After all these years I've realised why I choose to grow certain veg in preference to others and its not a question of taste!
My favourite veg to grow are courgettes, tomatoes, peas and beans. As much as I like the taste of carrots and cauliflowers I rarely try to grow them, not just because I find them difficult to grow properly, its because of the Return on each seed.
With carrots, for example, you sow a seed and, if you're lucky you grow a carrot. Pick it and you're left with a hole in the ground. You have to re-sow something in its place.
Sow a bean, however, and you can keep picking beans for weeks without needing to re-sow. The same with courgettes, tomatoes and peas - and peppers, of course. They're good investments because you can take a crop from them for a long time. They're also time saving, sow once, pick for weeks - so appeal to my lazy streak.
I'm also partial to growing loose leaf salads, kale and rocket for the same reason. Just pick a few leaves at a time and leave the plant to grow on.
I should try harder to grow sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts as these would also suit my needs and stop trying to grow heading brassicas and root vegetables which are always a disappointment anyway.
That makes perfect sense.
(23-06-2023, 08:30 PM)Small chilli Wrote: [ -> ]That makes perfect sense.
That's worrying.
Although I've never analysed why I grow what I grow, I totally understand and agree with that rationale. Bang for your buck is definitely a reason, as is likelihood of success and taste.
You have to add in the faff factor of growing, whether you actually like the veg and the cost of buying instead of growing. This year I'm growing Kohl Rabi merely because I was given some plants, I'm not yet totally convinced they're worth the space and probably wont be growing it again. Now sweetcorn, that's a different story. On the downside they take up huge amount of space, you're lucky if you get more than one cob a plant but the taste is to die for. As for tomatoes, beans and courgettes curiosity plays an important part, the new variety might be so good that all others are unnecessary
How far apart are you planting your kohl rabi? I grow 4 to a square foot, so six inches apart. They grow quite vertically and don't take up much horizontal space so are good for planting around the edges of beds. I love the crunch of kohl rabi in a salad, good for when radish and turnips aren't around.
I like all kinds of peas but they tend to come all at once and picking them takes a long time. I gave up growing podding peas because podding is so boring. I was bored after 2 meals of mangetout this year, quite happy to see them end quickly. I just want a few peas to snack on occasionally, not have to eat them every day for weeks on end.
French beans are similarly relentless but are more versatile in the kitchen.
I would also factor in the effort spent building structures to support peas & beans.
When I buy packets of courgettes, peppers and even tomatoes, there tends to be just a few seeds while with carrots and brassicas, you get hundreds and often for a cheaper price. A lot then depends how you grow them. Beetroot for example, I grow 2 to 4 together about 4 inches between clumps. Then pick the biggest and let the rest carry on growing. So I can carry on picking beetroot till late autumn from about 2 weeks ago. With carrots, a 10' row should produce about 10lb of carrots - which should use only a fraction of a packet of seeds. I tend to space about 1" apart in the polytummel and hope carrot flies don't find them which they tend not to. Again a double 12' row lasts quite a long time bit not as early as beetroots.
Carrots you can leave to carry on growing until you want it, the longer you leave it the bigger it gets - and still tastes like carrot while courgettes will carry on growing if you leave them but they morph into marrows and the plant stops producing.
Like Veggie my favourite plants to grow are courgettes, tomatoes, peas, beans plus lettuce and Kale. What I grow is down to space and the best use for it, I know I could have an allotment theres 3 within a 10 min walk, but I like just pottering around in the garden doing bits now and then.
(23-06-2023, 11:10 PM)toomanytommytoes Wrote: [ -> ]How far apart are you planting your kohl rabi? I grow 4 to a square foot, so six inches apart. They grow quite vertically and don't take up much horizontal space so are good for planting around the edges of beds. I love the crunch of kohl rabi in a salad, good for when radish and turnips aren't around.
I have about 8 plants 8" apart in a row covered in mesh to stop pests, when should they start bulbing? At the rate these are going it'll be winter before they do anything, they're a healthy 10" tall on stalks so far. I still don't think they're going to be a favourite, I'm not keen on radish or turnip, so there's not a lot of hope for kohl rabi. Good to experiment though.
80% of my veg are in the brassica family, I don't grow tomatoes as I can live without them. I do grow a lot of beetroot.
Never really considered seeds verses return