0:14 [Music]
0:15 well hello everyone and welcome to
0:17 another complete growing guide here on
0:19 the mi gardener channel i know you are
0:21 going to love this one because it's on
0:24 beats and first first let me first start
0:27 off by saying i am so sorry that i have
0:29 not done a beat growing guide we've had
0:32 so many people messaging us saying luke
0:34 where's the big growing guy
0:36 okay uh check our complete groin guide
0:38 list and
0:39 i don't know i don't know why i never
0:41 did a big growing guide but i'm really
0:43 sorry because there's a ton of people
0:45 waiting for us to do the beat growing
0:48 guide to kind of show them kind of
0:51 illuminate the path on how to grow beets
0:52 and i
0:55 i never had one i could have sworn i had
0:57 one so
0:59 my apologies to all of you that we're
1:02 waiting um but this is going to be a
1:04 complete grind got on beats so now if
1:05 it's at least if it's too late for you
1:07 to start beats this year at least you
1:09 got the information for next year um
1:12 and uh and one of the things that is fun
1:14 about beets i'm starting off is that
1:15 like i said
1:16 if there's not enough time this year
1:18 this time next year and if there's time
1:20 next year there's time in the spring
1:22 summer and fall next year beets are
1:24 something that can be grown all season
1:26 long at numerous different stages and
1:28 when succession planted that means
1:30 planting about every week to two weeks
1:33 apart you can have a harvest all season
1:36 long of beets beets are so fun to grow
1:38 because they are hot they're they're
1:40 very heat tolerant they're very cold
1:43 tolerant and they really do grow in
1:45 almost any weather at least here in
1:47 michigan if they get above 100 degrees
1:48 they do struggle and some will go to flower
1:49 flower
1:52 and they won't form as nice of a of a
1:56 root but unfortunately that's kind of uh
1:57 the nature of the beast when growing in
1:59 hot weather is that a lot of your root
2:02 crops like radishes and and
2:04 turnips and and beets they don't get as
2:07 large because they are so stressed from
2:09 the heat that they tend to just flower
2:10 or focus a lot of their growth on
2:12 flowering but if you're in a place like
2:15 michigan you can grow all season long
2:17 it's an incredible incredible crop to
2:19 grow so let's get right into it let's
2:21 jump on into it here
2:24 beets beets are an awesome crop if you
2:28 have if you have not perfect soil
2:30 a lot of times people say you know what
2:32 type of soil do i need well beets will
2:34 grow in almost any type of soil but
2:36 having the right type of soil will help
2:37 you get
2:39 nicer beets
2:41 beets will grow in harder clay soil and
2:43 in fact a lot of farmers will grow beets
2:46 as a kind of a cover crop or a i guess
2:48 not really a cover crop but a
2:50 secondary crop to help loosen the soil
2:52 aerate the soil and they'll still be
2:55 able to harvest it and make you know
2:57 some some money on on their on their
3:00 efforts so uh so beets will grow in
3:03 harder clay soil for that reason they'll
3:05 help aerate that soil up
3:07 in heavier clay soil
3:10 but obviously having really loose soil
3:11 is going to do a couple things it's
3:12 going to help with root development
3:14 which is obviously really important root
3:16 development is great if you want to get
3:18 the tap root nice far down in the soil
3:20 help it to stay really healthy drought
3:23 tolerant and things like that but also
3:24 what it'll help you do is it helps you
3:27 keep uniform shape oftentimes we get
3:29 pictures of people where their beets are
3:30 taller than they are wide and they're
3:33 all crazy shaped and things like that
3:34 that's because they're having a hard
3:37 time because the the the soil is
3:39 pressing in around the beet and instead
3:41 of allowing the beet to grow out it's
3:43 kind of forcing the beet to grow up the
3:45 path of least resistance and so if your
3:49 soil is very loose and very fluffy
3:50 it's going to not have any resistance
3:52 and it's really going to do its be able
3:53 to do its thing
3:55 now what we've gone and done is i've
3:57 taken about a one inch layer of compost
3:59 from our compost pile
4:01 and i put some of that on that's always
4:03 a good practice especially if it's your
4:04 second crop
4:06 even if it's your first crop it's good
4:07 to in the spring it's good to
4:09 re-mineralize the soil things like that so
4:10 so
4:12 any time we're planting beets we're
4:13 always starting with a fresh slate because
4:14 because
4:15 that's going to help loosen that soil
4:17 it's going to help keep things really
4:19 loose give it a lot of organic matter a
4:21 lot of water holding capabilities things that
4:22 that
4:23 are really really important to beat that
4:25 we'll get into
4:27 another thing that it does is it uh what
4:30 it what it really does best is it will
4:32 provide lots of nitrogen um and one of
4:33 the things that i see most people
4:36 not doing well enough when growing beets
4:38 is providing enough nitrogen everyone
4:39 always says you know my beets they
4:42 didn't do anything other than grow
4:44 really awesome leaves
4:45 that's because you didn't have enough nitrogen
4:47 nitrogen
4:48 beets are one of the only crops that i
4:51 know of that take so much
4:53 they require a certain amount of
4:55 nitrogen to begin
4:57 setting root development and i don't
5:00 mean phosphorus often dies gardeners
5:01 will load on the phosphorus saying
5:03 phosphorus is really good for root
5:05 development it's you know and i want i
5:08 want bigger roots being bigger beets i'm
5:10 going to give them lots of phosphorus
5:12 you do not need a lot of phosphorus to
5:14 grow beets you don't even need really a
5:16 lot of potassium to grow beets you need
5:18 to focus on the nitrogen because if you
5:20 have enough nitrogen in the soil the
5:23 plant is going to grow up in in its
5:26 leaves first and the excess energy is
5:29 then taken back down to form larger a
5:32 larger beat okay
5:35 and so it needs a lot of upper relief
5:38 growth to create the photosynth the the
5:41 photosynthesis from the sun
5:43 that then comes back down and stores
5:46 into the beet itself if you don't have
5:47 enough nitrogen it's going to just form
5:49 enough leaves to kind of survive and
5:51 it's not going to focus
5:52 any energy into the root and you'll find
5:55 that your roots are very woody we see so
5:56 many times people are like
5:58 i i harvested my beets but i almost
6:00 broke a tooth biting into them because
6:02 they're so hard
6:05 that's the problem that's the problem is
6:07 they just become really woody and you'll
6:09 notice that the beet actually will look
6:12 kind of woody on the outside rather
6:14 it'll look kind of like a almost like a
6:16 i don't know pepper stem or something
6:18 it's just super gnarly and woody uh
6:21 instead of really tender and soft with a
6:24 very gentle skin and a nice shape and so
6:25 that's what nitrogen is going to give
6:27 you also what we've gone and done is
6:29 we've sprinkled about a cup over top of
6:31 this oh maybe
6:33 maybe
6:34 10 square feet or so
6:36 and so we sprinkle about a cup of
6:40 trifecta over top of this uh 9 maybe 12
6:41 square feet
6:44 and that is going to give you additional
6:45 nitrogen additional phosphorous and
6:48 additional potassium as well as trace
6:49 minerals and things like that which are
6:51 really important to growing beets
6:52 beets
6:54 the next thing is sunlight before we get
6:56 into the actual planting of the beets
6:58 which i am using seeds i understand
6:59 people don't love that because it's not a
7:00 a
7:01 it's not a
7:03 it's not a fully mature plant to say oh
7:06 he knows what he's talking about um it's because
7:07 because
7:08 i didn't realize i hadn't done a beat
7:11 growing guide okay uh take it easy on me but
7:12 but
7:15 the next thing obviously is sunlight um
7:17 sunlight is so important for beets you
7:19 can't give them four hours you can't
7:21 give them five hours they need full sun
7:23 if you're growing them for you know the
7:27 the roots or the shoots or the flowers
7:29 or the fruits
7:32 they need five to eight hours of sun
7:33 if you're just growing them for like
7:35 leaves and you don't care about the
7:36 beets i guess you could probably get
7:38 away with around four hours or so
7:39 because the leaves are edible and
7:41 they're very delicious but
7:43 we want the we want the nice big roots
7:44 there so we can
7:47 so we can enjoy those and those require
7:49 lots of sunlight because again it goes
7:50 back to what i stated with the nitrogen
7:53 aspect is you got to have lots of energy
7:55 to form those big those big
7:57 bulbish roots and that's that
7:59 photosynthesis that is that is created
8:01 from the sun so you need lots of
8:03 nitrogen to create lots of leaves but if
8:05 there's lots of leaves and no sun the
8:06 two go hand in hand so you got to have
8:07 lots of that
8:09 now the final thing before i get into
8:10 planting them and spacing them and
8:13 things like that is you really need to
8:15 make sure you water frequently
8:17 so again with the compost it goes hand
8:18 in hand a lot of stuff that we do here
8:20 goes hand in hand the compost helps
8:22 loosen the soil helps aerate the soil
8:24 and it gives it lots of nitrogen but it
8:27 also what it does is it holds water
8:29 having that humus having the you know
8:30 that rich
8:32 beautiful organic matter i'll show you
8:34 close up what our soil looks like so you
8:36 have an idea of what yours should look
8:37 like as well if you want beets like what
8:40 we get which are like the size of apples
8:42 they're huge beets
8:42 and so uh
8:43 uh
8:45 what you what you really need to do is
8:47 make sure they have lots of moisture
8:48 because what will happen is if your
8:50 beets dry out either they will not form
8:52 a bulb at all because they're just
8:54 trying to survive so they really go into
8:56 flowering and things like that
8:58 or what they'll do
8:59 is they will
9:02 your beets will uh be very very very tough
9:03 tough
9:05 again that's another reason why beets
9:07 just they don't form a nice tender bulb
9:10 they get really woody and that's because
9:12 there's not enough water in the in the
9:15 soil another thing too is if your beets
9:17 dry out go bone dry oftentimes what will
9:19 happen is even if you have a really nice
9:23 size beat it will crack so many times
9:25 even even for us we've had beets crack because
9:26 because
9:29 the the soil dries out and then the the
9:31 bulb itself shrinks too fast and it
9:33 can't keep up and then if it gets
9:36 re-watered again or something like that
9:38 it will um it'll split much like a
9:40 tomato will or things like that that
9:43 that the skin can't expand and contract
9:46 fast enough with uh you know with the
9:48 the shrinking or expanding of the fruit itself
9:50 itself
9:53 no i understand that beets are not fruit
9:55 but it's still the same concept so
9:57 if you want to prevent the cracking as well
9:58 well
10:00 keep even soil moisture i cannot stress
10:02 that enough
10:05 all right so um oh first i want to show
10:07 you what our soil looks like here
10:09 check this out
10:11 it is so awesome
10:12 awesome
10:14 our soil has little chunks of
10:17 little bits of humus punky wood
10:18 it's got
10:20 organic matter it's already broken down
10:22 it's got little twigs and little bits of
10:25 sand and kind of a little bit of pebbles
10:26 and things like that
10:29 this is all makes a very good rich
10:32 growing medium that holds water holds on to
10:33 to
10:36 air it gives places for
10:38 for fungus and
10:40 animals to call home bacteria will
10:43 thrive and notice no matter how much i
10:45 crunch it together
10:48 it just still breaks apart
10:50 that is incredible soil structure right
10:52 there that is probably some of the best
10:55 soil we've ever had in fact
10:56 and so what you want to do when you're planting
10:58 planting beets
11:00 beets
11:02 now i do usually have the so perfect
11:04 cedar with me which we've had videos on
11:05 that in the past if you don't know what
11:07 i'm talking about but i actually left
11:09 that up at the cottage so we were
11:10 planting up there and i accidentally
11:12 forgot it so
11:13 unfortunately i've got to use my hands
11:15 for this one but
11:16 what you want to do
11:18 is you want to plant
11:23 about every
11:27 three to four inches apart i prefer
11:29 i prefer i mean i always eyeball i've
11:31 done it long enough but yeah it's about
11:33 three inches there so um
11:35 about three inches for like a high
11:38 density planting
11:41 but if you're looking for
11:43 if you're looking for a little bit a
11:45 little bit bigger bulbs
11:46 and not as much competition or maybe
11:48 you're looking at stretching your
11:49 maybe you're looking at stretching your
11:50 seeds out
11:53 you could you can go you can go four
11:55 inches with your spacing and be be
11:56 perfectly fine
11:59 um the reason why i'm planting two seeds
12:00 and not
12:02 one seed like
12:03 like this
12:08 i've stopped doing this see here this is
12:11 a very poor method of spacing because
12:14 you'll notice
12:16 let's say one doesn't sprout right let's
12:19 say this one doesn't sprout
12:21 what happens is you still are too close here
12:22 here
12:24 and then you're gonna have taking this
12:26 one out and then you're way too far
12:28 apart and that's why i'd rather thin a
12:31 seedling than to have my spacing all
12:34 whacked up and you know have uh
12:36 have to go back and in your well you're
12:38 you're losing a lot of your productivity
12:39 from your bed
12:41 so that's why i've started planting just
12:43 two seeds
12:45 in one hole that way if one doesn't
12:47 sprout well that's fine you have to go
12:48 back and thin that spot
12:50 but it's a lot more
12:53 effective at getting
12:55 getting the amount of plants that you
12:56 need in a given space
12:59 as far as soil ph goes
13:01 i never worry about when i'm planting
13:04 beets what my soil ph is because i don't
13:06 do anything with it i just use pure
13:09 compost and pure compost is a natural ph buffer
13:10 buffer
13:12 of seven so
13:15 assuming you're planting in pure compost
13:16 don't worry about it if you're planting
13:19 in like clay soil or something like that
13:21 i'd recommend maybe getting a ph test
13:22 the reason why i know my plants are
13:25 going to do well is because my ph is 7.
13:28 but but beets really don't like a ph of
13:31 any lower than 5.5 and they don't like
13:34 any higher than around a ph of eight so
13:35 there's your complete growing guide on
13:37 how to grow beets now i do know that
13:38 these are not fully mature plants behind
13:40 me there's just seeds if you want to see
13:41 what they look like when they're fully
13:44 mature go check out our beet our beet
13:46 harvest video i'll post a link to it in
13:48 the description box below because
13:50 that'll show you that the methods and
13:52 and my you know what i'm talking about
13:54 here really do work if you apply them to
13:56 your garden so i do hope you enjoyed i
13:58 hope you learned something new do
14:00 recommend giving this video a thumbs up
14:02 and sharing with your friends if you are
14:04 uh if you're so inclined to do so but i
14:06 would appreciate it and it really does
14:08 help this channel grow so as always this
14:10 is luke from the mi gardener channel
14:13 reminding you to grow big or go home
14:16 i'll catch y'all later see ya bye [Music]
