Leaf miners totally destroyed my beet crop last year as well. Grrrr. The biggest beet was the size of a golf ball, but most stayed the size of marbles and the tops were almost non existent. I live in Newport, Oregon and we have generally mild winters. I wholeheartedly understand your sister's frustration. I did not plant any beets this year either. I have some columbines that came up in the same place last year that had leaf miners as well (they didn't keep them off the beets as I read they were helpful for deterring leaf miners). This year I have been surveiling the columbines in and near my garden every few days and picking off the leaf miner infected leaves and baking them in the oven or boiling them in water in the microwave. "Luckily" I don't have a huge garden. There have been fewer and fewer infected leaves, and hopefully I will remember to come back to this blog next year to give an update as to how the beet crop is doing. But that has been my approach so far this year.
Leaf miners totally destroyed my beet crop last year as well. Grrrr. The biggest beet was the size of a golf ball, but most stayed the size of marbles and the tops were almost non existent. I live in Newport, Oregon and we have generally mild winters. I wholeheartedly understand your sister's frustration. I did not plant any beets this year either. I have some columbines that came up in the same place last year that had leaf miners as well (they didn't keep them off the beets as I read they were helpful for deterring leaf miners). This year I have been surveiling the columbines in and near my garden every few days and picking off the leaf miner infected leaves and baking them in the oven or boiling them in water in the microwave. "Luckily" I don't have a huge garden. There have been fewer and fewer infected leaves, and hopefully I will remember to come back to this blog next year to give an update as to how the beet crop is doing. But that has been my approach so far this year.