Next time you guys say I haven't planted enough .....

[reetnproper]

.... of something, I'm going to put my fingers in my ears and repeat the following mantra: "I'm not listening! I'm not listening!

Mangetout! Mangetout and even more mangetout! It's a good job we love it because we're going to be eating it until this time next year .

Wanting advice on planting out my 5 mangetout seedlings a few months ago, I posted a nice little thread and, as is always the case I got loads of very helpful advice.

However, I also got cries of: "5!!! I hope you live on your own and have a small appetite" and "at least 20-25 plants per wigwam ".

Sow I planted out my 5 seedlings and direct sowed another 5 seeds in between them and did the same with my 2nd wigwam a couple of weeks later. Now both wigwams are producing a combined average of 4-5oz of pods (sorry I don't do grams) EACH day and have been doing so for the last couple of weeks. We're over run!!!

The old lady next door has had some, one of OHs work mates has had some and I've even given a load to my little girls' pre-school for snack time (and gratefully recieved they were too). I have 20oz in the freezer and we've eaten another 39oz fresh.

And taking the "they're a here today gone tomorrow crop" comment to heart, I sowed another dozen a few weeks ago which are now growing around a 3rd wigwam because I wanted to make sure we had enough .

But I'll tell you what, Paulottie, you were so very right, they taste better than anything I've ever had from the shops and, in addition, once secure beneath protective netting, apart from having to pin them up on a regular basis, they've pretty much taken care of themselves. Thankyou so much for your advice but, if it's ok, next year though, please may I just stick to a dozen plants at the sart of the season and another dozen midway through .

Regards
Reet
x

[rana]

Come next spring and your supply of frozen mange-tout long exhausted you may well be yearning for another portion with your Sunday lunch, thinking "I wish I'd planted more!"

[lettucegrow!]

I wish I'd planted more, we love them. Is it too late to start some more? I have the second batch already going but would like another lot.

[reetnproper]

Come next spring and your supply of frozen mange-tout long exhausted you may well be yearning for another portion with your Sunday lunch, thinking "I wish I'd planted more!"

LOL. Very true . OH is already bemoaning yet another salad but with several dozen lettuce and salad leaf plants growing in the greenhouses - that's just tough. However, come January 1st he wont want to see another runner or french bean for as long as he lives and will be hankering for a lovely fresh selection of salad leaves. Then come mid June, he'll be hankering for a full roast with all the trimmings again - beans included.

No doubt next year I'll still plant tonnes of mangetout (no matter what I say), runner and french bean plants - just in case some of them fail and then (because I don't like to throw healthy seedlings away ) this time next year ........

Reet
x

[Bramble_killer]

we didn't grow enough peas last year so this year I grew 120 plants. At least we have enough to eat now.

The problem with growing a few is that if anything happens to them you've lost the season's crop.

[teakdesk]

The problem with growing a few is that if anything happens to them you've lost the season's crop.

Just like me... sowed two rows successionally and had the first row eaten just as they got to an inch or two high and the second row eaten before I saw anything!!

So I've only got a container I sowed as backup for peas this year

[zazen999]

Reet; it's successional sowing you need; rather than mass sowing.

Honest; it spreads the gluts and lengthens the harvests.

[Bramble_killer]

Just like me... sowed two rows successionally and had the first row eaten just as they got to an inch or two high and the second row eaten before I saw anything!!

So I've only got a container I sowed as backup for peas this year

I couldn't get any mangetout to germinate so shall we swap?

[sunnymay10]

Well, my overload is going to be sweetcorn, I got carried away by the postings on easy ways to germinate sweetcorn, I thought, that sounds easy, so I bought some more packs.
I have now over a hundred plants growing, in fact the whole veg plot realy, good job I've got a polytunel, there's even a few in there!
Next year, I'm not getting so enthusiastic on a winters night reading the forum.

All the best from the " Jolly Green Giant"

sunnymay.

[womble]

reet, they sound good mangetout, which variety are they?

I had 50 Oregon sugar snap and they did us (three and a half of us) for 7 very good meals. Over about two and a half weeks.
They were suffering a bit from the drought though, so could have been better.

[reetnproper]

Reet; it's successional sowing you need; rather than mass sowing.

Honest; it spreads the gluts and lengthens the harvests.

I am successionally (is that a word? ) sowing: Lettuces and salad leaves 3 week spacing, mangetouts were 5 sown then planted out as seedlings with another 5 direct sown at same time, then another 5 sown in Gh and a further 5 direct sown when these went into the ground as seedlings. Mangetout just seem to love our ground and I've built Fort Knox around them to stop/reduce sparrow damage.

reet, they sound good mangetout, which variety are they?

I had 50 Oregon sugar snap and they did us (three and a half of us) for 7 very good meals. Over about two and a half weeks.
They were suffering a bit from the drought though, so could have been better.

My mangetout are Oregon Sugar Pod.

Reet
x

[Alison]

Reet; it's successional sowing you need; rather than mass sowing.

Honest; it spreads the gluts and lengthens the harvests.

Up to a point it does although the weather seems to give the plants other ideas too . My first row of outdoor mange tout are nowhere near coming to an end yet the ones sowed 7 weeks later are starting to produce great guns. Love the things though so not a problem, think there are about 30 odd plants in each row and already finished the polytunnel ones