Authors: Kathryn Fontenot, Heather Kirk-Ballard, Celine Richard, Kaylee Deynzer, Vondel Reyes, and Mary Sexton.

• Special Thanks to Edward Bush and Taylor Bryant for statistical assistance

Introduction:

Beets are a crop often overlooked in the home garden. We hope to entice Louisiana gardeners to grow beets, as they are a highly nutritious root vegetable and easy to grow. One cup of sliced cooked beets (170 g) contains 34% of the daily recommended (DR) folate, 12% DR fiber, 11% DR potassium, 8% of the DR Vitamin C, 7% of the DR iron, and 6% of the DR Vitamin B6 (World’s Healthiest Foods.org) (Nutritional Profile.)

Beets are biennial crops. The plant germinates, grows, produces a bulb in the first season, and goes to seed in the second season. Most gardeners and commercial producers harvest beets when they are between 1.5 to 3 inches in diameter. As beets grow larger, they tend to taste fibrous. Beets come in multiple shapes and colors. In this trial, we grew red, purple, orange, and white beets.

Materials and Methods

Beets were trialed in St. Gabriel, Louisiana and were evaluated on plant stand, maturity date, and yields of 12 cultivars (Table 1). The Universities of Tennessee and Kentucky provided beet seeds as this was a part of a larger multi-state trial. The seed was not treated or pelletized. The field was tilled and 48-inch-wide plots were formed and shaped. Plot size was 4 ft wide by 5 ft long, with 2 ft of skip space behind each plot. Each cultivar was replicated in 4 plots. Three rows of seed were drilled into each plot. Seed was thinned to 2 inches between plants. Seeds were planted using an Earthway precision garden seeder (Earthway, Bristol, IN). The seeds were planted on March 16, 2020 and harvested 3 times on May 12, 21, and June 4, 2020. Beets were harvested once the roots reached a minimum size of 1.5 inches in diameter.The middle 3 ft of each row within each treatment plot was harvested for data, leaving 1 ft on either side. Green tops remained on when measuring fresh weight.

Bifenthrin (Ortho Bug B Gon; The Scotts Company, Maryville, OH) was sprayed twice during the growing season to manage cucumber beetles and worms at labeled rates. Herbicides were not applied, and all weeds were hand-pulled. Pre-plant fertilizer was applied to the field at a rate of 50 lbs/acre N using 13-13-13. The remaining nitrogen was applied through the irrigation using calcium nitrate to apply another 50 lbs/acre N.

Excessive dirt was removed from harvested beets. They were then trimmed and sorted usingU.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grading standards. U.S. No. 1 and U.S. No. 2 were separated and termed “marketable” and the rest were described as culls. A U.S. No. 1 beet is described as beets with similar varietal characteristics that are well trimmed. The roots are smooth, well-shaped, clean, and free of soft rot and decay. The roots are also free from damage caused by cuts, freezing, growth cracks, rodents, insects, or other mechanical damage. Each root should also be no less than 1.5 inches in diameter. U.S. No. 2 roots are described in the same manner except for roots not being seriously misshapen or excessively rough. Once graded, the beets were counted and weighed (kg). Data were analyzed using SAS (version 9.2; SAS Institute, Cary, N.C.) Proc GLM with Duncan separation tool P≤0.05 (Table 2).

Results

Percent germination or in this case percent plant stand was somewhat disappointing. ‘Avalanche’, and ‘Early Wonder Tall Top’ had the best plant stands at 80 and 85% respectively (Table 1). The remaining cultivars ranged between 49-71% plant stands.When combining all three harvest dates together (Table 2), there were not many differences in total marketable count of roots per plot. ‘Red Ace’ had significantly more roots within the plots compared to ‘Cylindra’ and ‘Boldor.’ However, ‘Red Ace’ marketable root numbers were no different from the other beet cultivars trialed. In terms of marketable weight, ‘Red Ace’ roots weighed more than all other cultivars but not significantly. This is interesting as the four plots of ‘Red Ace’ had an average plant stand of 71%. There were no significant differences in marketable root weight within any of the cultivars. Data shown in Table 2 are the average number and weight of roots grown in a 3 ft long plot with 3 drills of seed planted. So if the reader wanted to compare this to a realistic farm setting, to determine the estimated yield on a 100 ft row of beets, the reader would need to multiply the numbers in Table 2 by 33.333 to have an estimate of total number of roots and weight (kg). For instance, using data in this trial, a 100 ft row of ‘Red Ace’ beets would have an expected average harvest of 917 marketable beets with an average weight of 82 kg (or 181 lbs). ‘Avalanche’ had more unmarketable roots than any other variety. However, the total number of culled ‘Avalanche’ roots were not significantly higher than the cull number of other trialed varieties. Yet, the cull weight of ‘Avalanche’ was higher than all other trialed varieties. ‘Avalanche’ fell in the middle of marketable number and weight of roots. Nevertheless, it may still be an acceptable variety if your customers are seeking a tan exterior, white interior colored beet.

Discussion

The beet cultivars in this trial had lower than expected plant stands. This may be attributed to the soil in which they were growing. Because of COVID-19, this trial was not planted at an LSU research station. The soil type in the field where the beets were planted was mostly clay. Beet seed is somewhat small, and the heavy amount of clay may have inhibited some germination and emergence of seed. Additionally, the plot size of 5 ft was very small to plant the seed with a push seeder. The seeder seemed to skip the first 0-6 inches of plot row and start dropping seed at inch 7 of the plot. This trial will be replicated in the Fall 2020. To alleviate this problem, the beet seed will be planted by hand. We also noticed that seeds came up very close to one another and had to be thinned. If a grower were to plant beet seeds using an Earthway push planter, we recommend taping over every other hole on the beet plate to get better distribution of seed.

In terms of marketable number of beets harvested, ‘Cylindra’ and ‘Boldor’ produced significantly less marketable roots than ‘Red Ace’ and ‘Detroit Dark Red’ cultivars. While statistically they were not different from the remaining cultivars, we were not impressed with their marketable numbers. Additionally, the long conical shape of ‘Cylindra’ was not as attractive as the round beets. ‘Boldor’ had a nice round shape and a beautiful exterior deep orange color and gold interior but so did ‘Touchstone Gold’ and ‘Golden Detroit’ cultivars. If you desire an orange beet, we recommend ‘Touchstone Gold’ or ‘Golden Detroit’. ‘Avalanche’ had a nice tan exterior color and white interior. It was similar in terms of marketable root count and weight to the other cultivars but had many more unmarketable roots than the other trialed cultivars. However, this was primarily due to size, not cracks or malformation. With a little more time to develop, these roots may have become larger more marketable roots. We would recommend ‘Red Ace’, and ‘Detroit Dark Red’ for commercial cultivation. However, if growing for market or personal use, we would also suggest growing one of the orange varieties ‘Touchstone Gold’, or ‘Golden Detroit’ and the white beet ‘Avanache’. When washed, the multiple colors of beets were very attractive and would help entice customers to come to your market stand. Overall, none of the beets did terrible in this trial and additional data will be gathered in the fall 2020 season to make a better research-based decision on best cultivar for Louisiana production.

Table 1. Beet Cultivars Trialed in the 2020 Spring Cultivar Test

Table 2. Season Long Yields Accounting for all Three Harvest Dates in the Spring 2020 LSU Beet Cultivar Trial.

Counts and weights are a culmination of all three-harvest dates. Harvest dates were May 12, 21, and June 4, 2020.

Yields represent the middle 3 ft of a 5 ft plot with 3-row rows of beets thinned to 2 inches between plants.

Amounts within columns with different letters are significant at P≤0.05.