Friday, October 3, 2014, I soaked three varieties of #beets to soften the shells and speed up the germination. I chose Detroit Dark Red, Chioggia, and Bull's Blood for this season. Last year I tried some "Golden" beets, but was sorely disappointed with that variety. It was waaaaaaay more mild than I expected, with hardly any taste at all. I decided I like beets that taste like beets, LOL. I especially need them to have a bold, robust flavor for the canning process, since I LOVE spiced, pickled beets! Seems like most of the men I know have a secret love affair going with beets, too, but don't get them much because their wives don't like them! Go figger, LOL!
Anyhow, I'm growing a boatload of beets for canning this season...
I used 6 oz. wide-mouth yogurt cups (HEB brand) filled 2/3 full of water. Then, I added one capful of Hydrogen Peroxide to each cup, and dropped in the seeds.
Within 48 hours, I saw little white nibs peeping out from the seeds!
Sunday, October 5th, I used a tweezer to capture seed pods and set them on top of the MG Potting mix in individual yogurt cups. Since most of the pod clusters had separated already, I was capturing only one plant at a time, versus the 5-6 that come out of one unsoaked cluster. So, I carefully placed 3 nibs on top of the mix in each cup, covered them lightly with some fine sand, and misted them with the hose sprayer.
I set the flats of cups on top of the raised bed where they'll be transplanted in about another week.
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