About Beets

Swiss chard, garden beets, stock beets, or mangel-wurzels, and sugar beets all belong to the same species (Beta vulgaris) and will intercross readily. The pollen is wind-borne and may fertilize the pistillate flowers of any plant of the same species over long distances. Seed crops of garden beets, for example, must not be grown within several miles of a sugar-beet seed crop lest the two kinds become cross-pollinated, a condition ruining the purity of the seed of one or both kinds. The species is a biennial that grows best in a cool climate.

Nutritional Information