After a lousy year last year I decided I'd try sowing some in modules and plant them out when ready - they are now ready to start eating - woohoo
Excellent... I have some white, golden and "dobies purple" to come... but not eating any yet. :)
Yeah module planting FTW!.... I couldn't grow them for toffeee until I tried using modules, then suddenly enough beetroot happened :D I'm trying a ball and two stump-root monogerm varieties this year before deciding whether or not to give BOltardy another go.... I like the taste but the fiddly bit of thinning down the modules can be a pest cos there's a lot of other things to be doing at that time of year.... if the monogerms taste ok then it's the end of the road of a variety I'd have had down as a nailed on favouriteonly two years ago....
I start my bolthardy and golden beetroot in modules too. I sow them in the modules thinly. When I plant them I dont bother with thinning them. They just push each other out of the way as they grow. I water the soil a couple of hours before I tease the bigger ones out and leave the smaller ones to grow.
I couldn't grow spring onions either until my buddy Tulipa told me about growing in modules. This year I have lovely spring onions ;D
Duke
I don't know what's happened to my beetroot this year. Usually a reliable cropper I haven't managed to germinate a single one ?!?!?
Alison
Yippee first time trying them in this garden, and we have some baby beets ready and some that will grow on to make larger ones. :P
Mine are a week or so away. ;D
We picked the first of them tonight and shall be eating them shortly :)
Alison, it couldn't be to do with the hot, dry, windy weather? Might be hard to get them started under these conditions.
Although while all other direct sown plants have struggled this year for me, the boltardy beetroots have done okay. No actual fattening up yet though :-\
I tried spring onions in modules and nada :P Those crafty little b****rs came up willy nilly in the allotment last year, most several months after sowing.
I module sowed also, 2 to a hole and today mum and I enjoyed the thinnings, lovely sweet golf ball sized beets. Delish. Won't bother direct sowing ever again.
No body on our site had seen module sow beetroot done before ???,well we are a bit out in the sticks if you know what i mean( ooh arhh!) ;D The chap next to me tried it this year and he has lovely beetroot. ;)
I have always had problems with beetroot, so this year I started them of in toilet rolls cut in half and at last I got success, I put them out and they are now really looking good should`nt be too long before they get onto the plat
my seedlings were pecked to bits, so not holding up much hope, I have sown some more, fingers crossed..
It works with parsnip too! perfect rows everytime :D
I've got module sown parsnips this year, and did my early carrots that way too.... two crops I've always struggled with now coming good, or at least the carrots have been adn the snips look healthy.... If that works out I'll try to sort out giving a talk on the technique to my lottie association.... they're all a bit old and I heard a lot of dentures being sucked when i mentioned module sowing root crops a while ago.... next one on the list will be Hamburg Parsley....
with fear of sounding thick.I've just seen this thread and would like to ask what a module is.Can it be a plantpak cell or does it have to be biodegradeable?
I just used standard cellpacks (24s). Planted them out when leaves were big enough, didn't both to thin and they are fine - I'm the only one harvesting on our small site . Doing so much better than later direct sowings. So much so I may resort to module only sowing going forward
Mind you fo every success there is a comeback - my broad beans have been a pain. None so far and lost autumn sown ones to snow, spring ones scorched in the unseasonably strong sunshine. Finally the 3rd lot are showing some promise - at least they have flowers on
Mine are the reuseable plastic ones. They're just more convenient (to me) than using the peat-pot type. I'll be sowing some carrots in toilet rolls (they push into a 24-cell module pack beautifully) and some more in my set of root-trainers (expensive and flimsy but a brilliant concept...)
chrisc
Sown another tray full today for a late crop of baby roots and the young leaves for salads.
Hi Ber77tie
What Duke was talking about was sowing a seed in a loo roll inner or similar, even pots made from newspaper, or root trainers, until it is ready to plant out.
I don't grow beetroot, sorry!
In the case of Duke's spring onions, I plant about ten spring onions in a loo roll and start them off at home, then plant out when they are looking sturdy but before the roots have grown out of the cardboard. They can then be pulled up in a bunch just like you would buy in the shops. There are other threads about this on here over the years, I think Tim was the first person I saw doing it with spring onions!
For parsnips this is brilliant as long as they are planted before the root reaches the bottom, as if it hits anything it stops growing downwards.
I find it really useful for broad beans too as I can keep them out of reach of mice and pigeons until they are about 6" high :)
I hope that is ok, and if I am telling you things you already know please excuse me as I haven't seen you post before as I don't come on here so often these days.
T.
I can't really sow in modules as watering is a problem, so I do like the brassicas - make a little clump of them then replant them out in rows. I don't know if they are ready but there is a small patch that seems to be doing quite well (Cheltenham Greentop, lovely flavour). I am sowing Monoruba this week for a late crop.
Quote from: saddad on June 01, 2011, 22:17:13
Excellent... I have some white, golden and "dobies purple" to come... but not eating any yet. :)
I sowed all mine in modules and quite early too.
Chioggia bolted and had poor germination for golden
Cooked some the other day and I must say that the white beetroot (detroit) were much sweeter and yet milder than the Merlin. As was the single golden beetroot.
Lots more sown and hoping for more white and golden.
I use toilet roll holders and make newspaper ones as well. Both bio-degrade easily in the soil. Maybe these are not strictly modules as such,but they do a really good job,the secret being how to master watering up to germination with them falling apart ;)