The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: sabrina on February 21, 2013, 12:34:33 pm
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My veg plot is still too wet to work in so I am going to start plants off in the tunnel. Can the likes of beetroot, carrots , onions been done this way ?
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I dont think carrots like to be moving once planted so I'm not sure how well they would do, I think beetroot and onions are the same
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You could plant them in those fibre pots and then transfer those.
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Good idea.
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Onions would be fine in root trainers and getting them off to an early start certainly pays off. I often start beetroot in modules - 2-3 seeds per mod, but they mustn't stay in them so long that they run out of nutrients or they will run to seed. You can have up to 4 growing in the one module, plant them out like that but with each group further apart than individual plants would be spaced - the beets still grow perfectly well squashed up like that. Carrots don't like to be transplanted so they are best sown and grown in a larger container for an early crop - I use empty licky buckets with a few holes drilled in the bottom, filled with good friable soil. They are easy to protect from carrot root fly in containers too. If you are contemplating parsnips then wait until your outside soil is ready as they really don't like to be transplanted.
Salad greens can be grown in licky buckets too, then replace them with dwarf french beans later if the soil is still wet, as the added height keeps them off the ground.
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We didn't move in until mid-May last year so nothing was planted until very late May/early June. I used both beetroot and onions plugs but grew the carrots from seed. The beetroot were fine - in fact great - but the onions were rubbish so I'm going with sets every time from now on (I've never grown onions from seed but my mother, my guru, always goes with sets instead, even if they're spring planted). It's very early to be worrying about growing beetroot and carrots anyway - it's no problem to wait until the ground is warmer and drier and plant seeds then (April onwards probably).
H