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Vegetables

Beetroot Growing Guide: Planting, Care & Harvest

A sweet red root direct-sown and thinned because each seed cluster sprouts several plants, with the young leaves also edible.

Beetroot

Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris

Growing calendar

Typical timing for central Japan (Kanto region). Shift it for your own climate, and record your actual dates.

Sow / plantHarvest

Guides

Common problems

Start from what you can see on the plant.

Pests and diseases (10)

Problems recorded for this plant, most serious first.

Fusarium Wilt

Disease

Lower leaves wilt during the day and recover morning and evening, and this cycle repeats as the plant dies back. Cutting the stem reveals characteristic browning of the vascular tissue.

Brown Leaf Spot

Disease

Small light brown to gray-brown spots form on the leaves and enlarge into irregular lesions. When they merge the whole leaf dies and plant vigor drops sharply.

Anthracnose

Disease

Light brown to dark brown round lesions with sharp margins form on leaves and fruit, slightly sunken in the center. In wet weather salmon-pink slimy spore masses ooze out on the lesions.

Damping-off

Disease

The stem pinches in at soil level, turning water-soaked to brown and thin, and the seedling topples over. Infection before emergence makes the stand uneven with missing plants.

Root Rot

Disease

Fine roots rot brown to blackish brown, growth stops and the lower leaves yellow. The plant wilts easily in the daytime and eventually dies outright.

Verticillium Wilt

Disease

Only one side of the lower leaves yellows and wilts, and the symptom moves up the plant. Stem vascular tissue turns pale brown and the plant dies without ever growing well.

Bacterial Spot

Disease

Small water-soaked spots appear on the leaves, later turning brown with yellowing around them. Fruit develops water-soaked or scabby spots from which rot spreads.

Leaf Spot

Disease

Small round brown to gray-white lesions appear on the lower leaves, the centers turning gray with tiny black specks. As they multiply the leaf yellows and drops early.

Downy Mildew

Disease

Pale yellow to yellow-brown angular lesions form on the upper leaf surface with a gray-purple mold in the matching spot underneath. Lesions merge, the leaves die back and the plant declines early.

Scab

Read next

Keep a growing history for Beetroot

Type the plant name, add the planting date, and take photos as it grows. Next season you will have your own dates for sowing, flowering, and harvest instead of a generic calendar.

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