Chioggia Candy Cane Beets
Beta Vulgaris

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
300-400 seeds per packet

days to maturity: 52 days
plant spacing: 9 per square foot
sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours
look out for: worms in the leaves
harvest notes: harvest whole beet at any age, and eat the leaves too!
annual

Chioggia are a super beautiful beet variety that is candy cane striped on the interior, with ribbons of pink and white throughout, making a bullseye pattern when sliced into rounds. We love growing chioggias because theres so much magic in the look and patterns, but also they are forgiving garden plants that are pretty easy to grow. The stems of the leaf transition from fuscia to pink to white and the stems and greens are also edible, like swiss chard.

We usually don’t recommend growing any roots from transplant (always direct seed things like carrots and radishes right into your garden), however last year we read about farms that were transplanting beets for better production, so we gave it a try and it worked. Because beets are in the swiss chard family they don’t mind being transplanted and will produce a healthy beet root 55 days after transplant. In terms of your home garden you can choose to do either. If you direct seed them you can eat the plants you thin out like micro greens.