Consistently productive and incredibly tasty Egyptian flat beets for the best borscht, preparations and salads
Egyptian flat beet is a well-known and familiar variety to many. The culture is in great demand among amateur summer residents and professional farmers due to its many positive qualities. An unpretentious variety to grow, it can be recommended to beginners - failures when planting it are extremely rare.
Description of the variety
Egyptian flat beet tolerates drought and unfavorable weather conditions well, and is resistant to flowering. Ease of care, stability and excellent taste make this variety one of the most popular among gardeners.
Origin and development
Refers to varieties of medium ripening. The variety was bred at the Research Institute of Agriculture Central Emergency Plant named after. V.V. Dokuchaev in the 40s of the last century. During this time, it spread widely throughout Russia.
The Egyptian flat is zoned in the Central, Central Black Earth, Ural, Siberian and Far Eastern regions. The variety belongs to the table category and is considered stable in terms of yield.
Distinctive features
Beets have a ripening period of 3 to 4 months and can grow in most climatic zones of the country.
The root vegetable has a flattened top shape characteristic only of this variety; the height of the vegetable is less than the width. The leaf rosette is erect, the foliage color is bright green.
Fruit characteristics, yield
The root crop has a flat-round shape, height 6-8 cm, width 7-12 cm. The vegetable is immersed in the soil to half its height and is colored intensely purple. The weight of the root crop ranges from 300 to 500 g. The skin is thin and easily removed.
The pulp is dark red, uniform in color, without white veins or rings. The taste of the variety is rated as excellent. Due to the dark color of the pulp, the variety contains a large amount of betaine, which regulates fat metabolism.
The yield of the variety is 3-8 kg per square meter. m. It has good keeping quality and can be stored until March.
How to grow
Egyptian flat beets have their own growing characteristics.
Planting by seeds
An important stage is proper preparation of the bed. Good predecessors are legumes, onions, cucumbers, and grains. Beets grow worse if tomatoes or cabbage grew in the garden before them. Does not tolerate shading, requires good lighting of the area.
The culture does not tolerate alkaline and acidic soils; the soil should be slightly acidic or neutral.
When digging the beds in the spring, apply the following mineral fertilizers: 1-2 tbsp. l. superphosphate, 1 tbsp. l. potassium sulfate, 1 tbsp. l. ammonium nitrate per 1 m². If the soil is highly acidic, add dolomite flour or lime. If the soil is not nutritious enough, organic matter is added to the soil.
Sowing can begin when the soil temperature warms up to 15 ° C, otherwise the beets will begin to bloom. Before sowing, the seeds are soaked for a day. When planting, make a distance between rows of 20-25 cm, in a row - 4-5 cm. The seeds are buried 2-3 cm in the soil.
Reference! The specific property of beets is that 2-3 seedlings sprout from one seed. Therefore, in the phase of 1-2 true leaves, the seedlings must be thinned out, leaving the most powerful ones.
Planting seedlings
To get an early harvest, beets are grown as seedlings.To sow seedlings, the seeds are disinfected in a solution of potassium permanganate and placed in a humid environment for 2-3 days until sprouts appear. The tray and soil are spilled with phytosporin for safety.
Seeds are sown for seedlings at the end of April, and bushes are planted in the ground in mid-May.
Care
The growing technology is simple. But in order for the beets to grow large enough, tasty and stored well, you just need to follow the basic rules of care.
When young plants have 2 true leaves, thinning is carried out again. The distance between plants is left depending on the size of the root crop they want to obtain. If you need larger vegetables, it is recommended to make the distance between plants 8-10 cm. But keep in mind that medium and small root vegetables have a brighter color and are much tastier.
After thinning, the beets are fed for the first time with a solution of slurry or chicken droppings. When the tops close, fertilize with potassium fertilizer (for example, ash) for better formation of root crops. Beets respond well to foliar feeding (on the tops) with complex mineral fertilizers with microelements in a low concentration solution.
Beet plantings must be regularly weeded and loosened, from germination to closure leaves. Loosen to a depth of 5 cm to prevent crust from appearing on the soil. It is especially important to loosen after watering or precipitation.
The row spacing can be mulched with mowed grass. This will make maintenance easier: there will be no need for weeding or loosening, and the soil will dry out less.
Watered beets infrequently, only if the soil dries out.When watering, moisten the soil to a depth of at least 20 cm with a volume of at least 2-3 buckets per 1 m² of bed.
Features of cultivation and possible difficulties
Beginners may encounter certain difficulties when growing beets:
- It is better to sow beets later than earlier. When planting seeds in cold soil, the mechanism of formation of root crops is disrupted, the plants go to the tops and suffer from flowering.
- When planting in soil with a lot of peat (it is usually highly acidified), you may be left without a harvest. The beets grow weak and frail, the root vegetables are small, tasteless, and poorly stored.
The nuances of breeding include the peculiarity of lying down after watering at a young age. This should not be allowed: carefully lift the young shoots.
We must not forget that beets, like any root vegetable, are prone to the accumulation of nitrates. Therefore, it is extremely important to follow the standards specified in the instructions when applying fertilizers to the soil in the spring and when fertilizing.
Attention! The culture responds very well to watering with saline solution: 1 tbsp. l. for 10 liters of water. Root vegetables after such fertilizing acquire a richer taste and are better stored in winter.
Diseases and pests
Main diseases:
- Fomoz occurs due to a lack of boron. It appears as brown spots on the leaves and damage to root crops. Prevention - timely feeding with microelements.
- Cercospora causes damage to foliage, which soon dies. May cause crop loss. When a disease appears, plants are fed with potassium chloride. As a prophylactic agent, the drug “Agat-25” is used to treat seeds before planting.
- Downy mildew (downy mildew) occurs in cold, rainy weather.A bluish velvety coating appears on the inner surface of the leaves. When a disease appears, seedlings are sprayed with a fungicide.
- Corneater It affects mainly young plants and manifests itself by blackening of the stems. This disease develops on heavy soils due to a lack of oxygen or when a dense crust appears on the bed. For preventative purposes, plantings are regularly loosened and the row spacing is mulched.
- Fusarium rot appears in early summer on plants damaged or weakened by drought. Leaf blades wither, the quality of root crops decreases. Such beets are not stored for a long time. Remove affected plants immediately.
The main pests are leafminers, aphids, flea beetles and cutworms.
When aphids appear, folk remedies are used, for example, a solution of onion peels. If the damage is severe, spray with the Iskra Bio insecticide.
Mining flies are fought with the help of karbofos. Flea beetles are eliminated by sprinkling plants with ash or tobacco dust. The scoop is destroyed by bacterial agents.
Harvesting and application
Egyptian flat beet is a medium-ripening variety. Young root vegetables can be consumed from the end of July or early August. But the main harvest takes place in September. The culture has good shelf life, so it is dug up for winter storage. The signal to start cleaning is yellowing and drying of the tops.
Choose a sunny day for cleaning. Using a pitchfork, carefully dig up the root vegetables, being careful not to damage them. The tops are cut with a sharp knife, and the beets are cleared of soil by hand. Then the harvest is laid out on the plot to allow the vegetables to dry. The beets are carefully sorted, discarding damaged or rotten ones.Well-dried root vegetables are stored indoors at an optimal temperature of 0-2°C and a humidity of no more than 90%.
Damaged and injured vegetables are processed.
There are many recipes for winter preparations: borscht dressing, pickled beets, various salads. Thanks to the rich color of the pulp, the Egyptian flat variety is ideal as an additional ingredient when pickling cabbage and other vegetables.
But It is best to eat beets without canning, because it contains useful minerals such as magnesium, iodine and manganese. Beets help remove radionuclides and heavy metals from the body. Beetroot juice is used in the treatment of many diseases.
As experienced gardeners say, borscht and “herring under a fur coat” made from Egyptian flat beets have an excellent taste.
Advantages and disadvantages of the variety
The variety is valued by gardeners for the following qualities:
- stability and productivity;
- unpretentiousness in cultivation;
- tolerates drought well;
- dark pulp without white veins, thin skin and high sugar content.
Many gardeners love the flat shape of the vegetable. It is more convenient to cut, flat root vegetables are more densely packed for storage.
The disadvantages of the variety include:
- demands for well-lit and heated areas;
- due to their sweet taste, vegetables are often damaged by rodents;
- Only large root crops are stored well; medium and small ones dry out quickly.
Farmer reviews
According to farmers' reviews, the Egyptian flat beet variety is quite suitable for planting over large areas.
Tatyana, Bezhetsk: «I like the Egyptian flat for its uniform dark color and good taste.It looks beautiful in the beds, rising above the ground to half its height, and does not require additional measures during cultivation.”
Vera, Nizhny Novgorod: “This variety has almost no disadvantages. It germinates well, grows without causing any trouble, and is ready for harvesting at the end of August. Stores well until spring."
Alina, Goryachy Klyuch: “I would like to note that this beet variety is not demanding, tolerates drought, heat, and does not suffer from flowering. To improve the quality of root crops, we feed them twice with a solution of ash and spray them with salted water.”
Conclusion
Consistently high yields, unpretentiousness and drought resistance make this vegetable very attractive for growing. The convenient shape of root vegetables, color and high taste ensure demand in the market. The variety is well stored until spring, which is convenient for the gradual sale of goods.