Shiraz Tall Top

Shiraz Tall Top came out of an early-2000s organic plant-breeding collaboration involving the Organic Seed Alliance, Dr. John Navazio, Steve Peters and a group of cooperating farmers, and it is among the more frequently cited successes of that programme. The breeding target was two things simultaneously: foliage tall and lush enough to sell as a leaf crop, and roots selected under organic conditions for resistance to Rhizoctonia dry rot — the rot behind what growers call Ugly Beet Syndrome. That makes it an unusual open-pollinated beet in that it competes with hybrids on field performance rather than on heirloom appeal; Plant Good Seed goes as far as calling it the best open-pollinated beet currently available. Market growers run it as a dual crop, bunching greens early and lifting clean round roots later. Some sellers list it as Shiraz Early Tall Top or simply Shiraz.