A fleshy and juicy root vegetable, beets are valued not only for their taste. This herbaceous plant has many beneficial properties. Beets contain a lot of fiber, antioxidants, potassium, iron and organic acids, so nutritionists advise using them to prevent scurvy, diabetes, kidney stones, and hypertension. The red-purple vegetable was used as food back in ancient Babylon. The root vegetable is still very popular today. Beets are grown in almost every country house and personal plot. In order to get a rich harvest of vegetables by autumn, you need to know when to plant beets in seedlings or in open ground, how to properly plant and care for beets in the garden.
You can grow vegetables either in seedlings or without seedling method. Residents of Siberia and northern regions most often plant beets for seedlings. Also grown in seedlings early varieties root vegetables that are rich in vitamins.
The timing of planting beets depends on the climatic conditions of the region. Beets are planted for seedlings 3 weeks before planting in open ground, that is, in March-April, under film - at the end of April, and in open ground - no later than May 20. Seedlings are planted in the garden bed only after the soil has warmed to +10 degrees. If in the southern regions this may be already at the end of April, then in the Urals and Siberia - in May or even at the beginning of June.
When to plant beets for seedlings in 2020:
- March. The most favorable days– 2, 7, 22, 12, 13, 14, 28. You cannot sow – 7, 8, 9, 24, 25 and 26.
- April. The best dates are April 10, 28, 29, 30. You can sow seeds from 10 to 20. You cannot plant 8 and 23.
Favorable days for sowing seeds and planting seedlings:
- May. Better days for sowing: 4, 5, 20, 25, 26, and for planting seedlings - 5, 6, 11, 12, 16, 25 and 26 May.
- June. Recommended dates for planting seedlings are 1-4, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 22, 23.
You cannot sow or plant:
- May: 7, 22;
- June: 5, 21.
How to plant beets with seeds?
Seed treatment
Before sowing planting material It is recommended to disinfect it in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and soak it in water for a couple of days to disinfect the seeds and stimulate their germination. The seeds will germinate even faster if you keep them for 24 hours. cold water and 30 minutes in warm water with a temperature within +35 degrees.
Soil for seedlings
Soil for sowing beet seeds for seedlings can be purchased at the store. A special mixture for seedlings or vegetable crops. You can prepare the substrate yourself from the following components:
- garden or turf soil - 2 parts;
- rotted compost or humus - 2 parts;
- peat – 4 parts;
- sand - 1 part.
Every 10 kg of the resulting soil mixture is fertilized with one glass of wood ash. Ready soil It is recommended to disinfect. To do this, you can steam it for 30 minutes in a water bath or heat it in the oven. After this treatment, the soil needs to be kept in a bag for a week so that beneficial bacteria can form in it.
Growing beet seedlings
Three weeks before planting, seeds begin to be sown. They are placed in the ground to a depth of 1-1.5 cm, sprinkled with soil, lightly compacted and sprayed with a spray bottle.
Containers with crops are placed in a warm place where the air temperature should not be lower than +20 degrees. To prevent the soil from drying out and the seeds to hatch faster, you can set up a mini-greenhouse. To do this, the crops are covered with polyethylene or glass on top. Every day the cover is removed for a few minutes to ventilate the substrate and check its moisture.
Caring for beet seedlings is the same as caring for seedlings of other vegetables. After the seedlings appear, the seedlings are placed in a place where there is good lighting and air temperature within +14...+16 degrees.
When the plants form two true leaves, they need to be picked out, since one beet seed contains 2-3 infructescences. The distance between the bushes should be 3-4 cm. If the vegetable was planted in separate pots, then you don’t have to do picking, but divide the bushes when transplanting them into the garden bed.
When and how to plant beets in the ground? Seedlings are planted in the garden bed only after the soil temperature at a depth of 10 cm has warmed up to at least +8 degrees. For this, a sunny area is selected.
You can plant beets after legumes, peppers, eggplants, grain crops, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. To prevent vegetables from being affected by diseases, it is necessary to observe crop rotation and not plant them after beets, cabbage, rapeseed, potatoes, and carrots.
Beet planting area
The soil in the root bed should be loose and have a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction. Fresh compost and manure cannot be applied to beets. Root crops can be planted on a bed fertilized by them only after 3 years.
When digging the beds for each square meter contribute:
- superphosphate – 40 grams;
- potassium chloride – 15 grams;
- ammonium nitrate – 20 grams;
- ammonium sulphate – 20 grams;
- humus - 2 or 3 kg (if the soil is not fertile);
- fluff lime - 0.5 kg (if the soil is acidic).
Planting seedlings in open ground
To get large fruits, you need to keep a distance when planting seedlings. The distance between rows should be approximately 25 cm, and between plants - about 5 cm. During planting, the central root of each seedling must be cut to 1/3 of its length. The plant is placed in a hole of such depth that the roots in it do not bend, but are positioned straight. The planted seedlings are sprinkled with soil and watered well. For the first two or even three weeks of planting, it is recommended to protect from direct sun rays and possible frosts, for which they are covered with a special non-woven material.
When the root crops take root and grow, they are thinned out, leaving a distance of 10 cm between the bushes. Experienced gardeners It is recommended to mulch the soil in the garden bed after removing the cover. Mulch will retain moisture in the soil and prevent weeds from growing.
How to plant beets in open ground?
When growing beets without seedlings, the seeds are sown after warm weather has established with a temperature of at least +6 degrees. If you sow the seeds earlier, the tops will grow, not the fruit.
After processing, the planting material is placed in grooves prepared in advance in the garden bed, the distance between which should be up to 30-35 cm. The distance between the seeds depends on the variety, but they should be at least 7 cm. If the vegetable is grown for preservation, then the planting pattern is 7x6 cm.
Seeds are planted to a depth of 2-3 cm, sprinkled with fertile soil mixture and water well.
Since 2 or 3 seedlings will grow from one seed, when the first two leaves appear on the plants, the plantings will need to be thinned out so that the distance between the seedlings is 3-4 cm. To do this, the excess shoots are carefully pulled out and transplanted to another bed. When two true leaves form on the bushes, a second thinning will be needed, in which the distance between the bushes is left at 7-10 cm.
Planting beets before winter
It is necessary to plant the root crop before winter at the end of October. Seeds are planted to a depth of 3-4 cm in previously prepared grooves. The distance between the rows should be 15-20 cm. The planting bed must be sprinkled with peat or humus.
Caring for beets is quite simple and consists of the following activities:
- Watering.
- Weeding and loosening the soil.
- Feeding.
- Treatment against diseases and pests.
Watering beets
To get a good and high-quality harvest, root crops should be watered regularly. Watering is carried out after the top layer of soil in the garden has dried. It is especially necessary to ensure that the soil does not dry out when the plants are still young and the weather is dry and warm.
When the root crops grow, water them less often, using 2-3 buckets of water per square meter. Overwatering beets is also harmful, since plants growing in too wet soil are easily affected by fungal diseases.
To increase the shelf life of vegetables, watering is stopped two weeks before harvesting.
Weeding and loosening
After watering or rain, the beds are weeded and loosened to a depth of 4 cm. Young plants need to be weeded especially often and carefully. Otherwise, the weed will grow and “crush” the small sprouts that are still fragile.
Beet feeding
Fertilize beets several times:
- After the first thinning with mullein solution (1:8). For 10 square meters of planting, 12 liters of solution are used. Mullein contains nitrogen, which is very necessary for young plants. You can use ready-made organic fertilizer, which contains nitrogen.
- Potassium fertilizers are applied after the plant tops have closed. A large amount of potassium is present in wood ash. You can simply sprinkle it on the ground and water the garden bed well. For every one and a half square meters of planting, one glass of ash is used.
- When growing sugar beets, the sugar content of root crops is increased with a solution of a bucket of water and a tablespoon of salt, which is used to water the plantings three times: when the sprouts appear, two weeks after the emergence of shoots, and when the sixth leaf appears.
- On initial stage for the development of not only root crops, but also foliage is used foliar feeding . Beets necessarily need elements such as copper, boron and molybdenum, which are included in many fertilizers. They are diluted according to the instructions and used to spray the leaves.
- To saturate root vegetables with sodium, use a solution of non-iodized salt, which is sprayed onto the tops (60 grams per 10 liters of water).
Beet diseases and pests
Preventive measures against diseases and pests are:
- compliance with crop rotation;
- pre-sowing treatment of seeds and soil for seedlings;
- timely weeding;
- destroying plant remains and digging up beds in the fall;
- timely feeding with microelements.
However, even taking all measures to prevent plants does not always protect plantings one hundred percent from pests and diseases.
The most common pests that affect beets are:
- shield moths - removed along with the weeds manually and destroyed with special insecticidal solutions;
- fleas - destroyed by dusting leaves with tobacco dust or ash;
- beet aphid - destroyed by onion infusion or Iskra bio;
- miners and beet flies - you can get rid of them with the help of Karbofos and Iskra;
- cutworms - are destroyed with special bacterial preparations.
Among the diseases, beets can be affected by felt disease, fusarium, root beetle, false powdery mildew, cercoporosis, photomosis. All these diseases can harm root crops, which reduces yield. Diseases caused by bacteria are treated fungicidal preparations. Viral diseases are not treated, so diseased plants are destroyed.
If, during harvesting, spots or rotten areas are found on root crops, they must be stored separately from healthy specimens.
Sugar beet harvesting
To prepare borscht and other dishes, beets can be dug up throughout the summer. If you plan to store vegetables in winter, then dig up the root vegetables a week after the leaves of the plants turn yellow and dry. By this time, the vegetables will have a diameter of approximately 7-15 cm. They are first dug up with a pitchfork and then removed from the ground by hand.
Root vegetables need to be dried before storage, so they are harvested in warm weather when no precipitation is expected in the coming days. Dried vegetables are cleared of soil and their tops are cut off so that a petiole about 2 cm in size remains. The peeled root vegetables are inspected, setting aside damaged and spoiled ones separately.
Selected vegetables need to be dried, for which they are laid out for a week in a room with good ventilation, where there is no sunlight.
Storing beets for the winter
It is recommended to store beets in a room with an air temperature within 0...+2 degrees and a humidity of no more than 90%. Very important for storing beets good ventilation Therefore, it is recommended to use lattice boxes made of wood or plastic. Root vegetables placed in containers are dusted with chalk and sprinkled with sand. Boxes with vegetables are placed on stands away from the walls. In this case, the lower root crops will not fog up and rot.
How to store beets in the cellar? It is very good if potatoes are stored in the cellar, on top of which you can sprinkle beets. The fruits will absorb excess moisture, and the potatoes will not get wet. When pouring vegetables into the cellar, you need to make sure that rodents do not get into it.
If all storage conditions are met, you can enjoy this healthy vegetable all winter and spring. And if you sprinkle the root vegetables with sand, they can be preserved until the next harvest.
Plant beets (lat. Beta) belongs to the genus of one-, two- and perennial herbaceous plants of the Amaranth family, although not so long ago beets, which in Ukraine are called beetroot, and in Belarus beetroot, were classified as members of the Chenopodiaceae family. The main representative of the genus is the common beet, which has three varieties: table beet, fodder beet and sugar beet. The beetroot vegetable grows on all continents except Antarctica. The ancestor of cultivated plant species, wild beets were used both as food and as medicinal plant back in ancient Babylon. The most interesting thing is that at first only the leaves were eaten, and the beet roots were used for medicinal purposes.
The ancient Greeks sacrificed beets to Apollo as one of the most valuable plants for them. Cultivated forms of root beets appeared only at the beginning of our era, and in the 10th-11th centuries they were already cultivated in Kievan Rus. Fodder beet bred in Germany by the 16th century, and the selection of sugar beets began in 1747, when it turned out that the sugar contained in cane was also found in beets. Today, beet sugar is used more often than cane sugar in many countries, and beetroot (Beta vulgaris) has become an essential crop known to be rich in necessary for a person antioxidants, potassium and folic acid.
Planting and caring for beets
- Landing: Sowing seeds in the ground is carried out before winter or in spring, when the air warms up to 8-10 ˚C. Early varieties are sown for seedlings in April, and the seedlings are transplanted into the ground three months later - in early or mid-May.
- Lighting: bright sunlight.
- The soil: peat bogs, loams, medium loamy chernozems of neutral or slightly alkaline reaction. Carrots cannot be grown in soil that has been added fresh manure or compost.
- Predecessors: Undesirable: carrots, beets, chard, potatoes, all types of cabbage and other cruciferous crops. Good: grains and legumes, eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers.
- Watering: regular (3-4 times per season), as soon as it dries out upper layer soil, in dry weather - abundant. The best way is sprinkling. Water consumption per 1 m² of plot is 20-30 l. Three weeks before harvesting, watering is stopped.
- Feeding: after the first thinning - with a solution of bird droppings (1:12) or mullein (1:18), using 12 liters of fertilizer for every 10 m² of land. When the beet tops close, ash is scattered over the beds at the rate of 1 cup per 1.5 m², after which the area must be watered.
- Reproduction: seed.
- Pests: leaf miners and beet flies, aphids, cutworms, flea beetles and honey beet flies.
- Diseases: red rot (or felt disease), fusarium (or brown rot), root beetle, peronospora, cercospora, fomoz.
Read more about growing beets below.
Beet plant - description
The root of the beet, the so-called root vegetable, is juicy, thick and fleshy. In most varieties, when growing in the ground, it is not completely immersed in the ground, but slightly protrudes above the surface. In the first year of growth, beets, like carrots, develop only a rosette of large, bare, ovoid, basal leaves on long petioles, as well as a root crop.
Sometimes by the end of the first year, but usually in the second, an erect, highly branched, faceted stem appears from the middle of the rosette, reaching from half a meter to a meter in height, with small alternate, almost sessile leaves, in the axils of which bunches of small, dim, also sessile flowers appear, arranged into complex ears. The beet fruit is a compressed single seed.
Diverse beneficial features beets, due to the presence of organic acids, iron and fiber in the roots. Because of this, beets are often used in diets to treat hypertension, kidney stones, diabetes, scurvy and other diseases. Has great healing power Fresh Juice beets.
Growing beets from seeds
Sowing beet seeds
Growing beets in open ground provides for sowing seeds both in seedlings and without seedlings. Despite the fact that beets are a cold-resistant crop, they need to be sown in open ground no earlier than the air warms up to 6-8 ºC, but the full development of the plant begins only when the temperature rises to 16 ºC. In addition, if early sown seedlings are exposed to frost, they will be killed instead of growing root crops. To stimulate germination, beet seeds are soaked for a day in cold water or for half an hour in warm water (35 ºC).
The seeds are planted in the soil to a depth of 2-3 cm, and the distance between the rows is maintained depending on the variety - from 7 cm if you are growing small beets for canning, and up to 30-35 cm if you need large root crops. The distance between specimens in a row in the first case is 5-6 cm, and in the second – up to 10 cm.
Since many varieties of beets have seeds collected in clusters of 2-3 pieces, the sprouts appear in a cluster and require thinning at an early stage of development, in the phase of formation of the first pair of true leaves. As a result of the procedure, the distance between the shoots should become 3-4 cm. The removed shoots are transplanted to another place: at this stage of development they easily take root.
Simultaneously with the first thinning, the area is weeded and then mulched with fine organic matter - sawdust, for example.
The second thinning is carried out when the seedlings acquire two pairs of leaves and the root crop reaches a diameter of 1.5 cm - the interval between seedlings after the second thinning should be 6-10 cm. Thinning with simultaneous weeding is carried out after watering or rain in cloudy weather.
Growing beet seedlings
Early varieties of beets are grown in seedlings, which are rich in vitamin C and carotene, as well as betanin, calcium salts, iron, phosphorus and other biologically active substances. Young beets are the same valuable early vegetable as radishes, lettuce, green onions. Choose flowering-resistant beet varieties for growing seedlings - K-249, Polar flat, Cold-resistant 19.
Growing beet seedlings begins three weeks before planting them in open ground with pre-sowing seed treatment. The seed material for disinfection is soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate, then the seeds are kept for 2-3 days in a moist environment for pecking and finally laid out in a box on moist, light soil, treated with Fitosporin to avoid blackleg disease, lightly sprinkled with the same substrate and placed in greenhouse
Caring for beet seedlings is no different from caring for any other seedlings - it requires slightly moist soil, constant temperature and daily ventilation.
Picking beet seedlings
How to plant beet seedlings, and when to do it? Picking is carried out according to the same principle, with the same characteristics and at the same intervals as when thinning seedlings in open ground. Seedlings dive only once, but if you sowed the seeds not in a box, but in cups, then you can not dive, but plant the seedlings in open ground directly in the cups.
Planting beets in open ground
When to plant beets in the ground
Beetroot is planted in the ground from mid-May at the development stage of seedlings with 4-5 leaves. A prerequisite is soil heated to 8-10 ºC at a depth of 8-10 cm, which is only possible if the place for beets is well lit by the sun.
Soil for beets
Before planting beets, you need to choose a site for it and prepare the soil on it. Most of all, beets love fertile, loose soils - peat bogs, medium-loamy chernozems with a slightly alkaline or neutral reaction - the pH value should be no lower than 5 and no higher than 8 units. In acidic or too alkaline soil, beets get sick. Do not plant beets in soils that have been amended with fresh manure or compost; it will take at least 3 years before beets can be grown in such areas.
You can plant beets in areas where onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, grains, eggplants, peppers and legumes grew before; undesirable predecessors for beets are chard, carrots, all types of beets, potatoes, rapeseed and any cabbage.
In early spring, when digging, 20-30 g of ammonium sulphate, 15-20 g of ammonium nitrate, 10-15 g of potassium chloride and 30-40 g of superphosphate per 1 m² are added to the site. If the soil on the site is not fertile, then add 2-3 kg of humus per unit area, and to neutralize acidic soil, add half a kilogram of fluff lime per 1 m².
How to plant beets in open ground
The size of the beet root depends on the planting density: the larger the gap between the seedlings, the larger the beet root will be. But root vegetables that are too large are inconvenient to use; in addition, they accumulate more nitrates and are not as tasty as medium-sized root vegetables. To obtain juicy, sweet root crops, on a cloudy day, seedlings are planted in rows at a distance of 4-5 cm from each other, the row spacing should be about 25 cm. When transplanting, the central root of the seedling is shortened by a third of its length.
After transplanting into open ground, the seedlings are watered with a humate solution to ensure rapid rooting and protected from the sun with non-woven material, built over the beds along the entire length of the arc, so that the shelter placed on them does not damage the fragile seedlings. After the young beets have taken root, become stronger, and its root crop has acquired a diameter of one and a half centimeters, it will be possible to thin out the seedlings to an interval of 8-10 cm between them, and by July, when the leaves of the tops have almost closed, the cover is removed and the area is mulched for protection beets from weeds and maintaining moisture in the soil.
Planting beets before winter
Winter beets are planted in late October or early November. In a previously dug and fertilized area, furrows are made at a distance of 15-20 cm, into which seeds are scattered at the rate of 2-3 g per m², or as described in the section on sowing beet seeds in open ground. The seeds are planted to a depth of 3-4 cm. Planting beets in the fall requires mandatory mulching of the area for the winter with humus or peat.
Beet care
How to grow beets
Caring for growing beets requires removing weeds from the area, regular watering and loosening the rows. If you have mulched the beds, then you will have to weed, loosen the soil and water the beets much less often. Loosening row spacing to a depth of 4-6 cm is necessary to destroy the soil crust, which impedes the aeration of root crops. The crust is especially harmful to plants during the development of the first two pairs of leaves, since it is at this time that the root sheds, retarding the growth of the plant and forcing it to be more demanding of growing conditions.
Beet processing
Weeds can choke young plants, the growth of which is very slow before the appearance of 4-5 leaves, so their timely removal is very important. important condition beet care. Before the emergence of seedlings, to control weeds, spray the area with tractor kerosene at the rate of 35-50 g of kerosene per m². And when the seedlings have 2-3 pairs of leaves, the area is treated to remove weeds with a solution of sodium nitrate. Then, when the beets come into force, the weeds will not be able to harm them.
Watering beets
Beets can easily tolerate short-term drought, but if you need a high-quality and rich harvest, watering the beet beds should be regular, and this is especially important in hot, dry weather. You need to water the beets as soon as the top layer of soil dries out, preferably in the evening, and The best way watering - sprinkling, since with this method the leaves of the plant are refreshed and washed. If there is no mulch on the site, the next day after watering it is necessary to loosen the rows to a depth of 4 cm.
To increase the sugar content of root vegetables, before watering the beets, dissolve a tablespoon of kitchen salt in a bucket of water for watering. Too frequent and abundant watering is just as harmful to beets as insufficient moisture, since it causes fungal diseases. On average, beets are watered 3-4 times per season, the norm of water per 1 m² is 2-3 buckets. Two to three weeks before harvesting, stop watering completely - this measure also helps to increase the amount of sugar in root crops and also improves their keeping quality.
Beet feeding
Beets are very fond of organic matter, and mineral fertilizers can cause cracking and voids to form in root crops. How to fertilize beets in this case? At the beginning of growth, after the first thinning, it needs nitrogen fertilizers, for which you can add a solution of bird droppings in a consistency of 1:12 or mullein (1:8) at the rate of 12 liters liquid fertilizer per 10 m². It is most convenient to make grooves at a distance of 5 cm from the seedlings and pour them with fertilizer solution. When the tops on the rows close together, it is time to apply potash fertilizers, which can be scattered over the beds with wood ash at the rate of 1 cup per 1.5 m², followed by watering the area.
Foliar feeding of beets has a number of advantages:
- firstly, nutrients applied to the leaves are absorbed faster than with root feeding;
- secondly, the assimilation of nutrition occurs more fully, since, once in the soil, some substances sometimes take on a form that is inaccessible to plants;
- thirdly, foliar fertilization of beets can be carried out even when it is no longer possible to fertilize the soil without the risk of harming the root crops;
- fourthly, the method of foliar feeding allows you to distribute fertilizers evenly, which reduces the risk of overdose or accumulation of substances.
So that the beets do not lack molybdenum, boron and copper, these elements are fed precisely by feeding the leaves, just like lime milk (200 g of lime per bucket of water), which feeds the root crops with potassium. Spraying the tops with a salt solution at the rate of 60 g of non-iodized salt per 10 liters of water nourishes the roots with sodium and protects them from the white butterfly and the summer fly.
Beet pests and diseases
Among the diseases, beets are most often affected by phomosis, cercospora blight, downy mildew, root blight and rot. To find out what ails beets, you need to know the symptoms of possible diseases, and only a correct diagnosis will help you decide what and how to treat beets in order to save the harvest.
Fomoz As a rule, it arises from a lack of boron in the soil - this is why foliar feeding of beets with microelements is so important. This manifests itself fungal disease brown or yellowish concentric spots on lower leaves sockets, then black dots appear on them. As a result, dry rot of the heart develops - the tissue inside the root becomes dark brown. Frequent, prolonged rains, fogs, high humidity air. If you find fomoz on the plants, immediately apply root fertilizing with borax at the rate of 3 g per m² and spray the leaves with a solution of boric acid (half a teaspoon per 10 liters of water). Next year, add boric acid to the soil at the rate of 3 g per m².
Cercospora blight, or spotting, can destroy up to 70% of the beet harvest, affecting the leaves of the plant, causing them to die, and, consequently, the quality and keeping quality of root crops deteriorates. If you find on top side leaves have small light spots outlined with a reddish border, and on the bottom there is a light gray coating, add potassium chloride to the soil as a top dressing. As a preventive measure, treat the seeds before sowing with Agat-25 in accordance with the instructions, and spray the soil with a fungicide before planting.
After this article they usually read
Beetroot is one of the favorite garden crops; it can be found in almost every garden plot. The secret to a good beet harvest is making the right choice varieties, timely landing And good care.
There are quite a few varieties of table beets used in cooking. Experienced gardeners It is recommended to plant several varieties different periods maturation. The harvest is harvested in two periods, early varieties for consumption in the summer, mid-season and late varieties for canning and storage.
The most popular varieties:
- early - Libero, Incomparable A 463, Vinaigrette Marmalade;
- mid-season - Dark-skinned, Negro, Larka;
- later - Cylinder, Ataman.
In addition, when purchasing, you should pay attention to the purpose of the variety - for fresh consumption and cooking, for canning, for storage. The shape and color of the root vegetable is a matter of taste, but it has been noted that varieties with uniform pulp without rings are juicier.
Preparing a site for beets
Beets love warmth and bright light, so they need a sunny area with nutritious and loose soil. It grows well on peat soils, sandy loams and loams with high fertility. To ensure a high yield, it is better to prepare the area for beets in the fall.
Good predecessors of this culture are:
- tomatoes and peppers;
- cucumbers, pumpkins and zucchini;
- greens, legumes, grains;
- onion garlic.
- potatoes;
- all types of cabbage, radish;
- carrots, celery and parsnips.
Beetroot grows worst in areas where its closest relatives were grown: chard, fodder, sugar and table beets.
The plot is dug up at the end of the gardening season or in early spring on the bayonet of a shovel with the application of fertilizers indicated in the table.
| Fertilizer | Image | Quantity per 1 m², g |
|---|---|---|
| 15-20 |
||
| 20-30 |
||
| 30-40 |
||
| 10-15 |
||
| 500-1000 |
It is important not to exceed the recommended doses of mineral fertilizers, otherwise the root crops will turn out loose, with voids and cracks. You can replace fertilizers with organic matter: rotted manure that has lain in the herd for at least two years, humus, and ash.
It is better to make beds immediately before planting, this way more moisture will be retained in the soil and the seeds will germinate faster. The soil is loosened and leveled with a rake; if it has already dried out, you need to water it well, after which you can start sowing.
Seed treatment
Beet seeds are wrinkled drupes and are quite large in size, so they are easy to plant at the required intervals. Store-bought seeds are often treated with stimulants and fungicides and are easily recognized by their bright pink or greenish color. Such seeds do not need treatment; it can even be harmful. They are sown dry without preparation in moist soil.
The color of untreated beet seeds is brownish, sometimes sandy with a greenish tint. It is recommended to prepare them before planting in the manner described below.
- Soak the seeds in water room temperature for a few hours. The floating seeds are thrown away; they usually germinate late and produce small root crops of irregular shape.
- Drain the water and immerse the seeds, wrapped in gauze, in a solution of Epin, Zircon or another germination stimulator. Keep them in the solution for half an hour to 4 hours, following the instructions for use of the drug.
- Remove from the stimulant solution and place in a warm place for 12-24 hours. During this time, the seeds swell, some of them hatch, after which you can begin planting.
Planting beets in open ground
So that beets please you good harvest, it is important to correctly determine the timing of planting. Single sprouts appear at a soil temperature of 5-7 degrees, but massive and friendly shoots can be achieved only when the soil warms up to a temperature of 13-16 degrees at a depth of 8-10 cm.
This usually happens no earlier than mid-May. It makes no sense to plant beets in open ground before - being in cold, damp soil, the seeds can rot, and the sprouted plants will then disappear.
On the prepared beds, grooves with a depth of about 2 cm are marked. It is convenient to make them using a board, pressing its end into the loosened soil - the bed of the grooves will be dense, and the planting depth will be the same. Having chosen a board of the desired width, you can also use it to mark the distance between the rows. It should be:
- 10-15 cm for obtaining small root vegetables intended for summer consumption or pickling;
- 20-30 cm for varieties with large root crops for winter storage.
The grooves are watered from a watering can, preventing erosion, and left until the water is absorbed. The seeds are laid out at the bottom of the furrows, maintaining an interval of 4 to 10 cm, depending on the size and purpose of the selected variety. They are covered with soil or well-rotted humus on top and watered.
For large planting volumes, you can make a template, as in the figure, and the distances between plants will always be the same.
Video - Subtleties of planting beets in open ground
Beet care
Beets are unpretentious and drought-resistant, but they can produce a high yield only with good care and compliance with agricultural practices.
- In dry and hot weather, beets are regularly watered from a watering can using the sprinkling method. It is better to use water that has been settled and heated in the sun. At the same time, the leaves are refreshed, the plants accept feeding better, and grow faster.
- Beets must be loosened regularly to prevent the formation of a hard soil crust. It is better to do this the morning after watering. The depth of loosening is no more than 3-4 cm, otherwise there is a risk of damaging the root crops.
- Mulching will help reduce the frequency of watering and loosening, and will also reduce the number of weeds. Sawdust, straw, and humus are used as mulch.
- Beets need to be weeded regularly from the emergence of seedlings until the leaves close, after which they are not afraid of weeds.
- In the phase of two true leaves, the plants are thinned out, leaving a gap of 3-5 cm between them. The second thinning is carried out when the root crops reach 1.5-2 cm in diameter, leaving enough space between them for the selected variety. The plucked plants can be used to make soups and salads.
- Frequent feeding of beets is usually not required if the soil is properly prepared. On poor soils, in the first weeks after germination, you can water the seedlings with an infusion of mullein or chicken manure.
- It is recommended to feed the plants two to three times during the growing season. complex fertilizer containing microelements: potassium, boron, copper, molybdenum. Ash dusting is also useful and will also help in pest control.
Beet diseases and pests
With good care, beets rarely get sick or are affected by pests, but for a full harvest it is important not to miss the first signs of the disease.
| Diseases and pests | Image | Description, causes, treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Fomoz | A fungal disease accompanied by the appearance of spots on the lower leaves and dry rot of the core of the root crop. The reason is a lack of boron, fertilizing with boric acid is necessary | |
| Cercospora | It affects plant leaves, impairs the growth and development of root crops. The reason is a lack of potassium; fertilizing with potassium chloride or ash is necessary | |
| They can be identified by a gray-violet coating on the underside of the tops, then they begin to dry out or rot. The plant must be sprayed with fungicides, it is better to do this prophylactically in the phase of 2-3 leaves | ||
| A disease of infectious nature that affects seedlings. The stem becomes thin, turns black, and soon the plant dies. The disease occurs when there is a lack of aeration on heavy, damp soils. | ||
| Occurs in dry weather with insufficient watering. Leaf cuttings darken, roots crack with the formation white plaque at the site of damage | ||
| On the contrary, it appears at high humidity and excess nitrogen. It appears as a brown or gray coating on root crops. When rot appears, the fruits are removed, and the area is not used for growing root crops for 4-5 years. |
Video - How to grow beets beautiful, healthy and tasty
Table beets are an indispensable root vegetable in cooking. But not everyone knows how to plant it correctly and care for the crops.
Let's take a closer look at how to plant beets and care for them.
Varieties and characteristics of beets
The most popular variety of this root vegetable is table beet. This is what every summer resident grows. It has a red fleshy root vegetable.
In addition to the dining room, there are the following types:
- fodder beet;
- sugar beet.
These two types of root crops are rarely cultivated by summer residents, only if there is a need to feed animals with them. They are not suitable for human food.
There are many varieties of table beets. For our area, it is better to choose varieties of domestic selection:
- Bordeaux 237,
- delicacy,
- crimson.
They tolerate it best climatic conditions and have good productivity.
How to prepare the soil before planting beets
Since beets are a very light-loving plant, for sowing you need to find an unshaded area in the garden. tall plants plot. Before sowing the root crop, the soil needs to be fluffed up a little to ensure a sufficient flow of oxygen.
In addition, it is necessary to apply mineral fertilizers. Manure is not very suitable for beets, since it will release nitrates into the root crop. The best option will use such fertilizers as:
- ammonium nitrate;
- potassium chloride;
- superphosphate.
When planning a place for planting beets, it is necessary to take into account seasonal crop rotation. Beets can be planted in the same place no more often than every 4 years.
The best predecessor for it may be:
- cucumbers;
- white or cauliflower;
- potato;
- tomatoes.
After these plants there is a lot left minerals, which are necessary for the growth of beets.
Preparing seeds for sowing
Seeds also need to be prepared for sowing. To do this, they are soaked in a special solution.
Growth stimulation solution is prepared from 1 liter warm water, at a temperature of 30 degrees, to which 1 spoon of ash is added, one teaspoon each of soda and superphosphate and a quarter of a teaspoon of boric acid.
Leave the seeds in this solution for a day, after which they need to be washed in clean water. After washing, the seeds should be wrapped in a damp cloth and left in a warm place for 3 days. After this time, the seeds are ready for planting.
When to plant beets
Beets can be planted in spring or autumn. In the spring, seeds can be planted in open ground only when the ground reaches a temperature of 10 degrees, at a depth of 10 cm. This usually happens in early May. But experts advise sowing beets in early June, so they will be better stored in winter.
Autumn sowing is carried out in October – November. The main thing is to do this before the first frost.
Beet root planting methods
There are 2 ways to sow beets:
- immediately into open ground;
- growing seedlings.
The first method is the most common. Beets are sown in rows, at a distance of about 45 cm. The sowing depth is within 2-3 cm. The distance between the seeds should be no more than 13 cm.
You can plant thicker, but when seedlings appear, it will be necessary to thin out the sowing, since several plants grow from one seed. It is necessary to remove the weaker ones to give more nutrients and moisture remaining.
Growing seedlings involves obtaining a harvest earlier than when sowing in the ground. In the greenhouse, seeds are prepared and planted in the same way as when planted in open ground. After the plants reach 5 cm in height, the weakest ones are removed.
When the height of the selected plants reaches 8-9 cm and they have at least 4 leaves, they can be transplanted to the garden bed. To do this, plants are cut out with soil from the greenhouse and planted at a distance of 17 cm from each other in rows. The distance between rows should be at least 33 cm.
Beet care and pest protection
A growing plant needs care and fertilizer. You shouldn't water beets often. This can lead to cracking of the root crop and loss of its color and taste.
During the growth period, beets can also be additionally fed mineral fertilizers, diluted in water.
Beets love care. It constantly needs to be cleared of weeds and protected from pests. Aphids cause great harm to it. You can fight the pest folk ways. An infusion of onion and dandelion peels, which are poured with boiling water in equal proportions, helps well. The cooled infusion should be sprinkled on the beet leaves. Aphids also do not tolerate wood ash.
Beets are harvested after the leaves begin to turn yellow. The main thing is to have time to collect before frost. Before storage, excess soil is removed from root crops and the leaves are cut off. It is best to store beets in the basement, folded in separate boxes and sprinkled with sawdust.
Not every summer resident knows the answer to the question of how to plant beets. The plant is biennial, but is grown for one season, since its roots ripen in the first year, and in the second year the bush produces shoots with flowers and seeds. To reap a significant harvest of this vegetable, rich in useful elements, you need to know certain cultivation rules.
Planting beets with seeds in open ground
The vegetable is grown by seeds or seedlings. Before you start planting beets, you need to prepare a site for them. The culture is more likely to develop in sunny and generously lit places; in the shade, the root crops will not have a rich red-brown hue. The plant likes fertile, fluffy, non-acidic soils - loams, peat bogs, chernozems with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction; groundwater should not be high on the site.
In the fall, the ground is dug up and cleared of weeds. In areas that were fertilized with manure or (especially after root crops), it is recommended to sow vegetables no earlier than after 3 years. Before planting beets with seeds in open ground, in the spring, when loosening, add 20-30 g of ammonium sulphate, 10-15 g of potassium chloride, 15-20 g of ammonium nitrate and 30-40 g of superphosphate per 1 m2 into the ground. . To neutralize the acidic environment, half a kilogram of lime is added per 1 m2.
Treatment of beet seeds before planting
Experienced gardeners recommend soaking the seeds the day before sowing to allow them to swell. The procedure will speed up the germination of the seedlings. Prepared for soaking nutrient solution– you need to take 1 tsp of regular baking soda, wood ash and superphosphate, dilute in 1 liter of water. The seeds are kept in the composition for a day and washed well. For soaking, you can use purchased “Agricola Vegeta” - 1 tsp of the drug per liter of water. Afterwards, the grains are wrapped in moistened gauze for another couple of days for germination and placed in a warm place.
Beet seed planting depth
Before planting beets, you need to make furrows, moisten them and wait for the water to be absorbed. The soil should be fluffy and loose. You cannot plant seeds deep into the soil - due to lack of oxygen, they may not hatch. Sowing too small also does not bode well - the grains will be blown away by the wind or they will dry out in the heat. How to plant beets with seeds - ideal parameters depths:
- the seed is planted 2 cm deep during spring planting;
- Before winter, the seeds are buried 3-4 cm and the area must be covered with peat or humus.
How many days does it take for beets to sprout after sowing?
Food beets are not afraid of the cold, but the warmer it is outside in the spring, the faster the seedlings will hatch. Seed germination occurs already at +5°C, but with such an early start, sprouts will appear only after 3 weeks. Planting beets in open ground at a later time, when the ground has warmed up to +10-15°C, will reduce the waiting time for buds to 5-6 days. If it is more than +20°C outside, the seedlings will hatch on the third day.
Planting beets with seedlings
To obtain an early harvest, it is advisable to grow beet seedlings. This method is considered more reliable, and the harvest is harvested 2-3 weeks earlier than the typical time. The seed material is subjected to the same advance processing as in the case of sowing on open area- soaking and germination. How to plant beets with seedlings:
- The substrate in the box is irrigated with Fitosporin in advance, in order to avoid diseases of future crops, it is watered.
- Then furrows are made along it every 5 cm, and seeds are distributed into them. Holes are formed at intervals of 3 cm, 3-4 grains are placed in one hole, and in the future the seedlings will be thinned out. The seedlings are sprinkled with the same substrate on top and the box is placed in the greenhouse.
- For normal growth, seedlings need a moist environment and daily ventilation.
- Planting beet seedlings in the ground is carried out when four true leaves have formed on the buds and they have grown to 8-9 cm. The seedlings are hardened off within a week in advance - the box should be taken out into fresh air for a couple of hours a day.
- When planting in open ground, there is no need to deepen the shoots; it is better to dip the shoots in a clay solution before rooting.
- At first, it is better to protect the seedlings with covering material by constructing arcs of iron rods in the garden bed. By July, when the foliage of the plants closes and the fruits reach a size of 1.5 cm, the film is removed.
Timing for planting beets in open ground
Food beets can be planted twice per season:
- In the spring, when the earth warms up to 8-10°C to a depth of 10 cm. As a rule, the period falls in April-early May. At this time, the soil still retains moisture after the snow has melted.
- Sowing seeds for seedlings is carried out a month before it is planned to plant beets in a permanent place.
- Autumn sowing is also practiced at the end of October; the deadline for planting beets is the beginning of November. The winter reserve allows you to collect early harvest for the next season in early June.
Scheme for planting beets in open ground
The size of the beetroot depends on the density of sowing - the wider the interval between seedlings, the larger the vegetable will grow. How to plant beets - planting scheme:
- The seeds are distributed in rows with further breaking through the seedlings. The sowing pattern is often single-line (40 cm between rows) or two-line (25 cm between ridges and 50 cm between tapes).
- Beet seeds are large in size; several rudiments grow from one grain, since the seeds are grouped into inflorescences of 2-3 pieces. Therefore, it is important to know at what distance to plant beets, so that in the future you will have to thin them less. It is better to lay out the seeds individually with a distance of 5-6 cm between copies.
- Seedlings are placed at intervals of 10-15 cm between sprouts with an interval between rows of 25 cm to collect high-quality medium-sized root crops.
What to plant beets with in the same bed?
After what can you plant beets?
When growing vegetables, it is important to maintain crop rotation to protect them from diseases and pests and improve productivity. Excellent predecessors of beets when planting are zucchini, cucumbers, legumes, onions, peppers or tomatoes. It is better not to grow root vegetables in the ground where spinach, chard, carrots, and cabbage grew. It is recommended to sow the same area for cultivating beets no more often than once every three years.
Caring for beets after planting
It is important to know how to care for beets after planting in order to obtain juicy vegetables. To do this, you need to take the following steps:
- Pull out weeds from the site, which, before the shoots have 4-5 leaves, will certainly interfere with the development of the crop. Before the seedlings peck, the area can be sprayed with tractor kerosene - 35-50 g per m2. When the first pair of leaves appears on the seedlings, the area is irrigated from weeds with a solution of sodium nitrate. Afterwards, when the beets begin to grow, the weeds will no longer be able to interfere with them.
- Loosen the row spacing 4-5 cm deep to destroy the soil crust that prevents oxygen from reaching the roots.
- The most important care for beets is thinning, which will help avoid deformation of the fruits, because the crop is characterized by dense seedlings. During the procedure, the soil is simultaneously loosened and all weeds are removed. In the phase of 2 full leaves at an early stage of development, the first thinning is carried out, leaving 3-5 cm between copies. Removed rudiments can be moved to another place - they take root well.
- Repeated thinning is carried out at the stage of 4 leaves, creating a distance between specimens of 10-12 cm. The procedure is carried out after watering or rain, so as not to accidentally injure the vegetables remaining in the ground.
In late autumn, without waiting for frost (late September - October), they begin to collect ripened root crops. They are carefully dug up or pulled out, cleared of soil, the tops are cut off and dried. In a cool room with good ventilation, the fruits are placed in boxes, sprinkled with dry material (sand, sawdust, peat), where they can be stored until spring.
Feeding beets after planting in the ground
The plant needs a fertile substrate; it needs two mandatory feedings per season. How to fertilize beets after planting:
- The initial feeding with mineral compounds is planned after the initial thinning. It consists of nitrogen fertilizers– 10 g of urea per 1 m2. You can add a solution of bird droppings in a consistency of 1:12 or mullein in a ratio of 1:8 at the rate of 12 liters liquid composition per 10 m 2 plot.
- The second feeding is given after the leaves of the tops of two rows of beets are closed. It requires potassium-phosphorus compounds - 8 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium chloride per m 2.
- With a lack of sodium, beet tops turn red. It is required to sprinkle the bed with ash - 1 tbsp per 1.5 m2 area.
- When yellow clearings are formed on the foliage, the area is watered with lime milk, which feeds the roots with potassium - 200 grams of lime per bucket of water.
How often to water beets after planting?
Watering beets is carried out only as the soil dries. At the same time, it is not recommended to over-moisten the soil - this will worsen the taste characteristics of root crops and may lead to problems with fungal diseases. Water the area in the evening to a depth of 20 cm. On average, during the growing season of beets, 5-6 moistenings of 5-8 liters per square meter are carried out with further necessary fluffing of the rows and mulching. The beet planting is watered for the first time when young, well-developed seedlings are visible. Moistening is stopped 15-20 days before harvest, this improves the preservation of vegetables.
