Can’t Beet ‘Em

A few garden vegetables can be planted throughout the winter in this part of Texas. My favorites are beets.

Beets love cooler temperatures. They struggle in the heat of the summer. When you buy beet seeds, the instructions usually prescribe planting in the early spring or fall. That applies well to many parts of the country. But in this part of Texas, beets can be grown throughout the winter as well.

Beets are quite frost tolerant. Young plants can survive temperatures a few degrees below freezing. Once established, mature beet plants can survive temperatures as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

I planted two rows of beets a couple of weeks ago. They’re starting to emerge right now. Beet seeds take a little longer to germinate at cooler temperatures. And they may not all germinate at one time, which is fine with me. I don’t really want to harvest them all at one time, anyway.

Beets are fairly easy to grow. A sprinkling of all-purpose organic fertilizer at the time of planting should provide all the nutrients they need. They do not like soils deficient in boron. If you have trouble growing beets, it might be worth conducting a soil test to see if you need to amend with boron. This can be accomplished with the household laundry product Borax. It only takes a small amount – one teaspoon in a gallon of water for a soil drench.

Beets can seem slow to grow. Just give them some time. Some varieties mature quicker than others. Typically, they take between 40 to 70 days from germination to harvest. Some varieties may take as long as 90 days. You can harvest them at any point after they reach the size of a ping-pong ball. Most varieties tend to get woody when they grow larger than about three inches in diameter. My wife Janessa loves golden beets. My favorite preparation is cubed and roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The greens can be eaten just like Swiss chard, which is a related species.

This year I planted some Egyptian beets. This variety is supposed to mature fairly quickly, about 60 days to harvest. They’re a typical red beet but have a flattened shape. And they’re supposed to be one of the best tasting beets for fresh eating.