Sea beet crosses for a perennial beet

[agrorev]

Anyone try this?  If I had some sea beet seeds I'd give it a go.  I wonder how long lived it is.

[ottawagardener]

I received some seed that had a low germination and didn't sprout for me but I'm interested in trying it again or just growing sea beet. I'd only be interested in this as a perennial green so if this improves the sea beet I'd try but otherwise I'd just select the species if possible. I wonder if its lifespan is variable?

[oxbowfarm]

The goal being a perennial chard-like plant?

[agrorev]

Yea as a destructively harvested crop that doesn't divide vegetatively a perennial beet root wouldn't be much of an advantage other than maybe ground storage. Perennial sweet beet greens or chard sounds pretty good.

[nicolas]

Here is a post from johno (who is on HG) with a picture of beet x sea beet seedlings. Is that the cross you are talking about ?

johnosbloggo.blogspot.fr/2011/02/seedlings.html

[dalancarter]

I'm planning to try this cross this year. I have a strain of leaf beet that has been self-seeding in my garden for about 10 years and a perennial sea beet that I got last year. The idea is to sow the seeds from the sea beet and see if any of them show the more tender-looking leaves of the leaf beet, then see if any that do are perennial.

[toad]

I have some sea beet seeds collected from the beach in Denmark last autumn. Do you need some for a cross?

[cesarz]

I also have sea beet seeds from a population that have produced some perennial plants. The perennial plants differ from the non-perennials such that they branch heavily while the non-perennials just have one leader. It is easy to spot them. The perennials do flower but the flower spike is very short (less than a foot) compared to the one meter long spike the non-perennials have. I have noticed that the tap roots on these seedlings are very long.

If anybody need some seeds PM me.

[natekleinmanefn]

I'll PM you, Cesar. Definitely interested.

I'm working with some sea beets (will know soon which ones make it through the winter, if any), but most excited right now about the seed I recently got from the NPGS for Beta macrorhiza, a beautiful-looking (from the photos) perennial beet from the Caucasus region. It is proving difficult to germinate, but I only just read why (it needs serious seedcoat damage first). Luckily I didn't plant too many (I may dig up the first ones I planted, almost two weeks ago, and try removing the hard coats). I also just read that this rare species readily crosses with Beta vulgaris, so I'm very much optimistic about its potential. It doesn't seem many crosses have been made, despite the two sharing chromosome counts.

I'm also interested in this line mainly for a perennial chard, but it might be possible to develop a beet that grows like a horseradish, with roots that could be harvested from while allowing the plant to continue growing. Not sure if that would be of any value (I understand the B. macrorhiza root is large, long and woody), but could be fun to try anyway.

Here's a photo: www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/dispimage.pl?433985

[gregmartin]

Wow Nate, did you have any luck with the B.macrorhiza? Any idea how hardy it is?  Looks like GRIN has two accessions, but they don't seem to be currently available.

Cesar, do you still have any seeds? Would love to try. I'm with you guys and am interested in perennial chard breeding.