In the last week we have gotten our final two beet trials sown. One in the Courtenay area of Vancouver Island with Robin Sturley at Ripple Farm of Merville Organics and the other in Prince George by Serena Black of Northern Grown Consulting.

Above, Serena and her partner Wyatt are finishing up their beet planting in Prince George. Prince George is our only site which is not dominated by the coastal climate. The cold dry winters and hot dry summers are a stark contrast to the moderate climate of the coast. This means crops get in the ground later, but when they grow – they really grow fast!

Having experienced germination trouble in other sites where the crop was sown in hot dry conditions, it will be interesting to see how the beets germinate in Prince George. We did advise Serena to keep an eye on the water so hopefully we get a successful stand.

Serena is a great participant in the trials as she works as an agricultural consultant and researcher in Prince George. She will be holding a beet trials field day there later in the year and will also be growing out the lacinato kale.

Robin Sturley at Ripple Farm also did a late planting of her beets. As this was a new piece of land for her she wanted to get in an earlier crop of beets first so she could troubleshoot before planting the beet trials. Amara Farm, also part of Merville Organics planted an earlier beet trials in the same area, so there is an opportunity to compare results between the two planting sites.

Robin will also be doing the lacinato kale trials and she just received her seed and instruction from BC Seed Trials Lead Researcher, Alex Lyon last week.