Broadfork™

Crop guide

Beets

Beets are sown where they grow, from a few weeks before the last frost. Pull them by size, not by the calendar.

Grown in Ohio, zone 6a. Your frost dates move the calendar; the signals don't. Broadfork goes by where your garden is, not its zone: frost dates for your ZIP code in the US, or the ones you type in anywhere else.

15 minutes to read. Each section stands on its own.

A beet plant in a block of garden soil, its round deep red root half above the soil, with a fan of red-stalked green leaves veined in red above it and a thin red taproot with fine pale roots below.
What you plant
Seed, sown where it will grow; the data splits on transplanting. One beet seed is a dried fruit holding several seeds, so the seedlings come up in small clumps. A seed gives 2 to 6 plants.
When
Around the last frost; the data starts as early as 30 days before it. Data with a last frost about April 22 sows them from April 10 to 25, and here the window runs from April 15 to July 15.
How deep
About 1/2 inch. The data runs from 1/2 to 1.
How far apart
Thinned for full-size roots, the data runs from 1 to 4 inches apart, mostly 2 to 4, in rows 12 to 18 inches apart. Thinning is a choice: a clump left unthinned grows a little smaller. The app plants beets 9 per square foot, 4 inches apart.
Sun and soil
The data splits on sun: some sources ask for full sun, and others say beets tolerate partial shade, with 4 to 6 hours of direct light enough; one finds no good roots in partial shade. Loose, deep, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter; hard clay keeps the root from enlarging.
Frost
Frost-tolerant. Beets take a light frost, but not a freeze; a fall crop survives the high 20s in one source and goes down to about 20 °F in another.
Family
Amaranthaceae, the amaranth family, with spinach and Swiss chard. Some data calls it the goosefoot family, Chenopodiaceae.
Harvest
By size: usable from 1 inch across, the main crop at 1.5 to 3 inches. Past 3 inches the roots are commonly tough and fibrous. About 50 to 70 days from sowing is the common figure.
Soil pH
About 6.0 to 6.8, with 6.5 a common goal.
winterspringsummerfall sowApril 10 to 25 pull at 1.5 to 3 in across first heavy frosts 6 to 8 in of mulchdug through December
  1. springSow from April 10 to 25, around the last frost.
  2. summerPull them as they reach 1.5 to 3 inches across.
  3. fallUnder 6 to 8 inches of mulch after the first heavy frosts, they keep in the ground through December.
The beet's year. Beets go in around the last frost and are pulled by size, so the root, not the month, says when. The green bar is the pulling, the straw bar the roots kept in the ground.

Planting#

Beets are frost-tolerant: they take a light frost, but not a freeze. Data with a last frost about April 22 sows them from April 10 to 25, and here the sowing window runs from April 15 to July 15. Other data starts earlier, from 30 days before the last frost to 2 weeks. The data also goes by soil temperature: it sows once the soil reaches 40 °F, some at 45, one at 50.

Cold soil is slow, not fatal. Seed germinates from 41 °F, but takes about 40 days to come up there, against 5 to 6 days at 70 to 80 °F.

The data splits on sun: some sources ask for full sun, and one finds no good roots in partial shade; others say beets tolerate partial shade and grow well with 4 to 6 hours of direct light a day. Give them loose, deep, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Stones and soil clods distort the roots and hard clay keeps them from enlarging, so loosen the bed 8 to 10 inches deep, clear out the rocks and rake it smooth.

Not every seed in a cluster comes up, which is why the data sows thickly and thins. Golden beets germinate less reliably, so sow them closer.

Sow about 1/2 inch deep. The data runs from 1/2 to 1, and seed sown too deep, or into soil that crusts, comes up poorly.

In Broadfork On a beet's crop page, and beside Companions on the add form, the app gives the sowing depth.

Cover the seed: beets come up in the dark. Where the soil crusts after heavy rain, lay a board over the row until the first seedling shows, or lay a light mulch after sowing.

Two sources soak the seed in warm water for 24 hours before planting, to help germination. No other beet data says so.

The data splits on transplanting. Some of it says beets take transplanting very well: start them indoors 5 to 6 weeks ahead, set them out at their final spacing, and save 2 to 3 weeks. Other data says they transplant poorly or not at all, and one source allows it but calls it seldom done.

For a steady supply, sow a short row again every 2 to 3 weeks; the data runs from every 2 weeks to every 4. The last sowing for fall is mid-July in some data and 6 weeks before the first killing frost in another. To time a fall sowing, count back from the first frost: 50 to 70 days to harvest is the common figure.

Summer sowings want water to come up: hot, dry weather crusts the soil, heavy clay most of all, so keep the row moist until the seedlings show.

Short season Where the season is short, cold soil is the hold-up. Some data starts beets indoors 5 to 6 weeks ahead and sets them out at their final spacing, and sows every two weeks until late May.

Short season Where frost comes early, count back from it: a fall sowing made in late June, July or August takes 50 to 60 days, and the plants survive the high 20s.

Mild winter Where winters are mild, beets grow in the cool months: a spring and a fall crop, or a winter crop sown from August into February in the warmer places and October to January in the warmest. Late planting causes the most frequent problems.

soil surface about 1/2 in thinned to 3 in one seed holds several, so each comes up as a small clump 1 inusable1.5 to 3 inthe main croppast 3 intough and fibrous
In the ground. Beet seed goes about 1/2 inch deep. One seed holds several, so each comes up as a small clump; for full-size roots the seedlings are thinned to 3 inches apart. Then they're pulled by size: usable from 1 inch across, the main crop at 1.5 to 3 inches, tough and fibrous past 3.

The season in between#

One beet seed is a dried fruit holding several seeds, so the seedlings come up in small clumps. The data thins them for full-size roots when the tops are between 1 and 4 inches tall, to a final spacing that runs from 1 to 4 inches apart, in rows 12 to 18 inches apart.

The reason the data gives is that crowded plants make tops and little or no root. Cut the extras off rather than pull them. The last thinning can wait until the thinnings are small beets big enough to eat, root and top. Seed sold as monogerm has one embryo to a fruit, and one source thins at 2 inches tall unless you buy it.

No home-garden data speaks to leaving a clump in place. Two farm trials, at farm densities, found that more seedlings to a foot of row gave more roots but more undersize ones, and that thinning to clumps or to even spacing did not change how much root weights varied.

From the beds in OhioI choose not to thin them. Thin if you're after large beets, but a clump left in one spot grows just fine, the beets a little smaller. Pull them one at a time as they size up, and the others grow into the space each one leaves.

Give them about 1 inch of water a week if it doesn't rain, the one amount the data prints for beets; the rest say to water deeply and keep the moisture even. Swings in moisture crack the roots, drought makes them stringy and tough, and above 85 °F heat and water stress make them woody.

Beets compete poorly with weeds, most of all while small, so weed early, by hand or with a shallow cultivation no deeper than 1 inch. Lay mulch along each side of the row to stop weed seeds and hold moisture. A dense organic mulch, with water at the base, also helps against leaf spot.

A lightweight floating row cover can stay on from seeding to harvest, though it fails against leafminers where the pupae wintered in the soil.

The data splits on feeding: little or none in fertile soil, no side-dressing if the soil was fertilized well before planting, against a high requirement for nutrients. Test the soil first, as two sources say, and go easy on nitrogen, which grows tops at the root's cost. Where the data side-dresses, it does so with the plants 3 to 6 inches tall, or 6 weeks after they come up, beside the row and watered in. Beets also need boron for the root to develop, and sandy soil may be short of it.

A beet bolts only once the plant has reached a certain size, past its seedling stage, as carrots and onions do. Some chilling is needed too, and stress in the first 6 weeks can bring it on.

Mild winter Where winters are mild, beets are said to tolerate heat and humidity well, given steady moisture.

Harvest#

Pull them by size, not by date. They're usable from 1 inch across, the main crop runs 1.5 to 3 inches, and past 3 inches the roots are commonly tough and fibrous; one source puts the line at 2 inches. Hot weather and drought toughen them too. The data counts 50 to 70 days from sowing, from 42 to 80 in all.

Loosen the soil with a digging fork, then lift the beet gently, without breaking the skin, and twist the leaves off rather than cutting them. Plan 5 to 10 feet of row a person for fresh use and 10 to 20 more for storing or canning.

The app's catalog gives each of its beets its own days to harvest; Golden and Chioggia are among the quickest.

From the beds in OhioBeets were a late discovery here. The favorite way to eat them is roasted in the oven, which takes away some of that earthiness and leaves them tasting sweet.

The leaves are a crop of their own. Once the root is 1 inch across, you can snip leaves 6 to 8 inches long, up to one third of the foliage, without harming the root; another source takes only one or two leaves a plant if the roots are wanted. Thinnings are eaten as greens too.

One fall schedule, for crops full size by early November, sows beet greens as late as September 15.

Keeping them#

Beets can stay in the ground into winter. Lay 6 to 8 inches of hay, straw or leaves over the bed after the first heavy frosts, and dig them through December. The mulching guide covers laying it.

The data splits on how long to leave them. Some data says to dig beets before a heavy frost or freeze; other data leaves them in to about 20 °F, or the high 20s.

To store them, trim the tops to about 1 inch of stem and leave the root end on, since the greens draw moisture from the root. Keep only firm, round beets with a slender taproot, and pass over wilted, flabby, rough or shriveled ones.

Keep them cold, humid and unfrozen: 32 °F at 95 percent humidity is the figure most often given, and the data runs from 32 to 40 °F and from 90 to 100 percent. A cold, humid cellar or pit works, or moist sand or sawdust. The data splits on washing first: two sources say not to wash before storing, and two wash them.

How long they keep is split. In a cold, moist place the data runs from 1 to 3 months at the short end to 4 to 6 at the long, with 2 to 4 in the middle and 5 in one; the longest figure is for topped beets in storage written for commercial growers. In the refrigerator, bagged in plastic, they keep 1 to 2 weeks in most of the data; one source says 1 to 3 weeks, and another up to several months.

Short season Where winter comes early, dig before the ground freezes. One cold-state source stores beets unwashed in moist sand or sawdust near 32 °F, and another expects 5 months from topped beets kept cold and moist.

To freeze them, trim the tops to 1/2 inch of stem and leave the taproot on, so the color doesn't bleed. Boil until tender, 25 to 30 minutes for small beets and 45 to 50 for medium, then cool, peel, slice and pack with 1/2 inch of headspace.

Saving seed#

Beets are biennial: they set seed in their second year. Dig the roots in fall, store them at 32 to 45 °F, and replant them in spring.

Replant the roots 18 inches apart, in a bunch rather than a long row. In flower they grow about 4 feet tall.

Beets are wind-pollinated, and they cross with Swiss chard, which is the same species. Keep half a mile between varieties, or a mile in some data.

The seed is ready when the fruits at the base of the side shoots turn from green to brown. Cut one across: unripe seed is milky, ripe seed mealy.

The seed keeps about 4 years; the seed-saving guide shows how to store it.

Which beets#

Red beets are the common ones, deep maroon globes such as Detroit Dark Red and Ruby Queen. The data also names golden beets, white beets, the red-and-white striped Chioggia, an early heirloom harvested small, and the cylindrical Cylindra, which gives many even slices. Touchstone Gold keeps its color cooked and germinates better than other yellows, and Lutz Green Leaf stores well through winter.

In the app's catalog, among others: Detroit Dark Red, Golden, Chioggia, Bull's Blood, Cylindra, Early Wonder Tall Top and Ruby Queen.

Short season Where the season is short, the data picks Early Wonder, which comes up fast in cold soil, and Bolt Hardy and Cylindra, which hold against bolting.

What goes wrong#

The data splits on how much trouble beets get. One source calls Cercospora leaf spot the most common disease and names aphids, leafminers, flea beetles and webworms; another says few problems are significant, and a third none.

Where it goes next year#

Beets share a family with spinach and Swiss chard, and they share their troubles, leaf spot and the leafminers, so count the three as one group in a rotation.

In Broadfork The bed's rotation card counts the rest years for you and says which families are clear to go back in.

The data splits on how long to wait. One source says not to plant beets in the same spot two years in a row; others say not more than once every 3 years, and farm data asks for 3 years or more, since the fungi last that long in the soil.

Clear the plants after harvest, since leaf spot carries over on debris. Pull lambsquarters and pigweed, which carry leaf spot, and chickweed, which feeds the leafminer flies.

A bed under only beets, spinach or the cabbage family, or left bare, loses the soil fungi that help the next crop take up phosphorus and zinc. The fungi need growing roots to live, so follow beets with another crop or a cover crop.

If you rotate by feeding, the data disagrees on beets: one manual counts them a heavy feeder, others a light one, as a root crop.

Every number on this page comes from a published extension source.

Sources for this guide: University of Minnesota Extension, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, University of Illinois Extension, University of Maryland Extension, Clemson Cooperative Extension, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Cornell Cooperative Extension, NC State Extension, NDSU Extension, Ohio State University Extension, Oregon State University Extension, SDSU Extension, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, University of Missouri Extension, Washington State University Extension, Colorado State University Extension, National Center for Home Food Preservation, New Mexico State, Penn State Extension, Purdue Extension, SARE, UMass Extension, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of California, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, University of Florida, University of Georgia Extension, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, University of New Hampshire Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension, Utah State University Extension.

The documents behind this guide (72)

Updated 11/11/2026 · Checked against our sources 11/12/2026

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