How to Grow Beets

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Jarrett from Stone Soup Farm, and this is how to grow beets. Beets are a nice crop because they can be grown virtually any time of the year. They like well drained, loose soil, preferably in raised beds like this, or well-tilled earth. The best way to plant beets is in rows with a common garden seeder like this, if you have one. You put the beet seeds in the hopper, there, and a plate inside for beets, and you run it over the ground at about a twelve inch spacing in between rows. And it will deposit the seeds in the earth, there, at about the right spacing that you would like, which is about one or two seeds per inch. Those rows can be fairly close together. Beets don't mind too much crowding. If you don't have a garden seeder like this, then you can get away with just a trowel. And what you would do for that is just create a little furrow, like that. You take your beet seed. Sprinkle it in there, again, at about the same thing, one to three seeds per inch. And then lightly cover it up. You want them to be covered about a half an inch to an inch under the surface of the soil. You can grow beets almost any time of year, including before the last frost. They can handle a frost without dying, so you can plant them up until it's getting to be fall. When you plant in the fall, they probably won't do that well because they don't have enough time to grow up and form their root, but any other time is good. Make sure after planting them that you've watered them in really well. Keep them well-watered throughout the season, especially when the plants are getting big and starting to form their bulb at the base. And to increase, and, keep the plants healthy, to increase the yields, make sure that it stays as weed free as possible for the duration of the season. I'm Jarrett from Stone Soup Farm, and that's how you grow beets.