Rainbow Mix Beet Seed Tape

Days to Maturity: 50 to 55 from direct sow

Have you discovered seed tapes yet? We're enamored of them here at Park—they are just so easy for sowing straight rows and making pretty designs in the garden. Simply lay the tape (embedded with seeds) down on top of the soil where you want the plants to grow, cutting it to fit the space and arranging it in any pattern you like. Then rake or sprinkle about a half inch of soil on top of the tapes and water them in well. That's it—in a few weeks you'll see evenly-spaced, healthy green shoots.

With Rainbow Mix Beet seed tape, you will have a beet garden that looks like it was designed and grown by a professional—in less time then it would take you to make all the holes in the soil, let alone drop the seeds in, cover them up, and then thin the seedlings a few weeks later. And the fun of this mix is that its 5 varieties all look distinctive enough that you can practically identify them by their baby greens, even before they grow their big, delicious roots.

Rainbow Mix is a beet lover's dream come true. Grow these 5 superb varieties as gourmet babies or as full-sized beets bursting with flavor. And don't forget those nutritious beet greens, which reach their peak at about 5 to 6 inches high.

Beets are a cool-weather crop, suitable for spring, fall, and even winter in very mild climates. They tolerate a bit of frost without damage. Lay the tapes down as soon as the soil can be worked in spring, or in late summer to early fall. If your spring and fall weather tends to be mild, try making succession sowings every 3 to 4 weeks for an even longer season of fresh harvests.

Bush beans, lettuce, and onions are good companions to beets in the vegetable garden, as are all the Brassica family, from broccoli and cabbage to kohlrabi and cauliflower. And if you do not care for the flavor of beet greens, be sure to chop them and plow them back into the soil, where they add valuable nutrients that will enhance next year's crops.

Beets love rich, well-worked soil and full sun.

Rainbow Mix Beet Seed Tape Includes:

15 feet of seed tape containing a mixture of the following:

Subeto Hybrid: the only hybrid in this collection, Subeto is a Pablo-type red beet with purple stems above a deep violet root. Vigorous and large-crowned, it looks as good as it tastes. High yields.

Boldor: a golden beet with coppery-orange skin concealing its bright yellow-gold flesh. The color stays even after cooking, and so does the sweetness.

Chioggia: an Italian heirloom with bright pinkish-fuchsia skin and concentric rings of white and magenta within. The flavor is super-sweet, but there is a satisfying spicy afterbite as well.

Albina Vereduna: this pure white beauty has the same flavor profile as its red cousins, but no red juice to stain other food on the plate.

Bull's Blood Scarletta: the violet leaves and purplish-red skin on this heirloom are striking enough, not to mention the concentric rings of flesh in two bold shades of pink. Talk about plate appeal.