Beets do best when grown before and after the dog days of midsummer. Get a jump on the season by sowing in flats five or six weeks before you plan to set plants out in the garden. Or direct-seed once garden beds have been warmed by a touch of spring weather. Set them 1/2 inch deep, 1 to 2 inches apart, in rows spaced spaced 12 inches. Note that the corkey-looking objects that slide out of the seed packet are intact seedballs, each containing between two to a half-dozen seeds; that means you can look forward to thinning seedlings no matter how sparsely you sow. Don't be shy about thinning, because beets need hip room the develop properly, from 2 - 6 inches, depending on the width of the variety.
SAVING SEEDS
Saving beet seeds is a two-year project because this biennial doesn't flower and produce its seed clusters until the next growing season. Tie up the stalks to stakes when they become floppy, look for bloosoms in June and July, and harvest the seeds in August. Cut off the tops and allow them to dry under cover, then strip off the seeds. Restrict yourself to a single variety each year if you will be saving seeds, beet seeds have a talent for cross-pollinatin over distances of a mile or more.
BEETS
66634 - SAVING SEEDS
The Gardener's Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds
by Marc Rogers
Learn how to select, harvest, and store seeds from more that 100 vegetables and flowers commonly grown in home gardens.
192 pages, 6 x 9, paperback,
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66918 - Soil Scoop
Called one of the "50 Favorite Gardening Products" by Organic Gardening, this general purpose digging tool has a patented spoon shaped blade with a sharply pointed tip and serrated edges. By using it with the point down - opposite of how you'd hold a trowel- it works like a natural extension of your hand. Use the Soil Scoop to dig holes, furrow, weed, cut roots, and open soil bags. Also great for pots & containers
