Vegetables · Cool
Beetroot
Amaranthaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 10 cm
- USDA zones
- 3a–9b
- Frost-sensitive
- no
- Growth duration
- 12 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- loamyAlso okay:sandyraised-bed mix
- Drainage (prefers)
- normalAlso okay:very free-draining
Seed & start
Direct sow
Sow directly into the bed — no pre-culture needed.
Stachi's tip
Beetroot is one of the most rewarding root crops. Plant 'Detroit' round-shaped, 'Bull's Blood' for edible leaves too. 60 days from seed to harvest. Don't over-sow — one 'seed' is a cluster that gives 3-5 seedlings.
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
Harvest
Good neighbours
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Avoid these neighbours
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Good pre-cultures
Stachi has no specific pre-cultures recorded.
What comes after Beetroot?
When the bed frees up, the season is usually not over. We worked out what still fits afterwards — with time windows and reasons.
See follow-on crops for Beetroot →Sources
- LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
- Bioterra – Süsse, saftige Randen (https://www.bioterra.ch/suesse-saftige-randen)
- Dreschflegel – Rote Bete Rote Kugel 2 (https://dreschflegel-saatgut.de/rote-bete-rote-kugel-2)
- LWG Bayern – Gemüsearten zur Nachkultur (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/148345/)
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Crop rotation
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage · Bioterra – Süsse, saftige Randen (https://www.bioterra.ch/suesse-saftige-randen) · Dreschflegel – Rote Bete Rote Kugel 2 (https://dreschflegel-saatgut.de/rote-bete-rote-kugel-2) · LWG Bayern – Gemüsearten zur Nachkultur (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/gartenakademie/gartendokumente/infoschriften/148345/)
Articles about this plant
Black radish: why you should let it rest before you bite in
Last year Frau Schneider bit straight into one, unsalted, fresh out of the ground, and spent the next two minutes coughing instead of talking. The problem wasn't the radish. It was the timing.
Storing carrots, beetroot, celeriac: how to keep them dry through winter
Last year Frau Schneider let her whole carrot harvest go mouldy in the cellar because she packed everything damp into a plastic bag. The sand-box method takes 10 minutes and keeps them good until March.
Beetroot in the raised bed: when it's actually ready — and why you shouldn't wait for it to get big
Mrs Schneider let her beetroot grow until the roots were the size of tennis balls. Now they're woody and difficult to cook. The thing most people get wrong: with beetroot, smaller is usually better — and the right moment is written right above the soil.
Related plants
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.