How to grow beetroot?

[mothhawk]

I want to grow beetroot, my favourite salad veg, but need to know if it is high maintenance. Does it need loads of watering?

I have 1 rainbutt in the back garden, but it empties fast in hot weather, and I have no outside tap.
I have to carry a watering can all through the house as my kitchen and nearest tap is at the front, which is a pain, and almost as bad to have a hosepipe trailing through.

So I'm trying to grow stuff mostly that will manage without aditional watering for most of its life.

(I've put lots of compost and well rotted manure into the ground over the last 2 years which hopefully acts as a bit of a sponge for water conservation)

TIA

[Two_Sheds]

Nah, you just sow it and forget it

[zazen999]

What are you waiting for? I'm on my 4th sowing of the year.....

[mothhawk]

What are you waiting for? I'm on my 4th sowing of the year.....

space.....

[mothhawk]

Nah, you just sow it and forget it

Great - I wonder if I could get a few between the broad beans (which have early pots growing between them - oh and I obviously still haven't managed to remove all the jerusalem artichoke I had there 3 years ago...)

[zazen999]

You can fit a few in anywhere; sow in modules, pots and pop a few in wherever you have a bit of space.

[mothhawk]

You can fit a few in anywhere; sow in modules, pots and pop a few in wherever you have a bit of space.

Oh, good idea, I didn't think of doing it like that - aren't they fussy about being moved around ?- I know carrots are.

[zazen999]

That's because carrots grow from the tap root - beetroot form by the lower stem swelling.

[mothhawk]

So its not actually a root crop then? Could I mix carrot and beetroot seed and sow them together?

[zazen999]

No, it's not a root crop as such - it grows mainly on top of the soil. It's a beet with a swollen stem.

You could mix the seed, but personally I wouldn't. Mainly as the width of the beet would get in the way of the carrot and possibly break the leaf and attract carrot fly. I put small bunches of spring onions in between my beetroot seedlings.

Like

B 0 B 0 B 0
0 B 0 B 0 B
B 0 B 0 B 0

[gillian62]

I couldn't believe how easy they were to grow last year.

I have put some modules of them on the edge of my late maincrop potato bed so they are using the space while the potatoes aren't.

I planted them with onions last year, and also in pots.

[Two_Sheds]

The only problem I've had with beetroot is that sparrows attack the leaves in early spring

[hamsterqueen]

I have never managed to get them to grow

mind you I can;t grow radishes either

[zazen999]

I don't want to say it but I have absolutely no trouble with beetroot; which is good as I still have 1/3 of a shoebox full of seeds from 2 years ago.

[grenhouse]

Beetroot in modules is one of my greatest discoveries as a nooby gardener. I too was under the impression that they didn't like to be transplanted but have done great for the last 2 years! Thought I was one of the few gardeners who couldn't grow radishes very well hamsterqueen, glad it isn't just me!

steve