Secrets and step-by-step agricultural technology for growing and caring for beets in open ground

Many people try to grow beets in their summer cottage. Not everyone succeeds in this, since growing and caring for beets in open ground has a number of peculiarities. The crop needs to be watered on time and fed properly in order to obtain large and sweet root crops by the end of summer.

How and when to plant beets in open ground?

A warm-season two-year crop should not be sown on the beds too early.Beets tolerate short-term temperature drops well. But even surviving plants can start bolting in mid-summer. This process starts at the genetic level, since low temperatures for biennial plants mark the end of the growing season of the first year of development. When it warms up, the bushes do not form roots, but direct all their energy to flowering and setting seeds, releasing a flower arrow.

To avoid this, the gardener should choose a time for sowing beets in open ground when the frosts have already ended and the soil has warmed up to a temperature of about +10... +12 °C. For central Russia, the approximate time for sowing beets for winter harvesting is the last ten days of May. Seeds sown at this time will have time to sprout and produce a good harvest of root crops by the end of August - beginning of September, depending on the variety.

To grow beets for early production, the gardener should prefer the seedling method.

In regions with mild winters and early onset of heat, winter planting of beets is also practiced to produce early vegetables. In this case, the seeds are sown in late October - early November. Planting should be done to a depth of 3-4 cm. To preserve the seeds, the bed should be mulched (sawdust, peat). The thickness of the mulch layer is 5-7 cm. Beets grown in this way are not suitable for winter storage.

Preparing the soil and sowing seeds

Preparing a site for beets for spring sowing in the ground begins in the fall, after harvesting. The best predecessors are potatoes and other nightshades, onions, and legumes. You cannot plant beets after chard and cabbage of various types, as well as carrots and other root vegetables.

The best place is an area with loose and light fertile soil, which is well heated by the sun.Soils with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction are preferred. If horse sorrel or woodlice (chickweed) grows in the garden, then the soil has high acidity. When preparing a site for growing beets in open ground, it is better to lime such soil by adding dolomite flour, chalk or fluff at 1-1.5 kg/m².

In order for the beets to be tasty, the soil on the ridges must be filled with mineral and organic fertilizers. For 1 m² you need to add:

• 20-30 g ammonium sulfate;
• 10-15 g of potassium chloride;
• 30-40 g of superphosphate;
• 15-20 g ammonium nitrate;
• 4-5 kg ​​of humus.

Do not use fresh manure, bird droppings, compost or similar materials to fertilize the soil. Any organic fertilizers must be applied in a rotted form so as not to provoke beet disease scabby.

Minerals and organic matter are scattered over the surface of the ridge, and then the soil is dug well, thoroughly mixing the soil and fertilizers. Over the winter, the granules will dissolve, enriching the soil with the substances the beets need. In the spring, the area can be dug up again, preparing the beds for sowing.

Beet seeds are different from others: they are collected in 2-4 pieces. and are covered with a common shell. Each round and rough seed in a bag will produce several sprouts when germinating. This must be taken into account during sowing and the grains should be placed at a distance of at least 5 cm from each other. There is also a beet variety called Odnosprotkovaya, which germinates contrary to the general rules and produces only 1 sprout from each grain.

Before sowing, the seeds need to be inspected. Their natural color is yellowish-gray. If they have a different color, then pre-sowing treatment was carried out by the product manufacturers. Such seeds need to be germinated or sown immediately.If the planting material is not processed, it is soaked in a warm solution of light pink potassium permanganate. This procedure destroys bacteria and fungal spores.

After soaking, the seeds can be sown immediately if the selection of location and preparation of the beds have already been completed. Sometimes gardeners prefer to plant germinated seeds. To do this, they are placed in a damp cloth and placed in a warm place for 2-3 days, maintaining a constant level of moisture in the material. During this time, reddish sprouts appear. Ungerminated seeds can be left for another 1-2 days; they may germinate a little later. Seeds with seedlings are planted in furrows to a depth of about 3-4 cm and covered with soil.

When sowing, the following distances must be observed:

• Leave 5 cm between grains in 1 row;
• There should be about 25 cm between rows.

Beets planted on narrow ridges work well (according to Mittleider). With this method, beds are made about 35 cm wide, with sides formed from soil along the edges. The seeds are planted at a distance of 5 cm from each other along these sides. The advantage of this method is ease of care and uniform illumination of all plants.

Planting seedlings

To obtain early production, beetroot is grown in seedlings. To do this, seeds are sown 2-3 weeks before planting in open ground. Transplantation is carried out when 2-3 leaves appear. For the seedling method, you can grow beets in a greenhouse or in deep boxes on a windowsill. It can be sown more often than with direct sowing in open ground.

Seedlings are planted according to the scheme proposed for sowing seeds (5x25 cm). It is better to plant young plants in cool and cloudy weather, before rain. If the weather is sunny and hot, it is advisable to shade the ridges with gauze or lutrasil, stretching the fabric over the installed wire arches.

Beet care

After planting seeds or seedlings, the gardener must follow the rules for caring for beets in open ground. The final result depends on their observance: the size of the root crop, its taste and the keeping quality of vegetables during winter storage. Following simple step-by-step agricultural techniques will help you grow the best harvest.

Thinning beet seedlings

Thinning beet plantings produced in order to obtain larger root crops. It is recommended to do this 2-3 times per season:

1. When sowing directly into the ground, the first thinning is performed when 2-3 leaves appear on the plants. Several sprouts will hatch from each seed, so the excess ones need to be removed, leaving the largest and most developed seedling. The plucked sprouts can be used as seedlings: place them where the beets have not sprouted.
2. Beets grown by seedlings are thinned for the first time when a root crop with a diameter of 1.5-2 cm is formed in the soil. For a crop sown with seeds, thinning at this time will be the second time. You need to leave 10 cm between the bushes. When thinning, you need to remove weak and diseased plants, as well as those that have sent out flower arrows. Removed young rosettes can be used as a vitamin supplement in salads (instead of chard) or for preparing summer borscht.
3. The next thinning is carried out if you want to grow particularly large root crops. At this time, the diameter of the root crop already reaches 5-6 cm, so the young sweet fruit can be used as food in any way.

After each thinning, it is advisable to hill up the beets.During this operation, you need to have a good idea of ​​how to properly add soil to the root collar of the rosette: the soil should not cover the leaf growth point in the center of the bush. You just need to slightly cover the top of the root crop, which is above the surface, with earth. Most often, varieties with elongated root crops (Cylinder, Rocket and others) rise above the ground. At the same time, the rosette leans towards the soil, and the beets become curved.

Watering and fertilizing

The secrets to growing good quality beets lie in proper watering and feeding of the plants. It is necessary to water the bed with seedlings abundantly in order to wet the soil to a depth of about 10 cm, where the suction thin roots of the crop are located. As it grows, the volume of irrigation water is increased to 20-30 l/m² if there is not enough natural precipitation.

During the formation of the root crop, a lack of moisture leads to the formation of uncolored and hard rings in the beet pulp.

Until the underground part reaches a diameter of 5-6 cm water the beets it is better daily or every other day, focusing on drying the top layer of soil 2-3 cm deep. In the fall, 3-4 weeks before harvesting the crop that is intended for storage, watering is stopped, even if there is no rain. This way, more sugary substances are formed in the root crop, and it will be better stored.

To increase sugar content, you can feed the plantings with salted water several times a season (0.5 tsp per 10 l). At the initial stage of growth (before the formation of root crops), beets need fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers. To do this, add 1 tbsp to 10 liters of water, in addition to salt. l. ammonium nitrate. At the end of summer, the plant no longer needs nitrogenous substances, but fertilizing is also done in August, adding 1 tbsp per 10 liters of water. l. potassium nitrate.

Liquid fertilizing can be applied not only to the soil, but also in a foliar way, that is, by watering the leaves with a nutrient solution.

Treatment and fertilization

After watering or applying liquid fertilizer, the soil between the rows must be loosened to a depth of 4-5 cm. When performing this procedure, the root crops must not be touched, so the treatment must be carried out carefully. The video shows how, together with loosening, weeds that manage to grow between the rosettes are destroyed.

When loosening, fertilizers are also applied, feeding the plantation in a different way. Complex mineral fertilizer (Agricola-4 or others) is scattered between the rows and then incorporated into the soil with a hoe. When carrying out such fertilizing, it is not necessary to add solutions of other fertilizers.

Beet pests and diseases

Diseases and beet pests can be detected by the following signs:

1. Brown spots with a black dot inside on beet leaves are a phomosis disease that affects both the leaves and the root crop. Spraying the leaves with a solution of boric acid (0.5 tsp per 10 liters of water) and adding borax at 3 g/m² will help.
2. Downy mildew is a fungal infection. In this case, a grayish coating is visible on the underside of the leaf. You can fight the fungus with fungicides.
3. Corneater, or blackleg, affects young seedlings. The disease is prevented by liming the soil and adding borax (3-5 g/m²) during digging in the spring.
4. Large root crops are more often affected by fusarium and brown rot. They develop on heavy soils, and the methods of treating them are liming and the application of borax.

Beetroot is also damaged by insect pests. Most of them are leaf-eating and sucking (aphids, flea beetles, bugs and others). Plants can be protected by treating with appropriate chemicals (Karbofos, Iskra).

Harvesting and storage

Indicators of yield and ripening period depend on the beet variety. But the approximate harvest dates for central Russia are mid-to-late September, when the air temperature drops to +5... +15 °C. It is undesirable to delay harvesting by exposing the beets to freezing when the temperature drops below 0 °C.

Root crops are pulled out of the ground, the leaves and their growing point are cut off, and 2/3 of the roots are removed. For storage, beets are placed in boxes, sprinkled with dry sand. Large quantities of vegetables are stored well in the cellar in mesh bags.

What can you plant after beets and what can you combine planting beets with?

If a gardener practices compacted planting, then the best neighbors for beets will be the following crops:

• bulb onions;
• leafy vegetables and greens (lettuce, spinach and others);
• chard and early ripening beet varieties.

If you follow crop rotation, the next year after growing beets, you can plant potatoes and other nightshades, sow carrots, garlic, and pumpkin crops. The best substitutes will be legumes, which will restore the nitrogen content in the soil. You cannot plant chard in the same place: its leaves will dry out and wither, drying up in the garden bed.