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How do you decide how much plant?
Dogmum
Posts: 96
in Fruit & veg
This is my first year of growing much veg, previously it’s been mainly a few tomatoes and runner beans, with the odd pot of carrots thrown in. This year I have much more space (moved house) and I’m planning on growing a much wider range but how do you decide how many seeds to sow or how many plants to keep?
I know a fair amount of the veg and fruit I’m planning to grow can be shared, stored or frozen but I’m still unsure how much to plant.
It’s things like asparagus or broad beans, I’ve got packets of seed and there is clearly a shelf life to the seed, so should I sow all of the seeds in the packet this year? Or keep some for next year? How many plants are too many? I have friends and family I can share the produce with but there is only hubby, me and sometimes our adult son at home, freezers aren’t expandable and I don’t want to waste any.
I just feel like I have so many questions and nobody to ask them of other than here.
Thanks
I know a fair amount of the veg and fruit I’m planning to grow can be shared, stored or frozen but I’m still unsure how much to plant.
It’s things like asparagus or broad beans, I’ve got packets of seed and there is clearly a shelf life to the seed, so should I sow all of the seeds in the packet this year? Or keep some for next year? How many plants are too many? I have friends and family I can share the produce with but there is only hubby, me and sometimes our adult son at home, freezers aren’t expandable and I don’t want to waste any.
I just feel like I have so many questions and nobody to ask them of other than here.
Thanks
Tomorrow is another day
0
Posts
Years ago I'd sow a row of lettuce and then wonder what to do when there was 30 lettuce all ready at the same time.
So I now sow about 6 seeds in a pot every 3 weeks, so that gives me 2-3 lettuce each week over the season.
Every year I grow Dwarf French Beans. I now do 3-4 sowings between April and June so I get plenty of beans over a long period, but as the runner beans are ready at the same time I give most of the DFBs away.
I grew asparagus as a kid - I remember it took 3 years before the 1st spears were ready.
I grow 8 tomato plants in the greenhouse which gives lods of fruits, but they freeze well and I make soup, and the neighbours get the rest.
Congratulations on your new garden - I hope it gives you great pleasure over the coming years.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Tomatoes keep for years, but lettuce doesn't seem to keep so well. A forum member last year informed me of the lettuce 'problem' when I was having problems with germination. He was right, and when I bought some fresh seed, I had no bother.
The beans should keep well - I used to grow mange tout and they certainly kept well. There are three of us in this house, and about three plants was plenty ,and I also froze some.
Someone more knowledgeable will be able to help you with the asparagus etc.
As for how many seeds to sow, it's often the case that when you only need a few plants, everything germinates, and vice versa. Sod's Law
You'd just have to experiment with the amount you sow, and possibly accept that some seed will be wasted if it doesn't keep well. For example, I sow around 6 tomatoes - the cherry/plum types. If they all germinate, that's probably too many, as I have to grow them undercover, and I don't have a big greenhouse. About four plants is fine for us, for the length of the season. The variety makes a difference too. I'd be inclined to sow smaller amounts of most things and see how much produce you get.
Hope that helps a little - but some of the veg growers [@BobTheGardener and @Allotment Boy ] will hopefully give you more info.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Finished the ironing, I hang up clothes to put away … but I don’t. Cooking pasta or rice I look at it in its dried state and say, ‘nah, not enough’ … but it is. Sowing vegetable seeds once I have raked the bed I think I might as well plant a whole row rather than half in case some don’t germinate … but they do. Putting in canes for support I think ‘much too high for such a tiny plant. Use something shorter’ … but I shouldn’t. Plant 50cms apart. That’s 12” isn’t it? … no it’s not.
Harvest glut is quite an issue and, round here, people almost run away when they see you coming with courgettes or tomatoes as they have their own surplus to offload. I would suggest focussing particularly on vegetables that are difficult or expensive to buy and which you know you will eat - runner beans for us, for example; or produce that freezes well in a tight space such as broad beans or tomatoes as a sauce. Alternatively see if there is a community larder or fridge in your neighbourhood where you can donate surplus produce, or leave it by your front gate with an invitation for people to help themselves. I do that a lot.
https://charlesdowding.co.uk/
Also grow veg produced on tall plants, peas and beans are good choices.. asparugus pea is another, main crop peas can grow on plants which reach' 5ft producing heaps of peas.
Some plants have a dual purpose, so you can also cook and eat the leaves from beetroot although I confess I've never tried them but nasturgum, the flowers, seeds and leaves are edible and suprisingly nice.
In my last garden, in Belgium, winters were long and cold and wet and spring was late and capricious. I never got anywhere with tomatoes and peppers but managed a few chillies. I could grow sweetcorn, peas and beans but here it is too dry and I'd have to spend more on watering than they'd be worth but I can grow tomatoes and chillies and pumpkins here with the help of a seep hose or 3 and I store surpluses for winter.
Lettuce is best grown as a fast crop with plenty of water to keep it juicy so I don't bother much here but I do get good broccoli, kale, cavolo nero, beetroot, garlic, onions, broad beans, courgettes, walnuts...... Asparagus is finally starting to produce an edible crop and the soft fruits are maturing and spreading nicley. Can't do carrots or parsnips here tho and potatoes go floury too quickly. On the other hand, I do get lemons and peaches and nectarines...
Surpluses are bottled (tomato passata), frozen or shared with neighbours who reciprocate. One side has good cherry and quince trees and t'others do good cauliflowers.
For the two of us I always found 3 tomato plants was enough, and 1 possibly 2 pepper and chilli plants. Lettuce and other salad leaves are best grown as Pete.8 suggests - but I've never been sufficiently disciplined to do it.
I'm another who (after an initial burst of enthusiasm and growing all sorts) decided the best things to grow are the things you love to eat but which are difficult and / or expensive to buy locally.
Relatively expensive to buy include currants and raspberries. Almost impossible to buy in a 'just picked' state are fresh peas (love them raw) and beans.
I don't grow many veg now but I still grow many herbs - parsley, basil, chives, mints, sage, rosemary, thyme, dill, coriander, tarragon etc etc. I use them for cooking all the time and love being able to gather huge, generous fistfuls of things like parsley, basil, mint and coriander for salads and sauces.
Those little packets of herbs you can buy in the supermarket are ridiculously expensive and I haven't found anywhere locally that sells bunches of freshly cut herbs. I get extreme market envy when I see stalls in London or France selling piles of fresh herbs and huge varieties of mushrooms.
When I had raised veg beds a few years ago I planted cabbage, sprouts, broccoli and the like all in sturdy netted frames.
Somehow a cabbage white butterfly got to them and none of the veg were completely edible.
The broccoli looked amazing - big heads of steely grey deliciousness, but once I'd cut them I saw every head was full of caterpillars and their droppings!
The sprouts were thick with whitefly and the cabbages were pathetic.
I decided not to bother with brassicas in future and planted summer and autumn fruiting raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blackcurrants, rhubarb and blueberries.
All things that are relatively expensive to buy (when compared to the price of brassicas) and they all taste way better than shop bought stuff.
I still grow runner beans, dwarf French beans and lettuce, but that's about it now.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
A freshly picked carrot may taste better than a supermarket one - but not when it's full of black carrot fly holes.
The final straw was when the voles decided my raised beds made a nice home with a built-in fully stocked larder. The last year of growing veg I was really chuffed with my neat rows of beetroot and (now protected from carrot fly) carrots........until I harvested them. They just lifted off the soil. The voles had munched on all the carrots and beetroot from below leaving just a top shell and all the leafy growth.
Little bl££ders🤨