complete noob to growing requires advice

[snout71]

Hi all,

my two young daughters were fascinated by growing pots indoors so me and my wife decided to build some raised grow boxes 1.2m x 2.4m two of them (12 inches high)

i added ALOT of seeds thinking that most of them would not take. swedes, sprouts, dwarf french beans, leeks, carrotts, spring onions and onions

how wrong was i, now i have roots shooting through everywhere.

i am particularly worried about the swedes and sprouts, there are simply too many, i have about 100 shoots in two rows about 5 inches apart rows are 1.2m in length

i thinned them out a little, should i really thin them out to required spacing now or should i wait and see which ones seem to be growing better before deciding which ones to take out?

[VirginVegGrower]

Oops a possibility you could end up with a lot of compostible material. Maybe pot some on and sell at a car boot or to a Market stall holder.

[snout71]

i dont drive, so car boot out of the question, plus they are only shoots at the moment. (been growing 3 weeks)

my question is how i should thin them out, i may even build a third box so i can transplant some of them

[iGrowVeg]

I usually manage to do this with carrots (as the seeds are so small) then they are all too close together. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to see, I thin them by taking out the ones that are really really close to each other and any which are looking weaker than the others. Then wait a bit to see how they grow and thin again, so I keep the seedlings which look the strongest.

I like to thin bit by bit because you never know if your seedling may come under attack by pests and if you have thinned too much, some may be affected and you could be left with not very many.

[snout71]

how do i post a pic?
tried but its asking me for URL, but its not on the web

oh well, i will continue to thin them out bit by bit then.

do you think i should build a polythene cover for the boxes to keep pests out?
i notice a fair few flies hopping around on the compost just not sure they would benefit from being covered

[scarey55]

Hello Snout71 and welcome to the Vine.

To post a picture you need to click on the go advanced tab at the bottom and then click on the attachments icon (the one with a paperclip) and then follow the instructions from there.

[snout71]

here are a few shots, hope its worked

on the left is the sprouts and on the right is the swedes

[snout71]

and this i one of the raised flower beds, should i build a cover?



I've edited this to remove extra html - Scarey

[Two_Sheds]

my question is how i should thin them out

Wow, you have quite a job on your hands there. Be ruthless and just start nipping the tops off them.
Read your packets for the required spacings: eg. sprouts need to be about 3' apart

do you think i should build a polythene cover for the boxes to keep pests out?

No, polythene will make everything sweat and go mouldy

pests Leeks may get leek moth, carrots might get root fly attack: use fleece to cover those
French beans get eaten by slugs, watch out for those

[snout71]

pests Leeks may get leek moth, carrots might get root fly attack: use fleece to cover those
French beans get eaten by slugs, watch out for those

i read somewhere that a beer can trap will work with slugs, anybody have any luck with that?

[JamesM]

I've never done it but my parents have been using them for a couple of weeks and they seems fairly effective. I was having a look at the their patch yesterday and there were only one of two snails/slugs that i could see around the patch and more than a few in the traps.

In reply to your questions i'd say iGrowVeg has hit the nail on the head in terms of doing it sporadically but often enough that the evg doesn't end up competing too much. And as TS said make sure you look at the seed packets as everything requires different spacing.

Still, it's better to have too much germinating than nothing!

[snout71]

maybe i wont have too much trouble with slugs cause of it being a raised flowerbed????
it's about 10 inches high.

cheers JamesM will start thinning out bit by bit

[Potstubsdustbins]

Nope 10" wont stop slugs and snails they will climb Everest for a good feast. I have found the occasional snail in my radish pots and they are on top of a 3`6" wall.

Colin

[buzzingtalk]

i used slug traps to great effect last year but they did not completely get rid of them

maybe put copper tape around the beds,

or you could give your daughters a gruesome science/biology lesson late at night with a torch, some salt and some slugs

[Davyburns]

if you can smear any kind of grease around the sides without causing too much mess, that works. I use margarine, my OH wasnt best pleased.
But it only works if you do it before the slugs get into the soil/mcp

Nematodes work, although they are expensive