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Growing from Seed

Growing Beets from Seed...HELP

9 years ago

I have some beets I have been growing for 30 days now. Space is limited in my backyard so i seperated the seeds into two different plots. One is in direct sunlight as the package suggested, while the other is in a spot that is shaded all day. The plants in the sun seem to be developing nicely from what i can see but the ones in the shade are stagnant and not growing at all(barely on 2nd set of leaves). Today i finally dug some up and noticed none of them had anything close to swollen roots that beets are supposed to have which leads me to my question.

How do I know if the beets in the sun are developing properly?

They have plenty of green up top but ive heard that the "shoulders" of the beets should pop out of the soil slightly and mine do not. Ive been giving them banana tea every week to aid in root development.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Comments (3)

Pyewacket
9 years ago
Honestly the best thing to do is pull one or two and see.

And don't bother to plant veggies in full shade ever again. If they don't get at least 4 to 6 hours of sun a day - and some plants need MORE than that - they won't grow. Flowers are different - but anything you want to actually eat needs sun to have enough energy to put into storage, eg roots (carrots, beets) or fruits (tomatoes, watermelon).

But if the foliage looks good, the roots are probably coming along. Beets are what, around 60 or 70 days to maturity? They won't be that big yet anyway. Did you loosen the soil well before planting? As long as they're not planted in compacted soil, and they are getting plenty of sun, they should be fine. The failure with the other planting was that it wasn't getting any sun. The planting in the sun should be fine.

However keep in mind that the bulb of the beet is not really a root per se. OK, technically it is, but in practice you should think of it as more of a tuber. Think of carrots and beets as one-tuber-plants. It is the pantry for the plant, where all that energy it is taking in is being stored.

You really do not want to encourage root development in beets and carrots, because then you get lots of small fine side roots and not so much of the fat bulbous taproot. We eat the part that looks like a tuber, not the hairy little feeder roots.

So I'd stop with the "banana tea" or any other application intended to encourage root development. If it works, you'll just end up with a ton of feeder roots and hairy little ba... umm, beets.
FarmerJohn87
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you for the help i really appreciate it...i am starting a new batch in a sunny spot with better soil and more space
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Auther
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Beets have to grow tops before the actual beet forms. It takes a while for this. If the little plants look good then they are growing and the beet will follow. You can also eat the beet tops that you pull to thin fixed like mustard/turnip greens.

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