Beets: cultivation and care in the open field for a good harvest with video

Many try to grow beets in their summer cottage. Not everyone succeeds, since growing and caring for beets in the open field have a number of features. The culture needs to be watered in time and properly fed in order to get large and sweet root crops by the end of summer.

How and when to plant beets outdoors?

The heat-loving biennial crop should not be sown on the beds too early. Beets tolerate short-term temperature drops well.But even surviving plants can start shooting in the middle of summer. This process is triggered at the genetic level, since low temperatures for biennial plants mark the end of the growing season of the first year of development. When warming, the bushes do not form a root crop, and all forces are directed to flowering and seed setting, releasing a flower arrow.

To avoid this, the gardener should choose to sow beets in open ground at a time when the frosts are over and the soil warms up to a temperature of about +10 … +12 ° С. For central Russia, the approximate time for sowing beets for winter harvesting is the last decade of May. Seeds sown at this time will have time to sprout and give a good harvest of root crops by the end of August - beginning of September, depending on the variety.

To grow beets for early production, a gardener should prefer a seedling method.

In regions with mild winters and early onset of heat, winter planting of beets is also practiced to obtain early vegetables.In this case, the seeds are sown in late October - early November. Embedding should be done to a depth of 3-4 cm. To preserve the seeds, the ridge is mulched (with sawdust, peat). The thickness of the mulch layer is 5-7 cm. Beets grown in this way are not suitable for winter storage.

Preparing the soil and sowing seeds

The preparation of the site for beets for spring sowing in the ground begins in the fall, after harvesting. The best predecessors are potatoes and other nightshades, onions, legumes. You can not plant beets after chard and cabbage of various types, as well as carrots and other root vegetables.

The best place is a plot with loose and light fertile soil, which is well warmed by the sun. Soils with a neutral or slightly alkaline reaction are preferred. If horse sorrel or wood lice (starworm) grows in the garden, then the soil has an increased acidity. When preparing a site for growing beets in open ground, it is better to lime such soil by adding dolomite flour, chalk or fluff at 1-1.5 kg / m².

To make the beetroot tasty, the earth on the ridges needs to be filled with mineral and organic fertilizers. For 1 m² you need to pay:

• 20-30 g ammonium sulfate;
• 10-15 g potassium chloride;
• 30-40g superphosphate;
• 15-20 g ammonium nitrate;
• 4-5 kg of humus.

Do not use fresh manure, bird droppings, compost or similar materials to fertilize the soil. Any organic fertilizers must be applied in a rotted form, so as not to provoke a beet scab disease.

Minerals and organics are scattered over the surface of the ridge, and then they dig the soil well, thoroughly mixing the soil and fertilizers. During the winter, the granules will dissolve, enriching the soil with the substances necessary for the beets. In the spring, the area can be dug up again, preparing the beds for sowing.

Beetroot seeds are different from others: they are collected in 2-4 pieces. and covered with a common shell. Each rounded and rough seed in a bag will give several sprouts when germinating. This must be taken into account during sowing and grains should be placed at a distance of at least 5 cm from each other. There is also a variety of beetroot Single-sprout, which germinates contrary to the general rules and gives only 1 sprout from each grain.

Before sowing, the seeds must be inspected. Their natural color is yellowish gray. If they have a different color, then the pre-sowing treatment was carried out by the producers of the products. Such seeds need to be germinated or sown immediately. If the planting material is not processed, it is soaked in a warm solution of light pink potassium permanganate. This procedure destroys bacteria and fungal spores.

After soaking, the seeds can be sown immediately if the selection of the site and the preparation of the beds are already completed.Sometimes gardeners prefer to plant germinated seeds. To do this, they are placed in a damp cloth and put in a warm place for 2-3 days, maintaining a constant level of material moisture. During this time, reddish sprouts appear. Ungerminated seeds can be left for another 1-2 days, they may sprout a little later. Seeds with seedlings are planted in furrows to a depth of about 3-4 cm and covered with soil.

When sowing, the following distances must be observed:

• leave 5 cm between grains in 1 row;
• between rows should be about 25 cm.

Beets planted on narrow ridges work well (according to Mitlider). With this method, beds are made about 35 cm wide, along the edges they form sides from the soil. Seeds are planted at a distance of 5 cm from each other along these sides. The advantage of this method is the ease of care and uniform illumination of all plants.

Planting seedlings

To obtain early production, beetroot is grown in seedlings. To do this, the seeds are sown 2-3 weeks before planting in open ground. Transplantation is carried out when 2-3 leaves appear. For the seedling method, you can grow beets in a greenhouse or in deep boxes on a windowsill. It can be sown more often than with direct seeding in open ground.

Seedlings are planted according to the scheme proposed for sowing seeds (5x25 cm). Planting young plants is best done in cool and cloudy weather, before rain. If the weather is sunny and hot, it is advisable to shade the ridges with gauze or lutrasil, pulling the fabric over the installed wire arches.

Beet Care

After planting seeds or seedlings, the gardener must follow the rules for caring for beets in the open field.The final result depends on their observance: the size of the root crop, its taste and keeping quality of vegetables during winter storage. Following a simple step-by-step farming technique will help you grow the best crop.

Thinning beet seedlings

Thinning beet plantings produced in order to get larger root crops. It is recommended to do this 2-3 times per season:

1. When sowing directly into the ground, the first thinning is performed when 2-3 leaves appear on the plants. Several sprouts will hatch from each seed, so the extra ones must be removed, leaving the largest and most developed seedling. Pulled sprouts can be used as seedlings: place them where the beets did not sprout.
2. Beets grown in seedlings are thinned for the first time when a root crop with a diameter of 1.5-2 cm is formed in the soil. For a seeded crop, thinning at this time will be the second time.Between the bushes you need to leave 10 cm. When thinning, you need to remove weak and diseased plants, as well as those that have released flower arrows. Removed young rosettes can be used as a vitamin supplement in salads (instead of chard) or to make summer borscht.
3. The next thinning is done if you want to grow especially large root crops. At this time, the root diameter reaches 5-6 cm, so the young sweet fruit can be used as food as you like.

After each thinning, it is desirable to hill the beets. During this operation, you need to have a good idea of how to properly add soil to the root neck of the rosette: the soil should not cover the leaf growth point in the center of the bush. It is only necessary to slightly cover the top of the root crop, which is above the surface, with earth. Most often, varieties with elongated root crops (Cylinder, Rocket and others) rise above the ground. The socket at the same time leans towards the soil, and the beets become curved.

Water and fertilize

The secret to growing good quality beets lies in proper watering and feeding the plants. It is necessary to water the bed with seedlings abundantly in order to wet the soil to a depth of about 10 cm, where the culture has thin suction roots. As the growth increases, the volume of irrigation water is increased to 20-30 l / m², if there is not enough natural precipitation.

During the formation of the root crop, lack of moisture leads to the formation of uncolored and hard rings in the beet pulp.

Until the underground part reaches a diameter of 5-6 cm, it is better to water the beets daily or every other day, focusing on the drying of the topsoil 2-3 cm deep. In autumn, 3-4 weeks before the harvest, which is intended for storage, watering is stopped, even if there is no rain. So more sugary substances are formed in the root crop, and it will be better stored.

To increase sugar content, you can feed the plantings with s alted water several times a season (0.5 tsp per 10 l). At the initial stage of growth (before the formation of root crops), beets need top dressing with nitrogen fertilizers. To do this, for 10 liters of water, in addition to s alt, add 1 tbsp. l. ammonium nitrate. At the end of summer, nitrogenous substances are no longer needed by the plant, but top dressing is also carried out in August, adding 1 tbsp per 10 liters of water. l. potassium nitrate.

Liquid top dressing can be applied not only to the soil, but also foliarly, that is, by watering the leaves with a nutrient solution.

Treatment and fertilization

After watering or applying liquid top dressing, the soil between the rows should be loosened to a depth of 4-5 cm. When performing this procedure, root crops should not be touched, so the treatment must be carried out carefully. The video shows how, along with loosening, weeds are destroyed that have time to grow between outlets.

When loosening, fertilizers are also applied, feeding the plantation in a different way. In the aisles, complex mineral fertilizer (Agricola-4 or others) is scattered, and then it is embedded in the soil with a chopper. When carrying out such top dressing, it is not necessary to make solutions of other fertilizers.

Pests and diseases of beets

Diseases and pests of beets can be detected by the following features:

1. Brown spots with a black dot inside on beet leaves - a phomosis disease that affects both the leaves and the root crop. Spraying the leaves with a solution of boric acid (0.5 tsp per 10 liters of water) and adding borax at 3 g / m² will help.
2. Peronosporosis - defeat by fungi. At the same time, a grayish coating is visible on the underside of the sheet. You can fight the fungus with fungicides.
3. Root beetle, or black leg, affects young seedlings. The disease is prevented by liming the soil and applying borax in the spring (3-5 g / m² each) during digging.
4. Large root crops are more likely to affect fusarium and brown rot. They develop on heavy soils, and the ways to treat them are liming and applying borax.

Beets are also damaged by pests. Most of them are leaf-eating and sucking (aphids, fleas, bugs and others). It will be possible to protect plants with the help of treatments with appropriate chemicals (Karbofos, Iskra).

Harvesting and storage of crops

Yield and ripening time depends on the beet variety. But the approximate harvesting dates for central Russia are mid-late September, when the air temperature drops to +5 … +15 ° С. It is undesirable to be late with the harvest, exposing the beets to freezing when the temperature drops below 0 ° C.

Root crops are pulled out of the ground, the leaves and their growth point are cut off, 2/3 of the root is removed. For storage, the beets are placed in boxes, sprinkled with dry sand. Large quantities of vegetables store well in the cellar in mesh bags.

What can be planted after beetroot and what can beet planting be combined with?

If a gardener practices compacted plantings, then the following crops will be the best neighbors for beets:

• onion;
• leafy vegetables and herbs (lettuce, spinach and others);
• chard and early-ripening beets.

If the crop rotation is observed, the next year after the grown beets, you can plant potatoes and other solanaceous plants, sow carrots, garlic, pumpkin crops. The best substitutes would be legumes, which will restore the nitrogen content in the soil. You can not plant chard in the same place: its leaves will dry and wither, drying out in the garden.

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