Secrets of proper nutrition of beets

Without top dressing, it is impossible to get a good beet harvest. Not only the yield of the crop, but also the qualitative characteristics of root crops – their taste, sweetness, structure – depend on the composition, quantity and time of fertilization. We will learn how, with what and when to feed beets in the open field.

Why feed beets?

Beets are a hardy and unpretentious crop that does not require much trouble from gardeners. But such undemandingness often plays a cruel joke with the owners of the beds – beets grow, but the quality of its root crops is low.

Beet fertilizers are needed to form root crops:

  • in accordance with the varietal sizes;
  • sweet and tasty;
  • neither hard nor fibrous.

The lack of top dressing can lead to the fact that the beets grow completely inedible.

When growing beets, it is important to apply fertilizers according to the schedule – each growing season has its own set of fertilizers. At the beginning of the growing season, beets need nitrogen, at the end – phosphorus and potassium.

To grow tasty and sweet beets, you need to feed them even on fertile soils. The sweetness and taste of root crops is provided by sodium – this element is supplied to the culture by introducing sodium nitrate or table salt into the soil.

How to understand what elements are missing beets?

Experienced gardeners will recognize the lack of nutrients by the appearance of beets.

Signs of nutritional deficiencies:

  • Nitrogen. Usually the lack of this element is observed at the beginning of the growing season. The main sign of nitrogen deficiency is pale and frail tops.
  • Potassium. Observed in the middle of the growing season. The tops acquire a dark red and even purple color. Yellow spots appear on the leaves, they curl and dry. If top dressing is not applied in time, necrosis develops on the leaves.
  • Phosphorus. Usually observed on light acidic soils that lack organic matter. The leaves become small, the aerial part turns red, the tops stop growing. Root crops do not form and do not accumulate sugar.
  • Magnesium. The lower leaves become light. Yellow spots appear on the tops, and then necrotic foci.
  • Sodium. The tops take on a red tint.
  • Bor. The core rots. Young leaves do not develop. The point of growth dies.

An excess of nutrients can be just as harmful as a lack of them.

Signs of overnutrition:

  • Nitrogen. The leaves become dark green, large, juicy. Root crops lag behind in growth.
  • Potassium. Growth retardation, leaves become light green, covered with brown spots.
  • Phosphorus. Chlorosis appears on the leaves. Then tissue necrosis is observed on the tops, it turns yellow and dies.
  • Magnesium. The roots die, the plant does not absorb calcium.

Fertilizers

For feeding beets, all means are good. Along with purchased chemical fertilizers, gardeners actively use natural top dressing.

Mineral

Mineral fertilizers are a product of the chemical industry. You can buy them at any agricultural store. The advantage of mineral fertilizers is ease of use, concentration of nutrients and high efficiency.

What mineral fertilizers are recommended to feed beets:

  • ammonium nitrate;
  • urea;
  • superphosphate;
  • potassium sulfate;
  • potassium chloride.

Organic

Beetroot responds well to organic matter. Organic fertilizers contain the same nutrients as the purchased “chemistry”, and in an easily digestible form.

To add nitrogen to the soil, use manure or bird droppings. Wood ash serves as a source of other useful substances. Using only these two organic fertilizers, you can grow beets without mineral counterparts.

Organic Fertilizers

Other popular organic fertilizers are humus, compost, nettle infusion, peat and other natural products.

Complex

Along with simple mineral fertilizers, beets can be fed with complex compounds. Their difference from simple ones is the content of not one, but two or three main elements at once. The most famous complex fertilizers are nitrophoska, ammophoska, nitroammophoska, etc.

For feeding beets, complex fertilizers are also used, which include trace elements that are important for this particular crop. Thanks to a balanced set of elements, it is possible to limit the use of one complex fertilizer throughout the growing season.

Rules and types of dressings

Fertilizers, both mineral and organic, can be applied in two ways – under the root and by spraying.

Root

Beets get most of their nutrition from the soil, so root dressing is the basis for a good harvest. Root crops should grow not only moderately large, but also tasty, and top dressing at the root helps to achieve this.

Features of root dressings:

  • During the growing season, at least two top dressings are carried out – when thinning seedlings and until the tops close.
  • Fertilizers are applied in the form of nutrient solutions. They are poured into specially made furrows 3-4 cm deep. Furrows are made between rows. The distance from the furrows to the roots is 5-10 cm.
  • After making nutrient solutions, the beds are watered – this helps prevent burns to the root system.
  • It is forbidden to bring fresh manure or litter under the beets. They are added only to poor soils, a year before sowing beets.

Foliar

Foliar feeding involves spraying plants and the soil around them. Such processing is carried out as an addition to root dressings – if it is necessary to urgently fill the deficiency of one or another element.

Features of foliar dressings:

  • are absorbed faster and more completely than root dressings;
  • can be carried out in any period of the growing season;
  • uniform distribution with minimal risk of overdose.

For spraying use solutions:

  • Urea. For a bucket of water – 20 g of granular fertilizer.
  • Manganese. Use a slightly pink solution. During the season, the plants are sprayed 5 times. Such processing allows not only to compensate for the deficiency of manganese, but also to prevent the defeat of beets by putrefactive infections.

For foliar top dressing, solutions of boric acid and common salt are also used.

Beet feeding scheme

When growing beets, it is extremely important to apply fertilizers at certain stages, and at each of them top dressings of different compositions are used.

Beets are fed:

  • at certain stages of the growing season;
  • depending on the condition of the plants;
  • during agricultural activities.

fertilizers

Fertilizers for beets are applied at the following stages:

  1. Soil preparation for planting. A plot for beets is prepared in autumn and spring. Features of preparing a site for beets:
    • The rotted manure is brought in in the fall for digging – it should cover the area with a layer of 2 to 5 cm.
    • Dolomite flour or crushed shells are brought in in the fall – 2-3 cups per 1 sq. m.
    • In the spring, wood ash is added to the soil – 500 g per 1 sq. m.
    • Sandy soils and sandy loam are fertilized twice – in autumn and spring. For chernozems, it is enough to apply fertilizers in the fall.
    • In heavy soils, an increased dose of potassium is introduced, as well as sawdust, sand and lime.
  2. When sowing. During this period, fertilizers are applied if they have not been added earlier. Top dressing is scattered directly into the grooves. For each square meter put 10 g of saltpeter, superphosphate and potassium sulfate.
  3. During cultivation. Top dressing is applied according to schedules that are guided by calendar dates and growing seasons. Approximate feeding scheme:
    • Fertilizer is applied for the first time after thinning the plantings. They take superphosphate, potassium sulfate and carbamide (urea) – 30 g each, dissolve in a bucket of water. This amount is enough for 10 square meters. m.
    • The second top dressing is done after 3 weeks. Apply fertilizer of the same composition as the first time.
    • The third is carried out in 2-3 weeks. Its composition is already slightly different from the previous ones. Take double superphosphate and potassium sulfate – 40 g per bucket. The prepared solution is poured over 10 square meters. m. This composition is watered with beds to enhance the growth of root crops.
    • When growing late beet varieties, one more top dressing is often carried out. It must be done 3-4 weeks before harvest.

Folk remedies

Gardeners, trying to get an environmentally friendly product, replace mineral fertilizers with organic matter, and also use various folk recipes. A variety of ingredients are used – weeds, yeast and other improvised means.

Saline

To feed beets, use ordinary table salt, not iodized. Salt top dressings are a source of sodium, on which the sweetness of root crops depends.

Saline

How to feed beets with saline:

  1. Dilute 1 tbsp. l. table salt in a bucket of water.
  2. Water the beds at the rate of 10 liters of solution per 1 sq. m.
  3. Feed three times per season:
    • when the plants form 6 leaves;
    • when the roots stick out of the ground by 3 cm;
    • half a month after the previous salt top dressing.

Salt solution is used not only for root dressing, but also for spraying. They are especially important if the leaves have turned reddish – this sign indicates a lack of sodium. For foliar feeding per 10 liters of water, take twice as much salt – 2 tbsp. l.

When using salt top dressing, it is necessary to strictly observe the dosage. An increase in salt concentration leads to salinization of the soil, which negatively affects the development of the crop.

Chicken droppings

Bird droppings are a generous source of nitrogen. Therefore, it is used at the initial stage of beet vegetation. This top dressing is useful on any soil, but it shows the greatest effectiveness on acidic soils.

Chicken droppings

How to apply chicken manure:

  • Dilute the litter with water in a ratio of 1:12. The solution can not be poured directly under the roots – they can get burned.
  • Pour diluted litter only into specially dug grooves or just between rows. Consumption rate of chicken manure per 1 sq. m – 1-1,2 liters.

Nettle infusion

This is a well-known fertilizer among gardeners, with the help of which beets are supplied with the necessary trace elements and vitamins.

Nettle infusion

How to make nettle dressing:

  • Pick young nettles – you need plants on which seeds have not yet appeared.
  • Put 3 kg of chopped nettle into a 30 l barrel and fill with water.
  • Cover the barrel with a lid and leave to infuse.
  • After 4-7 days, the infusion is ready for use. Water them with beets 1-2 times a month, 1/2 liter for each plant.

Weed infusion

Even weeds can be used to feed beets. After weeding, do not rush to throw out weeds – you can make good fertilizer out of it.

Weed infusion

How to prepare an infusion of weeds:

  • Put the weeds in the barrel – they should take up about a third of its volume.
  • Pour water into the barrel to the very top and leave to infuse.
  • After 5-7 days, the infusion is ready. Dilute it with water 1:10 and water the beets. This top dressing is allowed to be poured directly under the roots of plants. Under each plant – 1 l.
  • Water the beets with weed tincture 1 time in half a month.

Ash infusion

Wood ash is valued as a source of phosphorus and potassium. It also contains boron, magnesium, copper. Ash improves soil structure, deoxidizes acidic soils.

Ash infusion

Beets are fed with ash twice:

  • Immediately after sowing the seeds in the ground.
  • At the stage of formation and growth of root crops.

How to prepare the ash solution:

  • dilute two glasses of ash in a bucket of water;
  • leave the ashes for 2 hours and immediately water the beds.

Yeast

Conventional yeast for baking, introduced into the soil, enhances the growth of beneficial bacteria that process organic matter in the soil, saturating it with potassium and nitrogen.

Yeast

Yeast dressings enhance the development of the root system and increase plant immunity.

Recipe № 1:

  • Take live yeast – 1 kg. Dilute them in 5 liters of water.
  • Infuse yeast for 2 hours.
  • Add water in a ratio of 1:10.

Recipe № 2:

  • In 10 liters of water, dilute 10 g of dry yeast and 2 tbsp. l. Sahara.
  • Insist 2 hours.
  • Dilute with water in a ratio of 1:5.

Beets are watered with a yeast solution three times:

  • In spring, immediately after germination.
  • 20 days after the first feeding. The second top dressing falls on the month of June.
  • Approximately two months after the first top dressing, the last yeast top dressing is applied in August.

Boric acid

Boric acid is especially needed for beets grown on sandy soils and sandy loams.

Boric acid

Why you need boron:

  • activates seed germination;
  • improves the taste of root crops;
  • prevents root rot;
  • boosts immunity.

When boron is applied:

  • during seed preparation. 1 g of acid is diluted in 0,2 liter of water. Seeds prepared for sowing are kept in the solution.
  • At the stage of growth of tops and root crops. Make a solution – take 1 tsp per 0,5 liter. acids.

To dilute boric acid, only hot water is taken.

Feeding beets by months

Beets are fed taking into account the growing season. For many gardeners growing beets in the open field, it is more convenient to navigate the calendar.

In June

In June, ground beet is at the initial stage of vegetation, when it needs nutrition for the growth of green mass and the development of roots.

How to feed beets in June:

  • As soon as the second leaf appeared on the plant, the beds were watered with mullein diluted in water 1:10. Top dressing is poured into the furrows between the rows.
  • After 2 weeks, the beds are watered with ammonia diluted with water – 1 tbsp. l. for 10 l. The introduction of an ammonia solution helps to scare off pests and increases the immunity of plants.

In July

In mid-summer, beets form a rosette. Top dressing introduced during this period should contribute to the formation and pouring of root crops. For this purpose, potassium is given to the culture.

How to feed beets in July:

  • Potassium nitrate. In 8 liters of water, dilute 2 tbsp. l. drug.
  • Salt. Bred 2 tbsp. l. in a bucket of water.

In August

At the end of summer, the development of root crops is completed, they begin to intensively accumulate useful elements and acquire a certain taste. In August, beets are fed with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers.

What fertilizer to apply in August:

  • A solution of mineral fertilizers. Superphosphate (10 tablespoons), potassium chloride (2-1,5 tablespoons) are diluted in 2 liters of water. Fertilizer must be applied 4 weeks before harvest.
  • Instead of a mineral “cocktail”, many gardeners make more harmless products – for example, wood ash or a yeast solution.

Tips from experienced gardeners

Farmers and experienced gardeners with experience in growing delicious beets advise:

  • During the leaf growth stage, apply only nitrogen fertilizers.
  • Keep a close eye on the condition of the leaves, and apply fertilizer according to the needs of the plants.
  • Apply fertilizer after watering.
  • Give preference to organic fertilizers.
  • Do not limit yourself to root dressings alone, use foliar fertilizers – spray plants with nutrient solutions.

An experienced gardener will also tell you about feeding beets in the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9hMOnAnvb8

When growing tasty and sweet beets, top dressing is crucial. With the correct and timely application of fertilizers, you can get root crops that correspond to their varietal sizes and taste characteristics.

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Anna Evans

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