Find out from The Yorkshire Gardener the best tips and advice on how to grow beetroot.

About Beetroot

Beetroot is very popular to grow in the allotment and garden as it is extremely easy to grow and it can be easily grown in between other vegetables to fill the gaps. Beetroot has many varieties and now has many colors.

Recommended varieties of Beetroot

Their are many types and varieties of beetroot that can be grown and colours. You can get orange, white and the usual purple/red beetroot. Here are some of the varieties that we recommend growing.

• Boltardy
• Pablo

Where to grow Beetroot

Beetroot is a great addition to any garden and allotment. To get the best results from growing beetroot you need to improve the soil, this can be done by adding fertiliser to the soil about a week before planting them out. The best soil needs to be light and free draining soil.

How to Sow Beetroot

Beetroot is very easy to sow, the seeds are a decent size so that they are easy to handle. You can either start them off in seed trays in a greenhouse to get an early crop or you can start them off by sowing straight outdoors.

When planting beetroot outdoors in the ground plant them around a thumb distance apart. When planting them in seed trays sprinkle them evenly on a layer of compost and cover with another layer on top. Keep these warm inside a greenhouse to get them to germinate.

Find out in our video tutorial how to sow beetroot seeds

How to Grow Beetroot

If you are growing beetroot outdoors when the seeds have germinated and grown to a manageable size thin them out to around 12cm apart. if you are starting them indoors wait until they become of a manageable size and transplant them outdoors to their final growing place around 12cm apart, this makes weeding round them manageable.

Caring for you Beetroot plants

Beetroot are a trouble free plant to grow. To look after beetroot all you need to do is keep it weed free round the plants by regularly hoeing. You also need to give them a good watering every 10 days but in dry spells water more.

How to harvest Beetroot

The best time to harvest beetroot is when the beetroot reach about the size of a tennis ball, do not grow them any bigger as they will taste unpleasant. When lifting them be very careful to lift them with a hand fork as they might bleed or damage easily.