What Causes the Tops of Beet Plants to Disappear?

Insects

• Insects such as the flea beetle and beet webworm can devour leaves of young beet plants overnight. Early signs of an infestation include small holes cut into the leaves or semicircular holes at the edge of the leaves. Leaf-eating insects can be controlled by planting companion plants, such as mustard, that the insects can eat instead or by introducing beneficial insects such as lady beetles and praying mantis to your garden. A squirt of insecticidal soap on the leaves also helps.

Slugs

• Slugs can eat whatever plant you most want to grow. They'll ignore every dandelion in your yard, but as soon as your beet tops emerge, slugs seek them out and gobble them up. Watch for their telltale slime trail near your plants. Solutions include picking slugs by hand at night and destroying them or placing shallow cups of beer set so the lip is at ground level around your garden. Slugs prefer beer over beets any day.

Rabbits

• It's not just a joke from the cartoons. Rabbits really will make your garden disappear. Insects and slugs tend to go through only a plant or two each night, but rabbits will gorge themselves on your beet tops. Rabbits are smart enough to get around most barriers, so your best bet at control is a motion-sensitive sprinkler or noise maker to scare them away. This also deters deer that will perform a disappearing act on your garden.

People

• Many people enjoy the tops of beets as a side dish or salad addition. Beet tops can be harvested as the root develops as long as you only pluck a few leaves from each plant. If you send your loved ones out to collect a few beet leaves for dinner, remind them not to take all the leaves from one or two plants.