertilizer, and then place some fresh grass clippings and small twigs in it, mixing it all around before placing the fortified earth back into the hole. Do this to as many holes as you feel you need plants, allowing about 8 inches between mounds. Mounding your individual beet plant plots will help them if your garden does not offer good drainage.
After you have created your mounded rows, you can begin growing beets by planting the seeds. Remembering that each seed will produce up to six plants; be prepared to thin them when they start to shoot. Ideally, you will leave no more than three plants in a clump, but two should suffice. Plant your seeds about 1 ½ inches deep, and you can use a marked stick to get the perfect depth and width each time.
Your beet seeds will need to be planted about 2 inches apart along the mounded row in order to avoid overcrowding. If you see, later during the growth process, that some of the tasty roots are popping out from the sides of the mound, try to cover them back up or just pluck them out. Sunlight directly on the beet roots will give a bitter and undesirable flavor to your yield. Growing beets takes about 8 weeks from start to finish, and remember that this cool weather crop will do best during the spring and fall.