How To Get A Harvest Of Table Beets In The Northwest

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

Beets are a vegetable that will feed and heal

It is very important to correctly place the beets in the garden, namely to choose a good predecessor - the crop that you cultivated last year. The best precursors for beets are cabbage, carrots, onions, cucumbers, early potatoes. It can be returned to its original place no earlier than after 3-4 years. As a re-culture, beets can be sown after radishes, lettuce or spinach harvested in mid-June.

Many vegetable growers strive to get early and very early beet products, and this is quite justified. Young roots (3-5 cm in diameter) and leaves are rich in vitamin C and carotene, biologically active substances (betanin and betaine), calcium, phosphorus and iron salts; have good taste.

There are two main ways to get early production: seedling growing and podwinter or early sowing.

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Seedling culture

Beetroot at a young age tolerates transplanting well, which is why beet seedlings are widely practiced by vegetable growers. The use of seedlings allows you to get a good harvest in the northern regions, have early production and save seeds.

Under favorable conditions, this method allows you to get greens 15-20 days earlier than in the winter and early spring periods of seeds in the open field. Sowing seeds for seedlings is carried out in greenhouses or film greenhouses 30-40 days before planting in open ground.

Typically, the seedlings should have three to four true leaves, then they take root well.

Before sowing, the seeds are treated with a weak solution of potassium permanganate (against the causative agent of the rootworm), additionally moistened with water and kept moist for 2-3 days before pecking. Seeds are sown in a greenhouse in rows with inter-rows 5-7 cm and 2-3 cm in a row. The seedling yield is 600-700 pieces per 1 m².

Planting of beet seedlings in the ground is carried out in the first decade of May, when the soil at a depth of 8-10 cm warms up to 8-10 ° C. Since during this period the weather is very unstable, there are returns of cold weather to minus temperatures, it is necessary to use spunbond cover, especially at night.

For the seedling method, varieties resistant to flowering are used - Cold-resistant 19, Polar flat, K-249.

Seedlings are planted on the ridges thickened, after 4-5 cm; row spacing - 20-25 cm.

Plant care is the same as when sowing seeds in the ground.

Very early sowing is used by vegetable growers who, for organizational reasons, cannot use the seedling method. In practice, two very early sowing periods are widespread - podzimny and early spring.

Taking into account our weather conditions in the autumn-winter period, characterized by a change from warm weather to sharp cold snaps, the most effective in the Leningrad region is sowing in early spring on ridges prepared in autumn (late April - early May), when the soil warms up to 8-10 ° С. To accelerate the emergence of seedlings and growth, it is good to use covering materials (film, spunbond).

Growing table beets in the open field

Beetroot is an early ripening crop and it is quite successful by sowing seeds in the open field. In order for the harvest of this vegetable to please the eye and satisfy our needs, it is necessary to properly prepare the soil and seeds for sowing.

Since beets are sown in open ground at the earliest possible date, and most garden plots in early spring experience excessive moisture, which delays work with the soil, the soil must be prepared in the fall. Immediately after harvesting the previous crop, all plant residues are removed, and then a deep digging is done to a depth of the arable layer - 25-30 cm - with the introduction of a full dose of organic fertilizers: 6-8 kg of well-prepared compost or 4-5 kg of rotted manure per every square meter of the garden. It is advisable to apply half the dose of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers (30 g of superphosphate and 60 g of potassium chloride). On acidic soils (ph 4.5-5), in the fall, 500 g of lime, preferably quicklime, is added.

In early spring, the site is loosened with a rake, after the soil dries up, it is dug up (about 3/4 of the autumn digging). After cutting ridges 90-100 cm wide, 20-25 cm high, the surface layer must be carefully cut. After that, pre-sowing harrowing is done with the introduction of a complete mineral fertilizer - ekofoski 60 g / m².

Preparation of seeds consists in soaking them in a solution consisting of boric acid 0.2 g, succinic acid 0.1 g, baking soda 10 g - per 1 liter of water. Soaking is carried out for 2-3 days at a water temperature of 18-20 ° C and a ratio of the mass of seeds and water of 1: 1. After pecking 2-3% of the seeds, they are dried to a loose state.

As soon as the soil on the ridges warms up, they start sowing. Sowing is carried out along or across the beds, in a one-line or tape manner. With single-line sowing, row spacings can be from 30 to 45 cm, with tape sowing - 50-60 cm, between rows in a tape - 8-12 cm. The depth of their embedding is 2.5-3 cm.

When sowing seeds of table beet, especially multi-seeded varieties, seedlings in rows are thickened and require mandatory thinning. When thinning, the plants are left in a row at a distance of 5-8 cm from each other. Plants removed during thinning can be used to compact other vegetables grown in the beds. Therefore, such an operation is carried out on a cloudy or rainy day, and remote plants are planted in the side walls of the beds at a distance of 20 cm. When watering the main crop, easily digestible substances are washed away, which are effectively used by beet plants, which form a powerful rosette of leaves and large root crops and at the same time do not give the ability to grow weeds.

Caring for beet plants consists in watering, loosening, weeding, processing against pests and diseases.

The beets are watered by sprinkling, thereby the plants are washed, refreshed, which contributes to the better development of the mass of leaves.

It is necessary to constantly monitor the looseness of the soil, especially after rains or heavy watering. In the first period of beet growth, loosening is done every week to a depth of 4-5 cm.

After "molting", when the root crop reaches the size of a walnut, the beets are fed with a solution: for 10 liters of water, take 30 g of ecofoski and 1 glass of wood ash. Consumption rate of the solution is 10 liters per 1 m².

The second feeding is carried out in two weeks. If you do not have wood ash, you need to add microelements to the top dressing: boron, copper, manganese, magnesium, zinc, iron, cobalt, the amount of which should not exceed 1 g per 10 liters of water.

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Diseases and pests of beets

The main disease that can reduce the yield and its quality is beet root eater. It develops more often with excessive moisture and lack of air on acidic heavy soils. Seedlings are usually affected until three to four true leaves are formed on them. Roots and root collar rot in plants. To fight, use the drug "Oxyhom" (20 g per 10 liters of water), consume 100-200 ml per 1 m².

Cercosporosis of beets is also a dangerous disease. Dry light brown spots with a reddish brown border appear on old beet leaves. The affected leaves die off, and the beet yield drops sharply. Control measures are the same as with the root-eater.

Among pests, the danger in our area is the beet miner fly. Its larvae make holes in the leaf blade. The locations of the passages turn brown and dry up. The most severe lesions occur in late May and early June. In case of mass appearance of a pest, plants should be treated with a solution of the Iskra preparation.

Crops intended for early production must not be processed! It is recommended to sprinkle them with a solution, which includes 1 tablespoon of ground black pepper and 10 g of soap, dissolved in 10 liters of water. For 1 m², 1 liter of solution is consumed.

Also read:

Table beets: conditions for growth and development, beet varieties

Diseases and pests of beets