beetroot how do you grow yours

[Alison]

have had good success from direct sowing but based on you wise people's advice, I am going to give sowing them in peat pots a go...basing this on the advantage of keeping space free until later and easier thinning...

Give sowing in pots a go by all means but peat pots aren't really the best for this sort of thing, they're not easy to keep from drying out and peat isn't really the best material to be using from an environmental point of view. You'd be better off using reuseable plastic pots or if you want them to be biodegradeable then there is a thread on here somewhere with instructions on how to make newspaper pots which won't cost you a thing.

[ladylottie]

I direct sow my beetroot (lots of it! I love beetroot). Last year after my operation I did sow them in modules (to save me bending down) and it worked ok, but this year I will go back to sowing direct.
Don't think I fancy eating the beetroot skin either And I'm the same as Matt - I do prefer it pickled otherwise it's very sweet.

[Tripmeup]

Give sowing in pots a go by all means but peat pots aren't really the best for this sort of thing, they're not easy to keep from drying out and peat isn't really the best material to be using from an environmental point of view. You'd be better off using reuseable plastic pots or if you want them to be biodegradeable then there is a thread on here somewhere with instructions on how to make newspaper pots which won't cost you a thing.

Hi Alison..Yea I know they dry out quickly so aim.to stay on top of that...on the peat pots am using old ones given to me,not a buyer of them...Lucky for me, I live right beside a peat bog and appreciate the beauty of being able to walk thru and seeing all the plant life growing in it..

[cazp]

There was a school veg growing feature in the GYO mag I think (?) in which they tried a method of sowing beetroot whereby they pushed a cup in to the soil to make an indent and put the seed in the indent before covering with soil... If I recall correctly (?) the idea was that more water would collect in the compacted area under the seed which helped the seed grow strongly. They reported that the resulting beetroots were larger using this method.. but then their comparison was another variety of beetroot so don't know if that made a difference too..

Anyone tried this?

[Newton]

Good for spacing too I would imagine.........

[Florence Fennel]

That sounds a good idea. If it was in GYO, I missed it.

[Bigmallly]

I have been doing a quiet experiment (just in case it went wrong). Due to lack of space, I have been germinating all of my seeds in paper towel cigars. For the benefit of this thread, I have opened up the beetroot seeds.
Pic 1: shows my cigars in zip locks on my heat tray.
Pic 2: Obvious really.
Pic 3: The beetroot seeds unwrapped, can just about make out the roots.
Pic 4: Close up of the roots.

I have yet to decide whether to plant the seeds into individual modules or just cut the strip of towel and place in a tray until they get a little bigger.

[cazp]

That sounds a good idea. If it was in GYO, I missed it.

Just looked back and actually it was in "Kitchen Garden" December 11 edition - page 26.

They called it french intensive gardening method and compared Golden beetroot sown using this method, with Boltardy planted the usualy way - the resulting golden beetroot looked "massive" in comparison to the Boltardy. In fact they have a photo of the two beets 12 weeks after sowing and there is a striking difference in size.

[Frana]

I have always gone with Boltardy and sown direct at regular intervals thinning out when needed - I have always ended up with a good few jars of pickled beetroot to keep me going!