$2.69  Beet - Gourmet Blend

 

The old-fashioned beet is back! Create gourmet salads and side dishes in a rainbow of jewel-tone colors with this gourmet blend of Bull’s Blood (red roots and gorgeous dark red leafy tops, Chioggia (“candy-striped roots have dark pink and white rings of color), and Golden (with bright yellow flesh). Join the beet renaissance with this sweet, easy to grow nutritious vegetable trio! Beets are a nutritional powerhouse, having many nutrients including fiber, potassium, folic acid, and vitamin C. You can eat the leafy tops in salads, steam them, or freeze them for later use. They can be substituted for spinach or Swiss chard in almost any dish. A cool season vegetable, try growing a spring crop and a fall crop. Green and red leaves are attractive in containers. You can harvest the tops as the roots grow for later use. This packet plants: Three 5-foot rows (about 15 lbs. of beets).

When to plant outside: RECOMMENDED. Early spring, 3-4 weeks before average last frost for an early summer crop AND late summer for a fall crop. Growing during hot temperature periods should be avoided. In frost-free areas, sow in September for February harvest.

When to start inside: Not recommended. Sow directly outside.

Special Germination Instructions: Soak seeds for 24 hours before sowing. Beet seed is actually a dried fruit with 1-5 seeds in each fruit. Therefore, thinning instructions are very important. Plant seed 1” deep and 1” apart. If several seedlings emerge from 1 fruit in the same spot, immediately thin to 1 seedling per 1”. After 3-4 weeks, thin to 1 seedling for every 3”-5”. Thinned seedlings can be used in that evening’s salad. Do not allow a crust to build up on the soil surface which could hamper seedling emergence. Mulch soil after plants are 2” high.