Lutz Beets
 

I grew Lutz beets last season in the clay soil I have here and they got bigger than any other beet I have grown here.

I don't think they tasted as good as Detroit which had a much stronger flavor, but it was nice to have a much larger beet for a change.

This might help someone out that has clay soil.

Jim

I was looking for this beet seed after you posted to no avail last year. I let other varieties grow too long so I can have a larger beet (for me that is bigger than a gold ball) I just located Lutz at Harris Seed while scouring items for the free ship offer. It is also known by the name Long Keeper Beet.

I like the strong flavor of beets, but as we all know the local soil can make a huge difference in taste.

Any other taste opinions of this variety?

Southern Exposure does have it right now. For some reason, it's often "unavailable this season," like Oxheart carrots are sometimes unavailable. The greens are supposed to be especially good, too, from what I've read.

Beets are more of a challenge to get grown out for seed. They're a biennial, so ideally the beets get dug up in the fall, checked out to make sure they're the right shape, then stored in a root cellar or somesuch through hard freezes, then replanted late winter for going to seed... that's already a lot of work right there. Add on that beet plants going to seed are *huge* (like 4' x 4' or somesuch) and you need ~200 plants for genetic diversity. Add on to that: beet pollen is windborne, so if you're growing beets out for seed, you need isolation distances of 1+ miles -- more if you're growing an unusual non-purple beet. Lutz Green Leaf has (or should have) green leaves... so it's more obvious if a Lutz seed crop gets planted too near another seed crop that has the regular purple leaves.

[URL="http://tomatoville.com/member.php?u=8418"]greenthumbomaha[/URL]

I think I got my seeds from Twilley. I was going to offer to send you some but I must of planted them all.

This year I wanted to try some of the cylindrical beets like cylndria and taunus.

Jim

I ordered Lutz from Harris a few weeks ago. Its on backorder but should be in before planting time. If anyone is looking for adventure they carry another long keeping variety called Pink Stem. I was tempted but think I'll stick to the recommended variety for now.

- Lisa