# Bitter Beets



## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

I grew beets and was so excited to harvest them. Imagine my dismay when they were so bitter and bad tasting that I could hardly eat them or their greens! Did the heat do this, or does the soil need amending? 

Our soil here is somewhat acid, so I added lime to that bed. I couldn't even use them, so I just dug them back into the ground, what a waste! What can I do to ensure the next crop will be edible? It's the first year I've gardened in this site, and the bed had a good amount of rotted donkey manure added to it, but not much else. The beets weren't very big, most were the diameter of a fifty cent piece, and I planted them before Mother's Day.


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## DianeWV (Feb 1, 2007)

Shoot! Who knows! It sounds like your soil has it going on. You got dung and lime. Now beets aren't too crazy about real acidic soil, are they?? But more than that, I think that most beets are between 50 and 60 days. So, if planted around Mom Day-start pulling some by when- Around mid July. But they wouldn't have been ready by then?

Since your beets were small/bitter not worth a hoot, I am wondering if you all experienced some real dry conditions during the early stages of your beets. If the beets didn't have enough water, it sounds like they just kind of set in the ground with their growth being hindered. They might have had a rough life during their regular growth period of 50-60 days and that might be why they are not so hot. I would guess that they had to be in the ground too long in order to grow. Take Care.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Beets, along with all other root crops, do best in acidic soils. Unless the soil is 5.0 or below, adding lime isn't going to make the soil better for beets. Even neutral soil, 7.0 ph, is too high for beets. 

Otherwise, totally agree with Diane's diagnosis. Sounds like the beets may have gone through a period of drought to stunt them. After that, the cells couldn't produce their normal sugar.

Next year, eliminate the lime, till deep, and don't allow them to go thirsty for very long. 

Martin


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Oh, I just now added the lime. It wasn't until just a few days ago, so the beets grew in plain jane soil with some donkey manure. Our soil is acidic enough that you don't have to amend it at all to grow blueberries. Huckleberries have a heyday up here. 

We had serious drought issues, and I tried very hard to keep stuff watered, but sometimes it meant watering twice a day every day...which I wasn't able to do. I'll bet it was the heat. Around July they were only nickel sized if that...way too small.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Where you have your beets, the soil may be either shallow or compacted not far below the surface. Of the normal annual root crops, beets require the deepest soil. At 6 weeks, beet roots may already be down 2Â½ feet. At 10 weeks, down to 5 feet. And at 3Â½ months, down 10 feet. 

Martin


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## chamoisee (May 15, 2005)

Well, that may be. I always dig by hand, but I only dug down about 2 feet. I should probably plant comfrey in there to break it up further down, but comfrey in a tilled area would probably present problems of its own as it got broken up by my digging. The soil here is extremely variable. In one area, there will be sand a foot down, and then 6-10 feet away, hard, compacted, rock hard gravel and soil, a few feet from that, just plain old soil all the way down. Glaciers came through here and I guess that may be why.


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## DianeWV (Feb 1, 2007)

Just talking out loud here, throwin out some stuff. 2 feet is deep. That's going more than twice as far as I go. Our topsoil around here probably is something like 8 to 10 inches. I plow, I really don't want to plow much below the topsoil at all, if any. Never really measured, but that's a pretty good estimate. I don't want to bring up the subsoil. I hope you can get some good beets. It has been a tough year. That early dry weather really put the hammer on things. Take care.


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