Learn how to grow beets in containers. Beets or beetroot is an often overlooked vegetable that can easily be grown indoors in containers.
In addition to the beets themselves, they produce very tasty greens.
I am growing Burpee Detroit Dark Red Medium Top Beets in 2 gallon fabric pots and using coco coir as my potting medium. You can order them on Amazon here.
How To Grow Beets In Containers Indoors
Beets are easy to grow if you give them the right conditions. Beets are deep-rooted so you should use a fairly deep pot.
I am using grow bags but they are only 6 inches deep. but 12 inches should be perfect.
However, I am going to grow baby beets so they should work out fine.
Beets like a well-drained and loose soil. They don’t like acidic soil and prefer a pH of 6.0 – 7.0
So coco is the perfect growing medium for beets at around 6.0 -6.2. It doesn’t compact and has excellent air and water retention.
Beets do best with 4-6 hours of sunlight but they are shade tolerant particularly if you are growing them for the greens.
A sunny windowsill should work for them but as with most indoor vegetables, you will get much better results using a grow light.
Here is a review on the LED grow light I am using to grow my beets Spider Farmer SF2000 Unboxing And Review (indoorvegetablegrower.com)
How Long Do Beets Take To Grow?
Beets can take about 60-65 days to mature. Some varieties are listed as earlier at about 45- 50 days.
You can harvest baby beets earlier but they may not have as much flavor as mature beets.
That is because it takes time for the plant to transfer sugars to the root and develop its full taste.
But you can start harvesting the greens much sooner starting at about 3 weeks of age. Harvest before 6 inches for best tenderness.
Growing Beets From Seed
You may find beet transplants at a garden center but most of us will grow beets from seed. Don’t worry it’s easy to do.
Beet seeds are actually compound seeds and each one can grow 3 or 4 beet seedlings. So thinning will be necessary.
I try to sow my beet seeds about an inch apart and cover them with about a half-inch of soil.
Beets are slow germinating and it can be 14 to 21 days before they poke their heads up above the soil.
I try for about 2- 3 inches between plants in all directions after thinning but you don’t need to waste those extra seedlings.
Transplanting Beets
Don’t try to pull up your extra seedlings. When they have a couple of true leaves they are big enough to transplant.
To transplant beets, I use a tablespoon to dig up each clump of seeds. Once I have a clump with several plants I start removing the soil.
Shake or tap it on a hard surface and most of the potting mix should fall away. Then gently tease the roots apart and separate the plants.
Hopefully, you have a pot on hand to transplant the extras you will have.
Make a small hole with your finger and put your transplant in and firm up the soil around it. Set them 2-3 inches apart in all directions.
Harvesting Beet Greens
One of the great things about growing beets indoors is that they produce beet greens as well as beets.
Have you ever heard of Swiss Chard? Well, Swiss chard is a beet that only grows greens and not roots.
Beet greens are very tasty and you steam them like spinach but unlike spinach, they don’t cook down to next to nothing.
You can start harvesting beet greens when they are about 4 inches tall. Remove a few leaves from each plant.
They will grow more leaves but don’t remove all the leaves from a single plant.
Slow Germination
Waiting for my beet seeds to germinate, Some are up but germination has been slow so they were reseeded.
Growing Beets And Carrots In Containers
These beets have been growing for a while now and a few are ready to harvest. The nice thing about beets is the tops are good to eat too.
These are in coco coir in a 2-gallon fabric pot and they do well growing in coco. I removed the 2 largest beets and now the rest will get more light and room to grow.
The tops got pretty big and were shading the smaller beets so I will give them more time to grow before harvest.
