🌱Doc's Pantry Garden Almanac

The Garden Almanac

Two crops in one — sweet root and tender greens

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Beetroot (Beta vulgaris)

Two crops in one — sweet root and tender greens

🔍 How to identify it

Glossy dark-green leaves with red veins and stalks in a rosette; swollen round-to-cylindrical root, deep red (or gold/white/striped). Leaves taste of earthy beet.

👀 Look-alikes

None dangerous — cultivated. Wild relative is sea beet.

🤝 Companion planting

Plant near:
onionKalelettucebush-bean
Keep apart:
pole-bean
FamilyAmaranthaceae
Hardiness zone2-11 (annual)
SunFull sun
WaterEven; drought makes woody roots
SoilLoose, stone-free, pH 6.5-7; boron-hungry
SpacingThin to 8 cm (each 'seed' is a cluster)
Sowing / startingDirect-sow around last frost and again mid-summer for a fall crop; frost-tolerant
Harvest50-70 days at golf-ball to tennis-ball size; greens anytime. Stores in damp sand for months.
Common pestsLeaf miner (row cover), aphids; scab in dry alkaline soil.

🧺 What it's good for

Root roasted/pickled/grated raw; greens cooked like chard. Natural food dye.

Plant identification here is educational — never eat, forage, or medicate with a wild plant on the basis of a website alone. Many edible plants have toxic look-alikes. When in doubt, grow from known seed, or confirm with an expert before you harvest.