One of my favorite veggies are pickled beets! No one else in my family will touch them, but for 2 years i've grown beets with the expectation that I'd can them and enjoy them throughout the winter. For two years in a row... I've been foiled! First year, the rabbits ate the tops off the young beets just when they were starting to grow. In the 2nd year, they just never took off. Not sure if it was too cool, too dry, too wet or something else. Frustrating, considering I had beans growing out the wazoo and pumpkins encroaching into the garden from the other side of the yard! So.... anyone have any foolproof secrets to growing beets? HG
Short of shooting the rabbits and posting little cardboard cut-outs of Wile-E-Coyote on the lawn... can't help ya, sorry.
Did that one year but the buggers dug under it -- I didn't bury the fence deep enough in the garden. However, didn't have rabbit issues this year. My ESS Jake caught 2 baby rabbits and I took care of the rest. Mama rabbit made a nest under my daughter's picnic bench/playset. Oops. HG
mate you need to prepare the soil,beets will need rich soil,and a dusting of Phosphate from your gardening store will help,personally i recommend organic pasteurised chicken manure pellets.I grow 70% of my family of 6 veg needs so if i can help just shout,(no ime not offering to double dig yer plot!)
Aren't you supposed to soak the seeds in water before you plant them? Mine sprouted but a possum got em.
When we moved almost a year ago, I quickly found out that there were rabbits running around the neighborhood, destroying my garden! I put up fences around three separate garden areas. Just make sure the critters can't dig under your fence!
get some ferrets,when you clean them out scatter the dirty bedding about the perimiter,get some spring traps set and snares,better still buy a Hunter catapult!
I always soak my root crop seeds (beets, carrots, ect) in water to help break down the hard outer shell ..... some people put a slight cut in the bigger ones like beet seed ...... I apply the seeds to a length of paper strip and cover ever so little with wet sand ....... I pull beets bigger than soft balls every year ........ You have some very hungry rabbits ...... I never have to fence off my beets ...... but they love my green beans and tomato plants
I should have kept a few of those baby rabbits... I hear they make good eatin'... but I had no cage prepared or anything like that. Plus the wife would probably have freaked out. HG
Maybe i'm the only one in the neighborhood with a garden and the rabbits know where to find the good food? I have heard of the soaking of seeds, but never tried it. How long do you soak? Just overnight ? Do you personally put a slight cut in the beet seeds? HG
i figure beets are nutrient hogs, mine were all tiny last year in a newly turned area that was obviously lacking organic material for food.
My beets didn't good last year, but I had a bumper crop of radishes. I thought maybe it was where I planted them. I had 2 rows of tomato plants, in between the tomato plants I did one row of beets & one row of radishes, figuring that by the time the tomato plants were big and fruiting the root crops would be done and pulled from the ground. Worked great on one row (radishes) but not the other. I thought it might be an incompatibility between the tomatoes and beets.
Try sprinkling cayanne pepper around your beets, crop rotation ( so you wont deplete nutrients for the beets, & ho up your beets like potatoes. I didnt ho this year & I had holes in my beets & rabbits hopping around with bright red teeth! I plant more than we need as bugs & critters will be getting their share.