I harvested about 130 pounds by hand. The heaviest beet weighed 9.1 pounds. During those single digit temperatures earlier in the year I harvested all the leaves on some of the plants and the leaves tasted like sugar cubes. The down side was that the plants of the harvested leaves did not die, but the bulbs did not grow. These beets provide about 1,500 calories a pound. And the scrap material from processing can be feed to various livestock. Overall, this is the plant to have in the ground. I did not do much crop maintenance after planting them in October. Looks like the plant to have to produce significant amount of calories. The beet seeds I planted were from 2019 five pound bag.
I will have to add sugar beets to my seed store
I harvested about 130 pounds by hand. The heaviest beet weighed 9.1 pounds. During those single digit temperatures earlier in the year I harvested all the leaves on some of the plants and the leaves tasted like sugar cubes. The down side was that the plants of the harvested leaves did not die, but the bulbs did not grow. These beets provide about 1,500 calories a pound. And the scrap material from processing can be feed to various livestock. Overall, this is the plant to have in the ground. I did not do much crop maintenance after planting them in October. Looks like the plant to have to produce significant amount of calories. The beet seeds I planted were from 2019 five pound bag.