FIMBY: We don’t talk (enough) about beets

As a kid, I hated beets. But the only ones I knew then were dark red and sliced, emerging from a can. They were thrown on top of salads, bleeding magenta juice into the Thousand Island dressing.

As an adult, and as a gardener, I’ve come to appreciate these root vegetables that are sweeter when cooked than one might expect. I will order a beet salad from any restaurant menu that includes such a dish, especially if it includes my favorite gold beets.

But the one time years ago I tried to grow beets from seed, I utterly failed.

I’ve learned a few things since then, especially from UC master gardener Gail Pothour, the vegetable guru at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center.  She is the author of the master gardeners’ thorough guide to growing beets, available here.

I am not going to replicate Gail’s excellent publication, but I will offer some basics, plus tips I picked up from her in person last week during the Open Garden Day. If you’re intrigued, and would like to grow this excellent but somewhat finicky vegetable, print out the whole guide and have at it. Do it soon, however — the window for fall planting of beets in our region is closing soon.

1. Beets are in the Chenopodiaceae family of plants, relatives of chard and spinach. They come in more colors than dark red: Gold, white, and red-and-white ringed (Chioggia) are other varieties. They all need help germinating; the gold ones are a bit more stubborn than the red ones, Gail notes. 

2. A beet seed is actually a cluster of flowers fused together by the flower petals.  The resulting cluster usually contains two to five seeds and as many as eight, she said.

3. Rinse the beet seeds in a sieve or soak overnight with cold water before planting. This is probably the most valuable tip here. The water removes chemicals that inhibit germination. But don’t let the seeds dry out again; plant right after rinsing or after draining off the water.

4. Beets like to grow in sunny spots, with light, well-drained soil. They need to be kept moist, so factor that in when choosing a location. Soil should be enriched with organic matter to help hold moisture and provide needed nutrients. Beets especially need boron; poultry manure, fish emulsion and seaweed-based organic balanced fertilizers, for example, provide this micronutrient.

5. Unlike carrots (see FIMBY from Sept. 30), beets can be grown from transplants. But don’t plop the entire clump from a sixpack cell straight into the soil. Carefully tease the seedlings apart first. Gail demonstrated how to plant them: Lay one seedling out horizontally on the soil, then gently push the root into the soil vertically with your finger, and close up the soil around the root. Repeat as needed. Have some teased-out seedlings that seem too small or weak to plant? Put them aside and use the tops as microgreens.

6. Beets must be thinned to give roots enough room. Grown from seed, they can be very jammed together at first, depending on how many seeds are in a cluster. A few weeks after they emerge, thin to about 1 inch apart. Later, thin to 3 inches apart when roots get to be 1 inch wide. Baby beets can be cooked or shredded in salads, and the greens used as you would spinach.

7. Beets are ready to harvest 45 to 65 days after seeds are sown. They are frost-tolerant, but should be harvested before the soil starts to warm up and the plant’s energy goes into seed production, typically mid-February.