Beets

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Beets!

• A tale that begins with a beet will end with the
  devil.
• -Old Ukrainian proverb

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Chenopodiaceae Family(Goosefoot)

• Beta vulgaris includes
• Swiss chard
• Table beet
• Sugar beet
• Mangel wurzel!

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Swiss chard

• Leafy tops developed by Romans from wild
  relatives of beets that grew in the
  Mediterranean.
• Artificial selection done by humans domesticated
  this crop for the leaves and petioles.

4
Table beet

• Popular in eastern Europe, Asia, the
  Mediterranean, and the U.S.
• As a vegetable crop, the area under cultivation
  in the U.S. is only 3200 ha, half being in
  Wisconsin.
• Mass selection was the only method of selection
  until the second half of the 19th century
• Now bread for productivity, uniformity, maturity,
  and multiple disease resistance

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Sugar beet

• Early development done during search for
  alternative form of sucrose
• Developed from a population of mangel wurzels
  selection done for high sucrose
• Early seed for beet sugar production was low
  quality from France and Germany
• 1895 U.S began to grow beet seed, selecting for
  size, shape, and sugar content

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Mangel wurzel

• German word meaning scarcity root
• Domesticated for use a root crop
• Can weigh as much as 65 pounds!

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Characteristics

• Beets are deadly serious
• Biennial
• Flowers are both perfect and dioecious
• Will not flower until roots are mature and have
  been subjected to at least a month of cold
  temperatures
• Protandrous
• Wind pollinated
• Outbreeding and will cross with each other

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Seed-to-root-to-seed

• Predominating method
• Done best in mild climates Puget Sound region
  is location of majority
• Accomplished over two seasons
• Plant stock seed into plant beds late June or
  early July
• Planted in rows about 54-72 plants/meter of row

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Root to Seed

• Rogue off-types at 6-10 weeks based on foliage
• Cut off tops early October leaving 2-5 cm
• Within a week after topping, pull beets up and
  lay in windrows
• Mound soil over top to protect from freezing
• March or early April unearth stecklings

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Steckings

• Roots to be used for seed production
• Cut diagonally at end of root to observe internal
  color
• Allow to air-dry
• Store in dry wood shavings until ready to plant

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Planting steckings

• Place in furrows with roots upright and soil
  packed firmly around
• Newly planted roots are sensitive to drought
• Isolate 1.2 km from other production fields (beet
  pollen can travel up to 5 miles)

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Seed!

• Aggregate or multigerm
• Maturity is indeterminate
• Harvest when seed balls at base are brown and
  mature
• Cut off or pull off by hand and lay in windrows
  in late summer to cure

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Traits selected for

• Root color
• Root shape
• Root flavor
• Leaf and petiole phenotype

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What are beets good for anyway?

• Strengthen the heart
• Improve circulation/purify the blood
• When used with carrots they regulate hormones
  during menopause
• Contain iron, potassium, riboflavin, folic acid
  vitamin A, C, B6 and beta carotene
• Cancer fighting
• Protect the liver
• Anti-inflammatory
• Salicylic acid

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A little Tom Robbins for our listening pleasure

• The beet is the murderer returned to the scene
  of the crime. The beet is what happens when the
  cherry finishes with the carrot. The beet is the
  ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded,
  buried, all but fossilized the dark green sails
  of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of
  primordial plasma the kite string that once
  connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy
  whisker drilling desperately for rubies.
• - Jitterbug Perfume

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