you need to scarify or remove seeds from seed pod.. which means you just answered your own question.

By the way, my soil temps when first planted were about 60F, and the air temps over the last few months have been 50-60F. No excuses. OK about scarification, but scarifying beet seeds is a big job. I put down a hundred or two. Now, I've heard that putting them in a bottle lined with sandpaper and shaking is one scarification strategy. Doesn't sound particularly effective, though. But yes, seeds that need scarification that don't get scarified certainly will take MUCH longer to sprout. That's always the case.

But the question remains. It didn't get answered. Why does everyone say that germination of beet seeds should happen in 10-14 days when scarification isn't even suggested? Everyone believes, in their heart, that you plunk a beet seed in suitably warm soil, and KABOOM, it germinates rapidly. That never happens for me.

Seed pod? We're talking about seeds that come out of a seed packet. Also, FWIW, beet seeds don't even come out of pods.

My problem is that they don’t germinate at all....My Grandma doesn’t remove the seeds from the pods and they sprout just fine for her, a week or 2. Drives me nuts! I couldn’t grow a beet to save my life.

Are you planting too deeply, by any chance?

Following this thread.

Beets are rather picky when it comes to conditions. I don't even try anymore to grow them in fall in middle Georgia. Most of the time they do well planted around the first of March. Most of the time they are up in two weeks. No extra prep, just drill them about a half inch deep. I have Sandy soil, heavier soils will crust if there are heavy rains. When I have grown in clay type soils, I have covered the row with grow covers, clear plastic and even in my youth laying planks over the row. Have to monitor and remove at emergence.

Remove seeds from pods? Are there really pods? I thought the flower falls off leaving the seed cluster behind. But we're talking packaged seeds. No pods in those.

I'm planting 1/2-inch deep, covered with soil I use for seedlings. Good stuff.

I've tried plastic covers to keep soil moist until emergence. I'd rather not do it, but I'm thinking about just soaking the seeds in paper towel until they sprout, and then planting those tiny sprouts. That way, I know the seedlings are really there. I sure don't want to cultivate beet seedlings in pots.

But this isn't about beet seedling survival. It's about the fact that they don't even appear for a month. Gee, if beets are hard to grow, you'd like to believe that you'd hear more about it. Once mine come up, they're great. It's getting them up that's the issue.

By the way, my soil temps when first planted were about 60F, and the air temps over the last few months have been 50-60F.

I've tried several varieties of beets over the years and never had a problem with germination or production whether it was a spring or fall crop. As far as temps go I start fall seeds around Aug 20th here (soil & air temps still warm/hot) and harvest starting near Halloween. Even planting the seed in Aug it pops up within 10-14 days. Not sure why you have problems but I'd try planting in Sept there, maybe the shorter day light hours by Oct/Nov combined with the Oct/Nov soil being too cool there?

Ah, I understand about pods. The seeds that come out of the packet are really multiples, encased in tiny "pods" that look like big seeds. Yes, the seeds are clusters, but they are stuck together in what can be called pods. Now, removing beet seeds from those pods won't be easy. Have you ever tried attacking a beet seed/pod with a knife?

Daylight hours has nothing to do with germination. Seeds underground aren't aware of daylength. My soil temps, as noted above, are easily within the recommended range. September air temps here are uniformly in the 90s, and I know that beets don't like that.

When I soak my seeds, they usually float. As such, they may not be getting "wetted" properly. I need to think about strategies for soaking them better. Seed nicking, while not quite scarification, may help as well.

Beet seeds do not require scarification. But they do benefit from being soaked overnight in warm water with a touch of vinegar added. Or in a damp paper towel until sprouted.

What does the vinegar do? I see other recipes for soaking seeds that call for hydrogen peroxide. Not sure what that does either. Now, you can scarify by immersion in sulfuric acid, but that's a potentially destructive strategy.

I do soak them overnight in plain water, but as I said, they may not be getting wetted properly. Every once in a while you see recommendations to scarify beet seeds.

Vinegar (or the hydrogen peroxide) helps to dissolve the seed coat. Not a requirement but helpful.

Everything you stated is true Dan but planting beet seed in cool soil in the early spring is during a time of warming up soil, not cooling down soil as is planting seed in the fall. This may be why it takes so long for the seed to germinate, and once they pop up in Nov they struggle to grow fast due to the deceasing hours of sun light. Like I said above, my beets do quite well planted in mid-Aug here (warm soil & temps) so moving up your planting date from Oct to Sept may be worth a try. You can always plant a later row for comparison.

The cooler the soil temp the longer things take to sprout. Beets included. Even though beets are considered a cool season crop they can be planted in soil temps up to around 85 degrees, and they will sprout faster at a warmer temp. I agree with vgkg that you may want to try planting a bit earlier.

Rodney

According to Nancy Bubel's The New Seed Starter's Handbook, beets germinate at minimum 40˚F, optimum 85*F, maximum 95F. She says at 59F they take 10 days to germinate; at 68F they take 6 days, at 77F they take 5 days, at 85F and 95 F they take 4.5 days. But their percentage of germination is highest at 77F (a whopping 209% germination, due to them being actually clusters not individual seeds), but still around 190% at 59F, 68F and 86F, but at 95F they drop off sharply to only 75%.

"Beet seeds are notorious for spotty germination. Their coats contain a germination inhibitor. Presoaking the seeds for one to two hours before planting will dissolve the chemical as well as soften the seed coats and speed germination [and be sure to discard the soaking water, don't pour it over the soil when you plant the seeds]. The wet seeds, though, are more difficult to handle. Some gardeners find that crushing beet seeds lightly with a rolling pin also helps to encourage more complete germination. ... Beet seeds, for some reason, need to be well tucked in. They often fail to germinate if not in sufficiently close contact with the soil... Beets are very sensitive to toxic substances in the soil and may fail to germinate if planted too close to walnut trees or in soil with herbicide residues. They may fail to grow well in highly acid soil."

So as someone suggested above, maybe you'd have better luck planting them a bit earlier when the soil temperature is still warmer than the 60F that you mentioned it was when you planted. Though 60F should actually work, so I don't know.

I suspect you aren't thinking about my climate. In November for me, soil temps are 60F. Air temps are - average hi 70F, average low 50F. Also, struggling to grow fast isn't about daylight hours. This is a question of when they first emerge from the soil, not how fast they grow once they do. Doesn't take any sunlight at all for that to happen. Actually, I planted some in October, and they never came up at all. For me "warm temperatures" are NOW. Earlier in the season, it's "violently hot temperatures". Planting when hot is just a struggle to keep the bed moist. I'm planting under conditions when I'm advised to plant, and that advice comes with 10-14 day germination time.

It's the soil temperature, not air temp. that matters for germination. Optimal temp for germination...fastest and greatest percentage sprouting...for beets is in the 80's. They can germinate at much lower temps but it will take longer. Your 60 degree temps may be too low for them to respond as quick as you prefer. Planting a few week earlier when soil temps are warmer might do the trick.

I plant some in spring when soil temps are cooler and it takes much longer to see sprouts. In late summer with warm soil temps, I plant and cover them with a sprinkling of hay to help keep the soil from drying and crusting. They are quick to emerge then.

You can soak the seeds and get quicker germination, but if the soil is only 60 degrees it will not be much quicker.

The linked chart part way down this page shows germination info for various veggies and it was developed by a Texas extension person. The black dots mark optimal germination temp, green dots are "practical" temps...just remember they will be longer the more they vary from optimal. https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/when-is-it-warm-enough-to-plant/9029.html

I learned some of my best gardening tricks by experimenting and not taking other's advice for granite (not even mine ;-). Try planting an experimental short row around Labor Day next year and see what happens. I know our climates are diff (Va/Tx) but when it comes to fall beets here I have a very short 10 day planting window (Aug 20-27) and air temps ~90+, soil is warm. Beets pickable around Nov 1st or so. Planted any later and they do not bulb up.

True, but ...

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/earthkind/ekgarden15.html

"Crops such as beans, beets, cabbage, chard, eggplant, pepper, radish, tomato, turnip and corn have an optimum soil temperature for seed germination of 85°F. The minimum soil temperature required for some of these cold-tolerant crops, such as beets, cabbage, chard, radish and turnip, is as low as 40°F. The realistic soil temperatures recommended for these crops are beans (72°F), beets (45°F), tomato (55°F), turnip (50°F) and corn (55°F)."

I do "realistic", and I would like to assume that 10-14 days assumes "realistic". Again, I have no problem germinating or growing beets, but EVERYONE says germination time is 10-14 days and, for "realistic" conditions, that just ain't true. I wish such advice would be "realistic". That's what I'm complaining about. Most everything else I direct seed in those soil temperatures don't take anywhere near as long to come up as what I'm seeing for beets.

Note that Jerry Parsons, who did that TAMU piece, says that "realistic" soil temperatures are "recommended" ones. He elsewhere says "The realistic soil temperature is that temperature somewhere between optimum and minimum at which gardeners should plant to insure maximum success."

I should add that, for me, beets planted in November bulb up just great. Lack of bulbs is most likely a crowding and or over-nitrogen issue.

try planting by the moon. My mother-inlaw taught me this back in the early 50s. With 6 little kids in the house, I had to plant when I had time. My favorite now is Cylindra. I just soak overnite.

So my beets (3 - 8 foot rows) are now almost an inch high, about two months after expected germination. Geez! This is a bed where I plant beets regularly, and I always get awesome crops, but it does this EVERY YEAR. Incredibly, incredibly slow as seedlings compared with everything else I plant. My soil temp today is about 55F by the way. My standard rules of gardening simply don't apply to beets. If I remember correctly, the plants kinda take off at this stage, but it took FOREVER to get here.

I've never scarified packaged beet seeds, it's not necessary.

re: Nancy Bubel's The New Seed Starter's Handbook: I adore that book! I pored over it back when I first got into starting seeds back in the '90s. Still have that old copy, too - it is near and dear to my heart. :0)

Well, I didn't scarify these, and they came up, but they took their good time doing so. The issue isn't how to get them to sprout. It's how to get them to sprout promptly. The germination times for beets that are commonly listed make no sense at all.

If your question is how to get beets to sprout promptly, please have another look at some of the posts above, telling you some of the temperatures at which beets germinate faster. Different people told you that warmer than the 60F you are trying it at would be faster.

You could try to trick them. After you cover them with soil, you should press the row by a board or by a fist to make every seed tightly surrounded by dirt. Keep moist. Somehow it helps. I do the same with carrot seeds.

HighColdDesert, you can take it up with Jerry Parsons, at TAMU, who says (please have another look at the post above) that low temps are optimal for beets. My complaint is less about germination time, and more that optimal conditions for beets don't produce germination times anywhere near that advertised.

As to making each seed tightly surrounded by dirt, I have no idea why that should make any difference. The issue is moisture, and the moisture around a seed doesn't depend on the tightness of the dirt around them. Under moist soil, the humidity is 100%. Not going to get any moister.

It has a difference when you compare the germination in rows with and without pressing the dirt. It is just from my many years experience.

Issue is the moisture has to be tight to seed.

I guess if you have sandy soil, such that the buried seed is well ventilated, and humidity can't be kept high, pressing the dirt might help. Not necessarily because the dirt is contacting the seed better, but just that ventilation is stopped. I don't think I have that problem. All my other seeds germinate reliably.

While planting my fall beet seeds today this thread came to mind.

DITD this would be a good timing opportunity to experiment with your beets. Prepare a short 6' experimental row and plant 1' of beet seed every week for 6 weeks to determine which timing does best for you. Several years ago I did this and found that the 3rd week in August was optimal timing to get the best beet growth & harvest for my area. Happy Harvest!

Been a while since I thought about this, but worth bringing up again.

Let's not try to recommend planting dates. In Central Texas, we get temps up to 90F in October. Beets *require* planting at minimum depth (about 1/4"), and at that depth at 90F it is very hard to keep them moist. Covering with plastic is a possible strategy, though in full sun that can bake the seeds. Maybe several layers of plastic? So November planting is the earliest I can go. That's well proven. While optimal seed germination soil temp might be 85F, it's really really hard to have that soil temperature and keep the seeds moist.

Pressing the soil can also preserve moisture, because it reduces soil ventilation, so that's a good strategy. Shallow planting and moisture don't go well together.

The idea of soaking until they germinate, maybe in acidic water, might be the way to go, though we're talking about one or two hundred seedlings to transplant. My irrigation water is alkaline, so to the extent acidic water helps break the seed coat, that could be a problem for me with ground seeding.

Oh, this isn't about seedlings struggling to grow because they don't get enough sunlight. This is about getting them to germinate at all.

I should add that, on thinking about it, the seed coat is probably the cause of the bizarre germination delays that I see. The way you turn 1 week germination into 4-6 week germination is taking 3-5 weeks to break down the seed coat. I've seen this happen with other seeds that need scarification. So if alkaline soil does a poor job at breaking down the seed coat, that may be what's going on, with my soil pH of 7.9. Now, rather oddly, it is said that beets to not do well in acid soil. They need pH>6. Once my beets germinate, they grow beautifully. I wonder if, rather then germinating them in an acidic mix, just soaking them in an acidic mix would do the trick. Aha. I found a source, with references. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.897.7765&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Let's not try to recommend planting dates.

I'd never do that for an area I'm unfamiliar with, just suggesting some experimenting if one has the extra space and extra seed to use. I usually go by the book too but sometimes it's useful to add a personal page for special circumstances. Good luck this fall.

OK, I've consulted a few research papers on acid-soaking of beet seeds. There are a few such papers, and it does really seem to work for improving beet germination!

One paper tries 0.03N and 0.3N HCl, and finds that the former improves germination by 40%, and the latter doesn't do anything. Another paper finds that 0.3N HCl works great. Another paper finds that 0.1N HCl does the job. So, um, what to do? I guess I'll go with 0.1N.

Here's the how-to. You get 1 liter (about a quart) of 0.1N HCl by adding 1 ml (1/4 tsp) muriatic acid (37% HCl) to water. FWIW, 0.1N acetic acid is gotten by adding 100ml (7 tbsp) of 5% vinegar to that water, making 0.5% vinegar. Pretty weak acid. Soak seeds for six hours or so. I'll be trying that this fall.

OK, beets again. EXACTLY the same response this year. I soaked the seeds in acid, and even tried manually scarifying some seeds. Beet seeds are small, and rubbing them against sandpaper just scarifies your finger. Not fun. I can't believe shaking them against sandpaper works. You do that, and you don't see any seed dust released. Planted some in October, when it is still quite hot. No joy. I even tried covering with plastic to keep them moist and did planking as well. Zippo.

When I plant most of my crop in early November, after two weeks, germination is about 15%. I replant, and divide up multiples to get more coverage. After four weeks from the first planting, my rows are about half full. But then in January, I'm looking at very well populated rows. Huh?? Either it's because I laid down a LOT of seeds, OR it took a month for the seed coats to dissolve. I'm suspecting it's the latter.

I love beets, and always end up with a great crop, but it's pretty exasperating getting it. You plant radishes and turnips and BOOM, they're all up in a week.

Have you tried pelleted seeds? Just wondering if that might make a difference - ? Although at the least, they're sure a lot easier to handle than non-pelletized seeds. I've had trouble with beets up here, too. Not much luck with spring planting -- spotty germination. Germination is great with late summer planting, though -- but, as I learned the hard way last time around, I need to get them planted earlier than Labor Day or they won't mature; this year I'm going to shoot for early August. I thought about planting indoors in plugs for spring planting, but then figured it's just too much work to transplant all those beets.