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I bought a pack of beetroot seeds today, but there are a lot more than I thought (250). Seems like farm sort of quantities far more than my window sill can hold.
Anyway, I had the idea to grow them all as micro beetroots. Can I pull them out at any time? What sort of size am I looking for?
No need to plant them all at once, or fill your whole box. Sow in succession, a few plants at a time, every fortnight or so, and by the time the first ones are ready, you can pull them up and plant some more!
The closer you sow, the smaller the plants will be, and you can absolutely harvest them whenever you like. Harvest early for smaller roots, and fresher tasting shoots, and later for larger roots. There will be differences in taste, but that will be part of the fun. I wouldn't plant them all at once, whaatever course you take!
Well, I'll send out an answer since I've been thinning my beets pretty regularly and eating the greens. I planted a 10 foot row of beets about an inch or two apart and thinned down to 3 inches between beet plants. The plants are about 8 inches tall right now. I think those would be what you'd consider 'micro beetroots' and they're nice and tender and tasty and you can eat 'em in a salad, but I wouldn't much bother with the root, it's just a sliver.
One thing about beets (and turnips etc..) is that you can harvest the greens like you would with salad without dramatically hurting your crop of beets. That way you get the best of both worlds. Now, if you really hate beets, but love the greens (like me) then I'd plant a windowbox about an inch apart, cover with 1/4 inch of soil and that'd be a pretty nice looking edible windowbox...
