Raised Beds & Seed Tapes

[sewer rat]

Need some advice. I have cobbled together 6 raised beds, each 8' x 4' and approx 8" in height. I have access to screened topsoil at £8 /tonne so am ready to start filling the beds. What I need to know is this - if I am going to follow the three year crop rotation, which beds do I manure ? I know that there is one group of veg that shouldn't have manure added before sowing but can't remember which one.
On another matter, has anyone tried the seed tapes from Suttons - I am thinking of getting a couple (carrots and beetroot) so my four year old daughter can plant them in her own wee veggie bed along with her runner beans and peas.
Cheers
Rat

[Geordie]

Raised beds

Ok, lets try and answer this for you.

Seed tapes generally work well if for whatever reason you have problems sowing loose seeds thinly enough. They are more expensive but some of the work has been done for you. In that respect they should make it easy for your daughter to manage the job of sowing.

As for manuring, the only crops i would not recommend manuring the same year are root crops like carrots and parsnips. Invariably it will cause the roots to fork. If you manure this year, grow a different crop next year this bed will be fine the year after.

All the other beds should benefit from liberal quantities of manure. This depends a little on your type of soil and how rotton the manure is. Depending on how much you like digging manure can be left on the surface where it will act as a weed supressent and then dug into the bed in the spring.

You may also want to save a little manure to make a liquid feed for your plants.

Hope this helps

[sewer rat]

Thanks Geordie
Will manure as advised. Think I will try the seed tapes for carrots and beetroot for my daughter - think if she sowed ordinary seed this small, I would be thinning out for weeks !
Cheers
Rat

[Geordie]

Beetroot

One thing to bear in mind....a betroot 'seed' is actually a cluster of seeds, so for every one seed you plant from the packet you should get 3 or 4 plants emerging.

[Lesley Jay]

Buy seed tapes for your daughter to sow carrots because these seeds are very tiny but beetroot seeds are big and your daughter will not have any problem sowing them. Boltardy is a good variety of beetroot.

[sewer rat]

Thanks Lesley and Geordie (again). Maybe I'll just get the carrot tape for her and buy a packet of beetroot seeds.
'Scuse my ignorance but are all beetroot seeds clusters and therefore require thinning out. Are there any other "strange" seeds in the veggies that are commonly grown in the UK ?
Rat

[Geordie]

Beetroot

As far i as i know they are all clusters of seeds.

[Lesley Jay]

Wait until they are baby beetroot before you thin them out then you can cook them.

[Jaxom]

there are monogerm beetroot which has no need for thinning. I've never grown them so can't say how they taste but here is a link to the monogerm beetroot I'm talking about.Single Beetroot

[sewer rat]

Monogerm beetroot

Cheers for the link Jaxom . Might try this for my daughter, and grow Bolthardy myself.
Rat

[Geordie]

Seed tape

This is just an idea for making your own seed tapes -

take a sheet of newspaper and smear it with fungicide free wallpaper paste or mix of flower & water. Sprinkle your chosen seed in rows along the paper, leaving a gap between the rows. Place another sheet of paper on top and press them together.
Leave overnight in airing cupboard or similar and by the next day you can cut your own seep tapes or strips to suit.

I can't see why this would not work? Anybody else?

[fruit&vegvirgin]

I guess, depending on the size of the seeds, you might have to draw lines to show where they were, and also name them on the bit you've stuck on top iyswim - so you know what you are sowing where? but it sounds like a good idea.

[Lesley Jay]

I saw Toby Buckland on the TV and he was mixing parsnip seeds with wallpaper paste. Then he made a piping bag out of paper (same as you would use to ice a cake) and simply squirted the paste along the drill. He said it was an easy way to space out fine seeds.

[caz1]

seed tapes

Try what I did next year. I aquired some paper tape, cut off a strip laying on the table, I lightly sprinkled seeds of all kinds on, took to the lottie and made a drill and planted tape. Watered as usual, as the tape was paper soon lost it tackiness and broke down and I had beautifal straight lines with very little thinning. Have a go at this with your daughter. ta ta

[sewer rat]

Thank you everyone for your replies and suggestions as to how to make your own seed tapes. Will try various suggestions and keep you all posted on their progress.
Rat