# My beets are emerging from the ground

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 12, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733 "2004-07-12T17:28:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![quelquechose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/6f9a4e/32.png) [@quelquechose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quelquechose)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733/1 "2004-07-12T17:28:36Z")

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I have some beets growing in my garden that have been doing fairly well, but the roots are beginning to emerge from the ground. Is this normal? Should I cover the exposed root with dirt? They are also growing at very different rates. One is much larger than the beets from a grocery store, but others are still very small. Should I pick the larger ones soon, or wait and pick all of them at once?

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733/2 "2004-07-12T18:13:45Z")

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Is this some form of vague sexual innuendo?

If so, could you make it clearer?

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**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733/3 "2004-07-12T19:55:32Z")

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I’m not a garden expert, but when I went home for Father’s Day, I helped my Dad harvest his beets. (He never grew them when I was a kid, so this was the first I’d seen them growing.) His, too, had pushed up out of the ground — they looked like little reddish tennis balls poking up out of the ground. Apparently this was fine.

Oh, one thing — Dad said to be sure not to cut the greens off the top of the beets until you’re ready to use them. Otherwise, the color will bleed out of the beet.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733/4 "2004-07-12T19:58:41Z")

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It is quite normal for beets to protrude above the soil surface - as long as they don’t appear ‘wobbly’, they will be fine. Don’t let them go without water.

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**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-beets-are-emerging-from-the-ground/254733/5 "2004-07-12T23:36:41Z")

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You can pull them between sizes 1" and 3" (bigger than 3" start to get woody).

You can pull and eat littler ones for the purpose of thinning the rows, too.

You can eat the greens. They take less time to cook than the beets, so you don’t throw them in the pot together, unless you slice the beets and give them a head start.