I just cut the tops off, wash and freeze. the beets were fine and the leaves grow back. beet greens are extremely good for you and taste just like spinach.

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.

I sell beets in bunches with tops as long as the tops look good. After a late freeze or if leaf miner is a problem and the tops look junky, I sell them loose. The bunch price is much better so it's worth it for me to take the extra time. When beets are harvested in the morning and kept cool until they go on display, they don't wilt all that fast. On very hot days, I accept that the beets on the bottom will wilt, but I just keep restocking from under the table and the fresh top bunches keep the display nice. Usually someone at the end of market will buy the wilted ones for a discount. -Mark

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The seedlings haven't gotten a ton of direct sunlight because it's been a little dark lately with all the rain but they aren't really in the shade either. I guess I'll have to do some soil testing for acidity. Yesterday I finally noticed some baby leaves forming on a couple of them so I'll give them awhile longer until I write them off completely.