Page 25 - ALG Issue 3 2019
P. 25

                                                                    when they are the size of the blade
of a garden trowel. All usable leaves must be harvested to keep the plants in production. The leaves can be cut away or carefully snapped but care must be taken not to damage the young buds at the base of the plants.
At the end of summer, the plants can be left in the ground to over winter
but they will need some protection against extremely cold winter weather.
In spring, give them a tidy up, a feed of general fertiliser and they will quickly perk up. They will provide a steady supply of fresh leaves until the warmer weather arrives, which, because
beets are biennials, it will always trigger flowering - allow one or two plants to flower as they are a magnet for hoverflies who are ace greenfly munchers.
Leaf beet plants are generally trouble-
generally trouble- free to grow
free to grow. They can suffer from powdery mildew if the soil is allowed to dry out and downy mildew if the summer is particularly wet.
In the fridge store your leaf beets unwashed in a sealed plastic bag, with the air removed. This crop can easily deteriorate, which is why it is not sold in supermarkets and only available from farmers markets or, of course, your allotment plot!
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