How much do you sow? Quantity advice needed

[WishIWasAWalton]

Hello All,

I've been (trying) to grow edibles for four years now and i still find it hard to workout quantities to sow, that will keep my family of three in our desired fruit and veg.

I think i have finally mastered courgetes, raspberries, potatoes, rocket and salad leaves, cauliflower, sweetcorn and broccoli.

Due to my poor results with parsnips, carrots and onions means i have never got it right, but this year i'm determined to get them going and i want to ensure i get a reasonable harvest.

How much of these veggies do you sow? and what kind of harvest do you get?

Isn't the sight of March around the corner just so exciting!!!

[oldherbaceous]

Evening W.I.W.A.W, this is a little tricky really, but with your onions can you just work out roughly how many you need and buy that amount of sets.
Try and get a good keeping variety.

Regarding the parsnips maybe you could try
pre-germinating them, there has been a few discussions about that on the forum over the last couple of weeks.

And as for your carrots, if it's a germination problem it is nearly always because they are drying out once they have started to germinate, or slugs eating them as they come through the soil.

[richard p]

very few of us get it exactly right, you either havent got enough or get sick of eating the glut, there are so many variables over which we have no control that to ensure not being short you have to aim to overproduce and accept that you will end up composting perfectly edible veg.

[FredFromOssett]

I usually work on the principle of fill the plot with veggies. That gives some for the birds, some for the slugs and the odd one or two left over for me. What doesn't get eaten makes perfectly good compost to put on the plot for next year's over production.

[John]

Hello WishIwas
This is a difficult one. You always need to try to grow more than you'll need so that you don't go short of anything. Its not too difficult to work out how much your family needs each week/month and then work back to how much you should be growing. Surplus can always be given to family or friends. My local church has a monthly coffee morning so much of my surplus goes there to increase funds.
I also have a small flock of chickens and they are always happy to convert surplus veg. into lovely fresh eggs!

John

[Sue]

Hi WishIWas

Parsnips are tricky as you only get a limited window to sow them in.

Carrots and onions are easier, especially if you grow shallots and Japanese onions as well. The Japanese bunching onions can be pulled as spring onions or left to swell so are very useful. Also look out for Welsh onions in the herb section in the garden centre. These are perennial plants you harvest as cut and come again.

I've started some module trays of beetroot and Japanese bunching onions today for an early harvest and will do regular rows of beets, carrots and various onions through the spring once the soil warms up. I also grow small stump root carrots as a container crop over the summer.

Sue

[Johnboy]

Hi Sue,
You say that Parsnips have a limited Sowing window but you can sow them from February to April inclusive which to my way of thinking is quite a long time. Certainly time to resow if there is a failure along the line.
Wish I was a Walton,
With a name like Johnboy I have lived with such things as 'Good night Johnboy' for years.
I do not have any problems with Carrots and I put this down to bed preparation and the use of netting and Slug Pellets. I am now using the Advanced Slug Pellets that are quite harmless to everything other that Slugs and Snails.
JB.

[John]

I agree with JB about sowing times for parsnips - it is quite a wide window. It's always seemed to me that it depends how big you like your parsnips - early sowings can give you big roots but I prefer the later sowings for small roots that can be roasted whole or halved. They have a more delicate flavour as well.

As far as carrots are concerned, WIWAW, a good thread to read on the forum is this one:

viewtopic.php?t=4451&highlight=carrot+johnboy

where JB, myself and others have all put in our sixpennyworth on carrot business.


John

[cevenol jardin]

do you keep good records of what when and how much you sow/plant. I'm asking because i think it helps to get the balance right. It also depends what you and your family like eating the most. I can't seem to grow too much garlic or tomatoes or winter brassicas.

I don't like freezing crops and would rather have them fresh as they come, several small sowings help with this so i sow a 10ft row of French beans 3 times in the year. I have reduced the number of courgette plants until i now only plant out 4 plants twice in the year April and July. But for tomatoes i grow loads because i make tomato pastes or dry them to store over winter. Last year i grew 42 tomatoes plants which was just about right but could still have been more so this year I'll grow about 50. The same with chillis and peppers.

With veg for storing it is actually easier to work out the volume e.g. Last year i planted half a kilo of garlic bubs but we ran out of garlic in the kitchen mid January so this year i doubled the quantity and planted 1 kilo of bulbs = 4x17ft rows. Same with the onions so i have tripled the volume of onions by seed and sets.

The other thing that helps is to work out what you want to harvest in which month and work back the sowing/planting dates as many crops do have a wide window or can be grown undercover.

[WishIWasAWalton]

Wow, thanks all so much for loads of info, was my first posting and now i've got loads to think about. It never dawned on my to work it out so simply, i thought there was some secret gardeners formula that was being kept from me.

I love words like glut/surplus, but in the four years i've been trying, i'm still waiting for anything more than a glut of slugs.

Advanced slug pellets? they arn't organic are they?

My husband has just built me a beautiful hen house, and we're shopping for the fencing at the weekend, we have a poultry market near us and should purchase in March. I'm looking for a slug pellet, that i can still feed the little beggers to my new arrivals in the 'detached two storey en-suite hen emporium!!!

[Belinda]

http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/p ... ts_id=1821

I think this is the product being referred to, although not necessarily the best price available.

[Mike Vogel]

I allow one garlic head per week of the year, though that sounds less to me than c-j uses. That's probably because we don't cook evry day.

I too have had problems with carrots and intend to sow many and often this year, with slug pellets as JB recommends. I've found that 5 big parsnips do us fine for the year, given I also grow salsify and scorzonera, but if we were to make soup then I'd need far more.

30 caulis, purple cape maturing in Feb, others later either before or after the sprouting broccoli, keep us happy until it's time to harvest broad beans, sown Oct/Nov. These are good for freezing, so grow lots. I think caulis and sprouting brocc also freeze well and can be used in stir-fries. By now you are digging the first early potatoes, planted late Feb/early Mar under previously-laid fleece and sowing french beans and other things.

Sow lots of lettuce and spinach from time to time between now and April for greens between May and July. And I think covering the whole plot is a really good idea, as you'll have lots to give away.

We are only a couple, with 2 children living away from home, who only occasionally get any of the produce.

mike

[Johnboy]

Hi WishIWasAWalton,
I feel that it is probably best to ask the cook of the household what he/she needs every week and use this as the basis of what and how much you decide to grow each year.
You will soon find out that there are things, such as Potatoes, that you have insufficient room to keep them going all year. If you grow too many Potatoes it will be to the detriment of a succession of other things. It is best to grow things that can be followed by another crop to give you another harvest later on in the year or the following spring.
eg, New Potatoes followed by Leeks that will last until the following spring. You should also have a row of Leeks to keep you going until the late leeks come on stream.
With Carrots, if you grow Early Nantes or other early variety and then alongside a couple of rows of a later cropping variety you will have Carrots to eat most of the growing season by initially thinning both early and late varieties then cropping the early variety and the later variety when ready, is put into store. It is all a matter of choosing your varieties, whatever the vegetable, and a certain amount of luck.
As Richard, so rightly says, very few of us get it right and I am no exception to that.
JB.

[cevenol jardin]

i thought it worth mentioning that when i plan how much to grow i do it with optimism expecting nothing to befall the crop. Last autumn our garden took a hiding from wild pigs and i lost nearly all our winter brassicas BUT i made up for the lost crops by sowing fast growing oriental cabbages; pak choi, Pe-tasi and Tatsoi in cells then planting them out in a safe area. I also sowed more winter lettuces, chiocories and endives and other winter leaves. I hate the thought of wasting what i have grown so i grow small amounts of most things but lots of different things and often.
Its worth having a few fast growing seeds up your sleeve to make up for any losses e.g rocket, oriental cabbages, radishes, mizuna, spinach, mustard greens etc even sprouting seeds which will be ready to eat in 3-8 days can rescue a gap in your harvest.

[jane E]

Part of the fun of gardening is pitting your wit against the elements, which are different each year. Also, trying new things.