Container Beetroot Gardening Guide
Today, let us learn the topic of container beetroot gardening ideas and tips. Growing beets in Containers: Beetroots are the vegetables which are most commonly called as beets. These are one of the well-known root vegetables and is also used in many recipes across the world. The beets have essential plant compounds, vitamins, and minerals in them. Some of the beet varieties also have the properties of medicine. They are also very good in taste and can also be added to your diet.
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Beets are the vegetables which grow quickly without any requirement of special care. It is very easy to grow beets in a container. These vegetables are apt for the container gardening who are just at the beginning stage. These will grow very fast and if you are experienced in growing carrots or radishes which are other forms of root vegetables, then growing of beets is not that different for you.
Select the right container:
You can use any type of container which you feel the best. Make sure that it has a good number of drainage holes. It is possible to grow beets in small containers but make sure that the depth of the containers is at least 8 inches. The containers with the depth of at least 12 inches will be ideal ones as they will help in the development of roots. You can select containers of any width you desire. The wider the pot, the more numbers of plants you can grow in that together. Large containers which are rectangular in shape or window boxes with suggested depth are the best choices.
The right time for plantation:
The best practice is to start the plantation of beets at the time of spring. You can start sowing the seeds for every four weeks till the time the temperature starts to rise above 30°C. You can again start the plantation late in the summer and early in the autumn when the temperature will begin coming under the range of 30°C.
As the beets are the vegetables which prefer to grow in cool climatic conditions, the people who reside in the areas which have the climates as tropical and subtropical should start growing the beets late in the winter and early in the spring.
Plantation of beets in containers:
Do remember that the beets will not like transplantation, so there is no requirement of seed trays. You will need to choose the containers and start sowing the seeds at a depth of a ¼ inch. Once the process of germination takes place in the seeds and they will reach to a required height, you can choose the seedlings which are healthy and thin the other seedlings in order to maintain the spacing of 3 inches. In order to quicken the process of germination, you also have an option of soaking the seeds for the entire night in the water which is not chlorinated before the plantation. Anyways, if the fungicides are applied to the seeds, you can avoid the before step.
The seedlings will start anytime in between 7 to 15 days based on the conditions of growing. Till then, you will need to keep the containers in a place which is warm and receives partial sun and make sure that you are maintaining the moisture in the soil. Once the seeds are germinated, you can keep the child plants in the required position and when the seedling starts to grow to at least 3 inches in length, start thinning them.
If you are well aware of how to grow beets in containers, you can try any variety of beets. A few varieties of beets are Early wonder, Detroit dark red, sweetheart, and Sangria.
Growing requirements for beets:
Location for container beetroot gardening:
Beets can be grown in the complete sun to partial sun, but for the best growth, you can select a place which receives full sun for at least 6 hours in a day. Also, ensure that the place you chose to keep the containers has a very good circulation of air in it.
Soil for container beetroot gardening:
Soil which is penetrable, loamy and helps in growing large roots is the best one for growing beets in a container. Always, ensure that the soil you are using is rich in content of nutrients. Adding a large amount of compost to your soil is also a good idea. Also, make sure that you are not adding stones or pebbles to the soil or to the beneath layer when you are growing beets.
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If you are not making use of the soil which is purchased in stores for growing the beets, you can go with the preparation of your own potting medium by the addition of soil, compost or manure which is rotten and perlite in the ratio of 1:1:1. If you are interested to make a mix which does not involve soil, you can add coco peat or peat moss, compost or manure which is rotten, perlite or sand at the ratio of 1:1:1. You can also go with the addition of fertilizer which is time-based and also low in the content of nitrogen at the time when you are mixing it in the soil.
Watering your beets:
If you do not want your beetroots to be hard and sinewy, make sure that you are watering them on a regular basis in an even manner. In order to maintain the soil in a slight moist way all across the day, make sure that you are not allowing the soil to get dried fully between the process of growing and also make sure that you are not watering the plants too much.
Spacing between the seedlings:
Make sure that you are maintaining a distance of 3 inches in between each and every plant from all the four sides in order to grow the beets in pots in a successful manner. You can also grow each beetroot plant at a distance of 2 inches, but doing this will affect the root growth. For example, the container which is of rectangular shape and has a width of 12 inches will be able to support 5 plants.
Temperature:
Always remember that the best temperature required for the growth of beets in containers is 10°C to 30°C. The beets can also grow in temperatures which are as low as 5°C and as high as 35°C with great difficulty.
Care and maintenance of beets:
It is a great idea to use slow release fertilizer as an addition to the potting soil medium. As the beets are root vegetables and if you like to have a very good development of root, you can choose a fertilizer which has less content of nitrogen but is high in the content of potassium and phosphorus. For instance, you can go with an N-P-K ratio of 5:10:10.
Once it is been one month since the growing of beets and they are good going, you can start using a fertilizer which is water-soluble. By using the same formula of 5:10:10. And if you find that the soil is becoming deficient of nitrogen, then you can start using the complete fertilizer with the content of N-P-K as 20:20:20.
If you are interested in growing the beets in an organic way, you can dress the plants by making use of compost or manure and start feeding the plants with compost tea in alternate weeks. As the beets generally suffer due to deficiency of boron, you can start adding seaweed fertilizer which is considered to be a very good source of Boron to the compost tea for the best growth.
Pests and diseases in beets:
When growing beets in containers, you will not have much problem with pests and diseases. You can avoid the problem with pests by avoiding too much watering and overhead watering. The most common problems are scab and root rot. The pests like leaf miners and aphids will affect the growth of foliage.
Harvesting of beets:
Beets will need an average time of 8 weeks to get ready for harvesting after the process of germination. You also have an option to harvest the beet green for making use of them in salads. The leaves which are tender will have a delicious taste. You can harvest the beet greens when the leaves are just tiny by removing the outer leaves and leaving behind the inner foliage which is small to grow so that you can harvest them later.
That’s all folks about ideas and tips for container beetroot gardening. Keep gardening!.
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