Multisowing

[Purple Primrose]

I was just looking at Charles Dowding's website and came across his article on multisowing. It looks interesting. Would certainly save a lot of time pricking out tiny seedlings. Anyone on here had experience of it?

[Compostman2]

Yes. Used on spring onions & beetroot with success.

[Purple Primrose]

That's good to know. Thanks, Compostman2.

[Bren In Pots]

It also works with radishes.

[Purple Primrose]

Thanks, Bren.

[Penellype]

Multisowing should work for round shaped vegetables, which push each other apart as they grow. I've used it successfully for beetroot (its hard not to as beetroot "seeds" are clumps of several seeds anyway) and turnips and I also sow peas 5 to a pot then plant the whole thing out, which is a similar method. The actual crop per plant will be smaller but the crop per square foot may be larger and you have the advantage that there are more individual plants so if some don't germinate or get damaged there is more chance that something will grow.

What you can't do successfully is grow long-rooted veg such as carrots or parsnips in this way. They will get tangled up in each other if they are grown too close together.

[Plot70]

I did parsnips a few years ago and they got a bit passionate.

[Ms-T]

Plot 70 live and learn ...looks like they had a good time...hee hee.

[Plot70]

There was a big anticlimax when the other half complained that they were hard to peel.

[Purple Primrose]

Thank you, Penellype. Have you found multisown plants suffer from more disease? I'm assuming there will be less air flow between plants.

Your parsnips do look quite affectionate, Plot70. Peeling them must have been quite a challenge.

[Penellype]

I haven't noticed any particular disease with this method, no.

[Martin H]

I've only used this method for bulb onions, It works fine, they push one another apart nicely. I don't think they get quite as large as individual ones, but you seem to get more yield per square yard.

[ecudc]

I’ve done it with beetroot which worked quite well but they took longer to get to a decent size so maybe thin one row and not the other. I’m going to try it with onions this year.