It’s not been a good year at all. We plant beets every year in a raised bed. This year before planting I inoculated the entire bed with weed and grass killer. It sit for two weeks and nothing came up even after running the cultivator through it.
I planted the beets and about a week after the beets sprouted grass started coming up. It was hard to weed it because of the beets being so small and delicate and the grass being so close to the beets. I went out yesterday morning to weed and it was terrible. The grass has already almost dominated the whole bed as if the grass is what I planted. If you have planted beets before you know the clusters contain several seeds.
Once I started weeding I noticed the grass was coming up everywhere a beet had sprouted. Carol sowed the first seeds and we had some bare areas with absolutely nothing came up which is common sometimes you miss an area while broadcasting the seeds. We bought more seeds and I re seeded these areas. Guess what’s now sprouting along with the new beets…the same grass. I’m convinced these beet seeds have grass seeds within the cluster. If look close in this pic you can see how the red leg of the beet is in twined with the grass.
![IMG_1093.jpeg IMG_1093.jpeg](https://tractorfanatics.com/data/attachments/83/83566-421e9755c6018ab056b9f0e70a19b1b9.jpg?hash=7GCwfN2vYy)
This is the third year in a row we have had problems with Burpee seeds from the box stores. Three years ago Carol planted okra it came up very good except it wasn’t okra it was some type of weed that grew 4’ tall with balls as big as a golf ball and had about 3/4” spikes all over it. Two years ago we started some big boy tomatoes and they were doing good but they weren’t BB’s they looked like a large pear. We gave away a lot of these plants and folks were asking us what they were. I had never seen a tomato like these. I did do some research and found they were an Italian strand that was used mainly for sauces. We actually liked them but not too good for eating but processed well, real meaty and not much water.
I planted the beets and about a week after the beets sprouted grass started coming up. It was hard to weed it because of the beets being so small and delicate and the grass being so close to the beets. I went out yesterday morning to weed and it was terrible. The grass has already almost dominated the whole bed as if the grass is what I planted. If you have planted beets before you know the clusters contain several seeds.
Once I started weeding I noticed the grass was coming up everywhere a beet had sprouted. Carol sowed the first seeds and we had some bare areas with absolutely nothing came up which is common sometimes you miss an area while broadcasting the seeds. We bought more seeds and I re seeded these areas. Guess what’s now sprouting along with the new beets…the same grass. I’m convinced these beet seeds have grass seeds within the cluster. If look close in this pic you can see how the red leg of the beet is in twined with the grass.
![IMG_1093.jpeg IMG_1093.jpeg](https://tractorfanatics.com/data/attachments/83/83566-421e9755c6018ab056b9f0e70a19b1b9.jpg?hash=7GCwfN2vYy)
This is the third year in a row we have had problems with Burpee seeds from the box stores. Three years ago Carol planted okra it came up very good except it wasn’t okra it was some type of weed that grew 4’ tall with balls as big as a golf ball and had about 3/4” spikes all over it. Two years ago we started some big boy tomatoes and they were doing good but they weren’t BB’s they looked like a large pear. We gave away a lot of these plants and folks were asking us what they were. I had never seen a tomato like these. I did do some research and found they were an Italian strand that was used mainly for sauces. We actually liked them but not too good for eating but processed well, real meaty and not much water.