This is my first year growing beets. I really didn’t do much research before planting other than when to plant. While doing my generic research almost every one says to plant more then thin later. Well I planted one seed per seed starting pod and started indoors instead of direct sowing. The ones I planted all sprouted though…yay!!! However when it came to thinning this is where I may have made an oopsie.

Above was my last little guy to poke through. I had planted 6 seeds. What I didn’t know until I did some research is that the seeds in packets come in clusters. Each seed has 2-6 viable seeds according to Cathy from blog Mother of a Hubbard. She has a great suggestion, instead of breaking the plant and roots apart to thin simply clip the extra leaves. This will prevent root injury and you get to eat baby beet leaves. I don’t think I’ve ever had beet leaves so this would be new.

Then I read another article at Home Guides. This is what they said:

If you grow beets in plastic pots or a cell pack, then plant one seed per pot or cell so you don’t have to separate seedlings and risk damaging their roots while transplanting them.

Guess what I did…

Unfortunately I thinned before I read these blog articles. So my beet roots might very well be damaged.

I’m debating planting more beets just in case but I guess I always have the fall harvest. Will post updates on what happens to my beets. Epic fail or surprising save????