How to grow beetroot

Do this in the 2–3 weeks before you sow, so the bed has time to settle and hold moisture evenly.

Dig or fork the whole bed 20–30 cm deep — about a spade blade's depth — so the root can push straight down and rain soaks in.

Break every clod and crumble the soil fine, like coarse flour. Both the tiny seed and the swelling root need soft, even soil all around them.

Pick out stones, sticks and old roots as you go — every one you leave is a spot where a root will fork or twist.

Rake the top flat and smooth, so you can sow at an even depth and water won't pool.

Lime only if your soil is sour (acid) — a soil test, or past crops that stayed yellow and stunted even when fed, will tell you. Your recommendation gives the amount for your bed.

Spread the lime evenly, like sprinkling flour, then work it into the topsoil with a hoe. Lime only helps the soil it is actually mixed into; left on top it does almost nothing.

Do the liming 3–4 weeks before you sow (the earlier the better) — lime is slow, so late liming won't help this crop.

Mix in only well-rotted compost — dark, crumbly, no strong smell. It feeds the soil and steadies the moisture. Never dig in fresh manure — it forks the roots and brings weed seeds.

Keep strong, salty fertiliser away from the seed rows for now. Grown beetroot shrugs off salt better than most crops, but salt near the seed stops it sprouting.

Sow on a day the bed is soft and evenly moist — water it first if it is dry. Beetroot needs steady damp to sprout well.

Draw shallow furrows 35 cm apart — nearly two hand-spans between rows — so you can kneel and thin between them.

Trickle the seedballs thinly along each furrow, roughly a couple of finger-widths apart. Don't fuss over exact spacing — you will thin them to single plants soon.

Cover them just 2–3 cm deep — one finger-joint, down to your first knuckle — and firm the soil gently so each seed sits in moist earth.

Keep the bed evenly moist every day until they come up (about a week). Let it dry out and the clumps emerge patchy.

Thin when the seedlings have 2–4 true leaves — usually 1–2 weeks after sowing. Do it while they are small and pull easily.

In each clump, keep the single strongest seedling and remove the rest. Pinch or snip the extras off at soil level, or pull them gently while holding the soil down around the keeper.

Space the plants you keep about 5–10 cm apart — a hand's width across four fingers — evenly along the row. Even spacing gives even roots.

Firm the soil back around each keeper and water lightly so its roots settle again.

Don't waste the thinnings — young beetroot leaves are good greens, cooked like spinach.

From about 5 days after sowing, walk the bed every 3–4 days and look closely at the seedlings and the soil around them.

Damping-off (a soil rot): look for seedlings that have flopped over and collapsed, with the stem gone thin, dark and water-soaked right at the soil line, often spreading in a patch. Ease off the water and never let the bed sit soggy.

Cutworms: look for young plants cut clean off at ground level (worst overnight). Scratch the soil near a fresh-cut plant to find the fat, grey, curled caterpillar, and squash it.

Flea beetles: look for tiny black beetles that hop like fleas when you disturb a leaf, and leaves peppered with small round holes like buckshot. A few holes are harmless; heavy peppering on tiny seedlings needs action.

Check the stand is even — gaps or wilting patches point to rot or pests working below the surface.

Feed at about the 3-leaf stage — roughly 2–3 weeks after sowing — once the plants are growing away well.

Use only the small amount in your recommendation. Beetroot wants far less nitrogen than a leafy or a grain crop.

Band it in a shallow line about 5 cm — two finger-joints — to the side of the row, beside the plants, not on them, then cover it or water it in.

Feed on moist soil (after watering or light rain) so it soaks down to the roots instead of gassing off into the air.

Keep the fertiliser off the wet leaves (it scorches them) and away from food, water and children. Wash your hands afterwards.

Start weeding from about 2 weeks after sowing, while the weeds are still small and the beetroot is settling in.

Hoe shallowly — just skim the surface to slice the weeds off. Beetroot's feeder roots are close to the top and a deep hoe cuts them.

Weed close to the plants by hand, where the hoe can't reach without doing damage.

Keep the bed clean until the beetroot leaves grow big enough to shade out new weeds themselves.

From about 2 weeks after sowing, water on a steady rhythm — every 5–7 days, more often in heat or on sandy soil that dries fast.

Aim to keep the soil evenly moist down to about a hand-span deep (roughly 20 cm), where the roots are working.

Check with your finger: water when the top finger-joint or two of soil has dried out.

Water gently so you don't wash soil off the crowns or pond water in the furrows.

From about 4 to 8 weeks after sowing, keep the soil evenly moist at all times — water every 5–7 days, more often in heat.

Never let the bed swing from bone-dry to soaked. If it has dried out, bring it back with several smaller waterings, not one flood.

Water in the cool of the day, and keep the amount even across the whole bed.

Lay a mulch of dry grass or leaves between the rows — it holds the moisture steady and softens hot spells.

Feed at about 4 to 6 weeks after sowing, as the root begins to swell.

Top-dress the potash your recommendation gives — spread it in a band beside the rows on moist soil and water it in.

Add boron exactly as your recommendation says — usually a weak boron spray onto the leaves (a foliar feed — food sprayed on the leaves, not dug into the soil). Beetroot needs boron in only a tiny amount.

Measure the boron carefully. Too much boron is as harmful as too little — it poisons the crop. Never guess or add 'a bit extra to be safe'.

Spray the boron in the cool of the day with the wind at your back, cover your skin, and repeat it a couple of weeks later only if your recommendation calls for it.

Walk the crop once a week from about 4 weeks after sowing, looking over the leaves.

Cercospora leaf spot: look for small round tan or grey spots, each ringed with a red or purple border. Old spots dry and drop out, leaving little holes.

Act at about one spot per leaf — that is the moment to spray a recommended fungicide (a leaf-disease medicine), before the spots multiply and merge.

Boron shortage (heart rot): look for the youngest centre leaves going black and dying, or corky black patches when you cut a sample root — the sign the crop needs the boron feed.

Root check: pull a sample root now and then — cracks or pale rings inside mean your water has been swinging; even it out.

Start checking from about 8 weeks (55 days) after sowing. Scrape the soil off a root's shoulder where it sits at the surface.

It is ready when the shoulder is about 5–8 cm across — golf-ball to tennis-ball (roughly a four-finger hand's-width).

Pull one and cut it open: good beetroot is an even, deep colour right through, firm but tender. Pale rings or a hard, woody core mean you have waited too long.

Lift by hand or fork: ease the fork in beside the root to loosen it, then draw it out by the leaves. Don't spear the root or it bleeds and won't store.

Get the whole bed up before the roots go over-mature, and harvest in the cool of the day, out of the hot sun.

If a cut sample is still small and pale → it is not ready; cover it back and check again in a few days. If it is already woody or pale-ringed inside → you are late; lift the whole bed now and use or sell it quickly.

Within a day or two of lifting, twist or cut off the leaves but leave about 2–3 cm of stalk (one finger-joint). Cutting into the root itself makes it bleed red juice and go soft.

If you are storing, don't cut the thin tail root either, for the same reason.

Rub or shake off loose soil gently. Don't scrub or wash hard the roots you mean to store — a little dry soil left on helps them keep. Wash only what you'll sell or eat now.

To sell fresh: bunch the roots with their young leaves on and move them quickly — the leaves are a salad crop in their own right.

To store: keep the roots cool and damp — a shaded pit, a cool store, or a box of damp sand (about 0–5 °C and humid) — so they don't shrivel. Sound, unbruised roots keep for weeks.