Swedes

aleary5a

Member
Can anyone give me some tips on how to grow a better crop of swedes. Am only doing it on a small scale about 1 1/2 acres. Using treated ruta otofte seed through a Webb precision seeder onto ploughed and rotavated ground onto drills. Applied boronated fertilizer. The crop was poor this year a lot of small ones and a lot that had small worms like maggots that rot out the cores. How can I prevent these beasties? any tips on how to get a larger crop. I don't use any pesticides
 

Bogweevil

Member
Can anyone give me some tips on how to grow a better crop of swedes. Am only doing it on a small scale about 1 1/2 acres. Using treated ruta otofte seed through a Webb precision seeder onto ploughed and rotavated ground onto drills. Applied boronated fertilizer. The crop was poor this year a lot of small ones and a lot that had small worms like maggots that rot out the cores. How can I prevent these beasties? any tips on how to get a larger crop. I don't use any pesticides

Mesh from sowing until November almost essential to fend off cabbage root fly.

Small roots can occur through insufficient space, lack of soil moisture, delayed drilling, powdery mildew, lack of nutrients, inadequate weed control and pests such a caterpillars, beetles and root fly.
 

aleary5a

Member
This is first year in this plot. It wasn't cultivated for a long long time. Been growing them for a few years and this has been worst year. There's a lot involved in growing swedes! How will I weed them if the mesh is over everything. I am probably doing it the old fashioned way. Use a Massey 135. Fergy Ridger and scarifier discs. Dunno if it's worthwhile investing in mesh
 

Bogweevil

Member
This is first year in this plot. It wasn't cultivated for a long long time. Been growing them for a few years and this has been worst year. There's a lot involved in growing swedes! How will I weed them if the mesh is over everything. I am probably doing it the old fashioned way. Use a Massey 135. Fergy Ridger and scarifier discs. Dunno if it's worthwhile investing in mesh

If for culinary market mesh essential. Stockfeed - people just chance it, seems to work.

June sowing avoids the first generation but by August the next generation will be along when hopefully you will have strong plants that can tolerate damage. Pest pressure can be extremely high if OSR grown nearby.

You won't get much root if sown after June.
 
If for culinary market mesh essential. Stockfeed - people just chance it, seems to work.

June sowing avoids the first generation but by August the next generation will be along when hopefully you will have strong plants that can tolerate damage. Pest pressure can be extremely high if OSR grown nearby.

You won't get much root if sown after June.

Oddly enougth this year, I drilled some swedes next to a footpath to protect the winter caulie crop from dogs etc. They were drilled 20th July & they are a perfect bagging sample (sadly not netted so have rootfly) when ever I've done that before they have just produced leaf.

The other problem with swedes is cabbage flea stem beetle, they can really stunt or even wipe out young seedling. I've had damage to my culinary swedes this year from CSFB, dry weather at emergence so I had an uneven stand, the flea beetles made things so much worse by really hammering the later emerging seedling. Thus the resulting crop is all bigun's & little'uns however there is plenty of weight. So unless the OP's seed was more than 4 years old he could have had problems from day one.

Nets help with flea beetle but harder than root fly to control

Sensible rain at crop emergence really helps to get that even stand & intial vigour to survive.

Minecto one can be used to reduce problems from cabbage root fly.
 

Wuffler

Member
Location
Northumberland
There are 10million Swedes in Sweden, no more need here! Sorry can not resist🤣😂
80% of whom can speak fluent English.
Quite impressive really as I doubt 80% of British people can speak English... well, comprehensible English anyhoo (if you ever visit Sunderland you'll know what I mean!) ... I digress.
Apologies.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
My favourite Swede
c4376a07-b919-472d-8582-ea7697c1c0dd.jpg

sorry @Acke :)
 

aleary5a

Member
Thanks for the help guys will try again next year hopefully get on better. Is it a good idea to use chemicals if I am selling them for eating?. Next job to do is fix the Webb seeder. It is a two row machine. One side was putting out far too much seed it is leaking somewhere
 
Thanks for the help guys will try again next year hopefully get on better. Is it a good idea to use chemicals if I am selling them for eating?. Next job to do is fix the Webb seeder. It is a two row machine. One side was putting out far too much seed it is leaking somewhere
Had to get cover built up this year to keep seed wheel in place this year after 40 ears of sowing as same oversowing happening here.. We roundup previous autumn to a give a clean start in spring and foliar boron is a good idea. Can still spray for flea beetle but timing is critical as they emerge usually a week after sowing agronomist is booked to send chemical at that time frame. Diamond Back moth is a new pest too watch out for them about a month after sowing. Have been hand lifting since August this year to supply local farm shop whose crop came to nothing this year so you are not alone.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Thanks for the help guys will try again next year hopefully get on better. Is it a good idea to use chemicals if I am selling them for eating?. Next job to do is fix the Webb seeder. It is a two row machine. One side was putting out far too much seed it is leaking somewhere
Too much seed equals small roots
 

aleary5a

Member
Yes far too much seed is going through the drill machine. Once I get my tractor sorted it's next on the list. I have learned a bit with all the mistakes i am doing but I like a challenge 😂 I have a book sprayer for quad bike don't have a tractor mounted one. Like I said its the old fashioned way I am doing it which is probably why the crop is poor
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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