Grow Your Own Beets

If you've ever tried to grow a beet before, the vegetables that you pulled up from the soil might have looked a bit different from the ones you buy in the store. Less bulbous, perhaps. More like a taproot.

I've definitely grown some beets like that. And there's nothing to worry about. For a significant portion of the time since humans first cultivated their own crops, beets looked more like parsnips or carrots, overall more straight and narrow. That may be because beets were originally grown not for the roots, but for their greens.

Wait, are beets greens edible?

Beets greens are still 100 percent edible... and nutritious... and delicious! If you've been throwing out your beets greens, try sautéing them.

If the greens you're buying at the store look a little less than appetizing (wilted, perhaps, or even slimy—so gross!), it might be because they've had to travel a long way to get to your grocery cart. Most beets in the US are grown along the Oregon-Idaho state line or in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Northern Minnesota, Northeastern Michigan, Western Nebraska, and because they grow all the rest of our food, Southern California. 

For true garden-fresh flavor you can't beet and crisp greens, try growing your own beets during your next cool season. Here are all the tips and tricks you need to grow beets in your kitchen garden.

(Prefer to listen? Check out episode 45 of the Grow Your Self podcast, "You Can't Beet This", on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeart Radio.)

Grow beets when it's cool outside

Beets love cooler weather. They grow best when temps are just above freezing, up to around 65 to 75 degrees. For most of you, that means beets will grow best in spring and fall.

In the spring, plant beets from seed directly into the garden as soon as your soil is workable. Beets are pretty cold tolerant, so you don't need to worry if you get a couple more frosts.

In the fall, plant your beets as soon as your temperatures begin to drop. Your beets can hang on in freezing weather if you get some frost before they're fully mature. Using frost cloths or cold frames could even help you extend your growing season to the end of the year, even into January.

Give your beets a little bit of space in the garden

Beets are medium-sized plants, so you can grow about nine beet plants per square foot.

As you're sowing seeds, picture how large a mature beet you might find at the store would be, and then double that space between each seed. You'll actually want to harvest your beets from the kitchen garden when they're a little smaller that the grocery-store variety (when they're a bit bigger than a golf ball) for the best flavor and quality, but it won't hurt to give your beets a little more room to grow.

Plant your beets somewhere that receives full sun

Beets prefer at least six hours of sunlight on their leaves each day. The plant needs to make and store a lot of energy to be able to form a nice. full root.

Sow your beets seeds directly in the garden

This helps to avoid disturbing their roots, though I do know one gardener who successfully transplants her beet seedlings after starting them indoors in winter. I tend to sow all my roots crops (including radishes, beets, and carrots) directly in the space where they'll grow to maturity and save my seed starting supplies for plants that take a much longer time to grow and produce (like cabbages).

Sow your beet seeds about half an inch deep.

Soak your beets seeds before planting them

About 24 hours before you intend to plant your seeds, soak them in water to help speed up their germination. Water is what wakes the seed from its dormancy.

Thin your beets seedlings

Believe it or not, each beet seed is actually a little cluster of two to four seeds (this type of seed is called multigerm). Unfortunately, that requires a second step from you after you've sown your seeds in the garden and given them time to soften and germinate.

Around seven to ten days after planting, you'll need to come back out and thin your seedlings so that you only have about nine per square foot. This will ensure each beet has enough space to grow into a full, round root. To thin your seedlings, simply cut the greens of unwanted plants at soil level, rather than ripping the plant up and potentially disturbing its neighbor's delicate roots. Bonus: you can eat the young greens.

Make sure the soil stays consistently moist after planting your beets seeds 

You could even cover the area in your garden with some burlap to hold in moisture until seeds germinate.

Hill around your beets seedlings 

Once your seedlings start forming beets leaves, take a bit of extra compost and make a small hill around the base of each seedling so that the root is completely covered. This is like a blanket of nutrition and provides extra support for the growing plant.

Give your beets plants plenty of water as they grow

Watering requirements will vary based on your evaporation rate, but your plants will need about one inch of water a week. As far as tending tasks go for vegetables, you can't get much easier than caring for growing beets and carrots!

How to tell when beets are ready for harvest

Here's how to do the beet test to tell when your beets are ready to harvest after they've been in the ground for seven or so weeks.

There's definitely a learning curve with growing beets as you figure out how much space to give them so they have plenty of room to grow underground. But there are few things more delicious than a freshly harvested beet roasted with some salt and olive oil. And few things more nutritious.

Garden-fresh beets are so, so good for you

Beets are in the same family (the Amaranth family) as Swiss chard and spinach, so you can be sure that each plant brings a plethora of health benefits. Beets, in fact, are low in calories and high in vitamins and nutrients, notably fiber (Beets have 3.4 grams of fiber to help you go number two). Studies have linked eating beets to lower blood pressure, higher brain function (specifically improved blood flow to the frontal lobe, which is where we do our higher-level thinking and decision-making), and less inflammation. Beets even contain nitrates that affect your physical performance by improving the efficiency of your cells' mitochondria, which are responsible for producing energy in your cells. Before you run a 5K, swim some laps, or carry bags of compost out to your garden, it's a good idea to drink your beet juice!

If that's not enough, studies have shown that beetroot extract can reduce the division and growth of tumor cells in animals. That means beets look like pretty powerful allies against cancer.

All that to say, this root crop should definitely be a staple in any garden-centered diet. 

Beets Are the Best Vegetable to Eat If You Have a Sweet Tooth

Not only are beets good for you, but they're a great natural sweetener.

Beets didn't really take off until the 1700s, when they were introduced to North Eastern Europe. Beets loved the cold climate there and grew well, and they became a valued crop for their ability to last through the winter. In 1747, a German chemist named Sigismund Marggarf and his student Franz Achard discovered a way to produce sucrose (sugar) from beets. Beets were then used to make beet beer, tobacco, molasses, and lots of other products. The king of Prussia even created the first sugar beet factory in what's now Western Poland.

The US is now one of the largest sugar producers. From 2010 to 2020, nearly 1.2 million acres of sugar beets were planted in the US. These were not grown to be enjoyed as a vegetable but to be turned into sugar. This might surprise you, but sugar can only accounts for 45 percent of the sugar produced here; sugar beets make up the other 55 percent. Beet sugar production actually requires four times less water than sugar cane production, making it a really attractive crop in places that get less rain. The sugar produced by beets and sugar cane is basically identical. Today, around 20 percent of the world's sugar comes from sugar beets.

The healthiest way, of course, to enjoy beets is in their naturally sweet state.

Beets vs Radishes

I love to compare foods that grow similarly and in the same season. In this game of "This or That?", we're going to compare beets and radishes. They're both root vegetables, they both have edible greens, and they both love cooler weather.

Can you guess which one has more sugars? It's beets. Beets have 6.76 grams of sugar in a daily serving, while radishes only have 1.86 grams. If you're trying to avoid sugars, you're going to go with a radish.

In terms of magnesium, you've got 23 milligrams of magnesium for beets and 10 for radishes. Beets also have almost double the fiber of radishes (2.8 versus 1.6). Beets have 325 milligrams of potassium, while radishes only have 233. Again, beets are on top. But with vitamin C, we have radishes on top with 14.8 milligrams of vitamin C and only 4.9 grams milligrams of vitamin C for the beet. Looking at just the vitamins, we have beets winning out in terms of magnesium, fiber, and potassium, and then we have radishes winning out when we're trying to lower our sugar intake and increase our vitamin C.  

When we're looking at mineral comparison, beets pretty much beat radishes about 3 to 1. They have more iron, more potassium, more magnesium, more copper, more zinc, and more phosphorus; but radishes do have more calcium and less sodium.

Lower in price? That's going to be radishes. Lower in glycemic index, so that sugar in your body? That's going to be radishes. Rich in minerals? That's going to be beets.  

Let's talk about ease of growing. From my experience, I've had a lot more success growing radishes than I have growing beets. Even though beets do win out in terms of vitamins, minerals, and a lot of the stuff that's good for you, I prefer growing radishes. They finish quickly and they don't have to be thinned as heavily.

If you've never grown either, then I think you should try both and see which one wins the food fight for you. 

Let's Conclude with Some Fun Facts About Beets

Let's turnip the beet with some interesting facts about this delicious root:

• The candy industry is one of the largest domestic buyers of U.S. sugar (surprise, surprise). But if you're buying “organic sugar” from the grocery store, pay attention. There is actually no such thing in the US as organic beet sugar. Nearly all sugar beets grown here come from seeds that have been genetically engineered from biotechnology. Biotechnology provides seed varieties that help farmers manage the challenges of weed control. That means the seeds they use to grow beets have basically been implanted with an herbicide that doesn't allow other greens to grow around it. I hate to say the word "Roundup", but it's like having Roundup inside the seed. That's a bummer. While an organic sugar market does exist, it has to come from sugar cane, maple syrup, fruit, or agave. Basically, 55 percent of our U.S. sugar is created from beets, and none of that is organic because of biotechnology.
• On the brighter side, beets can be used for makeup. Fashionable women used to apply beets to their cheeks and lips to make them red.
• Beets were also used to make love potions. Get this, beets are actually a source of tryptophan (you know, the thing that makes you sleepy after the Thanksgiving turkey). Tryptophan and betalain, also present in beets, have been proven to promote an overall feeling of well-being. They also contain high amounts of boron, which is a trace mineral that increases the level of sex hormones in the human body. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, ate beets to enhance her appeal, and ancient Romans believed that beets and their juice would make you fall in love. Frescoes of beets even decorate the walls of brothels in Pompeii.

So, if you wanna fall in love, eat more beets!

And I would love if we could all make it our goal to fill up on beets this fall and winter, whether that means we're growing them ourselves or making a point to buy them from our local farmers. Drink your beet juice, make some beets salad, and roast some beets.

I hope you're feeling upbeet about your ability to grow this amazing little vegetable and all the goodness it can bring into your life now!