I've been wondering what all this high heat is doing to my still small beets. I'm hoping they will be OK.

Yes, late summer beet harvests around here have been disappointing. These were planted in November, so it could also be that they're just old. I have few left by then, so it's not a great waste.

At least your giant beets were still good to eat. In my experience, beets get woody when too large.... something I'm learning about Okra as well.

That's a good point. But I'm pretty sure that woody beets is a matter of age rather than size. Certainly stressors like drought will make beets woody.

Glad you have a great spring crop of beets Dan, ours did extra well too as did the carrots. I usually have better luck with both as fall crops. Hope you resolved your past autumn beet growing problem (unless I got my Dans mixed up?)

Thank you, vgkg for remembering my trials. Yes, beets are hard to start. I planted about thirty feet of beets in November, and maybe a quarter came up. I planted more in the gaps, and maybe half of those came up. Beets come up in clusters, so I picked the clusters apart and filled in the holes with those extras, and some more seeds. I finally ended up in January with pretty solidly filled rows. But it's like that EVERY YEAR. I get a great crop every year, but it takes WORK. This particular year, we had a disastrous freeze (4F!) in February. I covered everything with tarps. Six inches of snow on top of the tarps. They survived, but were pretty flat when I removed the tarps. Within a week or two they were back vertical and went on to produce nicely.

You can't plant beets any earlier, because it's just too hot.

My golden beet germination was very good this year...maybe 90% or so. I had to do some heavy thinning. I planted 15' of row in early April and another 10' a couple weeks later. I harvested a dozen or so golf ball sized baby beets last week to add to a grilled veggie medley. They were very sweet and tender. A few of them had split I assume from too much water.

I can't imagine a 5 lb. beet but apparently the world record is over 50 lbs.!

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I did half red and half golden. They both resisted germination in the same way. Every year I say to myself, well, last year was just screwy. This year everything will pop up normally. And it never does. I've tried soaking the seeds (really inconvenient, because then they stick together when you try to plant them), mound pressure, and seed tape. Nothing works. I'm toying with the idea of just sprouting the seeds, and planting the sprouts. When I disentangle the multiple sprouts, they replant nicely.

Wow, a 50 pound beet. That's scary.

Jack, that wouldn't even fit in my beet pot!

Dan, you might recall that in your original beet post I also commented that some animal, digging for grubs, had gotten into my HUGE beet pot and shoved all the seeds to the sides, which, ultimately, made a mess. I pulled a few of those sprouts and stuck them in another, smaller pot. They grew and are now my 'beet crop'.... disapointing, but still a few.

Yes, while at least for me, beets don't seem to want to germinate, once they do, they are wonderfully resilient, forgiving, and transplantable.

Envying those who can grow beets! They've always failed me here in the land of mega pests & diseases.

I thought that variety also makes a difference when it comes to woody vs. tender?