Hi everybody, dumb question allert!!! Today I bought beetroot(Detroit 2 ) (crimson globe) seeds and (onward) pea seeds , there are 350 and 300 seeds , respectivaly in each pack,
The question is: how many of each will I need for a family of 4?
How many should I keep and how many should I swop/ give away?
Does anyone know roughly how many pods I can expect from a seed (peas)?
:D :D :D
i grew about 12 plants of onward peas last year in the garden i to have a family of 4 and i found that my girls would pick them off the plant and eat whilst playing out so id have none left for a meal . this year I'm doing loads as many as i have room for what you don't use freeze (blanch ) sow in succession and get a continuous crop i would grow about 6-10 plants a time depends on how much you like peas with about two weeks between sewing's i hope this helps its also a game of trail and error some plants may produse lots some plants not so many I'm sorry if this doesn't help much but I'm growing large amounts for the first time this year i would say grow what you feel and remember for next year hope iv may have been some help from loulou
hi scotch-mist, love these questions ... this is a beetroot answer.
Imagine a typical week - how many beetroot would you want to eat per week?
Multiply by 50, then take roughly a third of the total and plant for keeping (winter fodder).
Of the rest, divide into roughly thirds again, and plant each third in succession three to four weeks apart for eating young over summer and autumn (plus clear patches for planting later crops).
The nice thing about planting beetroot in succession is that if it didn't work the way you planned, you have the chance to adjust quantities/growing methods over the season. Forgiving little fellas, beetroot ;D ;D ;D
Certainly for beet, you have to allow for failures. Do you all like beet?? Salads, hot, pickled?
Assume that they will stand for (pie in the sky) 4 weeks, without getting woody, & you eat 8 small ones a week........??
Then the ones sown 2-3 weeks later wll be coming on.
Peas? Some may get mildew, some the maggot, & you want continuity, so do sow in succession - like March, April & June. Can't have too many! And they freeze.
Sprout's reply came in as mine went!
have to agree with tim, you can never have too many peas, they vanish somewhere as you pick them :-[ ;D ;D. Just remembered, do eat your beet thinnings in salad. I stick the beet seeds onto seed tape so they are evenly spaced, which makes this easier. Jennym suggested keeping a few beet standing over winter just for the leaves.
With golden beet I like to pre-germinate - they can be very unreliable in the ground.
But SO worth it!!
thanks for the tip tim :P, I will be growing golden beet for the very first time this year and will soak! :D
Hi all, :D
Please give me some information on pre germinating beetroot seeds, I have done it with peas, are the methods the same ???
Adrian.
So soooorry!! Got waylaid trying to find a photo I did last year.
I just sandwich them in damp kitchen tissues until they have a good shoot on them. But don't leave them too long or they grow into the paper.
Thats a good idea, presprout your beetroot seeds in tissue first. Forgot about that thanks ;D
The_Snail
Have just read S.S's following comment re beetroot seed
I stick the beet seeds onto seed tape so they are evenly spaced, which makes this easier.
what is seed tape please and how do you use it??......can you use it for other seeds besides beetroot?
Thanks...H.P.
Hey hot_potato, yes, seed tape can be made with all sorts of seeds. For more on this exciting topic see http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,5605.0 including sexy_snail's recipe for gluten free seed tapes ::)
you can make them well ahead of time or a few days ahead of sowing, just allow time for the glue to dry or you will get a sticky pocket
S.S. what an interesting thread & read that turned out to be....thanks so much for the link!!...
now have I got this right....I can make these 'tapes' anytime (even in wintertime) by the method given, one day & let them dry overnight then roll them up (or cut off at lengths that suit) or even roll into small balls then store them in jars or maybe something bigger preferably with powdered milk in bottom of container to absorb dampness - enough tape for a couple of rows of 'something' would need more than a jam-jar I should think. Does the container have to be airtight.....would a plastic box i.e. ice cream carton do?
I also well remember the 'cap guns ammo'.....hated the bang!....can't bear anything that goes bang!...hate balloons.
H.P.
After reading your post I feel guilty of Slack Practice h_p :-[, cos I make mine in the evenings a few days beforehand and take them to the lottie in a basket for laying out (something to do with short term memory problems about what to plant when ???) So I've never stored them for long enough to be concerned about shelf life and will defer to winter seed tape makers who might also read this who might have better advice. I'd hope that there wouldn't be too much of a freshness problem if you made them the winter before planting time, provided the seed itself was viable - the brief contact with adhesive shouldn't start them sprouting.
Hope you get along with the idea, I am a huge fan for all sorts of reasons.
Love the dried milk angle, simply take your seed tape box to the lottie and rmember the teabags and kettle whilst you're about it ;D ;D ;D
Tim: will eat beets anyway except pickled yuuuk.
supersprout: what do you mean by taking one third for keeping(winterfodder)?
Understood everything else you said ok, thanks.
I loved the idea of pre-germinating and seed tape , but can I put pre-germinated seeds on a seed tape and still get results?
This thread has answered questions that I thought up as I read each answer.
Does that make sense?
thanks everyone.
The third for 'winter fodder' is the crop for eating during the winter, so planted as late as possible to reach maturity in late Oct/early Nov (so they are mature, but still tender and not wooody). I SOOO agree with you about pickled h_p, yuk, I keep mine well dirty in the cellar in a box, and they last well into the New Year ;D
I've found this thread really useful too! I've not pre-sprouted beet seed before but will follow tim's advice for golden beet and let the seeds sprout between layers of kitchen roll. I won't be using seed tape for sprouted seed, because I think the sprouted seed will be big enough to space evenly in a furrow. But if you decide to experiment and it works, let the world know! :o ;D
to be really honest....I wasn't so much thinking of it being useful for pre-sprouding but for the wonderful fact that you can pre-space them (on the tape) and avoid sowing them too thickly (which I always do) ......once you've stuck them to the tape with the adhesive (whatever you use) is it inevitable that they will pre-sprout??......if so, surely you can't prepare them in advance i.e. a winter's evening such as now & store them ready to 'lay' in the ground in a few weeks time....surely they'd want to start growing immediately they're sprouted - or have I got the wrong idea completely?
a bit confused! :-\..
ah, think I'm with you now h_p, when I first started making seed tapes I worried that the bit of moisture in the adhesive would start them sprouting. It doesn't seem to have any effect for the brief time the glue takes to dry, so they don't 'pre sprout' at all, just dry out and sit there. It's the spacing thing that makes me such an enthusiast too, I have bad sowing fingers but great glueing fingers ;D
argghhhh - in that case S.S....think I might set aside a few hours one evening and make myself some tape....get's more & more appealing ;)
my beetroot have always been too close together yet when I try to thin them (which I do & if big enough, will cook)...pull 'their neighbours' out of the soil!
thanks, H.P.
Hi h_p, here's a pic from last September of spinach seeds planted on tapes in the pouring rain (ideal conditions for laying seed tapes as your neighbours watch from their sheds). I harvest alternate plants as saladings until the spacing is right for those staying in the ground a bit longer.
(http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2246/plotsep057spinach7bq.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
bts it's mesh, not fog ;D
wow S.S. don't they look good!.....spinach is another thing I sow too thickly....and what a good idea to use the little ones in your salad ;)
surprised at how 'fine' the mesh is....would fleece be thicker?...I'm thinking of getting fleece to put over my broad beans when I sow them but waiting for ground to be a bit warmer altho I know some people might have already sown theirs.
It's sooooo bitterly cold at the moment and we've been told to expect some 'smatterings of snow'....sky looks full of it! H.P.
thank you h_p :-*, one of the best threads I have seen here on mesh vs fleece is http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,6562.0 - what else to do but play imaginary gardening during snowstorms :-\