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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-255
Sugar Beet
Beta vulgaris
Grown as a winter fodder crop rather than the sugar crop it was bred to be - long hot summers cook the sugar yield commercial production depends on, but the plant itself is unbothered and hardy across a huge range. Sown in autumn and lifted before summer heat arrives, the roots feed cattle, sheep and pigs (handled carefully, since fresh-lifted roots and the leafy tops each have their own rules) while the tops go to ruminants. The same planting doubles as a cool-season vegetable - the root is edible and the leaves work as a spinach substitute.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Moderate · Moist
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.
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…
Rhizosphere · USDA 2–11
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
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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