Beet Varieties, Agricultural Technology. Preparing The Beds And Planting Beets

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Such an unusual common beet

They say there are no miracles in the world, and it's hard to believe that the juice of an ordinary beet could save a person in an almost hopeless situation. However, one of my acquaintances, who is still alive and well, managed to survive thanks to the active use of beet juice. And this after his liver failure as a result of severe trauma.

If you list all the medicinal properties of beets, then they can overshadow any promotional food supplement. What is the problem? Why did we prefer some pizza to our Russian vinaigrette? And there are not so many gardeners among gardeners who like to grow table beets (I hope there will be more of them). I think one of the reasons is that we often prefer to buy beets in the store than to occupy a garden for it. After tasting such purchased, "relatively table" beets, which you also need to cook for two hours, the desire to grow this crop with an earthy flavor disappears altogether (some varieties have a specific flavor due to the presence of a certain gene).

Beet varieties

They say there is no dispute about tastes, but once you have tasted the taste of real table beet, you can argue. I will list the varieties and hybrids of beets that have high taste. I'll start with the most famous Dutch hybrid Pablo F1. From this hybrid, the Russian gardener began to understand that beets grow well in our conditions, and they can be added to the vinaigrette, especially since it is cooked quickly and there are no inner rings in it. The growing season is 110 days. Of the early Dutch hybrids, the Amtrakt F1 hybrid (its synonym for Action F1) with a growing season of 96-100 days is of interest to those who have a problem with watering. Its root crop is very sweet, dark red, without inner rings.

Hybrid Boro F1 with a growing season of 115 days, it is resistant to scab, sudden temperature fluctuations, has a durable leaf apparatus, is convenient for harvesting. The taste is not inferior to Pablo.

For winter storage, it is difficult to find a better hybrid than the Ronda F1, its root crop does not darken inside during storage. It has the highest palatability, without inner rings, and has an excellent taste. The growing season is 120 days.

The Rocket variety has a cylindrical root crop with a smooth surface, bright uniform color, without inner rings. Stores well. Very delicate taste.

Bolivar beetroot variety is a universal purpose, both for storage and for processing. Root crops are rounded, very uniform in size, with dark red flesh without rings. Early maturing variety with small erect tops.

Of course, love for beets cannot unite peoples, cabbage soup will always differ from borscht, but this is the business of cooks and cooks. In Europe, they began to grow red beets in the 12th century, and in Russia only in the 17th century, but the Austrians still cannot figure out the secret of borscht. As the Viennese burgomaster recently said at a press conference: "It is not customary to eat so much at our balls." It is worth reminding those who do not follow the gossip that the Russians this year at the Russian Ball in Vienna surprised the Europeans with borscht and beef stroganoffs. It is difficult to say what inspired the Dutch breeders to create new hybrids of table beet more - the love of our oligarchs for borscht or the shine of diamonds and their wives' outfits, but after this historic Russian Ball in Vienna, organized to improve the investment climate, the Dutch company Syngentaannounced its intention to include two new varieties of table beet in the Russian Register at once.

Monopoli is a one-germ variety for summer and autumn production. A powerful plant with excellent tops. A dark red root crop without inner rings, with a smooth skin, a very early variety, it can be sown even in two periods - in early spring and summer.

Little Ball is very flexible, grows well, keeps well. It is good to sow for those who are often late with crops, it is a very intensive and fast variety. The root crop is rounded, dark red, without inner rings. While these two varieties are being tested indefinitely in our various instances, the company offers a medium early Boltardi variety with a growing season of 110 days. We can say that it is a very unpretentious variety that gives excellent yields in any weather. Resistant to shooting. Root crops are large, uniform in size, very high quality, without inner rings. Remarkably, it can be collected on a bunch after 45 days.

I have not set myself the task of listing all the delicious varieties of beetroot. I repeat, there is no dispute about tastes: some people also prefer truly Russian beets from Bordeaux. By the way, there are very good varieties of VNIISSOK selection, for example, Tenderness. But for beets to be tasty, no matter what nationality they are, one variety is not enough. I understand that beets for borscht at the Viennese ball were grown on a special farm, but this does not mean at all that an ordinary gardener cannot afford beets no worse than those of an oligarch. It is time, finally, to begin to level the stratification of society, especially since it can be started with red beets and without any multi-colored revolutions.

Beet agricultural technology

No one doubts that beets are a nutritionally demanding culture. But the taste of the root vegetable depends on its proper nutrition. Beet is a carbon-type plant, i.e. sugar in it occupy 50-70% of the total dry matter content. For the synthesis of carbohydrates to take place, nitrogen and the correct ratio between all nutrients are necessary. Increased nitrogen nutrition is good for beets in the first growing season. If nitrogen is intensively supplied during the period of ripening of the root crop, then this significantly reduces the sugar content. And this period usually coincides with the time when the microflora is actively working to produce nitrogen. What to do? Phosphate fertilizers reduce the negative effects of excess nitrogen. The important role of potassium in the synthesis and movement of hydrocarbons. With its lack, the movement of sugars from the leaves to the root crop is inhibited. The acidic properties of the soil largely determine how the biosynthesis of sugars in a plant will proceed. If you have acidic soil, then not only the beets will not accumulate sugar, but the rest of the root crops will contain little if they grow.

And we must not forget about the surprises of our weather. In wet cold years, there will be less sugar in vegetables, and cold years are not such a rare occurrence. So choose a hybrid, a strain that has enough sugars for cold weather. A lot depends on the variety, but not everything.

How do fertilizers affect the vitamin content of beets? It is known that the increased content of mineral fertilizers reduces the amount of vitamin C in the root crop. Nitrogen increases the carotene content, but its excessive amount in the soil reduces this indicator. The content of biologically active substances depends to a large extent on the temperature and light conditions, as well as on the variety and growing season. In order not to accumulate excess nitrates, it is necessary to correctly select the form of nitrogen fertilizers. There is evidence that ammonium sulfate, urea, in comparison with ammonium nitrate, significantly reduced the content of nitrates in beets and carrots.

It is very unreliable to wait for ecologically clean agricultural products from special farms to appear at our vegetable markets. I see the only correct solution to this problem - to grow high-quality vegetables in my garden. But you shouldn't go to "ecological" extremes, rejecting the use of chemical fertilizers and drugs in the production of your vegetables. In world practice, there is a tendency to reduce the doses of applied mineral fertilizers, but simultaneously with measures aimed at increasing the activity of beneficial soil microflora. In any case, the plant must receive adequate nutrition.

On the personal plot, we should manage the economy with the reasonable use of the necessary doses of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, and, where possible, replacing them with the introduction of organic, bioorganic and microbial fertilizers, as well as the use of biopesticides. True, we do not have a very large selection of biological products. Academician V. A. Zakharenko: "Unfortunately, in Russia, we practically do not have industrial production of domestic biopesticides and biological control agents. A small number of registered biological products and bioagents are produced by small laboratories or workshops without proper control of their quality, biological effectiveness and safety." After such information, our gardener, at best, will buy a bag of copper sulfate, and from midges he will use oven ash,mixed with tobacco dust. You will say that this is conservatism, no - it is a "perceived need". However, after discussing the world's agricultural problems, you should return to your garden and start growing beets.

Preparing the beds and planting beets

On our farm we have been preparing a bed for beets from the end of summer using traditional technology. Before describing this simple procedure, I would like to clarify what considerations a gardener should be guided by when processing his plot using any technology. Soil fertility is its ability to fully provide the plant with nutrients, to have a sufficient supply of moisture, to contain oxygen for the activity of microorganisms and roots. Thus, we have three factors: nutrients, water, oxygen. This means that in order to increase fertility, we need to improve the condition of all factors at the same time. Unilateral influence on any factor without improving others will lead to the so-called "law of decreasing agriculture". We will improve three factors.

Usually, when the bed is free of early cabbage, we dig it up, add 1-2 kg of dolomite flour, 400 g of double superphosphate, 400 g of potassium magnesium and a glass of sodium nitrate. All this is calculated on an area of 10 m². After digging and applying fertilizers, we sow a green manure mixture from the seeds of white mustard, spring vetch, oily radish (it is possible from one component). We sow the treated area densely - 2 kg per 10 m². In autumn, we embed all the green mass into the soil to a depth of 5 cm. In addition, we do not add any other organic matter.

In early spring, as soon as the snow melts, we bring nitroammofosku to the garden bed - 2 glasses per 10 m² and sow the Space F1 hybrid spinach thickened. And we ourselves prepare beet seedlings in the spring nursery. It is ready for planting when it reaches a height of 7-8 cm. Before planting beet seedlings, spinach in the garden has time to give a good harvest of young greenery. We freeze this spinach in the freezer, during the summer it is good to add it to green cabbage soup, borscht. In addition, everyone knows the special property of spinach to restore the strength of the male, and obviously the female body, after all, Eve was created from the rib of Adam.

Thickened planting of spinach counteracts the development of weeds, and the roots remaining after harvesting it are additional food for soil bacteria. For the normal functioning of soil organisms, energy is needed, which they take from organic matter. Therefore, the activity of soil microflora depends on its entry into the soil, and not on the amount of applied bacterial fertilizers, if they are applied. In addition, there are very close relationships between all the variety of soil organisms. They don't live apart. All of this highly diverse community is in an ever-changing balance. There are symbiotic (mutually beneficial) between some groups, and antibiotic relationships between others. The latter release substances into the soil that inhibit the development of other microorganisms. This is of practical importance - the ability of some microorganisms to have a destructive effect on phytopathogenic representatives. When a good portion of organic matter enters the soil, an outbreak occurs in the development of soil saprophytes, which stimulate the development of microorganisms that inhibit phytopathogenic species. Let's hope that our clever saprophytes eat up spinach roots too, and they will protect the beets from pathogens. (Note that when you water cucumbers with slurry, there is also an outbreak of saprophyte development, which protect plants from diseases). Let's hope that our clever saprophytes eat up spinach roots too, and they will protect the beets from pathogens. (Note that when you water cucumbers with slurry, there is also an outbreak of saprophyte development, which protect plants from diseases). Let's hope that our clever saprophytes eat up spinach roots too, and they will protect the beets from pathogens. (Note that when you water cucumbers with slurry, there is also an outbreak of saprophyte development, which protect plants from diseases).

Having made this digression, necessary to clarify the role of soil organisms in the life of our cultivated plants, we will continue to plant beet seedlings. There are some subtleties here. It is better to plant it in a hole by adding a ladle of water there, you cannot deepen the growth point, otherwise it will take root for a very long time. All Dutch hybrids, when transplanted, do not form a fork in root crops. The distance between plants in a row is 8 cm.