Laboo (Iranian Beet)

From our grower Sama: "One of my favorite parts of showing people the farm in the last year has been bringing attention to these laboo, these beets from Iran, which were growing to the size of basketballs in the field! Beets are a delicious and important part of Iranian food, and I remember them best as a steamed street food in Tehran; they are peeled and boiled and then pierced onto pikes by street vendors, who douse them in their own juice and chop them up for your when you buy one."

Days to maturity: For beets: 70-100, For seed: Biennial, ~480

Seeds per pack: 100 minimum

Germination rate: 72% on 03/21/2025

Planting / harvesting notes

A lot of the seeds are actually seed clusters, which will produce 2-5 seedlings. No matter! If there are too many growing in one clump, you can thin them later down the line. Direct sow them (sprinkle them directly onto the soil where you intend to grow them) and water them a bit every day to keep the soil moist until they germinate. They will grow beautiful edible leaves, and after 4-5 weeks you’ll see the beet start to size up right under the soil surface.

Direct seed 1/2-3/4 inch deep after danger of last frost. Plants should end up 3-5 inches from each other. Row spacing could be 12-18 inches. It's more time and energy, but beets also transplant relatively well, so for example, if you have a situation with really bad weeds or you are notoriously bad at staying up on weeding, you could start seeds in flats and transplant to freshly prepared ground to get ahead.

Seed keeping notes

Beets are biennials, so don’t expect them to flower in the same year that you plant them. In their second spring, they’ll start the long crescendo towards setting seed by sending out a huge stem from the top of the plant. Ours got to about five feet tall. The seeds are ready to harvest when they are brown and the stem is drying out.

Beets are wind pollinated. Allow overwintered plants to flower and then turn brown. Seeds are ready when they are dried out, which begins towards the base of the plant and moves up the seed head. Harvest the stalks at the dry stage when about 2/3 of the seeds are dried. Allow the plants to further dry in a ventilated place for 7-14 days. Thresh by running a gloved hand down the stalk, removing the seeds.