08 - August 2026

With our fourth attempt at a second crop of beets at the garden, we’ve had our first success.

– In 2020, we seeded a second beet crop on August 15 in an open portion of the fall broccoli bed. We determined the crop failed due to late planting and resolved to plant them earlier in 2021.
– In 2021, we seeded a second beet crop on July 17 in the same plot, as soon as we finished harvesting the spring beets. This second crop failed as young seedlings, possibly due to a hurricane.
– In 2025, we seeded a second beet crop on July 12 at the edge of the zucchini bed. This crop also failed, probably due to competition from the expansive zucchini plants.

These failures led us to try starting the second beet crop indoors and planting them out in good garden real estate (but not in the same bed as the first crop) this year. For convenience, we seeded them with our last indoor seedlings (a second crop of zucchini) in mid-June. We’ve started our first crop of beets indoors since 2017.

We followed the same process of successive seedling thinning as the spring crop. Three seeds were planted in each 6-pack cell. After a few weeks, these were thinned to one seed per cell, each of which has up to three sprouts. When transplanting in the garden, each seed was then thinned to a single sprout.

This year, we provided a proper garden spot by transplanting the beet seedlings into the plot where the fava beans come out in early July. That space had previously been occupied in the latter part of the season with fall peas. (Sadly, a crop of fall peas is too much of a crap shoot in our climate.)

As usual, the beet seedlings looked dreadful after transplanting into the garden. They were covered with shade cloth for two weeks to protect them from the summer sun and heat while they recovered. (Though sadly, we did lose one transplant.) Then they were on their own, and began growing incredibly fast.

For reference, the first beet crop was seeded April 5, transplanted May 3, and first harvested on June 20, 76 days from seeding indoors. The second crop was started June 15, transplanted July 4, and first harvested on August 12, only 58 days after seeding indoors.

It may be worth noting that we cover our spring beet crop with insect screen, protecting the foliage from leaf minor. The second crop was left uncovered, being past the seasonal window for leaf minor. Though the leaves are not as perfect as the spring crop, they are still good quality greens.

We might be able to forego starting the second beet crop indoors by seeding directly in the soil when the fava beans are removed in early July. Though the soil temperatures this summer have been quite high, it’s something to ponder for next year.