If your weather is severe, look for cultivars that tolerate extreme temperatures. To stock your root cellar, look for beets with good keeping qualities. Select small-rooted cultivars for canning or pickling whole. Cylindrical cultivars such as 'Formanova' provide lots of uniform- size slices for cooking and processing with little waste. Where leaf spot has been a problem, grow disease-tolerant cultivars.
Beets perform best in full sun but tolerate partial shade.
Light, sandy loam permits rapid, uninterrupted growth for tender roots. Test the soil and amend as necessary. Work in 15-20 pounds of compost for every 100 square feet of soil. Loosen the soil thoroughly to a depth of at least 1 foot. Prepare traditional flat rows or wide rows.