Rules for obtaining a rich beet harvest: cultivation in open ground and care

To grow sweet and healthy beets suitable for long-term storage, you need to know the intricacies of vegetable agricultural technology. Anyone who masters this science will be provided with a variety of vitamin dishes all winter.

How to care for beets in order to grow a high-quality and rich harvest? Read about it in our article.

Variety selection

The choice depends on the purpose of growing the crop. Early varieties produce a harvest in the spring, when the body requires more vitamins. Mid-season varieties are suitable for consumption during the summer season. Late varieties have a long shelf life and are consumed in the colder months. Ideally, you should choose planting material of all three types and have a healthy vegetable all year round.

There are a large number of beet varieties, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. It's better to decide according to your taste. For example, Larka is a small round beet. If you prefer a disc-shaped vegetable, choose the Egyptian flat.

Important! The variety must be suitable for growing in your region.

Planting and caring for beets

Beetroot is one of the most consumed root vegetables. This vegetable is grown by most gardeners in their garden plots. The process begins with determining the timing of planting and preparing the seed.

When to plant beets

If the spring is warm with a daytime temperature of +13-17 °C and frosts are not expected, then beets are sown when the soil warms up +3-4 °C.If the crop is exposed to frost, the root crop may fade and not form. Therefore, it is better not to rush with planting and wait until the soil warms up steadily to +5-6 °C.

Preparing the planting area and planting sprouted seeds in the ground

Organize a bed for ready-made seeds. Mark the boundaries and dig the ground 25-30 cm deep. Break up the clods with a shovel or hoe, then loosen the soil with a rake. You can make the bed raised 10 cm above the level of the site. In this case, when the soil shrinks, depressions will not form.

The distance between rows should be 25-30 cm, between plants - 15-20 cm. For 10 m² of soil you will need approximately 15-20 g of seeds. The depth of embedding depends on the soil characteristics: in heavy soil - by 2-3 cm, in lighter soil - by 4 cm.

Reference. For residents of the northern regions, it is better to prepare seedlings in advance. Sow the seeds in pots, then plant the ready-made seedlings into the warmed soil.

Planting seedlings

Beets are planted in open ground in the first ten days of May, but sometimes due to weather conditions the period is delayed almost until the end of the month. The planting location must be as sunny as possible. Before planting, seedlings and furrows are thoroughly watered. Seedlings can be transplanted together with the container, if they are peat cups, without throwing away the soil in which it grew.

The beets are transplanted into prepared holes, the depth of which will allow the roots to be freely distributed. The distance between the holes should be at least 15 cm. After planting, the beets are watered with settled water for a week until they are completely rooted.

Thinning beet seedlings

The more space the plant has, the larger the root crop will grow, so thinning the seedlings is a mandatory procedure.If the variety is multi-seeded with 3-7 sprouts, this is done in several stages:

1. The first thinning is carried out after about a week, when the seedlings have 2 new leaves. At this time, weak seedlings are removed from the garden bed. Water the ground well and pull out the weak shoots, leaving the strongest ones.
2. The second thinning is performed after three weeks, when the sprouts have 3 leaves. Plants that look weaker are pulled out.

Single-sprout beet varieties are not thinned. For bisperms, only the first stage of the event is performed.

Watering and fertilizing

Growing and caring for beets in open ground is not difficult. In order for root vegetables to gain weight well, they need regular watering. Irrigation of beds is especially important in mid-July. During this period, the plants fill up and actively consume their reserves of moisture and minerals, so it is worth diligently caring for the beds at the height of the summer season.

Note. If you follow these simple but effective rules, a bountiful beet harvest at the end of the season is guaranteed.

Beets tolerate changing weather well, but are susceptible to nutrient deficiencies in the soil. Therefore, periodic feeding of plants with vitamin mixtures will be required. The following compositions are used as fertilizers:

• complex mineral fertilizers;
• horse manure, bird droppings or mullein infusion;
• nettle decoction.

Such feeding is carried out 3 times:

1. With the appearance of 2-3 leaves on beet seedlings.
2. 2 weeks after the first feeding.
3. At the end of July.

Beet diseases and pests

If you loosen the soil in a timely manner, thin out the seedlings, regularly fertilize and water, the plants will already be protected from adverse factors. But sometimes this is not enough, and the beets are exposed to pests or diseases.

The likelihood of diseases increases if you violated the rules of crop rotation and planted beets after cabbage or carrots. There are ways to protect plants and get a good harvest in the future.

They begin by watering the crops with solutions of fungicides that destroy pathogenic fungi. In cool and humid weather, antifungal drugs are also used, otherwise the beets may be affected by downy mildew.

Attention! When preparing a bed for beets, be careful: if you add too much lime to acidic soil, the plants will be affected by scab.

Also, the beet leaf miner poses a significant danger to beets. For prevention in the fall, weeds are pulled out and the soil is dug up. If the fly is already feasting on the leaves, use insecticides. For early ripening varieties, chemicals are undesirable. If pests appear, immediately spray the root crop with this solution: dilute 1 tbsp in 10 liters of water. l. ground black pepper and 10 g of soap. Solution consumption: 10 l per 10 sq. m landings.

Read also:

How to recognize a beet allergy and quickly get rid of its symptoms.

The best beet jam recipes: the most delicious desserts with the addition of fruit.

Do you need to peel beets before cooking? Let’s learn how to cook them.

Further growing and caring for beets

In July-August, ash is scattered evenly under the plants (a tablespoon per 1 sq. m). Suitable mineral complexes for feeding beets: “Agricola-4”, “Rastvorin”, “Kemira-universal”.

On acidic soils with stagnant moisture and a lack of boron, beets develop fungal diseases (peronospora, fomoz, fusarium rot, cercospora).If a white, grayish or purple coating, spots, traces of rot, or black spots are noticeable on the plants, treat with Bordeaux mixture or fungicides. After two weeks, treat again. Those parts that are damaged are removed immediately.

Harvesting and storage

Harvest beets using a sharpened knife or shovel. Root crops are carefully dug up, then removed from the soil by the tops. They clear the vegetable from the soil, cut off the tops and place the crop in a dry place to dry. You should not put off trimming the tops for too long, as they draw nutrients from the vegetables.

Experts do not recommend immediately storing the resulting harvest; first, it is better to keep it for 1-2 days in a ventilated room at a temperature of 10-12 °C. This is necessary to dry and heal the resulting damage.

Note. The main thing during harvesting is to avoid damage to the surface of vegetables and to trim the tops correctly.

Trimming the tops directly depends on the timing and methods of storing vegetables. If you store beets until the beginning of spring, then leave the cuttings at least 2 cm long.

If stored until the next season, the tops are cut off along with part of the head. This is done to prevent the vegetable from sprouting. In this case, it will take more time for the damage to heal. Also, during storage of beets, they are periodically monitored to prevent rotting of the root crops.

Features of care by month

In the absence of organic fertilizers, the crop is fed with mineral fertilizers. The treatment scheme differs little from the addition of organic matter.

When digging up a site in May, add the following to the soil:

• ammonium sulfate – 25 g;
• urea or ammonium nitrate – 20 g;
• potassium sulfate – 10-15 g;
• double superphosphate – 20 g.

If the soil contains few useful minerals, it is allowed to increase the dosage of fertilizers by 1.5 times.

After the first 3 leaves appear on the sprouts, fertilize with sodium nitrate.

A month later, in June, a saline solution is added. It is better to dilute the substance in green manure.

In July, ammonium nitrate (10 g) and potassium sulfate (7 g) are sprinkled into the furrows between the rows. After this, the soil is watered abundantly.

In the last month of summer, re-feed with saline solution. It is also possible to treat the beds with a solution of wood ash.

At the end of September, after harvesting, the soil is fertilized with phosphorus. Before digging, add double superphosphate (30 g) per 1 square meter. m.

Winter planting technology

Spring sowing of beets is common practice for most gardeners. But growing root crops in the winter is not such a common method. Farmers often make unforgivable mistakes, which is why the seeds die while still in the ground. To prevent this, it is important to know the technology.

Autumn sowing

For winter planting, the ridge method (in heaped rows) is more suitable. This ensures better soil warming in the spring and, accordingly, an extra-early vegetable harvest.

Pre-winter sowing is carried out in October-November, when a steady cold snap sets in, without the return of warm days. Seed material is sown on the tops of the ridges in 4-6 cm furrows. The grooves with seeds are sprinkled with 2 cm of humus soil, compacted and mulched on top by 3 cm for insulation.

Spring sowing technology

Beets are planted in the spring with dry seeds, but it is more practical to germinate them. Furrows are made on a flat surface into which the seeds are sown. Sprouted seeds must be sown in moist soil.In dry soil, almost all shoots can die.

Furrows are made at a distance of 15-25 cm. If the soil is heavy, sowing is done at a depth of 2 cm. If the soil is light in composition, then 4 cm. The crops should not be deepened too much. The distance in the row between the seeds is 3 cm. When thinning, it is increased to 8-10 cm. This will ensure the production of standard root crops. When sowing beets with one seed, thinning is combined with harvesting the bunch crop. When sowing seedlings, thin out 2 times.

Crop rotation rules for beets

Experienced gardeners are sure that the size and quality of root crops is influenced not only by plant care. Beet precursors also have a great influence. To obtain juicy root crops, it is better to plant beets after plants of the nightshade family and a number of other crops. For example, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, beans, etc. Unfavorable predecessors are radishes, radishes and carrots.

Important! Growing root crops in the same place for two years in a row is unacceptable.

Productivity with proper care

When growing beets on a large scale, the weight of vegetables and the number of root crops per hectare will depend on the harvesting time. Therefore, in those farms where this crop has been successfully planted and grown for many years, special attention is paid to the beginning of the harvest.

Also, many beginning gardeners are interested in the question of what is the yield of different types of beets per 1 hectare. After all, it is grown not only for their own needs, but also for feeding livestock, and for sale for monetary profit. So, as the experience of many farmers shows, the yield per 1 hectare is from 40 to 50 tons of product.

Secrets of a quality harvest

Beets need constant access of oxygen to the rhizome.It is important to ensure that the top layer of soil does not form a crust. The soil is loosened 2-3 times per season. If this is not done, the plants will have to be watered much more often.

To organize constant watering, plastic bottles with cut bottoms and holes in the caps are dug in around the perimeter of the bed and filled with water. Moisture is gradually absorbed into the soil and will not allow the vegetable to dry out. They also use a spray bottle.

Reference. If you have a tank and a narrow hose, you can make a simple drip irrigation system that will systematically provide the beets with the necessary amount of moisture.

Ultraviolet light promotes the proper development of high-quality root crops. If beets are planted in the shade, there will not be a good harvest. If at an early stage of development the crop is overgrown with weeds, the sprouts will stretch out, but will be weak and may dry out completely.

Conclusion

Compliance with all the rules of agricultural technology will not only allow you to get a rich harvest, but also preserve it until the next season. At the same time, the beets will be tasty and juicy.

Learn more about the intricacies of growing beets from the video: