What Are You Planting Today, This Week, This Month?

[digitS']

Thinning beets results in just about my favorite veggie - baby beets.

Personally, my plan is always to thin, thin, thin ... until the beets are gone completely! In other words, I'm not really a fan of beetroot. Sooo sweet!

It took me years before I was willing to eat Swiss chard again from childhood. don't like the heavy stems. Flavor is okay and there are varieties with thin stems that need to be more popular - IMO

Steve

 

[valley ranch]

Thinking of planting weeds, that way there'll be no disappointment...

 

[heirloomgal]

I dug out my beet seeds. Kind of a nice collection. Boltardy are the first ones that I am sowing, as they can apparently handle being planted in February. I may just try a few of them in a container-- thank you for suggesting that!

Very nice collection. I've always wanted to try those 'Taunus' beets, they looks so delicious. I recall trying a beet years ago called 'Crosby's Egyptian', and while I haven't grown beets in many years now I remember those in particular being delicious and tender.

 

[ducks4you]

Boy, @Branching Out !
Your latitude is further NORTH than me, but your climate is So different,
Champaign/Urbana/Savoy, IL is 40 degrees N. So is Rome.
We can get some brutally cold weather. We can also get winters where every night it rains or snows, then every day the snow melts.
I wouldn't even THINK of direct sowing any plants in my garden beds until at Least next month,

 

[meadow]

I was able to grow a nice crop of beets a few years ago and since then it has been a struggle; I am at the point where I am considering just growing them for the greens--- because that is often all I get. This year I invested in several different varieties, to see if that makes a difference. If you have any suggestions for how I might up my game I welcome all assistance.

My notes show that too much nitrogen will produce leaves instead of beet roots. Does that sound like a possibility in your case?

 

[heirloomgal]

My notes show that too much nitrogen will produce leaves instead of beet roots. Does that sound like a possibility in your case?

Do you think this same phenonmenon can happen with rutabaga and radishes? I have 2 gardening friends, each struggle with one of those, and I'm stumped why that might be. Neither of them get anything but leaves?

 

[meadow]

Yup! I think you've nailed it... this was in my notes under rutabaga, emphasis mine:

Susan's In The Garden, Jan 2023 newletter: If you don’t have snow on the ground like I do, this is a great time to add a 1-inch layer of organic compost or organic manure to the surface of your garden beds since this needs a bit of time to deliver nutrients to the soil. There is ONE EXCEPTION to my manure suggestion, however! I would not recommend adding it to any beds where you’re going to grow root crops such as carrots, parsnips, turnips, onions, etc. That’s because those crops benefit from the addition of phosphorus to the soil and the best amendment you can use for that is bonemeal. That is an organic soil amendment. If you have too much nitrogen in the places where you’ll be growing root crops, it can cause the roots to split plus it won’t promote good root growth.

Edit: Why I have that under rutabaga and not under some other root crop is beyond me.

 

[heirloomgal]

Thank you detective @meadow! That makes sense to me because both my gardening friends are into granulated all purpose fertilizer mixed into the entire garden before planting. I should tell them to add some buckets of sand to the areas they plant roots in for dilution.

 

[Branching Out]

I have a hard time growing radishes too, and from what you are all saying I think nitrogen could well be the culprit. I am careful to not add nitrogen to my carrot patches, but I am pretty sure the entire bed where the beets were growing was amended with dry organic fertilizer and rabbit manure. I will try to pop the beet seedlings in somewhere that has not had manure added for a good while and see if that does the trick. Thank you!

 

[valley ranch]

I have a hard time growing radishes too, and from what you are all saying I think nitrogen could well be the culprit. I am careful to not add nitrogen to my carrot patches, but I am pretty sure the entire bed where the beets were growing was amended with dry organic fertilizer and rabbit manure. I will try to pop the beet seedlings in somewhere that has not had manure added for a good while and see if that does the trick. Thank you!

Hi