The Garden Community for Garden Lovers

Beetroot Mixture harvested

balcony

By balcony

7 comments


I harvested what few plants of the Beetroot mixture I sowed way back in March 2016 germinated & managed to grow on in the raised bed in front of the greenhouse. I don’t understand what was the matter with them, Gerry pulled up the great majority of the January sowing, (I made in the greenhouse & planted out in March), in June as they were all bolting. I sowed some more just a few days later but they never did germinate! So I’ve been left with only a handful of roots for this summer! ;-((

2016 has turned out to be my worst year ever for sowing beetroot. ;-((

Yet Gerry sowed some very thickly in the bed at the top of the plot & they have all germinated by the looks of it as they are so thickly crammed together he will never get a decent root unless he does some drastic thinning out very soon!

The few roots I was able to salvage are quite big, one, by far and away the biggest one I’ve ever grown, has concentric pink & white rings, the first time I’ve been able to grow one like that

The rest of the beets I dug up were white – not a plain old red one in sight!!! :-D LOL!

I bought a packet of seeds of this variety a few years ago but when I harvested them they were plain old red beets!!! I was very upset & annoyed about that!!!

To cook the big one I had to cut it in half & then half way through cooking cut it up into quarters as it was too big to fit in the saucepan!

The smaller ones looked like cooked tomatoes when I peeled them after cooking them! See what I mean in the photos.

More blog posts by balcony

Previous post: Back home

Next post: Fuchsias on balcony



Comments

 

Strange, my beetroots have really struggled, those that have grown look ok though. Must be the weather we had in spring or that is what we are blaming here. lol

8 Aug, 2016

 

No surprise there, Oliveoil! We have had some strange weather this year & it looks like we are in for a few days of heat once again this weekend! Strange it should be exactly a month since we had the last heatwave!

Gerry's beetroot, even though he hasn't thinned them out yet, seem to be very healthy.

I watered the patch of soil where I sowed the last Beetroot Mixture seeds. They are in the raised bed in front of the greenhouse where all the others were sown. I sowed them much thicker than I would normally, there must be lots of seeds that haven't germinated yet - I thought they might do with a little encouragement!

9 Aug, 2016

amy
Amy
 

What a strange mixture .ours are not too bad I've pickled some and left some growing to get bigger ...

11 Aug, 2016

 

I cooked the beets & ate some. I was a bit wary as I'd never eaten beets that weren't "beet" coloured before! I found they are much sweeter than the "normal" coloured beets! Even the enormous one was lovely & tender!

17 Aug, 2016

amy
Amy
 

At least they didn't get wasted David , I like beet cooked on its own as a veg or pickled ..

17 Aug, 2016

 

I like Beetroot a lot, I can never have it pickled as my wife can't stand vinegar! I've not had anything pickled in over 40 years! After such a long time I don't miss it either. I must admit however the smell of vinegar on fish & chips does make my mouth water! LOL!

22 Aug, 2016

 

The seeds I mentioned having watered recently - further up in this thread - have made no sign of germinating.

There is just one plant there with dark red leaves that are almost black which probably came from the 2nd sowing I made back in June.

I was down the allotment this afternoon for an hour & I gave it a good soaking as it seems we are in for a "heatwave" this week - sometime! If it arrives it will be the third this summer!!!

22 Aug, 2016

Add a comment

Recent posts by balcony

Members who like this blog

  • amy
    Amy

    Gardening with friends since
    17 Apr, 2008