Permapotes

Beetroot

Beetroot: Sowing, planting and harvest calendar

Beetroot, Beta vulgaris, is valued for its fleshy underground part and its edible leaves. It belongs to the amaranth family. The swollen root is often pictured as a dark red globe, but that familiar image represents only part of the available range. Beetroot brings a sweet, earthy flavour to the kitchen, along with a particularly distinctive range of colours among garden vegetables. Its leaves give it an additional use beyond the root itself.

Depending on the variety, roots may be round, oval, flattened or elongated. Red beetroot is the most familiar type, but yellow, white and pink-and-white ringed forms are also available. Chioggia illustrates the last of these: a cross-section reveals concentric rings rather than uniformly red flesh. The outside appearance and the internal colour are therefore not always the same. An elongated variety also produces differently shaped slices from a round beetroot, which can influence your choice when considering how the vegetable will appear in a dish.

The flesh is firm when raw and becomes more tender when cooked. Its sweetness is accompanied by an earthy note whose intensity varies between types and individual roots. Red beetroot can colour the ingredients around it, while paler forms create a different visual effect. However, colour alone does not guarantee an identical intensity of flavour across varieties. Texture and taste are just as much part of this vegetable’s appeal as its appearance, and a collection of different types offers more than a change in colour.

Beetroot features in salads, soups, purées and roasted vegetable dishes. It is also used in pickled preparations and juices. Its flavour works particularly well with acidic ingredients, nuts, fresh cheeses and aromatic herbs. Young leaves have a place in salads, while larger leaves lend themselves to cooked dishes similar to those made with spinach. This combination of edible roots and foliage distinguishes beetroot from a vegetable whose culinary interest lies entirely underground, and gives it two different roles in everyday cooking.

Above ground, the plant forms a rosette of fairly broad leaves, often marked with red veins and carried on coloured stalks. Some types have noticeably darker foliage. These contrasts give beetroot visual interest in your vegetable garden even while much of its fleshy root remains hidden. Comparing varieties therefore means considering the roots’ shape and colour, the appearance of the leaves and the uses you have in mind, rather than treating every beetroot as the same round red vegetable.

Beetroot
Beetroot
Characteristics
  • Lifecycle : Annual
  • Exposure : Full Sun
  • Frost Hardiness : Frost Resistant
  • Cultivation Difficulty : Easy
  • Mature height : 30 cm
Sowing & Planting
  • Greenhouse Growing : Not Required
  • Sowing Depth : 2 cm
  • Plant Spacing : 12 cm
  • Row Spacing : 30 cm
Maintenance
  • Maintenance : Low
  • Water Requirements : Moderate
Other characteristics
  • Soil Type : Humus-rich
  • Soil pH Preference : Neutral
  • Pest Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Disease Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Weed Sensitivity : Moderate
  • Pollination : Insect-pollinated
  • Propagation : Sowing