Sugar beets for Fall planting

[Wild Thing]

Has anyone ever planted these in the Fall by themselves and not in a mix? I know they are picky, but was curious to get some feed back. I was thinking about doing an acre.

I think you would be wasting your time and money to fall-plant sugar beets Bob. They are a long season crop which take at least 90-100 days to mature - maybe longer depending upon who you believe. The commercial sugar beet producers I know plant them as soon as they can in the spring - mid-May here in Upper Michigan but April in lower Michigan.

Here is a link to some very good information on sugar beet production from the University of Minnesota:

2021 Sugarbeet Production Guide — Publications

I drilled my sugar beets on May 16-17 in the U.P. of Michigan. We have struggled with drought conditions and early June frosts but with some recent rain they are just beginning to show some progress. Here they are at 60 days:



These were planted with a smaller variety of coated (RR) seed at 50,000 seeds per acre. There were 25K seeds per pound so this was only 2# of seed per acre.



We are just now beginning to show a little bulb growth. Most plants don't even have this much bulb showing yet.



Because we had so many "thin" spots I decided to go ahead and broadcast some brassicas over top of the sugar beets on July 6th. Hopefully they won't crowd the sugar beets too much.

 

[Wild Thing]

After talking about this today I had to go get some pics.

Currently the bulbs are tennis ball sized and they were planted 6 weeks ago. No competition, full sun, and some of the best soil in the universe. The greens do little to no good at all for me. Less than 2% of them will get touched. (Same goes for PTT or any of the forage type of brassica)

I’m not a blind follower of Sturgis but as he says, sugar beets in a mix are a “Buzz Word”


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Excellent growth for only 6 weeks S.T.Fanatic!! And...that is some great looking dirt you have.

 

[ruskbucks]

I too have planted sugar beets in spring with no luck. I had no germination for the most part. They definitely seem finicky compared to radishes and turnips! Ive always broadcasted but would love to drill them in next time.

Agree, I have never had any problem growing softball size turnips and large radish. I never even saw one sugar beet plant. You would think a few would germinate at least.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Agree, I have never had any problem growing softball size turnips and large radish. I never even saw one sugar beet plant. You would think a few would germinate at least.

My questions would be, How old was the seed, how deep did the seed get planted, and what was your weed control measures?

I have never had a problem with them. Even this past year sowing seed that was no less than 4 years old. Germination was spotty but I view it as an opportunity not a problem.

 

[ruskbucks]

My questions would be, How old was the seed, how deep did the seed get planted, and what was your weed control measures?

I have never had a problem with them. Even this past year sowing seed that was no less than 4 years old. Germination was spotty but I view it as an opportunity not a problem.

The beets were planted following a weed free soybean field. Field was disced once, planted, then dragged. Seeds were 2 years old. Field was nothing but weeds of course, because the beets didn't not grow or maybe the weeds just over took them. I usually have very few weeds in my brassica plantings.

 

[Wild Thing]

Apparently your sugar beet seeds were not Roundup Ready? We normally spray our RR seed by the time the weeds are up about 2 inches.

I drilled my sugar beets into cover crops like this and sprayed them the same day:



9 days later the plots looked like this...



and it was pretty easy to see the little sugar beet plants...





Clovers are sometimes hard to kill with roundup so I sometimes just spot spray them or spray the whole plot again if the weeds start coming up again.



By the time you have sprayed twice....weeds aren't usually an issue.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Must be able to spray them or don’t bother


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[ruskbucks]

Apparently your sugar beet seeds were not Roundup Ready? We normally spray our RR seed by the time the weeds are up about 2 inches.

I drilled my sugar beets into cover crops like this and sprayed them the same day:

View attachment 35762

9 days later the plots looked like this...

View attachment 35763

and it was pretty easy to see the little sugar beet plants...

View attachment 35764

View attachment 35766

Clovers are sometimes hard to kill with roundup so I sometimes just spot spray them or spray the whole plot again if the weeds start coming up again.

View attachment 35765

By the time you have sprayed twice....weeds aren't usually an issue.

View attachment 35767

They were non rr beets. That is a great looking plot.

 

[Wild Thing]

They were non rr beets. That is a great looking plot.

Thanks RuskBucks. Sugar Beets just don't do well with competition so you really need to keep weeds at bay. Roundup Ready sugar beets are very hard to come by for food plotters and they are expensive as hell if you can find somebody to sell you some, but at least you can eliminate the competition and get some good tonnage of forage in the end.