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Post by littleminnie on Mar 4, 2012 12:32:45 GMT -5
Do you seed your beets and chard later than other root veggies like radishes and turnips? I would love to do the whole area at once, cover with FRC and be done with the area but I think beets (and seeding chard with beets in alternating rows or might put it with kale) likes warmer soil.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Mar 4, 2012 12:42:10 GMT -5
I think they like warm soil but they can handle cold soil fine. I direct seeded our first planting of beets into one of the hoophouses on the 20th. The first little hooks are poking up just in the last few days. Admittedly its been freaky warm, not really sunny yet but we're supposed to have some nice sun this week. I haven't had a soil thermometer on them so I don't know what temps the soil has been but they've been under rowcover in the house and it hasn't frozen under there since I seeded AFAIK
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 4, 2012 12:54:58 GMT -5
I seeded them in October and they didn't do as well as the Kale, mustard greens, so I reseeded them yesterday.
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Post by diane on Apr 11, 2012 16:39:48 GMT -5
All the books and catalogues state that yellow beets don't germinate
as well as red ones. Are they all just copying each other? Have any
of you found this to be true?
I've just sowed four kinds of beets - four seeds each - in little pots, to
see if the yellow ones grow less well.
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greltam
grub
Everything IS a conspiracy :]
Posts: 59
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Post by greltam on Apr 11, 2012 18:15:36 GMT -5
I planted some chard on the 8th, and I'm in zone 5a/5b. What I could get out of some alternative ag schedules was to plant beets/chard on the 22nd-ish for climate, but what it says on the packets is to plant when soil is workable...
So this year/next year I'll be direct sowing early to see when it will work, and if the seeds don't sprout I'll just stick some more in and still be early in the season.
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Post by richardw on Apr 11, 2012 18:20:09 GMT -5
All the books and catalogues state that yellow beets don't germinate as well as red ones. Are they all just copying each other? Have any of you found this to be true? I've just sowed four kinds of beets - four seeds each - in little pots, to see if the yellow ones grow less well. yes ive always had the yellow and golden type not do as well. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 12, 2012 0:03:48 GMT -5
Do you seed your beets and chard later than other root veggies like radishes and turnips? I would love to do the whole area at once, cover with FRC and be done with the area but I think beets (and seeding chard with beets in alternating rows or might put it with kale) likes warmer soil. I plant beets, chard, radishes, and turnips as soon as possible: A few days after the winter snow-cover melts. The problem with planting beets and chard that early in my garden, is that some percent of the crop might get enough cold that it bolts, (since it's is growing in winter-like conditions.) The bolting is rare in normal springs, but in unusually cold and wet springs it can be more than half of the crop. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 12, 2012 15:51:31 GMT -5
Minnie, I'm seeding some beets and chard in flats to fill holes. It's working great!
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Post by littleminnie on Apr 12, 2012 21:26:35 GMT -5
Well I seeded some beets and chard today. The packet of chard was very meager! I will need more seed for fall.  |
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Post by iva on Apr 13, 2012 0:29:35 GMT -5
I've sowed my Detroit beets indoors a few days ago. I plan on transplanting them outside in about three weeks. I've heard they don't mind the transplanting.
I would also like to grow some sugar beets (for making syrup) I got seeds for. But since I've never grown them (or beets for that matter), I don't know when to sow them, if I can transplant them and such. Does anyone have any experience growing sugar beets? I'd be very grateful for any info...
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 13, 2012 1:41:25 GMT -5
I would also like to grow some sugar beets (for making syrup) I got seeds for. But since I've never grown them (or beets for that matter), I don't know when to sow them, if I can transplant them and such. Does anyone have any experience growing sugar beets? I'd be very grateful for any info... I can't provide any insight into transplanting beets. I've grown sugar beets. I plant them directly outside about 6 weeks before the last spring frost. The leaves resemble chard more than beets. I let them grow until about frost. Making syrup consists of grating the large beet roots, boiling them in water, straining the juice from the pulp, and then boiling the juice down. Sometimes it partially crystallizes for me, sometimes it stays as a syrup. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 13, 2012 21:57:39 GMT -5
I couldn't find any op sugar beets! They are all GM here. Joseph, I would love to have these for fall, if you can spare seed. My new intern was making fun of me today. She was saying that if the world collapsed I couldn't do without sugar. Ahh! I have an answer! Sugar Beets. Minnie, got scads of chard. pm me later and I'll send you out some. Your garden looks great. I'm hoping to convince my hay guy to disc a half acre for me when he's done with the hay. My plan is to add an 1/2 acre every season. I'm thinking if he's done with hay by May, I might do the whole 1/2 acre in sorghum, amaranth, beans, sunflowers, (and flax or something else I can graze the chickens on.) When I pull those beds out in fall, I'm thinking of putting my Emmer Wheat on them with Naked Barley. So they'll be potato beds after that. The way these TPS are coming up, I'm going to have to expand! And you are right, there is never enough potatoes, onions and garlic. Last year I had potatoes every week until September. It was the best I had ever done. There were 8 Fifty Foot rows. I gave out a pound a week. Today I had to BUY onions. Boy I hate that. I figure though that a 50 pound sack will last me till I harvest. I have been out of potatoes for our family since Christmas. I have 9 beds in now, and the TPS are still in the greenhouse. 250 plants! Thanks Joseph, thanks Nuts, thanks Tom & Atash! Attachments:
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 13, 2012 22:45:32 GMT -5
I couldn't find any op sugar beets! They are all GM here. Joseph, I would love to have these for fall, if you can spare seed. My seed is male sterile... And I suspect also GMO. Sorry I'm not sharing right now. I'm expecting to grow a sample this summer and spray it with herbicide: If it survives I'll destroy the seed and the plants... If it dies then it may not be GMO and so becomes available for sharing. The seed isn't of much use to me being male sterile. |
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Post by rowan on Apr 14, 2012 4:02:17 GMT -5
I bought OP sugar beet just for something different as it is not grown here in Australia. I don't remember where I bought the seed from now, sorry. I didn't grow enough to be worth trying to make syrup from them so I let them go to seed.
I put it in a few years ago and the original plants (most of them anyway) are still growing strong as a perennial. They set seed each year. I have saved some seed for myself but not enough to share. After the seed is ripe I cut off the seed stalks and water them and they put out a heap of new leaves that I cut every month for greens until I am sick of them. I love the sweet aftertaste of cooked sugar beet greens. The roots themselves are very sweet but don't have any flavor other than sweetness.
Anyway, I didn't gather all the seed last time and they have self-seeded all over the adjoining row and are coming up thickly. I will let them seed and save some seed for anyone who wants some if you like.
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Post by raymondo on Apr 14, 2012 5:23:37 GMT -5
Was it Diggers perhaps Rowan? I bought some from them. Good to hear that they are perennial. I have some but after eating a root I decided to leave them - as you say, no flavour, just sweetness. Now I'm keen to try the leaves. BTW, are yours white-rooted?
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