When to grow beetroot

Beetroot can be grown most successfully in Autumn and Spring. However, it can certainly be harvested all throughout Winter if it is already fully grown by June. It will sit in the ground throughout June not doing much and then continue to grow even bigger once July and August come around. In early July you can seed a new crop and continue doing this until Christmas. It then gets too humid in a Sydney Summer to grow beetroot well. But from mid-March you can seed it again. 

How to seed beetroot

Beetroot can be direct-seeded where it is to grow or sown into trays and planted out as seedlings. Either way it will need to be thinned as beetroot seed is actually a cluster of 2-4 seeds joined together. If you fail to thin you won't get large beets, just a cluster of smaller ones, or one mid-sized one and some scrawny siblings. It is worth thinning as soon as possible to allow the seedling that remains to grow quickly and strongly. 

Feeding beetroot

Beetroot is a hungry plant that loves compost and good organic fertiliser. Boron is particularly important so make sure the fertiliser contains trace elements. Weekly liquid fertiliser can also help to keep leaves big and healthy and prevent septoria leaf spot disease. Don't mulch with wood chip as beetroot prefers a bacterially-dominant soil, rather than a fungally-dominant soil. However a compost mulch works very well to keep moisture in and suppress weeds, or sugarcane or pea straw can be used. 

Still to come

Next time I will talk about growing leeks. 

This week's recipe links

Orange Vinaigrette from Luci's Morsels. 

Mediterranean Spicy Lentil Soup with Spinach from The Mediterranean Dish. 

Barley Butternut Risotto from Blue Zones. 

Vegetarian Peanut Soup from Cookie & Kate. 

More info

To read more about what's happening on our local organic farm this week as we grow and care for veggies for our box delivery, check out this week's newsletter here.