CULTIVATE SILVER BEET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 29 March 1930, Page 11

CULTIVATE SILVER BEET

Silver beet is grown for its 'leaves and these aro cooked in two ways. First of all the white midrib is severed from the green part and cooked like celery, some people saying that it is far superior to that vegetable; and secondly, the green part, which is cooked as spinach. Most garden soils will grow a good crop of silver beet, though none will produce a better crop than a good rich sandy loam, with plenty of humus and manure or fertiliser in it. The noil should be well cultivated and the manure thoroughly incorporated with the soil. Unlike the red beet, fresh manure will not hurt it, as there are no roots that can be harmed by "forking," and to have silver beet at its best it must be grown quickly and well. Seed should be sown in rows about two feet or more apart to facilitate picking. Sow seeds, don't buy plants.

Vegetable plants in bundles are always unsatisfactory and cost, by the time a crop matures, a hundred, times more than does the seed, with a fax smaller return. Vegetables will always give a better and quicker crop from seed sown where it is to grow. When the seedlings are about two inches high, thin out the weakest, leaving a good strong plant every six or ten inches apart.

Keep the plants well watered throughout the whole growing season and an occasional application with weak liquid cow manure or sulphate of ammonia—Joz to a gallon of water will make the leaf growth come good and strong. Keep the leaves well tied up, but see that the sun and light can get to them, or they will be pale and will not come a good deep green when cooked. With good cultivation and attention to regular watering and fertilising, leaves may be had up to three feet high, though the usual run is about two feet.

When picking, go round the. plants and remove the outer leaves close to the ground and, if needed all the leaves but a i'aw very small ones right in the centre may be removed. You will find it best to pick the leaves when but half to three-quarters grown; Picking can commence when the plants arc about 12 inches high, and can continue right till the plants' run to seed, which may lie 12 months or more, according to the time they were sown.