Everything you need to know about growing beetroot
Growing beetroot is very easy to do, and it’s quite a popular vegetable for family gardens. Beetroot is commonly known as beets, and it’s not only easy to grow, but also easy to store. Growing beetroot essentially starts in the fall before planting season. It’s important to prepare your soil before you plant any seeds. You’ll need to use a tiller to turn the soil over thoroughly in the fall. You should also check the pH of your soil at this time. The soil should be between 6.5 and 7.0 pH. If it’s too acidic, then you should use about a half cup of lime per square yard in your garden. Just sprinkle it over the soil. However, one good thing about growing beetroot is that it will still grow quite well in just about all kinds of soil.
It’s best to start growing beetroot from seeds instead of purchasing plants from the garden center. Beetroot doesn’t transplant very well, and you can easily grow your own plants from scratch.
Start planting your beetroot seeds after the last frost. You should soak them in water for a few hours before you plant them in the ground. The easiest way to plant them is to dig a one-inch deep trench for your beetroot seeds and place them in the ground. Then just cover them back up with soil. Make sure you don’t sow too many beetroot seeds in one small area because they produce multiple seeds.
You’ve got to be careful so you don’t end up choking your beetroot plants by allowing too many to grow in a small area. Sowing them thinly will help reduce the need for thinning out your beetroot plants, although you still will have to thin them out after the plants are strong enough to survive being handled. When you do thin them out, make sure you’ve got about six inches between each beetroot plant. You can then use the beetroot plants you thinned out for your early summer salads. They won’t transplant very well, so it’s best not to try that.
After you’ve got your beetroot plants at the optimum distance, then it’s time to water, weed, and wait. It’s very important that you keep the soil moist so the roots will develop. After all, beets are a root vegetable, so the roots are even more important with this plant than with other types of plants, if that’s even possible.
You can utilize all parts of the beetroot plant. Of course many people enjoy the root part of the plant, which is known as the beet, but you can also use the leaves as an appealing part of your salads. You don’t even have to wait until the beets themselves are mature to use the leaves. Just make sure you don’t pick too many leaves, or the beets won’t develop. It’s best to harvest your beets earlier rather than later because the younger the beet, the sweeter it is.