Sea beet – Beta vulgaris maritima potted plant
£4.99
SUPPLIED AS A SMALL PLANT IN 1L POT
Sea beet – Beta vulgaris maritima. A useful hardy perennial alternative to chard or spinach.
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Description
Sea beet, Beta vulgaris maritima, is the wild relation of beetroot, chard, and perpetual spinach as well as sugar beet. It is a really useful hardy leafy green perennial vegetable and can be use as a substitute for spinach or chard. Although found in coastal areas, it will grow successfully in well drained garden soil.
About
Sea beet – Beta vulgaris maritima, also known as Sea spinach, wild beet and wild spinach is the wild relation of beetroot, chard, and perpetual spinach as well as sugar beet. Sea beet can vary enormously in characteristics depending on the region it is growing. It is native to Europe along the Atlantic coasts and the Mediterranean Sea and the coasts of North Africa and Western Asia, and has also naturalised on other continents.
How to grow
Sea beet prefers a sunny spot and well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter added to it. You need to give plants about 90cm spacing, and although they are quite low growing ( about 50-80cm) the flowering stems can reach more than 1m tall. The plants are hardy down to about -20c or more. Plants can be propagated from seed, although they will cross with nearby flowering chard and beetroot so you need to be aware of this if you want to save your own seed. We have successfully taken cuttings by slicing a stem from the main plant with a little bit of root attached and potted them up, this seems to work quite well. Plants can grow from three to ten years depending on conditions.
Harvesting
Sea beet is such a useful addition to the perennial vegetable garden as leaves can pretty much be picked all the year around except when stems are flowering. You can cut the plants back in late summer to produce some fresh new growth if you wish as leaves can sometimes become bitter at that time of year.
Cooking and eating
Sea beet can be used instead of spinach or chard in any dish.