Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-253
Beet
Beta vulgaris
Beet is a fast two-harvest crop from one sowing: the root eats raw, grated, or cooked, and the leaves make a genuinely good spinach substitute, so even the thinnings become a crop rather than waste. The chemistry of alkaline clay does not bother it at all - it tolerates an unusually wide pH range and even some salinity - but the texture does, since a swollen root pushing through ground that sets hard comes out small and misshapen, so it wants a loosened, sandy bed. The tops also make solid cattle and sheep forage once wilted or ensiled, but they must never go to pigs, and the oxalic acid in them binds dietary calcium, so stock need extra calcium alongside. It bolts and toughens once temperatures climb past about 75F, so it is a spring-and-fall crop here, on a fast enough cycle to slot between longer-season roots.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Silt · Loam
- Moisture
- Moderate
Vertical layer
Rhizosphere- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Biennial
- Mature height
- 12–18 in
- Mature spread
- 8–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 2–3 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Black Salsify
Pseudopodospermum hispanicum
Black salsify is the better-flavored, more forgiving cousin of common salsify, and hardly grown in the United States. Its root can be left in…
Rhizosphere · USDA 5–9
Burdock Root
Arctium minus
Lesser Burdock is a different species from the straight gobo root grown as a vegetable - it is the stronger medicinal plant of the two, rated…
Rhizosphere · USDA 3–10
Celeriac
Apium graveolens var rapaceum
Celeriac is a better companion plant than it is a headline vegetable: growing plants repel the cabbage white butterfly, which makes it worth…
Rhizosphere · USDA 3–9
Chinese Artichoke
Stachys affinis
Chinese Artichoke produces small, pearl-shaped tubers with a mild, nutty, artichoke-like taste, eaten raw or lightly cooked - and unlike most…
Rhizosphere · USDA 4–8
Daikon
Raphanus sativus var longipinnatus
Daikon is a large white radish grown as much for what it does to soil as for what ends up on a plate - one planting yields root, leaves,…
Rhizosphere · USDA 2–11
Earth Chestnut
Bunium bulbocastanum
Earth Chestnut is a small underground tuber crop that grows through the cool months and goes dormant in summer, much like garlic or another…
Rhizosphere · USDA 4–8
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference