Sue,

I've had a completely different experience than you with Burpee's Golden and Chioggia, and both are heirloom varieties.

Germination is often low on the Golden, for most folks, so one has to oversow, but aside from that I love both of them.

And yes, I used to grow other beets as well, both hybrid and OP and OP heirloom, and I used to trial everything and probably grew 5-6 different beets each year until I decided on which ones I liked the best, which included both that you mention.

If you're looking for feedback on other folks impression of these two varieties do you think you might get more input if you posted in the Vegetable Forum? I don't know for sure, but lots of heirloom and non OP varieties of everything are discussed there and it seems there might be more beet growers there than here, where most of the time folks are primarily looking for seed sources for this or that, etc.

But the melon folks seem to like it here. LOL

Carolyn

Carolyn, Thanks for the info and suggestion. I'll go there in a bit.

Could you suggest some good (to you) reds, heirloom or otherwise.

It seems Detroit Dark Red is the only one I can remember on the racks, so I may have to order in order to try something different.

Sue

I grew Chioggia, and Burpees Golden beets tw0 years in a row from the same pk of seed. The first year they were not all that good. The Chioggia turnes black in spots when I canned them.
The second year They were very good. So I am thinking my garden was just not mature enough to support them the first time. As I add more and more compost each year the veggies seem to taste better. I was told it may have been a shortage of boron. The best source of the correct amount of boron is home made compost. Hope this helps.

Hi all,
A few years back I grew Chioggias along side another italian heirloom called 'Paonazza d' Egitto'. There was no comparison. The Chioggias tasted like dirt compared to the Paonazzas. When some of the Chioggias suffered from a rot disease none of the Paonazzas did, and they grew side by side.
Paonazza d' Egitto has a pleasant flavor with no dirty taste, and it has a fair amount of sweetness. It is a rich violet red color with some concentric rings when sliced. It holds in the ground for a very long time without getting woody.
Since I first planted it I now grow it every year. PineTree carries the seeds, and I have found no other source for it after giving it a good search. I hope that this heirloom becomes maintained by popularity and seed saving. It would be a pity to see the only source stop carrying it, and for it to fall into further obscurity.
I thought that I would pass this along to the beet lovers out there.
Peace and plenty to all of you.

I have grown Chioggias for many year and love them dearly. The appearance of the cooked and peeled young beet is really beautiful and the taste is sweet and flavoful. I also like Golden beets but they are not as pretty. I think that beet taste is very much affected by growing conditions such as soil and temperature. Also, beets do not taste good if the plants are stressed by drought and severely hot or cold weather.

Cheers!

I'm growing both this winter (first time) and golden definitely has a lower germination rate. Harvested a few small chioggias and they were a disappointment. Not very sweet at all. Maybe the cool temps. Haven't tried the golden yet. They also seem to do less well in winter compared to the chioggias.

We have grown all of the above mentioned varieties, but after trying cylindra beets, it is probably the only beet we will ever grow. As the name implies, they are not round, but elongated. They can get pretty large and still, I don't think we ever had one that wasn't sweet and almost juicy. We purchased our seeds from Victory, and we had an excellent germination rate.

Here is a link that might be useful: cylindra beets

> 'Paonazza d' Egitto'
Pinetree describes the root as purple? What color are the leaf veins and petiole? The leaf veins of "Cylindra" are sometimes purple/violet. The pink to magenta color of several chard cultivars were my favorite, until I saw the veins of Cylindra; its color is like the magenta chards with a little more blue thrown in. (Speaking of magenta chard petioles/veins, I notice lots of individuals yield off-color white and red, I don't think that the magenta chard cultivars are "stabilized" yet.) What color are the leaves, excluding the veins? I prefer green on one extreme, or Bull's Blood on the other extreme, but I don't like anything inbetween such as green with a bunch of red spots that look like some disease (a flaw of Lutz), or a muddy bronze mix.

I have not yet tried the Burpee's Golden, but I've planted a few seeds of it recently for fall harvest. My favorite golden beet is one from Seeds of Change called 'Yellow Intermediate Mangel' and I recommend it if anyone is looking for a good golden beet. Only reason I didn't plant it this year is that I couldn't find the seeds locally and didn't want to mail order for just one packet.

We have tried many beets over the years but cylindra is by far my favorite. They are elongated and work great either eating fresh or for making beet pickles.

I've planted them every year as our main beet crop, and sometimes grow a second variety, just for a change now and then.

For a great beet for canning or freezing or just eating, you should try Lutz Green Leaf a/k/a winter Keeper. They look like an over-grown mess but are tender and delicious - excellent baked.

Anyone try either "Golden Detroit" or "Yellow Detroit"? They may be just renamed "Burpee's Golden" beet, or they may actually be different cultivars. The website for "Seeds by Design" listed both Golden Detroit and Yellow Detroit; if they are the original breeder then the two golden/yellow Detroits may actually differ in some aspects. Anyone know about their germination?

The University of Wisconsion used to be the breeding center for table beets in the USA, and their beet breeding program is coming back to life; they have a brand new Golden beet release that looks like a gigantic version of Burpee's Golden beet. I don't see it on any catalogs yet.

Fedco Seeds replaced Burpee's Golden with Golden Detroit. They have yet another golden beet "3 root Grex Golden" which is out of stock, but has me drooling.

I just planted some "Yellow Intermediate Mangel" & will tast it for the first time in a few months. I also just planted some "Yellow Cylindrical Mangel" from Baker Creek seeds. These two mangels seem to germinate fine. There may be yet a third yellow mangel "Yellow Enkendorf" available from Shumways, which I have not yet orderded.

I've been meaning to post this for quite a while.

These are from last year, and were cooked in with some Detroit Reds I believe.

These are Burpees Golden.

Beets just aren't supposed to look like this.

Sue

"Yellow Intermediate Mangel" and "Yellow Cylindrical Mangel" are two different cultivars. The first has more orange in its yellow skin while the skin of the second is a pure yellow. The first also has more yellow in its cooked flesh (or at least some rings are yellowish), while all rings in the second are fairly white. "Yellow cylindrical mangel" tends to grow above ground while "Yellow Intermediate Mangel" is variable but tends to bury itself. The skin above the soil was woody tan in either case, not yellow or orange.

I had my first harvest today, when the roots were about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter and 3-5 inches long. This is about the size of "Cylindra" when I harvest it. Flavor of both was OK, "Yellow Cylindrical Mangel" had a trace of bitterness. I was afraid that the mangels would be fibrous, but both were tender.

I grew them in 1 gallon pots. I had to harvest them today because a storm blew some of the pots off the deck rail, otherwise I would have let them grow larger.

I will grow these two cultivars again. Sowing them in the middle of August is just a little late for my climate, they got a lot of wind damage.

Cetainly enjoy reading about growers' favorite varieties. After growing beets for market (and of course, to eat) for many years, I've found that soil well amended with compost and/or other organic matter, tilled in and allowed to decompose, makes for the sweetest tasting beets, no matter the variety. Even the old standard Detroit Dark Red, is much sweeter grown in such soil.

I've grown Chioggia annually for 30 years, or so, and consider the taste superb. Ditto, Burpee's Golden--but I've never appreciated the ridiculously high price of Burpee Golden seed, and as Carolyn and others noted, its low rate of germination. That fact is well known, and I believe the germination rate to be in the 50-55% range. Planting seeds in hot weather (August, September), for a Fall crop, cuts that germination rate nearly in half, again.

Of course beets are sweetest in cool weather (as are all root crops I know of), and here in my zone 7 climate I grow them Spring and Fall.

One hundred years ago (1900), if I remember reading correctly, there were about 90 different varieties of beetroot (beet) in commerce and in seed catalogs in the U.S., most sold specifically for home gardeners and small growers. Don't know where our appreciation for beets got sidetracked!

I've always believed that every vegetable has its merit (and its individual health benefits), and try to enjoy ALL vegetables that I can grow. Vegetable varieties provide us with myriads of diverse nutrients, and beets belong in that varietal mix (in my mind).

Probably preaching to the choir, here, but giving them a few thinnings as they grow and keeping the weeds under control, makes for healthy, fast-growing beets that taste sweeter because the soil's nutrients don't get depleted feeding weeds.