[Eblana]

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question!

I want to do as much successional sowing this year as possible but I also want to stick to my rotation.  Take roots as an example should I (1) sow 1/3 of a bed with carrots and leave the other 2/3rds bare, then a couple of weeks later sow another 1/3rd and leave the remaining 1/3rd bare until the last sowing date and do the same with the parsnip bed and the beetroot bed or should I (2) do a bed as 1/3rd Carrots, 1/3rd Parsnips and 1/3rd Beetroot and leave two other beds bare, with the second bed being filled the same way a couple of weeks later and the 3rd bed being done another couple of weeks later.  Both ways seem to mean that large amounts of my plot will be bare for a good bit of time, is there another better way to do it.

[Robster]

Eblana, I don't think this is a stupid question at all.  I spend a lot of thought and activity over planning what comes after what so that I have as much growing as possible around the year.  As regards the roots, I suppose I sow as much as early as I can and some things come out earlier than others and some need all year in the ground.  The thinnings are also good eating.  I generally make several sowings of carrots and beets getting them in as and when I can.  Not very scientific I suppose but there it is.

I try to have some roots, cabbages, kale, leeks broad beans onions and garlic in over the winter.

[Kevin67]

It's a brilliant Q and a lot of people get confuddled about it. I know I do and need constant reminding about it. One day I'll do a poster type thingy to remind me.

[New shoot]

I am in the same camp as Robster.  I start with a plan, but tend to bung extras in if space comes clear 

If you have areas set aside for roots it would make sense to me to go with option 2 and do a mixed bed, then a later sowing of the same.  You could use the fallow areas for quick crops of lettuce, or green manure, but it does no harm to let soil have a rest from time to time, so you could also just use the opportunity to turn the surface over and leave it.  If the later sowings of roots were all in one place it also make it easier to cover carrots and beets to make the harvest stand as long as possible if bad weather came in.

It does complicate rotation plans a bit but next year you could have overwintering stuff on the roots bed that will come out through the spring, as Robster suggests.  Overwintering onions that you can harvest as giant spring onions, through to maturity, would be an option.  Also winter brassicas that you could transplant into the beds as the first root crops clear.  Leeks would probably need to go in before any roots matured, but broad beans could be planted late autumn, overwinter for a spring crop and be out in time for a quick catch crop of beetroots and turnips for late summer/early autumn 

[Growster...]

Perfect way, News! Is there any other?

Plans are great for January, they take ages on an Excel spreadsheet, and are all coloured in, then they get changed a little in February, and by March, I've manured the wrong beds here and there, and also sown some seed in different places than intended...

By May, I'll have forgotten to sow more seeds for succession, and have to make an emergency greenhouse from old plastic, to house the tomatoes and cucumbers which have taken over...

And so it goes on, but yes, I do rotate religiously, but not necessarily in the right order!

[beesrus]

A common problem 
Carrots can benefit from sucession growing, but I would always keep them all in the same bed for netting purposes. Beetroots tend to fit in anywhere, as and when on my plot, as they don't really need any special attention. My early parsnip crop don't really need sucession sowing as they tend to be harvested for 6 months from one sowing.

My succession sowing timings tend to revolve around make do and match if there is no netting priority. It gives a bit of untidyness to the plot that I'm quite fond of.... well, when not tripping over things.
I'm trialling a new "walk in" brassica cage this year, so that might encourage me to pay more attention to the succession thing where the greens are concerned... always a fine idea, but often in the past too much of a hassle rejigging nettings.

[sunshineband]

I do try to keep carrots and parsnips confined to their bed for several reasons

1. Netting as already mentioned above
2. They don't grow well in stony soil and I specially prepare a bed for them each yea
3. Similarly, they don't like manure etc  either!

And cabbage family things have to stay together so I can keep their butterfly nets (and then pigeon nets on) so I start with say six summer cabbage plants, and then add a further six after about three weeks and then a further six... usually that bed is full then.

As the first six get eaten I use their bit for lettuce or summer radishes, and when the second and third lot are out I plant Spring Kale or turnips, as they are safe under the same net.

I  write it all out next to each bed, so I stay organised...... and then odd things turn up that get bunged in wherever I can too 
 

[Robster]

My biggest problem with successional growing.  I start off sowing and repeat sowing potting on and so on.  I do really well and sooner or later I run out of steam.  There is always a bit of space I could get another crop of peas or spring greens in.  Its between July and the mid October when I get broad beans that I seem to slow up.  Maybe next year I'll be able to keep it going.

[Kristen]

I sow almost everything in containers and plant out.  Not Carrots (i did, once, far too much faff making one-newspaper-pot per Carrot! but I do do that for Parsnips, for example, as I only plant about 50 of them).

That enables me to raise tiny quantities of plants.  For example, we use about 2 Cauliflowers a week, during the season, and they only stand (when ready for harvest) for about 2 weeks before bolting, so I sow 4 Cauliflower every fortnight and then plant out when they are ready.  I don't have rows-and-rows, as such, more of a patchwork quilt! of planting.  I have 4' wide raised beds, so 4 Cauliflowers is 2 rows across the bed, diagonally offset.  I start planting from each end of the Brassica bed, so I can plant long-season things at one end, and shorter crop ones at the other, so that the soil comes free in blocks at a similar time, but I have plenty of space so I don't worry too much about follow-on planting (I plant green manure on any ground that will be vacant for a while / over winter etc.)

[Growster...]

My biggest problem with successional growing.  I start off sowing and repeat sowing potting on and so on.  I do really well and sooner or later I run out of steam.  There is always a bit of space I could get another crop of peas or spring greens in.  Its between July and the mid October when I get broad beans that I seem to slow up.  Maybe next year I'll be able to keep it going.

It's not really a problem, Robster, it's an opportunity!

To suddenly find you have space for more peas or carrots is an absolute joy, especially when there's been a failure on the very space you want to use, and you feel it is your duty to fill it with something else!

We have hardly any space empty at the moment, as the beds are still full of carrots, salsify, leeks, spinach, bright-lights etc, and I really want to start manuring, but can't yet...

[Eblana]

Thanks for all the replies - I haven't been able to read them until now as I have had a household of visitor for the New Years - they have all just left so I can settle into allotment and garden planning I between stripping and washing bed linen!

I have my head around the roots now.  I have one bed ready for the first sowing,  I have a second bed which has over wintering greens in it which I will then use and I will probably get a third sowing of Carrots and beetroot in when the over wintering onions come out.  I never thought of just sowing 4 Cauliflower or 4 Broccoli evey couple of weeks.  My daughter bought me a nice journal for Christmas so I will use that to keep track.

[beesrus]

I think there's one other brassica thing that succession sowing can help. caulis for example can be a bit fussy and notoriously hard for lots of us to get right. With succession planting, rather than all one crop, it spreads the risk of things like the wrong compost or a particular week of bad weather just at the wrong time. A good way for beginners to get to grips with the vagaries of a particular brassica. My first sowing of swedes this year weren't too hot, but the last sowing were fantastic... I guess the weather caught the later ones just right... far too dry earlier in the year with not enough watering... taught me something.

[3759allen]

all i would say to consider is that parsnips will grow a lot taller and wider spread than beets and carrots. i found this and they tried to swamp the carrots some what.

i'm useless at successional sowing. i sow too many seeds and then refuse to waste them. i then have to many plants in modules, which i again i can't waste. then too many plants at one time in too much space and a glut.

i'm hoping to try and sow my normal amount and dib in to modules, then keep hold them back in modules and plant successional. some one on here suggested it last year and sounded like a easier way, i will up date if this woks for me in summer.

[Kristen]

My first sowing of swedes this year weren't too hot, but the last sowing were fantastic

My nemesis has been Florence Fennel. Not religiously done successional sowing, but that which I did do, over three years, never gave me a single non-bolted plant and so I gave up ...

i'm hoping to try and sow my normal amount and dib in to modules, then keep hold them back in modules and plant successional. some one on here suggested it last year and sounded like a easier way

My thought is that held back, for a prolonged period, will stress them and they won't turn out as well (e.g. may bolt instead). Will be interested to hear how it goes, 'coz it sounds a lot easier than successional sowing

[beesrus]

then keep and hold them back in modules and plant successional. some one on here suggested it last year and sounded like a easier way, i will up date if this woks for me in summer.

Will be interesting to see how that pans out, but in my experience, so many plants I know don't take kindly to being held back at all against it's roughly ordained timings. In fact, the holding back of plants for whatever reason is one of the main reasons for succession sowing itself. Succession planting out from one common sowing is surely not the same thing. Hold back a sweet corn for too long until it sulks and one might as well kiss it goodbye. It's all about catching the plant's natural momentum with the right conditions.