A few years back, I did some beet transplants in micro blocks, trying to get them germinated sooner than the cold spring soil can. Just sprouted and transplanted, then put a plastic tunnel over top. The plants stayed as 1-2" tops for quite a while. I also direct sowed a control group at the time of transplant. When the sown seed finally sprouted, it quickly overtook the transplants instead of loitering at that 2" stage. But...the spacing was much nicer on the transplants and didn't need thinning. I may well try that again this year.
On a different note, someone at the comm garden buys beet transplants...big ones, and plants them in late April. Last year, they froze in mid May with that late freeze, so they bought replacements.
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