ok, bear with me.....this is my first yr of growing veges and following on from the thread of how much to grow......as i'm only growing for me at this stage, i got to thinking about what exactly each seed yields.
i realise not all seeds will grow, but say carrots for example....is it one seed = one carrot?
i also realise some seeds yield plants that will grow several veges so i'll need to learn succession planting, or whatever its called, but i got to wondering about carrots/parsnips etc.
please dont kick me off the forum for being dumb...i just wanna get it right from the start and not end up with 33million carrots and 1 tomato
what are the one seed = one vegetable as apposed to one seed = one plant with several vegetables?
*goes and sits in the corner with the dunces cap on.....again*
Hunny - the only dumb question is the one you didn't ask and should have! Oh - and I haven't a clue either!
Let us be lovely
And let us be kind
Let us be silly and free
It won't make us famous
It won't make us rich
But damn it how happy we'll be!
Edward Monkton
Member of the Ish Weight Loss Club since 10/1/11 Started at 12st 8 and have lost 8lb so far!
Basically, if you eat the root (carrot, parsnip, turnip, swedes, etc) it's one vegetable per seed.
For fruits (tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, etc) it's severaal per seed.
Vegetable such as lettuce and cabbages, one per seed.
Leaf vegetables (swiss chard/perpetual spinach, spinach, leaf lettuce, etc.) you can harvest continually from one plant.
Its universal that from a single seed you get 1 plant. As there is such variation in how the plants grow (and what bits we want to eat) they can be divided into groups:
Roots - most of the varieties we grow form a single taproot. These include carrots, parsnips, salsify, Celeriac, etc.
Some 'root' crops are swollen stems: Turnips, Swede, Beetroot, Kohl Rabi - but you still get a single root per plant/per seed.
Sometimes a root will 'fork' (divide into several smaller roots) but its still from a single seed.
Tubers - these are swollen underground stems and you usually get more than one per plant: Potatoes (all kinds), Jerusalem Artichokes, Chinese Artichokes, etc. A single tuber will often send out several shoots - each one will grow almost like a separate plant and produce its own set of tubers at the end of the season.
Peas/Beans - the single pea or bean is the seed and from a single plant you might get many pea/bean pods.
Onion/Shallot sets - sets are normal onions whose growth has been halted, producing a small bulb that can be planted later - again one set will get you one larger onion. A shallot set will grow and divide so you get a bunch of shallots from each one. Onions can be grown from seed - its just slower.
Garlic - buy a bulb and split it into separate cloves (you might get 10 cloves from each) - each one can then be planted (November is best) and produce a complete bulb next year.
Beetroot/Chard - the seeds are clustered in corky capsules - so you sow a cluster and need to thin out the resultant seedlings.
Leeks/Lettuce/Celery - one seed, one stem/bunch of leaves.
Melons/Courgettes/Cucumbers/Pumpkins/Squashes - all these produce big
plants from a single seed and each plant will grow several fruits. In a good year you might get up to 20 courgettes from a single plant, maybe 2/3 pumkins per plant, etc.
Toms/Aubergines/Peppers - one seed, one plant, lots of fruit per plant!
Some seeds are very small and its not easy to get hold of a single one and place it in the ground - Celeriac seed for example is almost like dust!
So often you end up sowing several seeds in the same spot and they need thinning to give each plant room to grow properly.
yes there are some seeds that are in fact clusters of seeds. beetroot is an example.
as for how much to grow.. well it is really difficult to gauge.. depends how much germinates, how much you thin out, how much survives. i would say, do some of everything you like, and write down what you did. next year look at your notes and adjust...
Red
I like like minded people... a bit like minded anyway.. well people with bits of their minds that are like the bits of my mind that I like...
It also depends on the weather - in 2006 - really hot summer, got loads of everything. Last year - wet - hardly anything. This years going to be excellent though.............. {determined face}
I read somewhere that as opposed to thinning by pulling the 'extra' plants out, it's worth snipping them off near the soil surface with a pair of scissors. That way you aren't disturbing young and delicate roots :)
I plant my thinnings in a 'pot luck plot', just a small prepared bed away fom the main veggies and let my daughter take care of it. She has quite a bit of success from it even if it does look like your average mini garden nightmare with everything jumbled in together and no order to it!
Hawthorn wrote:I read somewhere that as opposed to thinning by pulling the 'extra' plants out, it's worth snipping them off near the soil surface with a pair of scissors. That way you aren't disturbing young and delicate roots :)
No problem. That was a lightbulb moment when I read that. So obvious, really when you think about it, yet most don't consider it because we've been taught the regular method of thinning.
That was really interesting. I never realised that beetroot seeds were actually a cluster of seeds. Thanks guys.
One point about thinning, don't forget that you can eat the young leaves of many veg (such as beetroot) so instead of thinning them just harvest the leaves as they come up and leave (ooops) the strongest to grow on.
I dont think my beetroot though.. but put a cluster or two in modules and start them off htat way, planting them out as seedling. and then let the beetroot push each other apart when they are growing. you don't tend to get huge ones, but thats ok with me
we are still eating beetroot from last year - frozen and pickled.
Red
I like like minded people... a bit like minded anyway.. well people with bits of their minds that are like the bits of my mind that I like...
