I've certainly had issues with beet germination. Assuming I'm not buying bad seed, I assume it's a failure to keep even moisture through the germination period. Temperature and depth of planting are involved as well. I usually get holes in my rows, as well as some plants that just don't thrive. The last small row of beets I planted this year has about four plants doing very well, another 8-10 a little shorter, and quite a few more that are less than half the size of the best ones. I have no idea why - the row is only about six feet long. Same soil, same sun, same watering.

I've never had an aweful lot of luck getting beets to germinate outside. The year I had the most luck with beets was the year I actually started them inside in plug trays and then planted them out. Think I'll do that again next spring.

This was a good beet year for us--even germination and all thrived. Of course we have varying sizes from the fact that you get multiple plants from one seed.