September on our allotments... what should we be doing?

It’s September on the Allotment – What should we do this month?

 

Well, it’s autumn again. It’s very sad but is also a time to look forward to a rest from the hard work of the season.

Of course, there are still lots of harvesting to do and once harvested, the crops must be either, eaten or stored for winter use.

Maintenance

Ø  As crops finish their harvest, remove the spent plants and compost them;

Ø  Keep winter crops – brassicas, leeks, parsnips, etc, clear of weeds and watch out for pests like white fly on the brassicas;

Ø  Keep perennial crops, asparagus, globe artichokes and fruit bushes, canes and trees free from weeds;

Ø  Keep paths and edges tidy and cut back to prevent perennial weeds invading the plot [and your neighbours’ plots];

Ø  As beans, sweet peas, peas and other crops finish their harvest, lift the canes, clean them and store them where the canes or their ends are not sitting in wet conditions, which will rot them. Carefully looked after they should last for several years;

Ø  Crops in poly-tunnels and greenhouses should still be good to mature and ripen for a couple of months so, make sure you keep the plants well watered and free from pests.

Ø  As you finish using tools, cloches and netting, ensure they are clean and store in a safe and dry environment;

Ø  If you have netting over fruit cages, it is advisable to remove it before winter – particularly on the ‘roof’ as the weight of winter snow can collapse your cage;

Ø  Remove top growth of tomato plants to ensure the plants put all their energy into those trusses which are already developing. Except for small salad tomatoes – restrict the plants to 2 – 3 trusses now:

Preparation and Planning

Ø  As summer cropping plants finish their harvest, start digging these areas once cleared, especially if you have a large plot to dig. You may find that there will be fresh weed growth before the winter but it is better than leaving the digging until the spring. On heavy clay soil particularly, the difference between autumn dug and spring dug ground is significant;

Ø  Prepare beds for autumn planting perennial crops, fruit trees, bushes and canes;

Ø  Prepare ground for autumn plants onion, garlic and shallot sets and broad beans;

Ø  Think about ordering seeds, bulbs, sets and plants for autumn planting [I find it very cheering to have bulbs- daffodils, hyacinths and tulips] coming up on my plot in early spring. I feel I can cut them to take home from my plot when I wouldn’t do this from my garden. I have a small… 4 metre x 4 metre ‘no-dig’ area which I manure heavily each autumn. In this I have planted my flower bulbs. When the bulbs die back I can plant my curcurbits]. If you are planning to do this – daffodils are best planted in September and tulips in October but, see when they are available in the shops which, is a reasonable guide.

 

Asparagus can be planted in autumn and I see that Dobies [of Devon] is advertising asparagus crowns in 3 litre pots which can [they say] be harvested the following year. Although they seem expensive if bought individually, they have deals of buying in groups which just about makes this a feasible proposition – why not try them in large ‘grow sacks’… like potato grow sacks in your back yard. I haven’t tried this so, I can’t say how successful it would be.

Many of the large seed house are sending out their autumn catalogues now. Write to them to request a catalogue or find them on-line – check out Dobies, Marshalls, Nicky's Nursery, The Real Seed Catalogue, Thompson & Morgan.Unwins, VegetableSeeds.com.,  see our website for contact details - there are many others.

Sowing and Planting

§  There is not a lot which can be successfully sown during September although some varieties of lettuce and radish can still be sown until the end of September – choose your varieties carefully and protect the young plants from slugs, caterpillars and pigeons as they will be one of the few tender vegetables around at this time of year and as the cooler conditions slow up the growth, I find that the pests have devoured or destroyed my crop before they are large enough for me to use.

§  You can, of course, still transplant spring cabbages into their final growing place – as with salad crops, it is important to protect them from the plethora of pests which will destroy them long before you can usefully harvest them. I have found it useful to plant some in my poly-tunnel once the summer crops have finished [a while to go yet!] but this will give me a welcome crop of green vegetables in springtime when little else is available.

§  Set up new strawberry beds with rooted runners.

Harvesting

Ø  Lots of sweetcorn is still available to harvest although, my earlier crop is now frozen for winter use;

Ø  Beans – runner beans are now becoming too tough and stringy to be pleasant to eat. Some French beans for fresh eating are still harvestable. Drying French beans – Borlotto, Jack Edwards, Yin-yang, etc, are now drying on the vines and should be ready to harvest soon [watch out for pigeon and rat predation, if necessary, harvest and take home to finish the drying process]

Ø  Curcurbits – winter squashes, pumpkins are beginning to mature and the skins to harden. If possible, lift the fruits onto a piece of wood, stone, brick or similar, to keep them off the ground to avoid slug and wet damage. They should be useable in the kitchen now but, for storing, ensure they have dried well and can be lifted easily from the withered plant [store in a cool dark place – I have had some which have kept until May of the following year but, only a few. Check them regularly throughout the winter and remove any which show signs of rotting]. Courgettes [zucchini] are now coming to the end of their main harvest. My yellow courgettes, especially, are markedly, slowing down – I can no longer be guaranteed a crop which I have to leave on my garden wall for neighbours to take.

Ø  Tomatoes are at their best now and I certainly have more than I can use in the odd salad, or even a daily salad. Think about using the excess for Tomato Ketchup, Tomato Chutney, Freezing as pulp for winter use, freezing in a salsa with other ingredients. Outdoor tomatoes are likely to finish cropping earlier than the indoor grown varieties.

Ø  Peppers and chillies – are now beginning to ripen. Peppers can be stored frozen as part of a salsa, chutney or just sliced and frozen. If growing a thickly fleshed chilli like Jalapeno, they do not dry well in our UK conditions but, they will keep well, sliced in small pots in the freezer. Thinly fleshed chillies like Joe’s Long can be hung up and dried very successfully and used all winter long.

Ø  Potatoes – it is likely that all Earlies and Second Earlies have long been harvested and eaten. We now just have Maincrop potatoes but, even these can fall into the Early Maincrop and Late Maincrop types. My Mayan Gold Potatoes [an early Maincrop type] have long gone and were wonderful this year. I did give lots away – not because I wanted to get rid of them but, I was hoping to persuade others to plant these. Unfortunately, they don’t keep well for over winter use or I would grow more of them.  My late Maincrop variety of choice is Sarpo Mira which, I hope, might see me through the winter – they have excellent flavour and cooking qualities, are blight resistant and will store successfully through the winter. I will start to harvest them later this month. I suppose I could recommend autumn planting of potatoes for the Christmas market but, I have tried this and even though I protected my crops with horticultural fleece, I still didn't get a crop - well, not that year although they did sprout and produce a crop in the following summer.

Ø  Maincrop carrots should be excellent – large and luscious – as long as the carrot-root-fly have not got there first – this year I planted a tub of carrots in my back yard – no carrot root fly [they have been excellent but, perhaps, if I made a practice of this the flies would discover my little plot. For not, I will try this again!]. However, I also sowed a row of ‘Ideal Red’ in a row on my plot, under nets to keep the pigeons off – actually they are really quite orange – in early May. So far, I’ve seen not fly damage and the quality and flavour of the carrots has been excellent.

Ø  Brassicas – some varieties of Brussels Sprouts, broccoli/calabrese and late cabbage are available now. Early kale can be harvested but may be best left until winter.

Ø  Early leeks and parsnips can be harvestable now.

Ø  Salad crops, of course are still excellent where we have managed to keep the pests off.

Ø  Fruit – autumn harvesting raspberries are still available;

-          Apples, depending on the variety will now be harvestable – if they come easily from the stem they should be ready and can be stored. If you allow them to fall, the resultant bruising will mean that they must be used immediately. Check also for insect damage – those fruits also must be used immediately or discarded.

-          Plums, pears and damsons will now become ready to harvest.

-          Some varieties of blueberry are still cropping

Our birds can also look forward [do they do this?] to a short time of not raising broods but, for them winter can be a harsh time so, do think about feeding them and providing water for them during the cold months.