Thinning Beets

[Mick Emery]

How tall do folks, here, let their beets get until you thin them?
TIA

 

[headfullofbees]

If there are two together, I don't prune, I let them push each other apart.
More than two, I take the rest as early as possible.
I don't pluck, I snip them off with scissors, so that the remaining two don't have the earth under them disturbed.

 

[Susan BBPM]

How tall do folks, here, let their beets get until you thin them?
TIA

Charles Dowding recommends multi-sewing beets. So he'll start his in seed trays with 4 or 5 seeds per plug. He lets them grow like that, harvesting the biggest ones from each clump as an when he wants to eat them. I've tried it and it works very well - they seem to like growing in a huddle. Of course, the big benefit is you can grow so much more in a small space.

 

[headfullofbees]

Charles Dowding recommends multi-sewing beets. So he'll start his in seed trays with 4 or 5 seeds per plug. He lets them grow like that, harvesting the biggest ones from each clump as an when he wants to eat them. I've tried it and it works very well - they seem to like growing in a huddle. Of course, the big benefit is you can grow so much more in a small space.

You have to have nice, loose raised bed type soil: mine is stony.

 

[Mr_Yan]

I don't thin at all. I use the multi-sowing method for beets and onions as outlined by the link to Charles Dowding or by Elliot Coleman in his The New Organic Grower book.

Beets get sown with 3 to 5 seeds to a hole and planted out 10 to 12 inches on center.

Just pull the largest when it looks good and let the others fill in.

 

[Ruderunner]

That's what I do. I'll be doing the first pick this week. I've tried thinning before and had bad results.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Attached are two pics I grabbed from my garden yesterday. Both the beets and onions were seeded 4 seeds to a hole and transplanted 10 to 12 inches on center. I do raised beds so I don't bother with row spacing.