When digging up beets for storage

Beetroot - culture is very unpretentious. Grow it quite easily, following the simplest methods of agricultural engineering. The term of harvesting beets depend on the growing season and planting time.

Agricultural practices that increase the quality and keeping quality of beets

The shelf life of beets, in many respects, depends on the growing conditions. Culture loves fertile light soil. If it grows on clay soil, then the ground should be loose and well dug up. If the soil density is too high, the vegetable may not tangle.

The culture grows well on slightly acidic and neutral soils (pH 5.5-7). If the reaction is more acidic, the roots are small, fibrous, they contain little sugar, they become hard during storage. Beetroot tolerates lime well, so if you need to quickly move the pH, a little fur is added in the fall. Dolomitic and limestone flours are not suitable for these purposes, since they deoxidize the soil too slowly. They can be made if the culture will be on the bed in 2-3 years.

If the cultivation of vegetable tops reddened (a sign of acidic soil), then conduct dressing lime milk. You can make lime sediment, remaining when feeding the milk of other cultures, sealing it by 4-6 cm.

Fresh and even half-dung manure cannot be brought under the crop, because, at best, the roots will not be tied, at worst - rot.

At an early age, beets do not tolerate frost. When the temperature drops to + 4 ° C, it will go to color and will not tie root crops. Therefore, at low temperatures shoots are covered with straw, sawdust, etc. The same can occur at temperatures above + 27-30 ° C in the initial period of growth (although this happens very rarely). In this case, the seedlings are watered abundantly.

In the initial period of growth, the vegetable needs moisture. In dry weather, it is watered 1-2 times a week, depending on the temperature. But as soon as the roots are tied, watering is stopped, because the plant has a very long main root, which extracts water from a great depth. Excessive soil moisture leads to plant rotting.

From one seed in a beet may appear several shoots. At the age of 2-3 true leaves, the plants are thinned, removing excess and leaving a distance of 12-15 cm between them. To obtain not too large products, seedlings are seated tightly according to the scheme 7 × 10 cm.

In the northern regions for the earliest receipt of high-quality root crops when transplanting the main root is cut to 1/3. In the south, this is not recommended because in the absence of moisture and drought, the roots will be small and fibrous.

    Feed for beets

When you follow these simple rules get a vegetable with excellent commodity and taste.

When digging up beets from the beds

The time of harvesting beets for storage depends on the variety.

Signs of readiness of root crops for harvesting are yellowing and drying of the lower leaves.

If the lower leaves turned yellow and began to dry - it's time to dig up the beets.

It is undesirable to dig up roots as too early and too late. It is not necessary to dig up the beets early, because the tops will not have time to give all the nutrients, in the future the immature crop will be stored worse. In the fall, intensive loading of root crops occurs, it is at this time that the greatest amount of nutrients accumulate in them.

When tightening with harvesting, the beets begin to cork, white stripes appear on the roots, and it germinates. Autumn frosts can damage the crop, it will become unsuitable for storage, therefore, under the threat of frost, the beets are immediately harvested, regardless of its maturity. It is better to get at least something than to be left without a crop.

When harvesting medium and, especially, late varieties should be guided by the weather.

• If autumn is dry and cool - this is the best time for culture. In this weather, you can not rush to dig beets, and leave it in the ground a little longer, it will accumulate a lot of nutrients.
• When rainy autumn, root crops accumulate a lot of moisture, which leads to loss of taste and cracking. If the harvest is long from the beds do not dig, then it rots.
• In warm autumn, the culture will sprout, and if it doesn’t have time to germinate, it will become hard and fibrous. In this weather, as soon as signs of readiness of root crops appear, they are dug out.

In any weather, it’s impossible to leave a vegetable in the ground for a long time, it will either germinate or rot. If it is not known exactly which variety is growing, then as soon as the signs of ripening become sufficiently pronounced, the crop is dug out.

Harvesting beets and preparing the crop for storage

Most suitable for harvesting beets for storage is dry, cold, cloudy weather with air temperatures not lower than 4 ° C. With loose soil, if the beets strongly protrude from the ground, you can simply pull it over the tops. If the soil is dense, then the crop is dug, prying it with a shovel or pitchfork, and then picking it out of the ground. The depth of undermining is at least 4-5 cm, otherwise the beets can be injured. With deep digging, only the main root is injured, which does not affect storage.

Dug up root crops are left in the garden for 3-4 hours to dry. It is not necessary to leave longer than this time, as the beets begin to lose moisture. If the vegetable is dug in wet weather, then dry it under a canopy, laying it out in one layer. Duration of drying is 2-3 days.

After drying, cut the tops. If the beets are dried in the open air, the tops are removed at the end, if in the barn the next day. In most varieties, the leaves are cut with a knife, leaving the tail no more than 1 cm. At lower pruning, the apical bud is injured and the crop rots. But some varieties allow the above-ground part to simply be twisted, while the root crop is not injured, and the tails remain just the right length. Then dug out vegetables cleaned from the ground, cut off the side roots. The main root is also cut, leaving a tail of 4-5 cm.

Cooking roots for storage.

Root vegetables are sorted by size. The largest are coarser, more fibrous and cook longer, besides, they are worse stored. Small ones on the contrary, have less fiber, have good keeping quality and quickly cook. Therefore, when sorting, small ones are placed on the bottom of the box, and large ones are left at the top. Beets damaged by pests or when digging, as well as having an ugly shape, lost the presentation of the storage is not removed, but immediately used. Such vegetables will not be stored anyway.

Storage features 

Sorted vegetables are stored. Root crops, especially of late varieties, can be stored in various conditions: in piles in the open air, in a cellar, boxes, nets, packages, in bulk in insulated sheds, and refrigerators.

Basic storage requirements:

• temperature 1-4 ° C;
• humidity 90-95%;
• sufficient air circulation.

Beets are well stored in cellars with sufficient ventilation, on warmed balconies, if the temperature there does not rise above 5 ° C (otherwise it will germinate). In the refrigerator, beets are not stored very well, because there is no constant air flow. Once every 10–14 days, it is removed from the refrigerator for 15–24 hours so that it is ventilated.

In places with poor ventilation, where there is no inflow of fresh air, the roots rot. At temperatures above 4 ° C, vegetables lose moisture, become flabby, and sprout early in spring. With insufficient moisture, the beets shrivel and become fibrous.

But, compared to other root vegetables, it is quite easy to grow and preserve beets /

We dig up beets for winter storage