Do you sucessional sow?

I've been keeping detailed Nerdy records this season.

Previously we've eaten what was available in the garden, this year I've been trying to grow what we need (based on estimates measured in units like "Cauliflower-per-week" and so on)

That has lead to a surprise at how short the harvest period is for many veg.

Tomatoes and Beans crop for ages of course, but things like Lettuce, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Sweetcorn and a bunch of others are all-done in between 2 and 3 weeks.

I've only been raising half-a-dozen of most things, at each sowing, and sowing once-a-month. This turns out to be wrong on two counts:

1) We don't use quite as many as 6 Cauli's a month
2) Cauli's don't last a month from First being ready to Last not having "blown"

So I need to raise 2 cauli's every fortnight.

That's a piddlingly small number ...

I raise all my veg in pots, so actually raising very small numbers is not that big an issue. its a bit of a pane on labels, and stopping plants getting mixed up; and its also extra effort having a seed-sowing routine every fortnight, instead of once a month ...

But I just cannot see anyone who sows direct, in drills, outside, doing this.

Putting aside the fact that I could grow a glut, and give the rest away, that still wouldn't get me supply each week, every week (unless I glut-sow every fortnight)

So what do you do? (or perhaps I should ask what do you aspire to doing ?)

P.S. I'm thinking about how this impacts Sweetcorn next year. I need to sow a reasonable sized block, for best pollination, but nine plants is the limit of what we can eat from first-to-last harvest, and that's a very small block. [It may not turn out too bad for the ones in the greenhouse as they are shake-pollinated :D and with no wind the pollen falls directly onto the plant itself, but I doubt its going to work for small numbers outdoors]

 

I never really got the hang of of this. Apart from anything else, many plants just won't play ball. The route I go is to try to discipline myself not to grow lots of any one plant so that succession comes by way of seasonality. I still don't get it right, mind.

 

Ah, so I could still sow, say, Monthly but only sow as many as I can eat in the "harvest" Window. So for a couple of weeks we'll have a few Cauliflower to eat, and then none for a bit - but something else will be coming along at that time.

That sounds like a good compromise!

 

Hi Kristen

I like your basic approach of maintaining a steady flow of veg to the kitchen with the minimum of over or underproduction. But that means dealing with such small quantities that you have very little flexibility. For this reason, and now that I have only two small raised beds for veg, I have reconciled myself to:

1 growing things that will "hold" for a particularly long period e.g. leeks

2 can be frozen e.g. beans

3 can be used in most lunches or dinners e.g. carrots (in other words, you can face eating them every day!)

I will also admit to growing slightly more stuff than I can use for aesthetic reasons. Yes, I know that sounds a bit airy/fairy but my beds just wouldn't look right to me if I only grew exactly what Mrs Flinty and I could eat. They would be a jumbled mess of odd plants.

And yes, I do sow successionally but only for lettuce because they grow so quickly and are so superior to supermarket specimens.

JWK - I agree about radishes; this is the last year I grow them

 

The only thing I've grown this way are Lettuces. Next year though I'm gonna apply this method to my cabbages. This year I couldn't get through them quick enough (lots of them have blown/split). Mind you it's been VERY wet since they started cropping :(
Cheers...freddy.

 

I've been fine tuning for years with successional sowing and use of different varieties to try and spread cropping as far as possible but still some things end up catching up and all coming together!

I maintain that this way you can produce more from a given area although the plot can look more messy. Actually beds can really help as its much easier to do short rows and small blocks of different things
Some of the old guys on our site always have full rows and one sowing of each thing. For a time their plot can look very orderly and very productive but it ends up with 2 or 3 cabbages, caulis or lettuce being used and the rest consigned to the compost heap.

 

Do you have a sowing plan, or anything similar, [that you could share] Lovage?