Thread: Lutz Beets
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Old February 1, 2017   #4
Ken B
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: central Virginia
Posts: 243
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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.
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