[Janeymiddlewife]

So.......

do you plant half or a quarter of a row, keep the fallow end weed free & then plant every fortnight or so, or do you just wait to harvest and then repeat sow - do you stagger rows or what? I'm thinking for things like carrots, beets, little gem, spring onions etc?

[mumofstig]

Work out how many of the crop you want to use in a fortnight. say 6 lettuce, so after first sowing, every fortnight resow about 10 or so to allow for some duds and so on all through the growing period. This is how i do it anyway
If you were to wait till harvest of first lot you would have several weeks before next lot were ready   By sowing every 2 weeks you are always eating fresh new lettuce/salad. Lovely
For things like spring onions (possibly carrots?) that stand a long while sow half a row, then a month or so later sow the rest. 

[Janeymiddlewife]

Thankyou MOS - you are obviously a very sensible person - I only realise i need more when I've got 2 little gem left - you reckon to sow about once a fortnight then - yikes 

[Bombers]

Yes as MOS said., about every 2 weeks or so with lettuce and spring onions.

Carrotts will keep until you need them,

 I dont eat much Beetroot,so I will probably only have 3 short rows, sown 2-3 weeks apart.

I would double the quantity on what you think you might need. You can always give it to Family/friends.

[DD.]

I posted on this thread how I go about my lettuce. It really is a good habit to get into.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=38875.msg462106#msg462106

[Celery]

I alway use cabbage plants which a fellow allottmenter goes and collect.  They are used in the field around Boston to feed the supermarkets.The plants cost 6 pence each, which is a bargain, The only problem is the pigeons so you need some devices to keep them off.

                                                             celery

[Kristen]

I grow in 3.5" / 9cm pots, except for roots (thing that don't like being transplanted like Parsnips and Sweetcorn I grow in Richy Paper Pots and transplant out whole, carrots I grow in containers).

This gives me a lot of control over the number of plants, at the cost of some fiddling pricking out and potting up / on etc. and as mumofstig recommends I sow for the number that I use in a given period.

I record the number I plant out (at each planting) and then against that whether it was enough, or not, and change the quantity next year. I also record the date of First and Last harvest (actually when it was ready, and when I think it would stand until, if I have harvested the last one before then) to form an idea of how often I need to sow.

Trouble with sowing in a drill, IME, is that they come up when there is a rain shower or similar, so sowing now may give first harvest two weeks earlier than expected, or two weeks later ... sowing in seed trays gives me more control - but folk may just think me too much of a control freak?!!

[celjaci]

The row thing works out much better if you have raised beds or lazy beds as you can do a few short rows across then a few more rows later.

If you can get your head round the successional sowing thing ( notebooks help) you can make much better use of your space and have a longer supply of young, fresh veg, rather than a few young and fresh followed by others of increasing senility. Its also spreading your bets, some at least will be in optimum conditions and you will never get total failure.

Keep tweaking a few bits every year - it can take a lifetime to master!

[South Downs Wayer]

Thanks DD I book marked that one.

[Hampshire Hog]

Don't forget that with lettuce you can sow a short row then transplant the seedlings as they grew leaving some still in original position. The ones you have transplanted will have their growth checked to some extent and therefore mature after the ones in the original row

Cheers HH