How is sugar beet different from fodder beet? What is the difference between sugar beet and ordinary fodder beet visually and in chemical composition: comparison
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What is the difference between fodder beet and sugar beet?
Among all agricultural crops, beet occupies a special place. This versatile root crop has several varieties, each of which has its own purpose. This article will discuss how fodder beet differs from sugar beet, and what features this or that species has.
Main differences
In spite of common name fodder and sugar beets have some features, according to which they distinguish one type of crop from another. The main features by which the comparison is made:
- chemical composition;
- external characteristics of leaves and roots;
- cultivation features;
- landing depth;
- scope of vegetable crops.
What is the difference between fodder beet and sugar beet
The chemical composition of beets is characterized by the presence of protein, fiber, protein, calcium, phosphorus. The concentration of sugar in the fodder beet root is 5%, which is significantly inferior to its content in the sugar root, the percentage of which is about 20%.
fodder beet
The shape of fodder fruits can be conical, cylindrical and oval-elongated, in contrast to the elongated sugar beet of small size. Also, the appearance of a vegetable for livestock may differ in yellow, red and orange colors. But the sugar culture does not have any colors. Petioles of leaves of the first type in most cases correspond to the color of the root crop, but they are inferior to sugar in the number of tops.
Attention! The size of the fodder root crop, depending on the variety, can reach several kilograms compared to its sweetish relative, average weight which is about 600-700 g.
To grow a crop that is used to produce sugar, you need regular top dressing. Also, this type of beet is quite unpretentious to the composition of the soil, compared with fodder beet, which prefers black soil. The sugar vegetable is more tolerant of temperature extremes, along with a growing season that is 2 weeks shorter than other vegetable crops.
Due to the powerful root system, sugar beets require deep planting. This feature greatly facilitates harvesting with combines. Feed root crops are characterized by shallow planting, that is, most of the fruit is on the surface, which greatly complicates the use of machine labor. When harvesting fodder beet, preference is given to manual harvesting.
Attention! Growing fodder beet has a positive effect on the condition of the soil, increasing its fertility, improving biological activity, and reducing field pollution.
In addition, fodder root is one of the most common crops that is used to feed livestock. The inclusion of beet fruits and tops in the diet of animals improves the absorption of other, less easy-to-digest feeds.
Sugar beet
Sugar beets are cultivated in industrial scale for the manufacture of granulated sugar. This type of production can be called waste-free, since the remains of root crops are used in agriculture as animal feed.
Despite the significant differences between fodder and sugar beet, both species are valuable crops in the agricultural sector. After all, each variety has its own purpose and invaluable qualities that are successfully used by man.
Sugar beet: video
- beetroot known to all housewives: it is from it that borscht is cooked and dishes are prepared; hence the name - the dining room. The fruits are white and red, but we call "beets" varieties of the usual burgundy color. There is no definite form by which it would be possible to distinguish ordinary beets from their relatives.
It is usually divided into several varieties:
- Vindifolia (elongated-conical form of powerful elongated roots, green leaves and petioles, slightly colored pink).
- Rubrifolia (round, flat, elongated-conical dark red fruits, leaves of the same color).
- Atrorubra (dark-colored roots, bright green leaves with obvious red veins, red or pink, prominent petioles).
- Sugar beet- industrial culture containing 20% sugar. Sugar beet is used primarily for the production of sugar. From the remains, fertilizers and molasses are created, which are necessary for confectioners. Some goes to feed livestock. Sugar beet fruits are pale, elongated, and green smooth leaves are located on long petioles. It grows without protruding the tip of the fruit from the ground.
- fodder beet- a type of beet intended for animal feed. It got its name due to its milk-producing properties. It is easy to confuse fodder beets with canteen, but there are a number of hallmarks. For example, the stern is always either round or oval, with red or orange hues. It can reach up to fifteen kilograms in weight, and the top of the fruit is visible above the ground during growth.
A photo
Here in the photo you can see how sugar, ordinary and fodder beets visually differ:
What is the difference between species?
| Comparison criteria | stern | Plain (dining room) | Sugar |
| Appearance |
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| Chemical composition |
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| Soil Requirements | Definitely fertile. If the soil is poor, top dressing and fertilizers are required. It is desirable that earlier corn and legumes, vegetables, and cereals grow at the place of sowing beets. Chernozem, saline and slightly alkaline soils are welcome. | It is necessary to have loose and fertile soil. Loamy chernozems and peatlands are perfect for this species. Acidity is very important (it should be neutral or slightly alkaline). You can not sow beet seeds on the beds, which brought fresh manure. | Air and moisture must pass easily through the sugar beet soil. A ground horizon that holds water at a depth of 0.6-0.8 meters will simplify cultivation and make it more convenient, and beets of high quality. Soils such as chernozem, peat bogs and gray soils are suitable. It is desirable that winter barley and wheat grow at the place of sowing before sugar beet. |
| yield | At proper care the yield can reach twelve to thirteen thousand fruits per hectare (30-60 tons). New bred varieties were especially distinguished:
| Forty-fifty tons per hectare reaches table beets with proper care. Leading varieties:
| The choice is between high-yielding or sugary varieties, but there is no rigid relationship between them (approximately 18-30 tons per hectare). The best yield was observed in varieties:
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| Purpose of cultivation | Fodder beet is a natural milk plant. Due to the high content of protein, it is it that goes to animal feed. The quality of milk yields is improved. | Breeders struggled for a long time to obtain a delicate and pleasant taste of beets. Table beets were specially created and grown for the human table. It has the most pleasant taste. | Sugar beet is widely used in the production of sugar and confectionery molasses. It is the main resource in Russia from which sugar is made. |
| growing season | On average, the growing season of fodder beet lasts 4-5 months. It blooms with yellow-green inflorescences, including two to six small flowers. | The vegetation period of early ripe varieties is 2-3 months; mid-season varieties ripen 3-4 months, and late varieties have a growing season of over a hundred days (longer than three to four months). | A seedling becomes a fruiting vegetable in 5-6 months. Each inflorescence (whorl) has 2-6 small yellow-green flowers. |
| Care and cultivation technology | Loosening the soil is carried out after the rains, a few days after planting. Until the tops of the beet close up, a “fight” against weeds is carried out: you need to weed several times during the growing season. A month before digging up the beets, watering should be completely excluded. During heavy rains, gaps are created between the beds to drain water. Used for pest control mineral fertilizers, and before planting beets, nitroammophoska is introduced into the soil. | On the initial stage growth, you need to feed the sprouts with nitrogen, then switch to potash compounds (wood ash). Beetroot loves moisture and needs regular watering, but it is important to avoid waterlogging. When the sprouts form a second leaf, you need to start loosening the soil. At the same time, seedlings can be thinned out. The second thinning is recommended to be done in July, leaving ten centimeters between the shoots. | While the seedlings appear and grow, two successive thinnings are made (the first one is five to six centimeters and the second is fifteen to eighteen centimeters). After sowing, you need to immediately water the beets abundantly. Irrigation performed by sprinkling is best perceived by sugar beets. We must not forget about weeding. To protect beets from pests, during the growing season, the Fitosporin fungicide and the Fitoverm intexicide are used alternately. |
How to choose?
The choice of type of vegetable depends on the purpose of its use.
If the beets will be used primarily in cooking, you should choose table beets. Excellent taste qualities and tender pulp will make any dish tastier and more enjoyable. On the basis of table beet, the best borscht is obtained, salads are made from its leaves. From useful properties can provide protection against heavy metals, removes cholesterol and helps prevent bowel diseases. Table beet - best view beets for cooking.
Sugar beet can be eaten; those people who like sweeter foods and dishes add it instead of the dining room. Sugar beet has a number of useful properties:
- improves metabolism (promotes weight loss even despite the high sugar content);
- cleanses and rejuvenates the body;
- improves the functioning of the thyroid gland;
- has anti-inflammatory and preventive effects.
Sugar beet is a storehouse of nutrients and vitamins.
Fodder beets are not suitable for humans, but are suitable for animals. You can achieve tremendous success in milk yields if you feed livestock with fodder beets. It also serves as a source of vitamins and minerals in winter time. Fodder beet is also a material for the work of breeders (sugar beet was derived from it).
The main differences between fodder beet and sugar beet:
- dimensions(stern usually large);
- position in the ground(stern “peeps out”);
- haulm(it is much thicker and more magnificent at the stern);
- goal(feed is grown for animals, canteen and sugar can be eaten);
- chemical composition(contains about eight times more protein);
- taste(taste is worse);
- fruit shape(variety of shapes. Unlike table beets, easy to recognize).
People have been growing beets for a very long time, and India and the countries of the Far East became its homeland. However, it should be remembered that there are several types of this vegetable crop, which have different taste properties and other characteristics. In this article, we will tell you about the characteristics of sugar beet and fodder beet, what types of crops are, and which of them are most popular.
To date, it is customary to distinguish between several types of beets that gardeners use for planting. Allocate sheet (chard), table, semi-sugar, sugar and fodder.
In spite of common origin from the wild variety, all these types of beets differ in morphological structure, composition chemical elements. They also grow best in different conditions are used for different purposes.
The leaf beet variety is a biennial plant. The root is not usually eaten as it is very tough and has little nutritional value. Leaves are used for food. They form a fairly large rosette containing a large amount of proteins. Leaf varieties grow well in summer season, resistant to high temperatures, unpretentious to growing conditions. After maturation contain high percent vitamins and other useful substances.
Table beet. This type of vegetable crop is a biennial plant. At the moment, these vegetables are grown almost all over the world. Depending on the varieties of the species, the shape of the root crop changes (oval, spherical, elongated and flattened). Beetroot contains betaine, a special substance that affects the color of root crops. The more betaine they contain, the richer the color will be - from bright red to dark cherry.
A semi-sugar type of vegetable crop can be considered a kind of fodder. These varieties are intermediate between sugar and prey species. Semi-sugar beets contain a lot of sugar, grow quickly, and are unpretentious to the state of the soil.
Gardeners refer to sugar types of vegetables as industrial crops. Their root crops can accumulate about 20% sucrose. Most of the harvest is directed to the production of sugar, processing vegetables in factories. After harvesting, the leftovers are fed to animals.
Fodder beet is mainly used for feeding livestock. These varieties are saturated with many nutrients that allow animals to gain weight faster. Due to the fact that the roots are very juicy, animals can eat them in large quantities. For dairy cattle fodder beets are of the greatest value. This allows you to significantly increase the milk yield of goats and cows, and also improves the palatability of dairy products.
Video “Growing beets in the garden”
The video says about the correctness of growing a vegetable at home:
Main differences
Gardeners distinguish a fairly extensive list distinguishing features between sugar and fodder beets.
In sweet varieties, the leaves usually grow with long petioles. They become smooth, have a light green color. The leaves are located at the top of the root crop in the form of a rosette. More than 50 large leaves can be counted on one plant. Mostly, the load during the formation of the yield lies on the leaves that grew in June or July. In fodder varieties, the shape of the foliage is usually heart-shaped, most often they shine, have a smooth surface.
A year later, the planted beets appear flowers. Both types of vegetable crops have a very similar structure of fruits and inflorescences. Usually they are inconspicuous, have a greenish and yellowish tint. Flowers appear on shoots called whorls. They produce a lot of pollen, and this trait attracts more insects.
In such whorls, usually from 2 to 7 flowers are located at a slight distance from each other. Not infrequently, fruits can grow together with perianths, forming a kind of balls. In fodder and sugar beets, several plants may appear from one ball. In this way, thinning of the sprout varieties can be avoided, which saves time. The seeds are usually tightly attached to the flowers. Forage varieties of root crops differ in that their fruits crumble less often and have a smaller size.
Also, gardeners highlight some differences that relate to the root crop itself. There are 3 parts of the beet root system - head, neck, root. Buds and foliage form on the head. A year later, shoots of inflorescences may already appear from the buds. The neck is an intermediate department.
Root crops can have a different color. Forage varieties of vegetable crops often have more varied colors than those of sugar beets. Usually they have pink, gray, bright yellow, cream color. You can also find orange and lilac color of root crops.
Forage type of beets are immersed in the soil not too deep. This feature reduces brie costs for manual harvesting, and mechanical harvesting becomes less efficient. Forage varieties are more diverse in their shape and size. Some of them have conical roots that are able to protrude from the ground when ripe. The cylindrical shape of the beet protrudes from the soil by more than half.
The color of sugar varieties is predominantly light shades, as well as gray and yellow colors.
Sugar varieties are almost always found entirely in the soil. Thus, agricultural technology better harvests at the end of the season. Usually harvesters are used for harvesting.
The root system of sugar beet varieties can reach a length of up to three meters. This is much more than the rhizome of fodder vegetables. This feature is necessary in order to absorb water from the lower layers of the soil. For this reason, plants tolerate drought well.
The chemical composition differs primarily in the dry matter content. Forage varieties have significantly less sucrose. The reason for this was the characteristic structure of the root - they have 5-7 times less vascular fibers that form rings. Between such rings, sugar, glucose and other elements usually accumulate. Also, varieties will differ in the amount of galactose, arabinose, fructose, proteins and carbohydrates.
On average, one kilogram of fodder beet accounts for about 0.13 feed units, 9 grams of protein. It also contains special milk-producing components that allow you to increase the milk yield of dairy cattle. Such feed increases the productivity of milk yield and in winter period.
Forage types of vegetable crops are more demanding on the condition of the soil. It should be fertile, well fertilized. It is impossible that the soil contains acidic substances, as they can affect the growth of plants. To increase the yield, it is necessary to plant the crop in fertilized soil. It also requires regular irrigation of the site.
Sugar varieties are less demanding on growth conditions. More attention will need to be paid to fertilizing the land. The rest of the roots are unpretentious.
Popular varieties of beets
The most common beet varieties are considered to be Detroit, Red Ball, Bordeaux, Barguzin, Podzimnyaya beet. These are early maturing varieties that ripen much earlier.
The mid-season species include the Incomparable, Mulatto, Bohemia and the Bon-Bon hybrid. Late-ripening - Torpedo, Ataman, Cylinder.
Video “Interesting about beets”
Experienced gardeners share their secrets of growing beets.
The root crop, which every housewife will add to borscht or cook beetroot, came from one type of wild beet that grew in India and Far East. There are several types of beets familiar to us, but the most common are fodder and sugar beets.
Interesting! The ancient Greeks sacrificed beets to Apollo. She also decorated hanging gardens Semiramis.
A little history and the benefits of beets
Initially, only beet leaves were eaten. For example, in Ancient Rus' was popular "botvinya" - cold fish soup on kvass, where herbs were necessarily added, including beet tops. The roots were used as medicinal product. They are rich in potassium, antioxidants and are great for lowering blood pressure. The ancient Romans used them as an aphrodisiac.
The composition of beets includes many useful macro- and microelements that are not destroyed when heat treatment. Therefore, a boiled vegetable is no less useful than a raw one. Known Species vegetables:
- canteen;
- feed;
- sugar;
- sheet.
Interesting! Fodder beet is not much different from table beet chemical composition. It contains more fiber and dietary fiber, and also has vegetable protein, which is well absorbed by the body of animals.
fodder beet
In Rus', beets appeared in the 18th century and began to be widely used in agriculture. She won such love among fodder vegetables thanks to her amazing properties. It is a dairy culture that increases milk yield in cows, sheep and goats.
Interesting! Russian women used beets instead of rouge. Which ones to choose for growing.
It has a positive effect on the productivity of animals and the quality of the offspring. AT winter months is a source of vitamins and minerals for livestock.
Interesting! "Buryak" or "beetroot" is the name of beets in Ukraine, Belarus and some regions of Russia.
Fodder beets are sometimes sold by sellers as table varieties. Therefore, it is important to know how sugar beet differs from fodder visually. Despite the fact that the chemical composition is almost the same, the dining room is still tastier, more tender and more suitable for eating. It has small dark red roots.
Interesting! Now more than 70 varieties of beets are known.
Fodder beet is not only an industrial crop, but a material for the work of breeders. It was from her that sugar beet from which sugar is obtained.
Sugar beet
Feed grades contain little sugar, about 1.3%. However, for recent times, thanks to the work of breeders, it was possible to develop varieties of sugar beets with a sugar content of up to 20%. Most of the varieties were bred by German scientists, since it was the German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf who first discovered that the sugar found in sugar cane is identical to beetroot.
But do not think that sugar beet is intended only for obtaining sugar. Often it is grown for animal feed. In addition, in the production of beet sugar, the resulting waste is used in other industries. In agriculture, they are used to feed livestock and to fertilize the soil; in Food Industry use black molasses in the confectionery industry.
How to distinguish fodder beet from sugar beet
Of course, they differ in chemical composition. But in a store or market, few people will analyze the composition of a substance. Therefore, it is much easier to compare root crops by appearance to understand how sugar beet differs from fodder visually. we propose to consider separately.
Fodder beet has several varieties, which differ both in the color of the roots and in their shape. In most cases, root crops are large in size. In shape, they are cylindrical, conical, elongated-oval, spherical. Color palette also varied - yellow, orange, white and the usual red tones (crimson, pink, red). The most common fodder beets are red, white and orange.
With the growth of beets, most of the root crop is above the ground, so it top part has a less bright (burnt out) color than the underground.
Interesting! It is correct to say "beetroot", this is the only option in modern dictionaries.
Sugar beet is an elongated-conical root crop of white color. She has no other shapes and colors. The root crop completely "sits" in the ground, so it does not have a pronounced color transition, like the stern. It is colored evenly.
Bred in Germany in the 16th century and for two centuries has become widespread throughout the world. It is grown mainly in countries where dairy farming is developed: Russia, USA, Brazil, Germany, France, Australia, Algeria and others.
By scientific classification the subspecies Fodder beet belongs to the species Beetroot and is an industrial crop. This biennial herbaceous plant is included in the diet of livestock, small domestic animals and birds, and contains a large number of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.
The ancestor of both subspecies is wild beet, but the sugar crop was bred by breeders on the basis of fodder. This is where their similarities end and there are differences in:
- appearance;
- growth and collection;
- for what purposes are grown;
- chemical composition.
External differences
In the first year of growth, both fodder beet and sugar beet develop well leaves in the form of a semi-erect rosette. Differences: in sugar beet they are green or light green, in fodder leaves they are green, more shiny, with characteristically colored petioles in the color of the fruit (up to crimson). In a sweet fruit, it grows up to 60 leaves on the head of a root crop, in a fodder fruit it is 20-30% less.
The first visual difference: the sugar beet root has a white skin. The fodder root crop has a richer palette of colors: white, yellow, gray-green, orange, raspberry, etc.
The shape of the sugar beet root is conical or elongated-conical. The form of fodder beet is more diverse:
- conical. Strongly developed root and poorly developed neck. On the surface is 1/5 of the root;
- cylindrical or sac-like. Well-developed neck, up to 3/4 of the root share is on the soil surface;
- round or spherical. Almost all is on the surface;
- elongated oval. The root crop protrudes half the length above the soil.
The fruits on the peduncle of the fodder crop are smaller in size than those of the sugar crop, and crumble less.
Growth and collection
The root crop of sugar beet is completely in the ground. It is easier to harvest such a crop from the fields using a mechanized method (harvesters, potato diggers, beet lifters). Fodder beet is in the ground, depending on the shape of the root, from 1/4 to 4/5 of the length of the root. This facilitates manual harvesting, but complicates mechanized harvesting.
The root system of the sugar root crop is developed much more powerfully, the length reaches 3 meters. Roots reach deeper into the soil to obtain water, making the beets more drought tolerant than fodder beets.
The vegetative period of sugar beet is 140-170 days. The vegetation period of fodder beet is shorter - 130-150 days, which makes it possible to grow it in northern latitudes.
What are they grown for?
Cultivation of fodder beet in agricultural fields and household plots occurs to obtain a juicy, nutritious, fortified feed for livestock or farm animals. Both the root and the tops are edible.
Sugar beets are grown to extract sugar from the roots. The pulp, tops and substandard roots are fed to animals.
Chemical composition
The root of the sugar subspecies contains up to 23% sucrose, in the feed subspecies up to 3%. This is due to the small number of rings of vascular fibrous bundles in the latter. The more rings in the cross section of the root, the more often they are located, the greater the sugar content of the pulp. The number of sugar rings - 10-12, feed - 5-8.
In fodder beet, the content of digestible protein is 9 g per 1 kg of root crop, in sugar beet - 0.012 g of protein per 1 kg.
The energy value of sugar beet is kept at the level of 0.24 KE per 1 kg, for fodder beet - 0.12 KE per 1 kg.
The best varieties
Throughout the existence of fodder beet as an agricultural crop, breeders have improved existing varieties and developed new ones. Beetroot is an undemanding plant that gives an excellent harvest. A wide variety makes it possible to pick up fodder beet seeds for any climate zone and soil conditions.
Feed beet varieties with a cylindrical, round and elongated-oval root crop are considered productive.
Beets with a cylindrical shape are grown in the non-chernozem and northern chernozem strip, as it is more early and unpretentious to soil moisture:
- fodder beet Eckendorf yellow. Well developed tops, leaves are dark green, brilliant. The color of the head is gray-green, the rest of the bright yellow. The flesh is white, medium keeping quality in winter. Vegetation period 130-160 days. The yield is 100-120 tons per hectare. Resistant to cold;
- Arnimkrivenskaya. The result of the improvement of Eckendorf yellow. Well developed tops with dark green glossy leaves. The head is gray-green, the rest of the root is bright green, the flesh is white. The persistence is average, the yield is at the level of 100 tons per 1 ha;
- Ursus Poly. Vegetation period 120-135 days. The skin is orange or yellow, the flesh is juicy beige. Productivity from 1 hectare to 125 tons of roots. High safety in winter.
Semicircular varieties are grown in the black earth zone and, with great success, in the non-black earth zone:
- Oberndorf red. Skin color from bright red to crimson. The pulp is juicy white. Resistant to diseases, pests and low temperatures. The keeping quality is high;
- Leitevitskaya is bred in two colors: yellow and red. The pulp is white, juicy. High storage capacity in winter. Productivity is 90-100 tons from 1 hectare.
Elongated oval:
- Lada is the most fruitful. Refers to single-sprout varieties. The skin has a pink-greenish color. The pulp is juicy, white, uniform. The variety is resistant to drought, diseases and rot. The yield is 110-130 tons per 1 ha, under good agrotechnical conditions it reaches 170 tons per hectare;
- Voriak. The tops are well developed with dark green smooth leaves. The skin is gray-green above, yellow-red below. The pulp is white, homogeneous. At the first autumn frosts, the tops die. Good keeping quality in winter.
Cone-shaped varieties are considered semi-sugar due to high content dry matter - 13-19%. Their cultivation requires loose soil and subsoil in black earth areas:
- Firstborn. The growing season is 130 days. Productivity 500-600 tons per 1 ha;
- Poltava semi-sugar;
- Uman semi-sugar.
Technology of growing fodder beet
It is impossible to plant roots in the second year in the same place, since the soil there can be infected with pests.
Seeds are planted taking into account the principle of crop rotation. In large farms beets are sown in fodder and near-farm crop rotations. The best predecessors for growing fodder root crops are: rye and winter wheat, leguminous crops, vegetable crops, with the exception of related crops (table beets) - early potatoes, carrots; annual herbs (alfalfa, phacelia), perennial herbs after a year of use.
ATTENTION! To get a good harvest after harvesting previous crops, the soil needs to be fertilized with manure and minerals, especially if the land is light sandy and slightly structured.
Soil Requirements
The vegetable is very demanding on fertility, moisture and acidity of the soil. He does not like clay, sandy, wetlands. It grows well in the soil with a neutral and slightly acidic reaction within the range of 6.2-7.5 pH.
Preparing the site before sowing seeds requires completely clearing the land of weeds. After 2 weeks, repeat the weeding of the newly grown grass. Herbicides will help free the area from perennials continuous action. Apply them in the fall, after harvest.
On the cleared plot of land, deep plowing and loosening of the subsoil layer are carried out. In autumn, when digging, they make organic fertilizers(compost) and wood ash. In the spring, before planting, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus are added to the soil.
Terms and rules of landing
The seeds are planted in early spring from the end of March to the middle of April. By this time, the soil will warm up to a depth of 8-10 cm to an air temperature of 6-8°C. Maintain a row spacing of 50-60 cm. If the soil is light, then the seeds are laid to a depth of 4-5 cm. When sowing in heavy soil- no deeper than 2-4 cm.
At an air temperature of 8°C to 15°C, sprouts will appear, respectively, on 12-4 days.
Watering and care
The first 40-45 days after germination, the fodder crop grows slowly. During this period, produce:
- weeding;
- thinning beet sprouts after 2 true leaves appear on them. Leave strong sprouts, keeping a distance of 25 cm between them;
- loosen the soil, fertilize complex fertilizer. After 2 weeks, top dressing is repeated;
- during the formation of the first leaves, the beds are regularly watered, but make sure that the soil is not waterlogged. Further hydration depends on weather conditions. After each watering, the beets are loosened for better aeration.
ATTENTION! A month before the start of harvesting, watering is stopped, otherwise the taste and safety in winter will deteriorate.
Collection and storage
At the beginning of autumn, new leaves stop growing on the beets, and the old ones begin to turn yellow and die off. The root crop stops growing. Harvest before the first frost. Frozen root crops are not stored for a long time.
Dig up the beets carefully with a fork or shovel so as not to damage the root. The tops are cut off, thoroughly cleaned of dirt.
Whole, healthy root crops are stored in dark, dry rooms at an air temperature of 3-5 ° C.
For what animals is fodder beet grown?
The beets are fed to farm animals. Especially its nutrients will be useful in winter, when the cattle is on dry and canned fodder.
Cows, horses, sheep are given the whole raw root crop or crushed. Beetroot is a good milk extractor. Its use by dairy cattle increases milk yield.
For pigs, the roots are boiled and steamed. fresh tops for the most part give a big cattle, in a small amount - to horses, pigs. The fodder beet for rabbits and young rabbits goes into the feed all: both the root and the tops. Introduced into the diet gradually, in small doses.
Can people eat fodder beets?
There is a lot of fiber and fiber in the root crop, which is why the product is too heavy to digest and assimilate human body. In addition, beets are cooked for a long time and are not very sweet and tasty. For culinary purposes, it is better to use table beets, softer, rich red, or sugar.