Sometimes, less is much more, so whether you possess an allotment, large kitchen garden or just one single raised bed, you should use successional sowing to ensure a steady, regular and appropriate supply of vegetable throughout the growing season, rather than a glut all at once. Basically, using the principle of little and often, it involves extending your harvest by sowing a row every few weeks or so. Quick growing crops such as French beans, peas, spinach, salads and carrots lend themselves to this way of cultivation. This way you can ensure a regular, fresh supply of vegetables that otherwise would perish quickly under storage conditions.Other varieties that are prone to bolting (growing less leaves and moving into flower and seed production) such as rocket, spinach, broccoli, cilantro, basil, cabbage and lettuce especially need to be sown successionally.If you sow the longer fruiting crops such as courgette, cucumbers and runner beans and sweet corn in two batches, spaced a few weeks apart, you can optimise produce availability well into the autumn. Read for more
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There are four key methods for successional planting.
1) Same Crop, staggered plantings.
Here you'll need to space out your plantings of the same crop, to around every 2-4 weeks, or when the plants in the preceding sowings are well developed, with four true leaves for leafy crops, or are around 5cm (2 inches) high in the case of peas or 10cm tall (4 inches) for beans.
Many vegetable put all their effort into creating a first flush of produce and then fade within the season, giving smaller and weaker yields. By employing a staggered approach, sowing more seeds as the first plants start to fade, you will ensure a regular supply of optimum produce over the longer period. Harvest mature, whole plants once they reach their peak, which will get light, water and space to neighbouring plants and makes room for more sowings.
2) Different vegetables
Some crops, like peas, have a very good short growing season, so the space they began can be used to grow a later season plant such as aubergines. Visit for more raised reds in Manchester.
3) Shared Space
Many vegetable could be grown side by side very well, and may even help control pests, such as growing quick maturing radishes, which loosen the soil, ready for late sprouting carrots. Plus growing leeks or spring onions next to carrots may help to deter carrot fly. If you are really short of space, why not sow some veggies between your flowers in the borders! There are no rules to say you have to keep them separate and a few lettuce plants will look very good interspersed amongst the flowers!Variety is the spice of life and if you want to keep a regular supply of salads going this season, chose a range of varieties for continuous cropping. Lettuce Little Gem and red gem variety Dazzle and carrot Marion are ideal for successional sowing, but the main crop, later maturing varieties are also capable of being sown little and often, and once mature, they remain in good shape for longer.If sowing outdoors, sowings can be produced every person to four weeks, from Mid-April through to late summer. Indoors spring sowings can be started off in March.
Sow seeds thinly, in short rows, and if the seed is very fine, use shallow drills, watered first, prior to sowing. Dont forget to label your rows, and space apart according to the instructions on the seed packet. By continuing to keep an eye on how well the seeds are growing, you can exercise when to re sow. Dont forget to keep plants well watered. Wood BlocX raised beds are ideal for sowing short rows in succession, and make for easier harvesting too. As with any sowing, ensure the soil is well dug in with organic matter (except for carrot sowing, as it makes them fork and grow into weird shapes!).For that smaller sized wooden planters that Wood BlocX offer, use baby varieties such as carrot Atlas, an early maturing type which has round smooth roots that may be harvested at 2- 3cm diameter. It grows well in any soil and has a good fungal resistance. Baby Beet Action is a very sweet and tender variety, which still retains its round shape if sown quite thickly, and they can be harvested when they are about an inch in diameter.
Wooden planters are also ideal for growing salads on a cut and come again basis, harvesting the larger leaves by cutting them as required, leaving the smaller leaves to grow on for cutting later on. Then sow another crop about three weeks later.Some cultivars do not need to be sown successionally, such as as aubergines, peppers and tomatoes as they produce fruits over a long period, hence are self regulating. Similarly, those that store well, like onions and garlic, need not be sown successionally either, neither do varieties that need longer to mature, like sprouts and leeks, which are best left to over winter in the ground, for picking as required. Read for more
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