Successional sowing

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Successional sowing

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BahamaMama

Joined: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 2315
Location: Away with the fairies

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 3:18 pm Post subject: Successional sowing
I am not too bad at getting things to grow but I am rubbish at keeping the succession going so that is my objective for this growing year. With things that have a very long growing season (I am thinking parsnips but maybe toms too) do you bother?

mbeirnes

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 100

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 4:33 pm Post subject:

I would start with veg that will go to seed easilly....
You can sow all your parsnips at once and leave them in the ground.

Toms tend to fruit all the time they can so they may not be a good example either.

Think Lettuce,radish, beetroot, salad onions, basil, brussel sprouts(to ensure you have some at christmas) cabbages are agood example but use the different varieties and you could be at it all year round

BahamaMama

Joined: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 2315
Location: Away with the fairies

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 4:41 pm Post subject:
I always intend to continue to sow through the growing season, but the intention usually gets lost along the way

mbeirnes

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 100

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 4:42 pm Post subject:
I tend to stop sowing when the plot gets full up!!!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45434
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 4:49 pm Post subject:

BahamaMama wrote:

I always intend to continue to sow through the growing season, but the intention usually gets lost along the way

Same here

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 09 5:56 pm Post subject:
I find the later sowings catch up with the earlier, so they are ready at more or less the same time. Alice from Orkney and I discussed this on another thread, and I think that successional sowing works less well the further north you go in the UK, because of daylight length. Anything I sow after midsummer, when the days start to shorten rapidly, gets very confused.

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Sat Mar 28, 09 3:11 am Post subject:

Successional sowing works great if you have a greenhouse or sunny shed windowsill to get things going. Sow in trays or modules, plant out a month later (frost permitting), and re-sow straight away. Have three stages on the go for salads: one you are sowing (in greenhouse), one you are growing (in greenhouse/cold frame) , and one you are eating (in beds or pots outside)

Just mark the first weekend of each month in your diary to sow and plant out

Its when you sow some indoors and some of the same thing outdoors that things get complicated, this year i am going to start nearly everything off indoors regardless of time of year (helps to protect them from slugs and birds too!) I expect i'll run out of time later in the season and chuck a few seeds in direct and see what happens though!

I would be more inclined to succession-sow on hardy crops such as peas, leeks, brassicas, than i would on tender ones, as their productive season is longer (as long as you get the last ones in by July!) Later on in Spring I'll switch to sowing different varieties so I can get the winter ones under way.

I'd just do the one sowing of toms, chillis, courgettes, runners etc, only doing a second if some fail to germinate. The only exception to this might be French beans, who seem to crop all at once. Keep some toms in at the end of May and put some out, the indoor ones will crop earlier, you should get a good run through most of the summer. Your toms should keep producing trusses till you have to pinch out the tops - and in our climate they take an age to ripen anyway. Chillies will crop twice indoors, and keep going till November, although the second crop won't be as big as the first.

Parsnips i would do one sowing and leave in; Carrots I would go for a couple of varieties that will see me through the seasons, you can't start them indoors. Chard, oriental salad leaves, and rocket especially do well over winter as cut-and-come-again - just make sure they are in the ground by July, August at latest.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

BahamaMama

Joined: 21 Sep 2006
Posts: 2315
Location: Away with the fairies

Posted: Mon Mar 30, 09 8:37 am Post subject:
Thanks Nettie - that is really helpful.

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Mon Mar 30, 09 10:15 am Post subject:

Its worth considering what you (and your family) really like a lot of too. I sowed a succession of salad 'greens' (Mizuma, Rocket, Coriander, Pak Choi) etc, virtually all the way through 2007 - by the start of last year we were heartily fed up with eating them!

This year I have started with a list of what we really like and have planned to have lots of them, but only for a limited part of the year so we won't get sick of seeing/eating them.

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