The easy way to grow healthy beets

Beets have a double attraction for vegetable gardeners. Most of the plant can be eaten and they're easy to grow.  Here's how:

• Beets may have red, yellow, or white roots.
• Recommended red beets are 'Early Wonder,' which matures in about 55 days, and 'Scarlet Supreme,' grown for its greens and baby beets.
• 'Formanova' has a long cylindrical root for easy, uniform slicing.
• For yellow and white varieties, try 'Burpee's Golden' and 'Albina Venduna,' respectively.

• To prepare your soil, spade it well, to a depth of about 20 centimetres (eight inches). Rake it to remove stones.
• Beets do best in a soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5. If your soil is very acidic, work in lime at least a week before planting.
• Wood ashes contain lime and potash, and can help reduce acidity just before sowing.

• Because beets germinate best and grow fastest in cool weather, plant the seeds as soon as the ground can be worked.
• In areas where summers remain relatively cool, make succession plantings at three-week intervals. This ensures a continuous crop throughout the season.
• Seed rows for beets should be spaced at least 35 centimetres (13 inches) apart, and furrows should be one centimetre (half an inch) deep.
• Sow the seed casings at three-centimetre (one-inch) intervals.

• Plants emerge in little clumps. You should thin to one plant per three centimetres (one inch) when the seedlings are about five centimetres (two inches) tall.
• When seedlings reach 10 centimetres (four inches), thin to 12 to 18 plants per metre (three feet).
• If you have fertilized your beet rows before planting, you need apply only one more dressing before harvesting.
• When the seedlings are about eight centimetres (three inches) high, scatter a band of bone meal along each side of the row. Spread about 100 grams (a third of a cup) for every three metres (10 feet).
• Lay down a light mulch of straw, chopped leaves or lawn clippings to help conserve soil moisture and keep down weeds. If weeds persist, remove them by hand.

• Grow beets in a different location each year.
• If the beet leaves become stunted or yellowish, and you have already limed the soil, there may be a phosphorus deficiency. In this case, add a dressing of bone meal.
• Beets are prey to few pests, especially where winter freeze kills bugs and larvae in the soil.
• In warm areas, beets may be attacked by tiny yellow leaf miners. Control them with neem or by protecting plants with a floating row cover.
• If beet roots develop black areas, the soil may be deficient in boron. Increase it by adding compost or growing green manure crops in areas where you plan to plant beets.
• You can also spray young plants with liquid seaweed extract to supply boron directly.

• You can enjoy the produce of your beet crop early if you harvest the young, tender leaves for salad greens. Only take a few leaves at a time from each plant.
• Beet roots mature within 55 to 70 days, depending on the variety.
• When the root tops begin to push up above the ground, carefully remove the soil from around one of them to check its size.
• To harvest, pull the roots out of the ground. Don't dig them up.
• As you separate the greens from the root, leave a bit of stem on each root to prevent the root from losing some of its colour when cooked.

Versatile and easy to grow, beets are a gardener's favourite for many reasons. They're quite hardy and resistant to disease, just be sure to clip them as required to keep them healthy.