YOUR GROWING NOTES

General tips / questions on seeding & planting

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Wellie
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With every season of every year, growing fruit and veg can vary SO MUCH, and I just wondered how you keep a record of what you grow, when and how.

Do you keep a day by day diary recording temperatures, weather, and what you've done?
Do you just keep an on-going notebook?
or do you keep a page to a plant kind of record and note down everything religiously as you do it?

With loads of Newbies joining the forum, and with the likes of me 2-3 years growing, and lots of you with far more years than all of us put together, I reckon it's a subject not very often tackled, and SHOULD BE.

I think people have become shy of writing things down, and making a note of when you sowed something, when it germinated, when you pricked it out, potted it on, planted it out, fed it (and with what exactly at each stage) and first started harvesting, and when your last harvest was before you cleared the crop to enable another sowing or transplanting.

One of the most difficult aspects I have found is 'continuity' and when one crop has finished, to replace that empty space with something that is going to give you a second crop before the first frosts arrive, which means FORWARD PLANNING, not just thinking "oh, that space is empty now, what can I sow there now then?" because you should already HAVE something ready to transplant into that space, not just be starting to think about it.

It's all very well reading and studying every book on your shelf, but without the first-hand knowledge and experience from people that you know and trust, it's a veritable lottery and I think there are LOADS of you out there that can help the Newbies to the Wrinklies with some tried and tested or completely 'off-the-wall' approaches.
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Chantal
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I have everything on an Excel spreadsheet on my computer. The type of veg, variety, seed company, sow from-to dates, when I sow in the greenhouse/outside, when I plant out, the yield etc. It works well for deciding what to grow and when and whether to have another go next year. :D
Last edited by Chantal on Wed Oct 25, 2006 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Piglet
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I keep a diary and transfer it to pc every week or so adding any relevant pictures, like a personal blog. As for religiously planning crops, well as you cannot tell exactly when ground will be free I sow what I want to grow in modules where possible giving me some freedom to move crops about.

As for continuity I find that succesional sowing little and often keeps the beds full with a constant trickle of harvestable produce. I dont want 20 lettuce all in one go for example. I also plan out beds for the year when crops cannot be grown easily little and often, for example I have leeks in modules ready to go out once the broad beans are done, but they may go into the bed where the new potatoes were if that comes free first. The flexibility works well and by rotating different plant groups in the bed over a season the soil stays in good order. I must say though that by continuously keeping my beds in use they do need and indeed get lots of organic matter dug in in the winter and something like chicken maure pellets added between crops.
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Allan
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I admit not to keeping full records of what I have done but I do make a comprehensive list of seeds in stock and ordered. I do sometimes list the sowing dates but it is always recorded also on the plastic markers with the plants.The use of modules gives a great deal of flexibility but so much depends on what the weather allows one to do, for instance rain ruined my chance of sowing green manure yet again. Experience has taught me that I can for instance break all the rules on when to move strawberries even in flower and still get a good crop, I can keep onions and leeks growing in pots, yet tomatoes are best planted at just the right stage, runner bean plants will get into a tangled mess within a week, etc.
The most valuable record for me is where I have lists of the best cultivars, their sowing and harvesting windows of opportunity and their best suppliers and any special requirements.
Whatever your scheme, it is only worthwhile if you can keep it up.
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Piglet wrote:As for religiously planning crops, .....


Piglet that's my method,


I always pray they'll come up alright.


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Chris
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Hi Wellie

Good question.

I keep notes in a traditional exercise book - the cheaper the better. I use ball point pen or pencil - felt tips don't last. There are several elements to each year's record:

- a list of sowing dates

- a diary of events and observtions filled in when I feel inclined

- a plan of the plot showing what was grown where with notes of sowing and harvesting times (I like simple visual records)

- a resume of the year with notes for next season (done about now as part of the diary)

- dates of seasonal events e.g. first flower of different species, frogspan and first and last frosts etc.

- thumbnail pictures to accompany the diary (a recent development since I bought a digital camera).

- notes and key contacts at the back

- newspaper/magazine/KGF articles as inserts

I have experimented with computer records but find the hand written notes easier to complete, more accessible (all 30 years are in a single folder) and more durable (the records I kept on an Amstrad in the 80's are long gone). I can access the records in less time than it takes to switch on the computer and can fill in the book in the gaden, greenhouse or wherever. And it costs about 15p per year.

This has worked for me for the last 30 years - but the method is not so important as finding some way to record hat has happened so that we can learn fom our experience.

I look forward to other ideas.

Chris
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Jenny Green
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I tried keeping a diary for a season or so but found I never referred to it, so didn't bother again after that. With seed ordering, I look in my seed box in early spring and late summer and see what needs replenishing, rather than having a strict seed ordering system. I used to find I wasted a lot of seed through over ordering and this method suits me better.
I tend to refer to mags like TKG to remind me when it's a good time to sow something. I get on okay with growing most things.
Rather haphazard I'm afraid but gardening is a true pleasure to me and to be too regimented about it would take a lot of the pleasure away, speaking personally.
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Jude
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I'm with you,Jenny.I tried keeping a diary but quickly found that it took a lot of the fun out of it. It's not as if I'm trying to make any money out of gardening, I just want to produce enough for my family's needs and maybe a bit extra to give to friends. I definitely do not want to be an anorak!
Not that for one minute do I think that any of the lovely people on this forum could be so described! :wink:
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Chantal
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When I look at my spreadsheets in the summer I FEEL like an anorak :roll: but during the dark days of winter when I can't actually do any gardening, it helps keep me sane :shock:

I like Piglet's idea of adding photos as I do take plenty but just leave them in Picasa. Hmm, this winter could be even more interesting... :twisted:
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retropants
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I have been winging it for 15 years now! :oops:
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seedling
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I started off with good intentions a year ago, but the steep learning curve of trying to grow anything took up the time.Now I`ve had an allotment for a year I would like to look back to see both the progress I`ve made and the things that didnt work. However as I havent kept notes or pictures I am relying on memory - HELP! This isnt very sucessful as I have a job to climb the stairs and remember what I went up for :roll: .
So next year I`m going to keep notes (if I remember :lol: )
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Jenny Green
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Well, actually Seedling, your experience is a bit closer to the truth about my lack of gardening organisation. It just makes me feel better if I pretend I chose to be this way. :)
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Wellie
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For the last 2-3 years I've been haphazardly winging it, trying to keep notes, with all good intentions, and then losing the plot and abandoning the notes, "not bovvered" until the Autumn, when it's clearing up and planning for next year sort of time, and it's THEN that I regret not keeping the notes up, every single Autumn !

So, I did keep a note of everything this year and I can't TELL you what a thrill it is now to be able to plan next year 'better'. Nothing is ever going to be remotely similar from year to year, but it still gives you a fighting chance of slotting a quick crop in before or after, or WHY something didn't grow well because of spacing or whatever....

It's not about being 'anorak', it's about organising to get the best possible use of the space that you've got to grow in, and that's where I have to, because I don't have acres of allotment to play with.

I've learned such a lot about how I've wasted available space, and had to buy Little Gem Lettuce and Radishes, Spring Onions or whatever, when with a little forward planning, I could have grown them myself and not had to buy them....
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Mike Vogel
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Yes, folks, I too have tried to keep records. I've listed when I sowed what, when they first appeared, how successful the germination, when I managed to first get a harvest and how extensive. One page per veg [usually not enough space].But when things get really hectic, i.e. during term-time, it's all I can do to keep up with the jobs, so the habit lapses. And while I admire Chantal and others who can use their computers so effectively, it takes me ages. I'm not a Luddite, but somewhere in my heart you'll find a quill pen.

Perhaps the main problem is that I'm not quite sure WHY I'm doing this. The most interesting thing is to look back over the previous year's record to see the difference [e.g.] in when I get the first crop or whether there was a late frost last year as opposed to this.

Most of the important information is in my head; I still have a memory and can remember what I did where and whether it appeared to work or not. I'll say this much as well: working on the bed method makes it very much easier to remember what has gone on.

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Weed
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A post dear to my heart....I wish I had the strict discipline within me to keep notes but I don't.

My computer skills are pretty pathetic so I faint at the thoughts of using Excel

I am tempting fate by saying to my daughter when she asked what I would like for Christmas this year.... a five year diary please!
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