How to Grow Beets in Straw
Beets are a versatile and delicious addition to the garden. They provide not just the roots for cooking, baking and canning, but the green tops are edible, too. Like all root vegetables, beets grow best in a light, well-drained soil. If your soil is a heavy clay, you could throw out your back attempting to dig the garden plot. Fortunately, there is an easier way to grow beets and improve the garden soil at the same time -- planting your beets in straw bales. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Straw bales
- Soaker hose
- Compost
- Bucket, 5-gallon
- Trowel
- Potting soil
- Beet seeds
- Scissors
Instructions
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A Month Before Planting
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1
Arrange the straw bales in a row or a square, with the straw within the bale set vertically. Place where they will receive at least six hours of direct sunlight daily and convenient to your water source. Once you begin gardening, the bales are quite heavy, so place them in the exact garden location.
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2
Lay the soaker hose over the bales and turn the water on for at least an hour. The bales must be soaking wet. Keep wet for four days as the composting process begins.
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3
Fill the 5-gallon bucket one quarter full of compost, then add water to the top. Allow to steep for 48 hours, then pour the compost tea over the straw bales.
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4
Water the straw bales every day. Keep moist for three weeks, adding more compost tea every two to three days. If you are not growing organically, add 1/2 cup aluminum nitrate to the center top of each bale to speed the composting process.
Plant the Beets
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5
Soak the beet seeds in water for 24 hours before planting.
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6
Dig the center section out of each bale, 2 to 4 inches deep. Leave a 4-inch perimeter of straw on the outside edges of the bale. Do not remove the baling wire, work around it. Place the excavated straw on your compost pile and mix well.
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7
Fill the center of the straw bale with potting soil or soil from your compost pile. Water and add more soil as needed to fill the hole.
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8
Plant the beet seeds in a diamond pattern or in rows, 1/2 inch deep and 4 inches apart. Cover with soil and water gently. Keep moist until the seeds sprout, then water only when the top of the soil dries out.
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9
Thin the beets when the seedlings are 2 to 3 inches tall. Use scissors and snip the stems. Save the leaves for salad or cooking. Beet greens are cooked like spinach -- steam until tender or saute with butter, onion and garlic.
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10
Fertilize with a weak compost tea every week. Avoid high-nitrogen fertilizers unless you are growing beets for the greens. Too much nitrogen produces large leaves and small roots.
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11
Harvest the beet roots when they are 2 inches in diameter, between six and eight weeks after planting. Trim the greens and set aside for cooking.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Beets are one of the easiest vegetables to grow. If you are gardening with children, beets and carrots are good starter vegetables.
Straw bales are approximately 14-by-18-by-35-inches (two string) or 16-by-24-by-42-inches (three string). They range from 45 to 75 pounds.
To make a wheelchair-accessible garden, set the bales on a concrete patio with enough room to maneuver the wheelchair around the garden.
Arrange the straw bales in an open square and fill the inside with composted soil. Plant corn, tomatoes, potatoes or other large vegetable plants inside the straw bale planter and beets or carrots in the tops of the bales.
Generally a straw bale is used for one or two seasons. Then the baling wire is removed and the straw either scattered over the garden as mulch or moved to the compost pile.
Keep children and pets away from your compost tea bucket. Children can drown in 1 inch of water. In bucket drownings, the child usually falls into the bucket head-first and cannot get out.
Wet straw bales are heavy. Do not try to move them after the garden is established.
Straw bale gardening pests include aphids, grasshoppers and rodents. Use a strong stream of water or sudsy water to discourage aphids and grasshoppers. Set traps for rodents; do not use rat poison in the garden.
Other types of bales are available but avoid hay bales if at all possible. Hay is full of seeds and they will sprout throughout your garden.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
