Sugar Beets

Green Manure crops are not included in $5.75 shipping special.

Sugar beets are an increasingly popular food plot choice for wildlife enthusiasts, who are finding that they tend to draw deer by the dozens. And sugar beets make a great crop for growers looking to add another feed source for livestock. Sugar beet tops can also be used as silage, making an excellent source of protein, carbohydrates and vitamin A. 500 grams to 700 sq ft.

Planting Instructions

Sugar beets are similar to the familiar red-rooted garden beet, but are much larger, reaching about 2 to 4 pounds when mature. They tend to have shiny, white roots, and as you might guess, a high sugar content, containing 13 to 22 percent sucrose.

To plant, prepare your seed beds in a sunny location with firmly packed soil. Sow the seed in slightly moist soil at a depth of three-quarters to 1.5 inches. Sugar beets adapt well to a variety of soil types, but you’ll want to make sure the soil is well-drained and free of roots and large stones that can inhibit the roots’ growth. Sugar beets prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 6.5. Planting seeds 1 inch apart in rows and then thinning the plants when they grow 4 to 6 leaves, spacing the plants 10 to 12 inches apart. Space rows 18 to 24 inches apart. Remember that sugar beets stop growing when they run up against a hard freeze.