Beetroot

Ease of Growing [Scale 1-5] - 1 (Easy)

How Time Consuming

Very low maintenance apart from watering every 1-2 weeks and keeping the weeds down..

Recommended Varieties:

• ‘Bolthardy’ – Early variety, deep colour, bolt resistant.
• Organic ‘Chioggia Pink’ – is the most beautiful of beetroots with circles of dark pink & white flesh (does fade to light pink when cooked though). Very sweet tasting variety and good for roasting with garlic, onions and balsamic vinegar. 
• ‘Kestrel’ – High quality variety, can grow closer together for tender baby beets.

Home Grown Vs Supermarket :

Home grown taste is second to none and the edible leaves look good in your vegetable plot.

Best Sites and Soils:

Grow in a sunny open site in well drained fertile soil containing plenty of organic matter. If you can, two or three weeks before sowing, spread a general granular fertiliser across the site and rake into the soil.  Beetroot is aperfect crop to grow in a raised bed or a manger.

When to sow

Sow outdoors from early spring to summer.  Warm up ground for a couple of weeks with cloches or polythene on the ground. Sow rows every 14 days to provide a continuous crop.  Early spring or late winter sowings should be under cloches or horticultural fleece. If you grow varieties for winter storage, it is possible to have beetroot almost all year round.
Distance between rows - 30cms (12”)
Distance between plants - Thin to 10cm (4”) between seedlings.

When to harvest

Baby beets can be harvested as soon as they are the size of a golf ball, for mature beets leave until the size of a tennis ball.  Any larger and they will become woody.

Tips:    
Regular weeding between the crops is required.
A fast growing crop and can mature within 10 weeks of sowing – can use as a catch crop and grow between other longer maturing plants.