Beetroot for leaves

[Monika]

I usually grow beetroot for the root, obviously, and just nick a few young leaves here and there for salads, but I wonder if I could just grow a short row of densely sown beetroot for the leaves, cut them off when required and then let them sprout again. Has anybody done that and does it work?

[Primrose]

Hello Monika - like you, I usually just pinch out a few very young beetroot leaves to include in a mixed salad, fearing that if I take too many it will stop the roots developing. I'm not sure what the commercial salad leaf growers do to include beetroot in their mixed salads - I suspect they probably grow the leaves purely for the leaf crop. I'm not sure whether you could grow them as a "cut & come again" crop like rocket. Unfortunately I've never had sufficient spare space to grow them densely as you suggest to find out. But veering off on the topic of young salad leaves, a few very young blackcurrant bush leaves in a mixed green salad add quite a pleasant and unusual flavour.

[Chantal]

I'm growing Bull's Blood salad leaves which look a loot like mini beetroot to me...

[Johnboy]

Hi Chantal, Monika and Primrose,
Bull's Blood is the variety used by the commercial growers for mixed salad leaves. However there is absolutely no reason why beetroot leaves should not be used as suggested by Monika and I know that they regenerate very rapidly if cropped.
JB.

[Geoff]

Being totally ignorant of this subject, isn't Leaf Beet the thing to use?

[Primrose]

I'm not familiar with Bulls Blood at all. Is it a more leafy variety than the other beetroots and hence its selection for the production of salad leaves? I often use very young Swiss Chard leaves in salads but do find the red colour of beetroot leaves makes an attractively coloured addition when you are looking for variety of colour as well as texture.

[oldherbaceous]

My dear Primrose, Bulls blood and McGregor's favorite are also sold under ornamental beet, they make a very nice dot plant, and if you get fed up with them, you can always eat them.

[Monika]

Thanks everybody. I think I will give both suggestions a go, growing ordinary beet densely and also buying some Bull's Blood (though it sounds rather horrid!).

[alan refail]

Any beetroot leaves will be good - Bull's Blood is a specially deep red (available from Tuckers, Simpsons and many others). Good picture http://www.theproducehunter.com/temp/Ba ... eet150.jpg

Beetroot leaves and Leaf Beet are essentially the same thing - see lengthy thread on Swiss Chard under Technical Data.

Beetroot leaves (horta) are very popular in Greece. Try a google search.
Here's one link

http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/your-h ... etroot.htm

I would suggest sowing the beetroot a little closer than for roots, but certainly not "densely sown" as they probably wouldn't develop very well.

Happy eating

Alan

[Primrose]

Lovely photo of the Bulls Blood Alan. It looks as if it would be a very decorative plant to put into borders as well.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
Certainly a good photo of Bulls Blood but I have never let it grow to the point where there is a bulbous root. I always grow and harvest before it has reached that state and at that later stage I would think that the leaves are somewhat more hoary so I suggest that it is probably best picked very young.
The Swiss Chard that I grow for large leaf production I produce initially in modules and plant out but I also grow masses in the row about 6inches wide and harvest when they reach 4-6 inches high. I have eaten them raw but I prefer them to be steamed.
Simply pull the entire plant and nip the root off, wash and steam, then serve with a knob of butter on top. The same can be done with Bulls Blood and probably any other Leaf Beet. As you pull so you sow more seed and you can get masses from say a 12ft row during a season.
JB.