Successional sowing

Quercusrobur81

I have sown a couple of rows of radishes and a couple of rows of beetroot in the same raised bed, leaving no room for anything else. I have plenty of seeds left over and the packets suggest to sow every few weeks for a continuous crop. 

To get to the point... once I've harvested the veg, is it ok to plant new seeds straight back into the rows I've harvested from or do I need to add some manure or feed or something back into the soil to nourish the new seeds?

Apologies if this is a really obvious question-first time I've ever grown anything edible and I want to get it right but don't want to harm the crop with too much of a good thing-if that's possible!

Thanks

Pete.8

I was watching Geoff Hamilton's excellent Kitchen Garden series recently where he was doing exactly what you want to do.
Once the 1st crop was out, he dug in some good garden compost and a dusting of blood, fish and bone and the next crop went in. There was some science behind it - i.e. which crop is best to follow with, but I've forgotten that bit
If you're doing it in raised beds year-in, you may want to group your veg and rotate them to help stop build up of nasties

Quercusrobur81

Thanks Pete8, will check the series out on YouTube.  I have three raised beds so a good number for rotating, I don't suppose using the same crop in the same bed will hurt for one season but I might plan to stagger the sowing better, there's only so much radish and beetroot a person can eat... 

Pete.8

I've got the same. I had 3 raised beds created last autumn so this is my 1st yr growing veg properly.
Also, like you I don't want 20 lettuce all ready to eat on the same day, so here's my plan, and so far so good(ish) -

Best of luck

raisingirl

You should move brassicas each year and onions too to reduce the risk of building up diseases that affect those and are hard to get rid of once you have them. Potatoes (and tomatoes if you're brave enough enough to grow them in open ground) should also move to avoid blight in one year's crop affecting the following year's. Most other things, including beetroot and radishes, there's no real need to move them every year, so certainly no problem to grow a couple of successional crops in the same place in one season.

The usual rotation is based on maintaining fertility as you go, so you add manure over winter, then grow potatoes which don't mind soil that's got manure in it. Next year grow legumes which like the still fairly rich soil and which add nitrogen. The following year grow brassicas which use the nitrogen from the previous year's peas and beans. Finally root veg because they do best in lower nutrient soil which you'll have after the greedy brassicas are done. Then manure the bed and start again.

But you can mix it around a bit - peas and beans or courgettes will grow in a recently manured bed if you don't want to grow spuds. Peas and beans anywhere in the rotation will help whatever follows. Salads can drop in anywhere as a 'catch crop' to fill a space. And you don't really have to separate them all out so carefully - chard and beans and sweetcorn will rub shoulders with most other things fairly happily. 

Just move your onions and cabbages each year, never grow carrots in a recently manured bed and make the rest up to suit yourself

Last edited: 29 April 2017 20:57:57

Pete.8

Thank you very much rg - I've taken a copy for reference - that's really helpful and a lot easier to understand than what I've read on other websites.

Quercusrobur81

Good luck to you too Pete-looks very organised, I'd love to try fennel, it's delicious and so expensive to buy in the supermarket.

Thanks raisin girl, that's brilliant! Appreciate the advice as I have no clue really x