The Makkelijke Moestuin in 3 minutes

The Makkelijke Moestuin in 3 minutes

Here you'll read how, with our system, you can harvest up to 5x more than from a regular vegetable garden. On just a few square meters, all natural, pesticide-free, and with almost no work.

The full Makkelijke Moestuin guide

If you want to read everything.

Makkelijke Moestuin vs traditional vegetable garden

1. Makkelijke Moestuin vs traditional vegetable garden

Giving each plant enough light, air, water, space, nutrients, and attention is pretty tricky. Not in a Makkelijke Moestuin: there, it happens all by itself.

 About us

2. About us

Why Jelle started Makkelijke Moestuin, how it grew into a movement, and why we work differently from most companies.

 The raised bed

3. The raised bed

The raised bed is the heart of the Makkelijke Moestuin system. Its smart setup gives your plants almost everything they need from the start.

 The soil mix

4. The soil mix

In a Makkelijke Moestuin, you don't use garden soil but a special growing mix in which all your plants thrive.

 The water reservoir

5. The water reservoir

Why a smart water reservoir helps your plants grow better while saving you time and effort: how it works, and how and when to water.

6. The sowing system

In a Makkelijke Moestuin, you sow in 30 x 30 cm squares instead of rows, placing each plant in the right position with the right spacing.

Heat Today will be hot in the south of the Netherlands: up to 33 degrees! Check whether your reservoir is still full, whether the mix is still moist, shade vulnerable plants around midday, and wait with sowing until it cools down.

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Chioggia beet

Product information

Sowing in:
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€3.89

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Description

Red and white striped beets, just for fun. 😉  And for the flavor: the beets themselves are sweet and the leaves are tasty too. Add to a stir fry or eat raw in a salad. 

Specifications

Sowing time: mid-March - mid-August
Height: 40 cm
Contents: 0.5 grams

In the app

Sowing: 15 April - 31 August

Level 1

seeds sown

Level 2

first seedlings

Level 3

thinned seedlings

Level 4

small plants

Level 5

first leaf harvest

Level 6

first beetroot harvest

Level 7

harvesting

  • Currently only shipping to the Netherlands and Belgium
  • Choose your preferred delivery date
  • Sent by PostNL or Transmission
  • Track & Trace in your inbox
  • The app helps you with almost everything you do in your vegetable garden: sowing, tending, and harvesting.
  • If something goes wrong, the app tells you what steps to take.
  • If that doesn’t work, you can ask us for advice.
  • If that still doesn’t help, we’ll look for other solutions together. Until we get it right.

Chioggia beet

Chioggia beetroot has beautiful red and white stripes. It is slightly sweeter than red beetroot, so it is also delicious raw in salads.

Use the young leaves in salads and stir-fry the older leaves.
  • Variety: Chioggia
  • Family: root vegetables
  • Plants per square: 9
  • Height: 25 to 40 cm
  • Sowing time: mid-April to late August
  • Sowing depth: 1 to 1.5 cm
  • Germination: 5 to 7 days at 12 to 18°C
  • Time to harvest: from 9 to 10 weeks
  • Sunlight: the more sun, the sweeter the beetroot
  • Packet contents: about 170 seeds, enough for 5 to 7 squares

What do you need to grow your own Chioggia beets?

Besides the seeds, you need:
Chioggia beetroot in an MM-Mini
Chioggia beets in an MM-Mini

How do you sow and grow Chioggia beets?

This Chioggia beetroot is included in the free Makkelijke Moestuin app. Use it and you will get guidance from seed to harvest.

Every vegetable goes through several stages, which we call levels.

The app tells you exactly what to do at each level and regularly asks you to check whether your plants are ready for the next one.

So you do not need to know how to grow Chioggia beetroot successfully before you start.

But if you would like to read ahead, here is what the whole process looks like.

Level 1: Sowing Chioggia beets

Level 1: Sow Chioggia beetroot

Loosen the mix in a square in the middle of your raised bed, then sow as follows:

  1. make 9 holes in the square, no deeper than 1 cm

  2. put 2 to 3 seeds in each hole

  3. carefully close the holes

Depending on the weather and the time of year, you will see the first green shoots after about 10 days.

Seeds of the Chioggia beet
Chioggia beet seeds

Level 2: Chioggia beet seedlings

Level 2: Chioggia beetroot seedlings

As soon as you see the first seedlings, you know things are going well. They probably won't all come up at once, but give it another week.

Then it's time for the next level.

Level 3: Thinning out beets

Level 3: Thin out your beetroot seedlings

Several seedlings come up in each hole you sowed? Choose the best and remove the rest: that's called thinning out. It might sound harsh, but it's necessary. The remaining plants need enough room to grow. 

Here's how: take a pair of scissors, leave the biggest and prettiest seedling per hole, and cut off the others at the soil line. Never pull them up like a weed. That can damage the roots of your remaining plants.

If you see spots where nothing came up, sow a few more seeds. Beets - like carrots and radishes - can't be transplanted.
These Chioggia beet seedlings are ready to be thinned out
These Chioggia beet seedlings are ready to be thinned out

Level 4: Caring for your Chioggia beet plants

Level 4: Care for your Chioggia beetroot plants

After a week or 2, your seedlings will become small plants.

You hardly need to do anything for the next 5 weeks: if the weather's dry, give them some water and remove the odd dead or yellow leaf. Easy 🙂
Young Chioggia beetroot plants
Small plants: 1 month after sowing

Level 5: Harvesting beet leaves

Level 5: Harvest beet leaves

Chioggia beet plants produce a lot of fresh green leaves, more than red beets. They grow taller too.

About 4 weeks after sowing, you can harvest the leaves for salads.

Harvest - at most - a third of the leaves from each plant: it needs the rest to make the beet grow. Also, always leave the growth core: that's the center of the plant where new leaves come in.
Fresh green leaves of the Chioggia beet can be harvested for salads
The Chioggia's been fresh green leaves

Level 6: Harvesting Chioggia beets

Level 6: Harvest Chioggia beetroot

About 8 to 9 weeks after sowing - at the earliest - you see your first beets. They often stick out a little above the soil mix.

When they're about the size of a ping-pong ball, they're ready to harvest. They won't all grow the same: some grow faster than others. Harvest the largest beets first, so that the rest can continue to grow.

Keep watering them regularly. This helps prevent the beets from getting woody.
Harvest the largest beets first and leave the others to continue growing
Freshly harvested Chioggia beets

What do you use Chioggia beets for?

Most people only eat the beet itself. You can boil it, stew it, or roast it in the oven. 

Raw beets are super healthy. You can grate them through a salad or enjoy them in a smoothie.

Since these beets have such a beautiful striped center, it's nice to slice them in a salad or use them as an edible garnish. If you boil the beets, they become paler in color and the stripes are less visible.

The young leaves are delicious raw in salads. Older beet leaves are good in stews, stir-fry dishes, or pasta.

The possibilities are almost endless:
Salad with slices of young Chioggia beets
A beautiful salad with Chioggia beets. Photo: Silvia Hietbrink

Vitamins and minerals in Chioggia beets

Beets are super healthy. They're packed with vitamins: especially vitamin C and folic acid. They also contain a lot of minerals like manganese, iron, copper, potassium, and magnesium. The red coloring is great for healthy blood vessels and can help to lower blood pressure.

Bonus healthy snack? The leaves. They're full of carotene and minerals.
Chioggia beets are super healthy
The whole plant is super healthy

The last levels

The next levels

During the next level, keep harvesting the beetroot until it is all gone.

Chioggia beetroot copes well with cold, so you can leave it in place for a long time in autumn. A little frost even makes it sweeter.

In the final level, empty the square or your MM-Mini and prepare it for the next vegetable.

So: are you ready to grow Chioggia beets yourself?

Good idea 😉  They are super tasty and easy to grow. All you need is some patience.

Plus: with our app and materials, it's almost impossible to fail.

Order your Chioggia seeds here or get started with a complete starter kit:
Complete starter kits