Late April on the Allotment

Late April on the Allotment

I’m pleased to see the rain, yes, really I am and, of course it is April, when we expect a bit of rain. I’m sure farmers and commercial growers are very relieved as water is needed on crops especially when they are trying to get them established. But! I really do wish it was a bit warmer and with a bit more sunshine between showers. The birds, nesting now, are desperate for food and my robins are waiting for me each time I come to the plot. They can be quite in my face!

I have had a nasty little, flu’ like virus for a couple of weeks and I feel it has put me somewhat on the back foot as far as my allotment work has gone, especially planting my main-crop potatoes. I have now managed to get my Sarpo Mira seed in the ground [ after several years of experimenting with different varieties, I’m really taken with these. They have an excellent balance of disease and pest resistance and good flavour... and... they keep well. I only finished my crop from last year in mid February and they were still good].  I bought all of my seed potatoes from Thompson and Morgan. While I have whinged, in the past, about T&M delivering seed potatoes far too late to chit properly, this year the service has been excellent. And, they do have an excellent selection. This year I have found it particularly difficult and wearisome planting the potatoes. I’m hoping this is just because I’m been a bit under the weather and not because I’m getting past it!  However, I was chatting to a fellow plotter in the last few days who has told me that he doesn’t dig ridges for his potatoes any more – he uses a large bulb planter instead. Now that might be a method worth trying next year – at least for some of them, as a trial.

My 1^st early potatoes in the polytunnel [Vales Emerald] are already putting on flower buds so, perhaps in a few weeks I will be able to start harvesting. I see the outdoor sown Vales Emerald are also well up – still under a protective layer of fleece to protect them from the frost. I have never tried this variety before – I had become quite fond of Accent as my 1^st early but, this year I was unable to get them. The Vales Emerald are not, at the moment inspiring me, they certainly don’t seem to be as robust as Accent and a couple of the plants have failed to grow or have died back though, I wonder if this is due to red-ant nests which are in the vicinity. I would prefer to live with the ants but, poly-tunnel space is precious and perhaps I need to be a bit more jealous of this space.

I moved most of my young tomato plants, and a few chilli plants to my polytunnel about three weeks ago [although I can propagate them at home, I can’t provide the young plants with enough light]. I covered them with fleece until they had settled in then took the fleece off. Unfortunately, on the same day I took the fleece off we had a really hard frost. The surprising part was that the chillies were fine, tomato F1 Fantasio was fine but, Alicanti was seriously hit by the frost. That said, I won’t resow as most of the affected plants have put out side shoots which will still be way ahead of any new sowing I would make.

I have now moved lots of my seedlings, including my first batch of sweetcorn, [F1 Earlibird from Dobies] to my ploy-tunnel but, am careful to keep them covered with fleece until this cold spell has passed. I hope the weather will have warmed up by the beginning of May and I can plant my first batch of sweetcorn out. I do have another variety F1 Rising Sun [ also from Dobies] which I will leave for another week before sowing. If they all germinate as well as the Earlibird and produce good crops I will have far too much sweetcorn. But, in the past I’ve been disappointed by some crops so I’m spreading my bets. Last year I tried an experimental plot of Butcher’s Blood [a red seeded variety]. I found germination rate poor but, those seeds which did germinate, grew into tall strong plants. Unfortunately, I found the cobs tough and rather tasteless. But you have to keep trying new stuff, you never know when you will come up with something magic.

Now, at last, I have found a courgette which I actually like – F1 Orelia [ Dobies seed]. It has a golden skin and the flesh is dryer and denser than the more common zucchini. Unfortunately, last year I only had one seed germinate and this year- so far – I have had three but, guess what, I’ve broken one ! It still survives and might just make it but, I’ve resown just in case. However, I’m losing faith in my ability to germinate them... they should be easy. What am I doing wrong? Is my propagator too warm? Perhaps too cool? Should I just try them on the window sill? Any ideas would be gratefully received. Perhaps I should just get my daughter to grow them for me!

Last year I had real difficulties germinating peppers and chillies. This year, of the three varieties I’ve sown, I seem to have about 100% germination and can give them away. I think last year, the temperature of my propagator may have been too hot. Any thoughts?

My daughter loves all the different varieties of chillies she grows each year. However she lost the label on one plant she gave me. It produced purple fruit about 2cm [1 inch] long which turned red when properly ripe. Of course I dried the chillies for use over the winter. These babies are absolutely lethal! I scrunched a little one up into a curry I was making and, of course, washed my hands well afterwards. An hour later I was working on my computer and rested my chin in my hands. My face started to burn so, I rubbed it again and the burning spread to everywhere I touched. This pain lasted for quite some time! Gosh I will never learn!

So far this year I have sown two different varieties of peas. On 6^th March I sowed 4 packets of Little Marvel, an early variety. I covered them with fleece, as much to protect them from predators as from frost. They are now about 15cm high [6inches] and I have staked them already. I also sowed Hurst Green Shaft on 20^th March. They are still under a layer of environmesh but in the coming week I will remove this also and stake them. They are looking good.

Following advice I was given a couple of years ago on growing a pea crop – I sow lots of seed into each trench. My plot is about 5 metres wide. I will create three trenches about 3 – 4 cm deep [1½ inches]. I have divided 4 packets among the 3 trenches which is really fairly dense sowing. However, compared with the advice often given on sowing pea seed, this method has had spectacularly successful results. Let’s face it, the seed is not so expensive that we need to be precious about each seed. My crop last year filled a complete drawer of my freezer with bags of frozen peas. I am just coming to the end of them now.