Getting the most from your beets. Eat and enjoy for many months!
Q. The fertilizing amounts that they have on the garden planting details …should that be consecutive weeks or spread out across the growing season for example on the beets it says 6 to 8 so would I do weekly feed 8 weeks consecutively or should that be spread out… so I’m assuming that you feed for 6-8 weeks and then stop …have I got that right?
A. Yes, you feed weekly. Except when the weather is cold you do not feed as often, because the plants cannot uptake and use the nutrients when the weather is much colder than 60 degrees (some varieties do better in cold weather).
However, if you learn to use the secondary edible parts of the plants and you begin – about the 4th or 5th week – to remove a couple of beet leaves every week and eat them, and continue this throughout the season, you can (as we do) harvest and continue to use those same beet plants for 8-10 months! And if you do this, instead of treating them like a single-crop plant, you will continue to feed them. I will harvest, use, and therefore continue to feed my beets for several months. We slow down in cold weather, only feeding every 2-3 weeks, and we stop about 8 weeks before the final harvest is expected.
