Rotten Beets

[lzyjo]

Yesterday, on a whim I decided pull up some of my beets. There was rot on the bottom of several of them. The beet root was cracked and black and mushy. Sounds like rot right? I tried to take photos, but alas I am no good at closeups. There were also some tiny white things crawling around in the black stuff. Am I right that the bugs were there because of the rot, not the other way around? What can I do to prevent rotten beets? Would picking them sooner help? Also it rained over the weekend right before they were picked. I managed to make an eggless chocolate beet cake with the good parts though and I was thrilled to pick the beets, since I wasn't expecting to.

[lzyjo]

Splitting Root Vegetables

Ok, I have been able to find an answer to my own question. In a thread discussing garlic rot Mikeywills provided a link to the RHS website, through that I was able to find an article on the splitting of root vegetables. (Thank you Mikeywills! )

For future reference, rot and secondary infections can set in when root vegetables split open due to irregular moisture levels. (As was the case when I picked after three days of rain when it had been 32 degrees and bone dry.)

Here's a link to the splitting root crops article