Here are some simple guidelines to help you grow juicy, sweet, healthy beets. The article will also tell you about how to keep the harvest until spring at home. Beets are not only delicious, but also a healthy vegetable that has a good effect on the circulatory system. It is a powerful antioxidant and is high in iron. It removes salts of heavy metals, radiation from the body, helps in the fight against cancer cells. Beet juice prevents blood clots, treats thyroid diseases. Beetroot has a beneficial effect on the kidneys, intestines and has many other useful properties.
It is quite easy to grow this invaluable vegetable on your site. How to do this will be discussed right now.
How to properly prepare the soil for beets
It is known that beets are more demanding on the composition of the soil. On heavy loam, it grows small and not sweet and juicy enough. In order for the fruits to please with taste and size, it is necessary to allocate a sunny area for it. The land here should be rich in organic matter. In no case should unripe compost, fresh manure be introduced before planting. The latter should turn into humus, become crumbly, then it can be applied to the ridges. Beets do not like acidic soil, so add ash, which will reduce this indicator. You can add dolomite flour for digging in the fall, which will also reduce the acidity of the site.
If you have loam, add to a bed 60 meters wide and 3 meters long:
- 4 buckets of sand;
- 2 bags of peat;
- 5 buckets of humus;
- 2 liters of ash;
- 3 tbsp nitrophosphate.
Mix everything with a shovel, and then level with a rake. In such a fertile area, the harvest will be excellent.
If the soil is peaty, you must add:
- 2 bags of sod land;
- 6 buckets of humus;
- the same amount of ash and nitrophosphate.
Refine sandy soil in the same way, only add 3 buckets of peat.
Before growing beets on peaty or sandy soil, make clay, which will help retain nutrients and water in the garden, they will not seep into the ground. For this, a layer of soil is removed on the bayonet of a shovel, a loam layer of 7 × 8 cm is placed there, and fertile soil, humus, what was indicated above, is added on top. After that, the soil is leveled and planted.
Gardening and planting beets
In the middle lane, if the spring is warm, beets are sown on April 25-30, in cold springs on May 5-15.
Make grooves along the ridge at a distance of 25 cm from each other, with a depth of 1.5 cm. To make them even, stick pegs on both sides of the bed, pull the rope, which will become an excellent measurement. Spill the furrows, lower the seeds into them every 7 cm. Fill the furrows. If the soil is not loose enough, add mulch on top, consisting of a layer of sand or peat 1 cm high.
After the shoots appear, periodically water the shoots in the evenings, keep the earth in a loose state. Then enough oxygen will flow to the roots, and the plants will develop well.
Many varieties of beets, especially old ones, are two- or three-plant. That is, not 1, but 2 × 3 sunrises will appear from one seed. You can leave the strongest, the rest of this group is simply pulled out. But you can do it differently. Wait until 2 × 3 true leaves appear on the shoots, carefully dig out the excess plants and plant them on another bed at a distance of 8 × 10 cm from each other. You will also get a full harvest from this planting material. The main thing is to know one trick. Shorten the root tip 5 x 8 mm before planting. This can be done with scissors or by breaking it off with your fingernails. Then the root system will develop well, and the main root will grow evenly, without bending.
If you do not want such picks and transplants, pay attention to single-sprout varieties. Many people like elongated fruits, their flesh is more tender, it is more convenient to clean, so you can plant this type of vegetable as well.
Beet varieties
One-sprouted:
- And I (named after the Siberian river). A very early variety. It grows well not only in the middle lane, but also in the Urals, Western Siberia, and the Far East. Root vegetable with maroon flesh, round-flat shape. Very productive. You can grow seedlings, in this case you can eat the first tubers in mid-June.
- Valenta. Medium early grade. Root vegetable with dark red flesh, which does not have a ring pattern, rounded. Not only the root vegetable is suitable for food, but also the leaves, which are sugary and very tasty. It tolerates cold weather well, is resistant to blooming.
- Khavskaya. Also mid-early. Root crops are rounded with dark red flesh. The variety has a good taste and is resistant to flowering.
- One-sprout. Late-ripening variety. Root crops with maroon pulp, round shape, tender, juicy, sweet taste. Productivity is high, good keeping quality during storage.
- Egyptian flat. Early ripe. Root crops are dark red with a purple tint. The root vegetable is flat, it can weigh up to 620 g. It is appreciated for its excellent taste, good keeping quality, resistance to drought and diseases.
- The incomparable A463. Almost the same shape and color as Egyptian flat, but with blackish rings, excellent taste. The mass is less, the maximum weight of the root crop is 380 g. The plants do not get sick, do not lose color during cooking, and have an excellent taste.
Cylindrical beet varieties:
- Mona - mid-early grade. After 62 days, the first fruits can be harvested. This beet is one-seed. The pulp is juicy, tender, the rings are mild. Fruits weigh 200-300 g.
- Rocket - refers to highly productive varieties of beetroot. Root crops are leveled, have a smooth skin, dark red. The growing season lasts 125 days.
- Cylinder. Late-ripening variety. He was bred by foreign breeders, but he has long been loved by domestic gardeners. The maximum weight of a root vegetable is 700 g. The pulp is juicy, sugary, dark red with a purple tint. Root vegetables are very good not only boiled, stewed, baked, but also raw. However, keeping quality is low.
But do not forget about the old, time-tested multi-sprout varieties, such as Bordeaux 237, Gribovskaya flat A473 and others. A little space can be allocated for these species in order to get a guaranteed harvest even in difficult weather conditions.
A little about growing beet seedlings
It was mentioned above that some of the beets can be grown by seedlings. To do this, plant a few seeds of one-sprout early beets in separate containers. It is best to use small special cups with a diameter of 4 × 5 cm.
Pour soil into them, make a hole in the center with a depth of 1.5 cm, spill it, lower the seed, sprinkle it with soil. Place the cups on a tray, cover with cellophane to prevent moisture from evaporating and place in a warm place. When the seeds hatch, shoots appear above the soil surface, place trays or trays with cups on a glassed-in loggia or in a room on a light windowsill.
After a month, plant the sprouts in the prepared garden bed. In the middle lane it is May 10-20. If you have a stationary greenhouse, you can complete the work earlier at the end of April. Then the first harvest will ripen by mid-June. When planting, take out a sprout with a clod of earth from the glass, then the seedlings will take root faster and sooner start growing.
Beet care
Watering, infrequent loosening is the main type of caring for beets. Since this culture loves organic matter, you can feed it at the beginning of growth with a mullein solution prepared in a 1:12 ratio with water. Enough 1 - 2 feeding with such an organic fertilizer, if it is abused, root crops can accumulate nitrates.
Feed the plants a second time 3 weeks after the first feed. Dissolve 1 cup of water in 8 liters of water, spill the garden bed. You can simply add such an amount of dry ash to 1.5 meters of the garden bed and embed it in the soil when loosening.
Harvesting and storing beets
The crop, for storage, is harvested when the root crops are well ripe. Therefore, they are left on the ridge until mid-late September. Beets are harvested in dry weather before frost.
Root crops are not pulled out of the ground, but carefully, so as not to damage, they are dug up, they are cleaned of the ground with gloves with hands. Cut off the tops, leaving a "stump" of 2 cm, allow this wound to dry, putting the beets under a canopy for 2–3 days, only after that they are laid for storage.
You can store your crops at home. To do this, you need to put the roots in plastic bags, but do not tie them, then place the bags where it is cool, for example, to the balcony door. If the loggia is well glazed, put the beets in a cardboard box, sprinkling them with dry sand or sawdust. Place this box in a larger box. Lay an unnecessary blanket down. Warm the walls between the drawers with a rag, you can also cover the drawer with a blanket on top.
If there is a basement, a cellar, the crop is stored there, making sure that the humidity is not too high.
Video about beet growing technology, planting and care:
