Beets are one of the most versatile cool-season vegetables you can grow. They produce beet greens early in the season, and later on produce the root vegetable that can be stored or pickled for eating year-round.
While some beet seeds are designed specifically for growing the greens, really any variety will produce good, edible greens.
Loosen the soil about 8 inches deep and plant the seeds about a half an inch deep. If you are growing for full-size storage beets, you need about 3 inches between plants. But you plant them in a patch with the seeds about a half an inch apart and as the greens get to be about 2 inches tall, thin them and use them either as cooked greens or in salad.
Beets are good for succession planting, but stop planting when the temperatures are consistently in the 70s because the warm weather will promote bolting, which is when plants produce flowers and seeds. While the beets are still edible at that point, they get woody and don’t taste as good. Also, once the bulbs get large enough to harvest as beets, the greens get larger and somewhat tougher and will require cooking.
About 8 weeks before the first expected frost, you can start planting again for a fall crop.
– Tom Atwell
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