How much to sow?

[Bex2012]

Now Ive got my allotment and can grow veg properly, I was just wondering how you know how much to sow? I dont want loads of stuff that goes off before we can eat it, but neither do I want dribs and drabs that we only get tasters of. Is the a guide anywhere that indicates roughly how much to plant for say two people with enough left over to give away?

[Greenleaves]

Depends really what you intend to grow, a lot can be successionally sown but lots also can be picked at various stages of growth. The biggest problem when you get an allotment is to sow everything at once and end up with a glut.

I sow beetroot root a 3 week intervals but pick some as baby beets and let others grow on. I have two sowings of runners 6 weeks apart this really extends the season. I plant 3 sowings of sweetcorn, first two are always good but third depends on the weather in September.

Brassica are always selected by type as different ones mature at different times but that said most will be quite happy left in the ground with the exception of cauliflowers.

Everyone has a different plan but treat this year as a learning curve Bex

[WendyC]

It's quite tricky to get it exactly right. Perhaps think the other way round, how much or how many do I want to eat each week. Some things are easier than others e.g. One onion set gives you one onion. Others are harder to judge.
I'd say a dozen cabbages in the ground at a time is plenty. Peas I find I never have enough so grow plenty. Runner beans I'd guess 8-10 plants will give you plenty, grow more if you like them frozen (we don't!) Potatoes I'd think about 10 each of early, second early and main crop would be enough. Depends how often you eat them.
Hope that's of help. Any other specific vegetables?

[bramble]

I would say the same as Wendy C, but be careful when sowing lettuce as they all mature at the same time. So, a pinch of seed, little and often.

[Martin H]

I'm still learning on this. For example, last year I discovered that we don't eat much more than one cabbage a month, much less than I had estimated. So I discovered I had grown approximately four times too many cabbages. So this year I'll do half as many, I have the space and it's better to have too many than too few.

[WendyC]

I'm still learning on this. For example, last year I discovered that we don't eat much more than one cabbage a month, much less than I had estimated. So I discovered I had grown approximately four times too many cabbages. So this year I'll do half as many, I have the space and it's better to have too many than too few.

First year on my plot I planted out 30 cabbage plants, at the same time, all the same variety. What was I thinking?

[Bex2012]

Thank you everyone. What we eat depends on who we are with and what shifts my OH are on. If its a huge family sunday dinner (normally around 14 people), theres loads of different veg. When its just the two of us, its normally the same 5-6 types!
I love making my own tomato sauces and chutneys, so I'll need to account for making those too... Maybe I should go and sow some more!

[Penellype]

A lot depends on what you like to eat and whether you like to freeze some veg or prefer to eat only fresh and buy from the shops out of season. Personally I try to grow all my own veg (I have bought only mushrooms and fruit in the last 2 years) and I have a reasonable amount of freezer space so I freeze plenty of tomatoes and soups during the summer and autumn. I'm very fussy about flavour and texture so I don't tend to freeze whole chunks of veg, with the exception of peas, broccoli florets, parsnips (for chips) and chopped onion. Mashed potato and cooked tomatoes freeze very well, and I puree all my soups. I'm not wildly keen on beans or cabbage and I don't eat chilis, garlic, beet greens or kale.

With all of that in mind, to feed 1 person for a year I grow:
About 65 potato plants, a mixture of first earlies, 2nd earlies, maincrop and earlies planted in July for Christmas new potatoes.
8 metres of peas, sown 1 metre at a time at 2-3 week intervals, starting with earlies, then maincrop, then a late variety (I use Geisha).
100 onions planted as sets - I grow Sturon as these store well, and they keep through to around May.
7 or 8 sowings of carrots between March and July. I grow mine in pots and use several varieties including Eskimo and Marion which will both stand over winter.
3 or 4 sowings of spinach between March and May (again I use pots)
3 sowings of cabbages, 4 at a time as I don't eat very many.
About 20 parsnips.
About 40 leeks.
4 calabrese, 4 purple sprouting broccoli and 2 brokali to have broccoli available most of the year.
Frequent sowings of small quantities of lettuces, mizuna, mibuna, namenia, peas for pea shoots, microgreens and other salad crops throughout much of the year mainly to eat as baby leaf salads.
About 25 tomato plants (sometimes more), giving me hundreds of tomatoes to freeze.
5 sweet peppers (I like the little "snackbite" ones)
4-6 courgette plants - these will provide about 1 courgette each every 2-3 days during summer, sometimes more. I use them mainly for soups.
2 cucumbers.
6 runner bean plants and about 6 dwarf french beans - 2 sowings each about 6 weeks apart.
Kohl rabi, turnips, beetroot, spring onions, florence fennel as "catch crops" in small amounts to fill spaces
Chinese celery, corn salad, oriental greens, winter spinach in small amounts for winter greens.

Sometimes you have to start again if you have a failure for some reason and sometimes you can get taken by surprise and have a glut. As long as you have room it is better to sow too much than too little - think of anything you don't use as useful compost material, feeding the garden for next year.

[Lisasbolt]

I am also another one who planted far too many cabbage and they are still sitting awaiting, they do tend to sit nicely in the ground but again 1 a month is about right for us.
I grow over 100 tomato plants per year and dozens of peppers but i freeze and jar tonnes to last all winter.
I think it is mostly a learning curve and you will learn yourself over the years but you will never get it right.

Chickens are great for all the spares!

[Bex2012]

A lot depends on what you like to eat and whether you like to freeze some veg or prefer to eat only fresh and buy from the shops out of season. Personally I try to grow all my own veg (I have bought only mushrooms and fruit in the last 2 years) and I have a reasonable amount of freezer space so I freeze plenty of tomatoes and soups during the summer and autumn. I'm very fussy about flavour and texture so I don't tend to freeze whole chunks of veg, with the exception of peas, broccoli florets, parsnips (for chips) and chopped onion. Mashed potato and cooked tomatoes freeze very well, and I puree all my soups. I'm not wildly keen on beans or cabbage and I don't eat chilis, garlic, beet greens or kale.

With all of that in mind, to feed 1 person for a year I grow:
About 65 potato plants, a mixture of first earlies, 2nd earlies, maincrop and earlies planted in July for Christmas new potatoes.
8 metres of peas, sown 1 metre at a time at 2-3 week intervals, starting with earlies, then maincrop, then a late variety (I use Geisha).
100 onions planted as sets - I grow Sturon as these store well, and they keep through to around May.
7 or 8 sowings of carrots between March and July. I grow mine in pots and use several varieties including Eskimo and Marion which will both stand over winter.
3 or 4 sowings of spinach between March and May (again I use pots)
3 sowings of cabbages, 4 at a time as I don't eat very many.
About 20 parsnips.
About 40 leeks.
4 calabrese, 4 purple sprouting broccoli and 2 brokali to have broccoli available most of the year.
Frequent sowings of small quantities of lettuces, mizuna, mibuna, namenia, peas for pea shoots, microgreens and other salad crops throughout much of the year mainly to eat as baby leaf salads.
About 25 tomato plants (sometimes more), giving me hundreds of tomatoes to freeze.
5 sweet peppers (I like the little "snackbite" ones)
4-6 courgette plants - these will provide about 1 courgette each every 2-3 days during summer, sometimes more. I use them mainly for soups.
2 cucumbers.
6 runner bean plants and about 6 dwarf french beans - 2 sowings each about 6 weeks apart.
Kohl rabi, turnips, beetroot, spring onions, florence fennel as "catch crops" in small amounts to fill spaces
Chinese celery, corn salad, oriental greens, winter spinach in small amounts for winter greens.

Sometimes you have to start again if you have a failure for some reason and sometimes you can get taken by surprise and have a glut. As long as you have room it is better to sow too much than too little - think of anything you don't use as useful compost material, feeding the garden for next year.

Wow, thank you! Thats a lot a of veg, but I dont mind freezing stuff. I think I had 6-7 tomato plants in my garden last year, & made quite a few jars of tomato sauces from them.
Think Im going to need to look at going bigger with my plans & put a few more seeds in! Some of the stuff I have sown (broad beans for example), I dont know how much Im likely to get from one plant, as this is my first year of growing them.

[SaraJH]

I'm having the same dilemma as you Bex, this year will be treated as an experiment to see how much we can get from the bed and pot space available to us. I'll be keeping notes of amount sown and yield so that next year we can tweak / change to suit us and the yield that each variety produces.

[Bex2012]

Think thats what I should do too, write it all down! I suppose it doesnt matter if I do grow too much, I can always give it away!

[greenishfing]

I nearly always plant too much for the two of us but I swear that one of my sisters is psychic when it comes to the ripening of sweetcorn (60 plants) and cherries and the readiness of new potatoes. She used to decimate my tomatoes but now I grow baby plants for her. We still grow at least a dozen plants for the two of us.

I always try and put in plenty crops for the winter months. 6 Kale, 6 early PSB, 6 late PSB,6 each of different cauliflowers, 50 or so leeks and 20 or 30 swedes. In Summer if you are short of something there is always something else around.

I also let some lettuce and rocket self-seed or I always end up with gaps in the supply. Even now some self-seeded lettuce have appeared and are just about ready for eating.

If you are experimenting with something new I suggest you try some before you plant lots or you may end up with mountains of something you dislike as I did with Jerusalem Artichokes. It then took me 2 years to get rid of all the plants. (Lesson learned)

My neighbours are always happy to be given surplus and we often swap produce on the allotment as well so nothing goes to waste.

[KevinM67]

I suppose it doesnt matter if I do grow too much, I can always give it away!

TBH - I enjoy this as much as eating the stuff ourselves.

The amazement on my mother's face when visiting last year, that I could grow butternut squash in plentiful amounts, that she pays about a £1 each for.

Saying that, my 7 year old was gutted last week when I came home with half a dozen leeks from the plot - he hates the stuff.
He can't get over my failure of growing sweetcorn this year (which he helped me sow in pots), it's his favourite - but we got nothing.

There's been such great advice given already, so I'll curtail my ramble - however, with having a plot, grow lots of stuff the family enjoy, keep some space for experimenting, plan, plan and plan some more - and don't be overly disappointed when your plans fail miserably.

[lolie]

There's a rough suggestion guide in the Square Foot Gardening excerpt which is available on Google Books.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...dening&f=false

I know I will eat at least 1 leek a week, 1 mini cabbage a week, 1 mini cauliflower a week, at least 3 meals which include carrots, etc.

Some stuff is more forgiving of being left in the ground than other stuff. The stuff which needs to be harvested quickly and/or which can't be stored is where successive plantings come in. Different varieties of the same vegetable can extend your harvest season.

This winter I'm planting rainbow chard, silverbeet, kale, perpetual spinach and English spinach. But I'm only planting a few of each. Some won't do well and having a range of different leafy green plants means I can pick a good number of leaves without taking too many from any one plant.

For summer crops, you can always throw in more of the short time to harvest ones. It's ones which take a long time to mature where you want to err on the side of slight excess rather than not enough - you might not have time to start again if something happens to your original plants.