Beetroot harvest 2008

I dug up the beetroot crop this week. How disappointing it was. There were plenty of beetroots but, with the exception of two, they were all either tiny or long and thin. The two that looked a bit better were barely golf ball size and because they had been in the ground so long I thought it best not to chance eating them.

Since growing this crop of beetroot I have learnt a few things that I will do differently next year. Firstly that when you sow a beetroot seed you are actually sowing a pod containing 4 seeds. Therefore (and secondly) these 4 seeds must be thinned out once they have germinated. I had read about thinning out seeds, for beetroot, carrots etc, but I did not take any notice thinking everything would be fine. I now know how important thinning seedlings is. And thirdly because each pod contains a number of seeds, less seeds needs to be sown.