Pathetic beetroot

[Marb67]

Well, here I am again with yet another poor yeild to report. My beetroot, different varieties grown since spring and just harvested. These are the only root worth harvesting, the rest just leaf. The photos dont show you the scale of how small they are but they are about 3" at best. Grown in the so called wonderful square foot garden plan but like most of my crops in this system it's tragicly inadiquate.

[Nicos]

Marb, I know a lot of people have tried...or do...square foot gardening.
Thing I can't get my head around is that different crops need different NPK ratios.
I'm not sure how you handle that with SFG?
A lot of top growth? Maybe too much N - nitrogen?
Did you pick and eat some of the smaller leaves as it was growing?...they are lovely in a salad!


Out of interest, how many beetroot plants did you grow?
About 1/2 mine germinated and none of them have got bigger than a couple of inches in diameter.
I've only recently started cropping them.

[Lumpy]

Marb - try and take some solace from the fact that the smaller beetroot are far less likely to be woody and inedible.

Too much water (I know you can't do anything about the weather) will encourage the top growth at the cost of the root.

Last year I tried a seed mix of red, striped, white and yellow beets - none of which came to anything. I began to wonder if the differant varieties needed separate growing areas - no idea why.

This year I went back to Boltardy, although I love the golden types and Hey Presto!

Everybody on here has there failures no matter how experienced a grower they are so - welcome to the club.

My beetroot space this year was a vry small 18in x 12in and for the first time in years I actually have some beets I can boil / roast.

[veggiechicken]

I've been looking back through your old posts, Marb and there are several about the problems you've had growing beetroot.
Here's a few
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...oot_74018.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_80711.html
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_85615.html

Just saying that I don't think you can pin it all on the Square foot system. It would be the same soil and light conditions whether you grew beet in a square or in rows.

I have no answers but my beetroot have been rubbish this year too

[Dalrimple]

iv'e not bothered picking mine this year I think the wet weather was to blame ! all top no bottom so i'll dig em in come spring time . atb Dal.

[lottie dolly]

SO have mine,plus carrots,radish,lettuce,onion seed,to name but a few,some are down to the weather this year,and some to me for not looking after them,oh dear,there is next year to get it right

just looked at your pic,bloomin nora,they are way better than mine were,so you have done ok

[Penellype]

Much better than mine too, which are about an inch across. First time I've tried growing beets at home (in a 1ft square pot). The ones I sowed in my friend's garden soil (same variety - Boltardy) are much bigger, but hers are in the sun, mine are not.

[Greenleaves]

I find Cylindra are very good for small spaces

[Bren In Pots]

Another one here who didn't get many beets and those that did grow were smaller than golf balls.

[Snadger]

My beetroot wasn't up to much...............could have been because I didn't sow any!

[MarkPelican]

Did you plant them close together? I get very different performance when I keep them relatively well spaced. I also find it really matters when you sow them. I succession sow four or five lots and two will do well and the others are usually pants.

Finally my soil is heavy clay so whenever I sow directly I always make a drill with compost so that the seeds have something reasonable to germinate in.

[Penellype]

I sow mine in modules and plant them out when they have a few leaves, otherwise I find the slugs eat the seedlings.

[Aberdeenplotter]

There's always next year.