what's the trick to growing good beets?

[Laura1166]

We've been using the Ruth Stout method with hay and clippings, however for the 3rd year now our beet germination and sprouting has been very scattered. What am I missing?

Thanks! Laura

[BalconyFarmer]

I'm not familiar with the Ruth Stout method, but I've grown beets for 27 years, and in our California clay soils beet performance is all about soil tilth and organic matter. Beets do best in loamy soils with good porosity (drainage), and whether you've got a sandy soil or a clay soil, adding organic matter every year improves tilth and makes your soil a better home for beets.

I hammer the clods out of the soil with a grape mattock, smooth out the surface, then punch my finger in to a depth of 1" on 6" centers. I plant in deep-dug or raised beds, so I use hexagonal spacing--plants the same distance apart in all directions--instead of rows. Basically you punch holes for one row, then stagger the next row so the seeds line up between the holes in the first row, instead of lined up in a grid. Shift the next row back to the same positions as the first, and so on, until the bed is filled.

Drop 1 beet seed into each hole, then smooth the soil surface with the palm of your hand to bury the seeds. Cover with a thin layer of fine mulch or straw, and water thoroughly. Keep the seedbed moist until germination, usually in 5-8 days.

Beet seeds are compound, so you'll actually get several plants per hole. Thin each to the strongest seedling when the plants are 1-1 1/2" high.

Once the seedlings are up and on the correct spacing, it's just a matter of making sure they have enough water. Cool-season vegetables like beets need regular watering--less when it's cool, more when it's hot.

[dragonfly7]

BalconyFarmer covererd all the essentials of beets very well. If you're using the Ruth Stout method you may need to balance the carbon levels produced by the straw with more mineral and nutrient content, particularly nitrogen. Glacial rock dust will give you excellent broad spectrum trace minerals, sea weed and ocean-based fertilizers can provide additional nutrients. If you have access to fresh comfrey leaves, chop them up and add them as a mulch.

[Laura1166]

Thanks for your reply! Ruth Stout teaches no-till. We've been dressing the top of the soil for the last 2 years with hay and other mulch. It has been breaking down great, but I'm thinking, based on your helpful response as well as what I've read, that I'm not keeping the seeds moist enough. I've been furrowing the hay, so the hay is there, but not right where the seed is. I'm also thinking maybe I could line my furrows with compost and then put the seeds in that to give them a good start. Our soil is sandy loam.

Thanks again for your help! I can't wait till the harvest!

Laura

[Laura1166]

Oh great! Thanks dragonfly! I'll look into that. I do have some comfrey, but it's still a small starter plant right now. I think you've both given me just the information I was looking for.

Laura

[bhpigeon2]

Hay and grass clippings foster a lot of bacteria which feeds on them. If you are planting the beet seeds into a medium which is heavy with that material, a possibility exists that the bacteria consider them as just another snack.

bhp2

[Darth Slater]

A good method to use when planting all of those small seeded types of things is to get a piece of plywood, drill holes in it the size of a nice dowel and glue them into the holes..then cut the dowels off to about an eighth of an inch..you then just place it on the soil, step on it and you now have uniform holes
to plant things in, you can vary the size of the holes by using different sized dowles.
This is intensive planting which by far and wide is the best way to plant small seeds.
No waste, uniformity and you won't be burning through packs of seeds covering what would only take a third of the seeds.
I plant beets every year and LOTS of them, like the folks before me mentioned sandy loam is the best, but, the whole secret to any great garden is the soil..period.
Make sure to prep your beds in the fall, include lots of leaves grass clippings manure etc etc.
douse this all with a good molasses mix and till it in...MAGIC!!
If you can not do it for any reason in the fall, no worries, as soon as the snow melts and you can work the soil, you can do the same thing..because it will be a while until you can plant anyhow.
I have even used fresh horse manure in the spring and turned it in wwith excellent results, the drawback using fresh instead of composted is that..horses do not chew cud, so all the weed seed they ingest will be ready to take over your garden if you don't till newly sprouted weeds.
Usually I will till right after newly emerged weeds can be seen coming up, and then right before i plant anything, this cuts them down drastically..some folks use he no till method..I am not one of those.

[Little Minnie]

Oh you use molasses too. I have never used it on anything but solanaceaes so i will try beets too. Mine are only marginal.

[VA Gardener]

I can't grow beets for some reason. I have raised beds, and great friable moist soil. I think it's the PH issue - my soil might be slightly acidic, and beets like alkaline.

[Masbustelo]

Laura One possible reason for the poor or spotty germination could be Clopyralid herbicide contamination in your hay and straw. Hay and straw in the US is often contaminated with this herbicide, and beets are highly susceptible to it. If you are using randomly acquired material, they are highly suspect. Really the whole organic movement in the US is threatened by this contamination.