Hi Daniel,

I apologize for being late in getting back to you.

Have you pulled any of the beets and looked at the roots?

Did you plant them from seed or buy the plants?

Have you had your soil tested? Did you apply any fertilizer, compost or manure?

Have you grown beets in the past? Here or in another garden?

Thanks,

Lindsey K. Kerr, MS, MHP (she, her, hers)
Consumer Horticulture Educator
Michigan State University Extension

I have not pulled any. I know some of the chioggia are getting close-ish to mature—mostly the ones that are in better shape—but I'm not sure about the others. I'll at least dig out around them a little and get you some more pictures tomorrow night.

I planted all of them from seed—Chioggia from a local company, Nature & Nurture, and Boro from Johnny's. I did also start a row's worth of the Boro indoors, in 2" soil blocks, and transplanted those recently. They're doing much better than the ones from seed, but are also much less mature—the ones from seed didn't show signs of distress until they got larger than the transplants are at this point.

I haven't had my actual soil tested—I might this fall—but a neighbor at the same garden site did a couple years ago. I've attached that report in case it's helpful. We've added a lot of compost—some each year for many years, then we paused for a couple years, and then did so again this year. The beets are actually growing in about 2" of only compost on the top of the beds, which does a wonderful job keeping down weeds prior to applying normal mulch. We did add a little fertilizer as well in some places, but not specifically/intentionally where the beets are.

We have grown beets in the past, and honestly always had trouble with them. I've often been too overwhelmed to make careful observations, but I think the symptoms this year are things we've seen before. In those cases we did still get some beets, but of wildly varying sizes—though I often wondered if that was due to poor thinning, which I did a much better job of this year.

Also, new development since my initial question—I'm relatively suddenly seeing a lot of chewing on the leaves, to the point of skeletonizing some of the older ones. I know I don't have enough observations to narrow down the cause yet—I'll take some pictures tomorrow—but what are the possibilities and how would I tell them apart? I'm aware of caterpillars of various sorts, slugs, and leaf miners (which don't eat all the way through the leaf but cause it to die such that it may then tear through everywhere but the veins).

Hi Daniel, 

My apologies for a late response.

Have you pulled your beets? 

When you said that you have grown beets in the past, was it in this same bed?

I have only struggled to grow beets when the soil has been too high in organic matter. I suspect that is the issue in your garden. I had leaf growth, but poor roots. Your soil test says that your garden is at 15%. Research has shown that ideally, your soil should be in the 3-6% range. 

According to Cornell University : Annually replenishing organic matter to improve soil health is a common practice. Sandy soils with an organic matter content of 2-2½% and clay-based soils with 3-5% organic matter will perform fine. Organic matter levels twice this amount
could lead to nutrient imbalances." 

Here is an article from Oregon State University about organic matter in raised beds.

I recommend that you not add compost to the beds for a year or two and then retest your soil. You might want to hold off on trying beets again for a season or trying them again as an experiment, but only a few, to see if they perform better as the organic material is broken down and the percentage decreases. Planting a row will probably be disappointing, but 5 to see how they do will be informative. 

I would also recommend direct sowing the beets in the garden. All root crops suffer from being transplanted and many do not recover from the root disturbance. 

Have you figured out what is eating the leaves? 

Lindsey K. Kerr, MS, MHP (she, her, hers)
Consumer Horticulture Educator
Michigan State University Extension

Oh now that is interesting. Our soil is if anything probably higher in organic matter than that soil test indicates—we've added more compost over the years than those gardeners have, I think. So that's a very promising lead. I'm surprised—I always thought, and have never knowingly seen evidence to the contrary, that for most things...well, I wouldn't say "more is better" without limit when it comes to organic matter, but it's hard to add too much compost. But then, "surprise" is shorthand for "my expectations don't match reality", i.e. "I learned something", so there you have it. Thanks! (This is probably a sign that we should do our own soil test this fall...)

Do you think chard has the same sensitivity? I'm starting to theorize that something about the colored-stem varieties in that whole family is especially vulnerable. I notice that the Chioggia beets that are doing relatively well are green-stemmed, while the Boro (and the Detroit Red that we've also had trouble with in the past) are the classic red. Similarly with chard, the only variety we've had any luck with is the green/white Fordhook Giant. "Bright lights" and similar rainbow chard mixes often showed similar symptoms to these beets. Yet a neighbor of ours—same garden site, different plot, but who has applied much less compost over the years—grew some beautiful colored chard last year. Maybe I'll try some golden beets, which often have lighter stems, and see how they do. I'll definitely keep growing the Chioggia as well—the one row that has optimum conditions for them is doing quite well, and I know what went wrong with the others (too hot due to floating row cover—next year I'll either keep them in uncovered beds or switch to bug net once summer starts).

I'll say also, I'd be very sad to not be able to apply some compost every year—we've had great success applying a 2" layer on top of the soil, rather than mixing it in (then it does get mixed in at the end of the season). This effectively acts as mulch, reducing weeds growing up around young seedlings by 90% or more—the compost itself has no weed seeds in it because commercial composting gets hot enough to kill them.

Finally got around to pulling a beet tonight—pictures attached. This was one of the smaller ones in the row, but none of them are doing particularly well. Some have much darker red leaves, which I know can be a sign of phosphorus deficiency, but it sounds like in this case it's probably not outright deficiency but rather an imbalance like the article mentions. (Our struggles with beets have all been in this same community garden plot, yes—12x24ft, but all about the same in terms of original soil and how we've treated it since.)

The leaves I'm pretty sure are caterpillars of some kind. We've had leaf miner problems some years as well, but I don't see any on the chard, and the damaged areas of the beets are just gone, with no intermediate withering step. I have Btk for the caterpillars, just needed to be more proactive about applying it at the first sign of damage (or even before, once I know the likely timing). Should be able to get that right next year.

Oh, and—I do all my starting in soil blocks, and I've successfully transplanted turnips and gotten beautiful roots. I have mostly done beets from seed, but wanted to experiment to see if something was getting to them early on and stunting their growth. With what I just learned about organic matter, that seems unlikely, so my experiment probably won't tell me much. Out of curiosity if nothing else, I'll probably try transplanting a few Chioggia next year—I think I actually have a pretty good change of good results, and it would help keep them from being overshadowed by other greens that are transplanted.

Hi Daniel,

Do you need any additional information from me?

Lindsey 

No, I think I have some ideas of what to try next year. I'll probably go ahead and do a soil test of my own plot this fall so I know exactly what the conditions are.

You can purchase a soil test from MSU. Here's the information: 

https://homesoiltest.msu.edu/get-started

The plus side of going through MSU is that we have professionals who make recommendations based on the test results. If you do an MSU soil test, make sure you note on the form that you want to grow root vegetables. You can also use Ask Extension or call our hotline and someone will help you better understand the results if you have additional questions. 

Good luck!