Topic: Todays stupid question!

[piglit]

I did warn you all that if you continued to be so helpful you would never get away from me!! Anyhow todays question is about how many plants of each type I need to give a reasonable crop for 2 people.  I already know that 24 courgette plants is somewhat excessive and have been giving the little poppets away to all and sundry.  But what about French Beans?? How many plants do I need??? And runner beans and peas?? And sweetcorn and sprouts?? I would particularly like to know about French beans as I have about 20 plants but someone said 2 would be enough and someone else said I needed 40.  Dr Hessayon is mainly very helpful but I cant relate to 30lb per 10ft row! I need to know plant numbers!

Many thanks in advance,

Alice

[Multiveg]

Bother, was going to almost answer your question, but the book with the answers in, is in the shed at the allotment. One thing you could ask yourself, is, do you have enough freezer space for an excess of veg....?
I think 20 plants would be ok, but you may need to freeze some of the beans.

[tim]

Beat me to it!
1. How many mouths?
2. Do they all like all those things?
3. How big is your freezer.
4. Can you 'bottle'?
5. Can you pick regularly? = Tim

[ina]

Family of two:
Courgette, two plants and still plenty to give away.
French beans, we have 90 plants, freeze loads and lasts all winter.
Swiss chard, I guess about 30 plants (cut and come again) and do the same as with the beans.
Corn, you can figure out more easely since you can count cobs.

About bottling as Tim suggested. I know that it used to be done a lot but I would personally never bottle beans, most other thing yes but not beans. Because there is no acid in beans the chances of developing botulism is higher in beans than in most other things.
If you plan on freezing (we bought a 220 liter freezer just for the lottie stuff), some seed packages list whether the produce is especially suited for freezing. I found a big difference between the French beans, some turned to snot once frozen and some do remarkably well.

[gilgamesh]

The old way of preserving beans was by salting them - alternate layers of sliced beans and cooking salt. To prepare for the table, soak overnight, water change, bring to boil, water change, and cook. They will last you into the "hungry gap" when there's nowt but kale and cabbage, but not a full year.

[Multiveg]

Found my book - this is for 2 adults and 3 children (self-sufficiency)! the rows 15ft long!

Broad Beans - 3 rows
French Beans 5 rows
Runner Beans 1 double row
Beetroot - 1 row for summer use, 2 rows for autumn/winter
Broccoli (purple sprouting) 6 plants
Brussels - 20 early, 20 mid-season & 20 late plants
Spring Cabbages - 3 rows
Summer Cabbages - 2-3 rows
WInter cabbages - 3 rows
Carrots - 2 rows of early, 2 rows of maincrop
Cauli - 15 spring/summer, 12 autumn and 12 winter plants
Celery - 1 row
Courgettes - 6 plants
Kale - 2 rows
Leeks - 3 rows
Marrows - 4 plants
Spring onions - 1 row
Onions - 100 bulbs
Parsnips - 2 rows
Peas - 6 rows
Radish - 2 rows
Shallotes - 1 row pickling, 2 rows cooking
Spinach - 3 rows summer, 2 rows for winter
Swedes - 2 rows
Toms - 6 plants bush and 6 plants standard
Turnips - 2 summer rows, 2 rows for winter.

[tim]

Agree about care in bottling - & it is much more labour-intensive than chucking it into the freezer. But - I believe that the end result is better in some cases. Like beans - & even corn. And fruit, certainly. But we do use a pressure cooker. = Tim

PS MV - what a helpful answer. Oh, & piglet - just divide planting distance into length = number??

[piglit]

Thanks for the replies.. I will have to get planting some more beans, hope it isn't too late.  I don't mind so much if I can't store things, but I would like to be able to eat a few meals of each 'crop'. Will I get 1 cob per sweetcorn?? Is that optimistic?

[tim]

Depending on variety, 2-3. = Tim

[ina]

We used to eat salt preserved beans when I was young. One type was white beans mixed with shredded runner beans. Name? Bare buttocks in the grass.

[Mrs Ava]

Oh Ina, you have made me laugh...first you talk of snot then bare bums!  Our boy has come up to see what mummy is laughing at!   ;D ;D ;D ;D

[ina]

Oh great and I didn't even try very hard!
A day not laughed is a day not lived right?
(Psssssst, I'm at work, does that explain me being a bit silly maybe?)

[ina]

Thanks for the replies.. I will have to get planting some more beans, hope it isn't too late.  I don't mind so much if I can't store things, but I would like to be able to eat a few meals of each 'crop'. Will I get 1 cob per sweetcorn?? Is that optimistic?

I doubt that's optimistic, growing less than one cob, like half a cob, now that would be something!

[kingkano]

Some of those quantities sound huge hahaha Is it from an old book MV?  very interesting and informative list tho.

I must say I had 2 courgette plants and had almost enuff last year, and gave a few away.  So what do I do this year, plant 8 hahaha.  ::)

But then I had only 15 runner bean plants and we had that coming out our ears, froze enuff to last till xmas too.  Guess its quite variable.

Ken

ps I've got 8 cucumber plants now, blinkin f1 seeds germinating every single 1.  Is that gonna be alot?? haha

[derbex]

We were ok with one and a half cucumbers (that one struggled a bit). Just started eating this years.

Jeremy

[Dunc_n_Tricia]

I know courgettes supply about 20 per plant, but how many cucumbers can I expect? I've never grown them before, but put 5 plants in the lottie yesterday - do I need to open a market stall or will that be OK?

 :-*Tricia

[kingkano]

Depends on variety.  20 per plant for cucumber wouldnt be unusual.  Some of the new F1s can do 50-100 per plant though (although they do market this as a selling point so you would probably know!!).

Think I got about 10-15 off each mine last year because I didnt look after them.

Hope that helps.

[trevody]

I don’t think anyone has mentioned drying the beans to store, nearly all varieties can be dried and then used later added to soups and stews.
 ;D ;D

[Hot_Potato]

 ::) Well I didn't realise that...just thought once you'd dried them off, you saved them for next year to sow again....thanks trevody.. ;)

[gavin]

Broad beans dry too - lovely, meaty flavour!

All best - Gavin