Ruby Queen
A widely sold variety with small-to-medium, smooth, round roots of tender, sweet, deep-ruby flesh with little zoning even when slightly over-mature — good for the tender young-beet and salad trade.
Quick facts
- Type
- Open-pollinated
- Season
- Rabi
- Maturity period
- ~55–65 days
- Seed rate
- 6–9 kg/ha sown in lines (about 2.5–3.5 kg/acre)
- Expected yield
- No variety figure published (25–30 t/ha is the general beetroot figure)
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- Disease resistance
- No special resistance claimed
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Ruby Queen is an open-pollinated beetroot sold by several seed companies in India. The roots are small to medium, smooth and round, with tender, sweet, deep-ruby flesh. It holds its internal colour with less zoning than many other varieties even if harvest is a little late, which makes it forgiving for farmers selling into the tender young-beet and salad trade, where small, attractive roots matter more than size. Because several companies sell it, check the packet label and batch before you sow.
Should you pick this variety?
Choose Ruby Queen if your buyers want small, tender, sweet roots for salads. It takes 55 to 65 days, gives smooth, round, deep-ruby roots, and shows less internal zoning than many beets even if the harvest runs late. That makes it forgiving when labour or transport slips by a few days. Do not choose it for the largest roots or the highest tonnage, since no yield figure is published for it and TNAU's lecture note lists it only among varieties marketed by the private seed industry. Choose Detroit Dark Red or Crimson Globe for big roots.
Sowing & cultivation
- Sowing timeSeptember to November in the northern plains; October to December further south
- Seed rate6–9 kg/ha sown in lines (about 2.5–3.5 kg/acre)
- SpacingRows 30–40 cm apart; thin to 8–10 cm between plants
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Tender, sweet, deep-ruby flesh with little zoning
- Forgiving of a slightly delayed harvest compared to some other varieties
- Well suited to the tender young-beet and salad trade
Things to consider
- No special disease resistance claimed
- Two different beets are sold in India as Ruby Queen. One is the open-pollinated type described here, 55 to 65 days in seed catalogues; the other is a hybrid from ACSEN HyVeg, Coimbatore, listed at 85 to 90 days. Read the packet before you plan your harvest date
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Uttar Pradesh
- Maharashtra
- Karnataka
Picking young beets: sample from day 45 and book labour by the result
Ruby Queen takes 55 to 65 days, a window of 10 days. For the young-beet and salad trade that window is the whole business, because the price is for small, tender roots. A root that is too big for the tray sells for less.
Begin sampling at day 45. Every 3 days pull 5 roots from different parts of the plot, measure them across the widest point, and cut one in half to check the colour. TNAU's lecture note gives 3 to 5 cm across as the usual harvest size, but your buyer's size comes first. Write the day and the sizes in a notebook. The date on which most of your sample reaches the size your buyer wants is your picking day. Book pickers for that date, then a second round 3 days later for the slower roots.
Use the variety's forgiving colour wisely. Ruby Queen shows less zoning than many beets if the harvest is delayed, so a week's slip will not ruin the interior. It will still make the roots bigger, so the saved colour is not saved money if the buyer wants small roots. Keep your spacing at the closer end, 8 cm, to hold the root size down.
Can you keep your own planting material?
This is an open-pollinated variety, so seed from a healthy crop of your own can be sown again. Keep seed only from disease-free plants, dry it properly, store it cool and dry, and bring in fresh certified seed every three to four years so the variety does not drift.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Beetroot (Chukandar) variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Maturity | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crimson Globe | Farmers who want a quick main-crop beet with crimson flesh and no ring-zoning | ~55–60 days (TNAU) | Best plot 31.7 t/ha marketable in a Gujarat trial (30 October sowing, 30 x 15 cm) | Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar |
| Crosby Egyptian | Farmers who need a very quick beet to fill a gap between crops or to start a staggered sowing | ~55–60 days (TNAU) | No variety figure published (25–30 t/ha is the general beetroot figure) | Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana |
| Detroit Dark Red | Farmers who want one safe, widely available main-crop beetroot with deep red flesh | ~80–100 days (TNAU) | 25–30 t/ha | Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana |
| Early Wonder | Farmers near a city who can sell roots tied with their tops as a bunching beet | ~55–60 days | No variety figure published (25–30 t/ha is the general beetroot figure) | Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi |
| MSH-102 (hybrid types) | Larger commercial and processing farmers who need very uniform, high-yielding roots and will buy fresh seed every season | ~80–95 days | 30–40 t/ha | Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab |
| Ooty 1 | Hill farmers in the Nilgiris and similar cool areas of Tamil Nadu who want a beet bred for their weather | ~120 days (TNAU) | ~28 t/ha (TNAU) | Tamil Nadu |
| Ruby Queenthis page | Farmers who sell small, tender, sweet beets to the young-beet and salad trade | ~55–65 days | No variety figure published (25–30 t/ha is the general beetroot figure) | Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Beetroot (Chukandar) is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Beetroot (Chukandar) plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Germination CalculatorTest 100 seeds from the bag before sowing and see whether the lot is fit to sow.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Beetroot (Chukandar) variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Beetroot (Chukandar) into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop CalendarMonth-by-month sowing, weeding, irrigation and harvest dates for Beetroot (Chukandar) in your state.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Beetroot (Chukandar) rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Beetroot (Chukandar) seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
At what size should I harvest Ruby Queen for the young-beet trade?
TNAU's lecture note says medium roots are in most demand and are harvested at 3 to 5 cm across, 8 to 10 weeks after sowing. Seed catalogues list small-to-medium roots in 55 to 65 days. Buyers differ, so ask yours for the size they want, then start pulling a few roots at about 45 days, a little before the 55 to 65 day mark. Note the day each size is reached. Next season you will know the date to book labour for.
Does a late harvest ruin Ruby Queen?
Less than it ruins many others. It holds its internal colour with less zoning even if the harvest is a little delayed. That is not a licence to wait. TNAU's lecture note says over-mature and oversized roots turn woody and crack, and the roots still get bigger, so you lose the small, tender size that the salad trade pays for. Treat the forgiving colour as insurance against a bad week, not as a plan.
What spacing gives small, even roots?
Keep rows 30 to 40 cm apart and thin the plants to 8 to 10 cm. Closer plants make smaller roots, so for the young-beet trade stay near the 8 cm end. TNAU sows 10 cm apart and thins to one seedling per hill at 20 days. Going tighter than the range costs you the even size you are selling.
How do I know I am buying real Ruby Queen seed?
Several Indian seed companies sell Ruby Queen, so the quality varies by seller, and so does the plant. ACSEN HyVeg of Coimbatore sells a Ruby Queen hybrid it lists at 85 to 90 days, while the open-pollinated Ruby Queen in seed catalogues is 55 to 65 days. Ask the dealer whether the packet is the hybrid or the open-pollinated type, because that changes your harvest date by a month. Buy a sealed packet from a licensed dealer, check the batch number and packing date on the label, and keep the bill. Sow a pinch in a tray a week early. If many of the seeds fail to sprout, take the packet back before you sow the field.
Sourced from: Beet root (Beta vulgaris) — TNAU Agritech Portal, Horticulture, Beet root: origin, varieties, package of practices — TNAU eAgri HORT 281, Lecture 30, Ruby Queen beetroot hybrid, 85-90 days after sowing — ACSEN HyVeg (P) Ltd, Coimbatore. editorial policy.