[RJR_38]

This is something I want to try and get right this year to minimise gluts! However I never know how far apart to do things. For example:

Lettuce - I have 12 plants at the moment just getting their first set of true leaves (sown about 10 days ago). When should I sow my next batch?

Peas - I did my first row this weekend and have 2 more rows I want to sow - again, how long should I leave it?

Beetroot - not sown any yet but this is something else I think I should be doing successionally.

Anything else I can't immediately think of and should be spread out!

[DD.]

Lettuce is easy with this simple regime:

A small pinch in a pot.

Once big enough to handle, transplant into seed tray, (I do 15 in a large tray). At the same time sow another pinch of seed.

Grow the first lot on until they have at least 2 pairs of true leaves, then plant out. Then transplant your second lot of seed into the now empty seed tray and sow a third pinch.

Keep repeating the process and without having to think about it, you're assured of a succession of lettuce rather than a glut and a packet lasts years!

Peas:

I sow the lot in one go, all quite early. It gets it over with and helps avoid the pea moth which you get with later sowings if you sow sucessionally.

[RJR_38]

Ok, I might try your lettuce method DD seeing as how all your other tips have worked for me! I sowed directly into modules and thinned 1 to a module at the moment but your method sounds easier....

Ans as you are the pea king I will sow my other 2 rows of peas at the weekend

[gobs]

Radish, khol-rabi (the little ones). Some grow cauli or beetroot all year round, we are hooked on broccoli. You can get 3 lots of them easily a season. Carrots I also like to sow 3 times - when I get round to - early and late finger carrots with the mains. Broad bean can be sown just about all year round.

[Salmo]

Peas usually need about 3 weeks before sowing the next lot. Wait until the first lot have emerged and have expanded their first leaves and sow the next ones. If it is warm this will be shorter, if it is cold it will be longer.

Another way to spread things out is by growing different varieties that mature earlier or later. Potatoes are the prime example.

[al78]

I believe some varieties of carrot can be sown every three weeks or so to give a continuous supply from June to October.

You can also sow cut and come again crops like kale and perpetual spinach where you pick what you need and it keeps supplying throughout the year.

[RJR_38]

Thanks for the tips! I don't grow carrots as the soil here is far from ideal for them and the amount of work I would have to put in to not get much back isnt worth it - especially when they are so cheap in shops. I may also try some more broad beans once I buy some more seeds as I love them and my sowing failed this year

[Salmo]

Broad beans are interesting things to try to grow in succession. You can plant the second lot when the first are well advanced only to find that the second lot cheat and start to flower when the plants are quite small so that all produce pods at the same time.

[mumofstig]

Peas seem to catch up as well 

[Goosegirl]

I have tried it a couple of times in the past but found that the later ones soon catch up with the earlier ones when the weather gets warmer. I'm going to leave soing any more brassicas for two months and see how it goes.

[gobs]

Surely, one can get 2 crops out of them a year. Look in the other thread, they are talking successional runner beans.

Obviously, the weather will have an effect and as Salmo points out variety will also matter, refer to your seed packet for maturity times.

[RJR_38]

Ok, so consensus is that successional peas are a no go. I am just trying to minimise the gluts 

[Goosegirl]

Personally, I'd give it a try. Sow some now, then some more in about 2 months time and see how it goes this year.

[DD.]

The later you sow peas, the more prone they are to pea moth & mildew. That's why I strike once and early!

[beesrus]

Mildew is rarely a wipe out thing for a second pea crop sown in early June. I have never been disappointed. Enviromesh will sort out any pea moth netted over a manageable second crop. Maybe divide one row in half as an experiment to check how your climate suits.
I seem to have problems with late beetroots, so sow just the two crops. March and May, early netting to avoid chomping. But they harvest over such a long time, it feels like succession cropping.