Asparagus Beetle alert!

Asparagus Beetle Alert and New potatoes for Easter Sunday Lunch

 

My beautiful and very productive, three year old crab apple tree,

pardon the compost bin in the foreground, it is one of my three bird tables on my plot - well! you've got to look after them and I can't feed them at home - I have 4 cats.           

It seems odd, in April, in England, to be praying for rain. When I was at my plot earlier today, a few darkish clouds drifted over and definitely some spots of rain fell, I swear it. The forecast is predicting heavy rain and thunderstorms for Easter Saturday. But we shall see. I’m sure gardeners, farmers and commercial growers are, like me, praying for an end to this prolonged dry spell – it must be six weeks or more now since we’ve had any appreciable amount of rain. Trying to dig my plot is like digging bricks. Although I understand that holiday-makers want a sunny warm Easter weekend, we will, holiday makers and growers alike, have to deal with what we get. As a gardener I feel that, whatever the weather, it is good for something.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been watching out for asparagus beetle. We only seem to get the common variety on our plots, at least, they are the only ones I’ve seen. Unfortunately, my asparagus has now grown beyond the eating stage so, for me, the harvest is over for this year. I planted some new crowns last year and hopefully, I will be able to harvest a few from them next spring.

Today my beetle watch was rewarded, if I can use that expression. I found three on one fern. I’m reasonably sure this is their first visit this year. When I went to warn a neighbour of their possible presence we found a good half dozen on her plants. These numbers are nothing. They are the vanguard. I didn’t have my camera with me today but, later I will try to get photographs of the beetles, their eggs and larvae and will put them into another blog.

For those of you who have not come across asparagus beetle – they are approximately ¼” or just over ½cm in length. They are quite colourful – black head, and abdomen with bright orange/red thorax and wing cases decorated with six bright white dots. I understand the spotted beetles are similar with more white dots (but, I have not seen them). They lay hundreds (nay! thousands) of tiny black eggs attached to the lower sides of the asparagus ferns which hatch into very unattractive larvae within a week approx. – though doubtless their mothers think they are beautiful. It is the larvae which do the damage and really, they do massive damage. Left to their own devices they will strip the ferns of your asparagus plants which then die back, causing your crowns to fail for the following year.

All is not lost, however. Unless you are totally swamped by the little pests, just pick them off as you see them and, if you can bear to do it, crush them in your hands (they are quite hard and will require some force). Otherwise go equipped with a container of soapy water and drop them into it. If you really have a plague of them, I have found that they don’t much like Derris powder – unfortunately this has now been banned but, if you do happen to have some left over, it does work quite well. For the larvae, I have been picking them off and crushing them. This is not a nice job. I advise, if you are going to try this method, that you wear rubber gloves – ugh! It has been suggested that if you just brush them off, using a soft brush, they will actually die before they can get back to the plant – perhaps I will try that this year.

The best method, as always, is prevention. On allotments that is almost impossible to achieve as they have probably already been hibernating in the soil that you have inherited and will move in from others’ plots but, you can limit the possible damage for next year. More advice on this later in the year.

Well this has been a fairly negative Blog, sorry about that – sometimes necessary – but, the good news is that I’m now harvesting early potatoes from my polytunnel. They’re not huge – about egg size – but, so delicious as only freshly dug potatoes can be. Mine are Accent - 1st earlies, bought from Dobies. I’ll have some on Easter Sunday with my leg of lamb, fresh mint and the last of the overwintered cauliflowers.

Happy Easter everyone!   :o)

Planting Early Potatoes

Planting Potatoes

Well!  Here we go again.  Yet another Blog about planting potatoes. But they are so important – well, for me anyway. Not everyone thinks they are an important crop. As I have said in a previous Blog, I think the difference between homegrown and shop bought is more striking in potatoes than any other vegetable. But, that’s my opinion.

The potatoes I planted in my polytunnel a couple of weeks ago have already put their shoots up. I’ve earthed them up as I am worried about the really cold nights we are having now, minus 4° here in Bristol. Gee! I know this is not cold by many standards. However, it can be damaging to my early plantings.

Although it is really cold at night now, it is also really sunny and ‘warm’ during the day and is absolutely delightful to have work to do on the plot. I am catching up on digging areas I had previously dug in the autumn. Although it is still very wet a spade deep, the ground is drying out quite nicely and breaks up well on the spring digging. This is the first time I am planting my potato seed into fairly well tilled, friable earth. Up to now I have been using them to help ‘till’ really heavy, solid, clay ground. And yes, they have been very productive, in spite of the poor conditions. This year I will hope for bumper crops of excellent potatoes. Of course, as Robbie Burns said – ‘The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft aglay’, Please forgive me if I’ve got some of that wrong, I’m writing from memory.

My neighbour on the allotments was planting his early potatoes yesterday, when I was sowing parsnips and spring onions (the latter in a covered raised bed.) I always watch what my neighbour and his wife are doing. They are very experienced in our area and with our soil and, although not always successful in all crops, they are definitely ‘the business’.  He was planting in such beautifully tilled soil I looked at it enviously – like something from a BBC gardening programme. Mine will never, ever be like that. For me good enough has to be good enough.

Anyway, I did go home and collect my chitted early potatoes (Accent). I had enough for two ridges, which I could cover with one length of fleece ( highly recommended!). It was only when I had them planted that I realised that some of the potatoes were, in fact, Charlottes (salad potatoes – 2^nd early) Oh well! They’re in now.

A couple of days ago I sowed carrot seed in a raised bed under a poly cover. The accepted view on carrot root fly is that they won’t fly above 30cm. Believe me, this is not the case. Last year I had carrots growing in a box 1mtr above ground, and I covered it with fleece. The root fly still got into one of the varieties I had sown there. This year, my daughter and I (she has an allotment in London) are experimenting with varieties which the carrot root fly are not attracted to. Perhaps we need to plant the attractive ones alongside but, we’ll get back to you on this.

I was amazed to note that several of my asparagus crowns have already put out their new shoots, not only the older, more established crowns but also, last year’s new planting of one year old crowns. I thought it a bit too early so, I’ve earthed them up a bit.

Please get back to me on any thoughts/arguments you may have. I would love to have your comments.

chitting seed potatoes

Yippee! Some of my seed potatoes have just arrived - my first earlies (Accent) and my salad potatoes (Charlotte). I was getting particularly anxious about the first earlies as I need to have them chitted by  mid-February so that I can plant a couple of short rows in my polytunnel. Those I'm planting outdoors can wait until March. I like floury rather than waxy potatoes ( yes I know you must take more care with cooking them but, I prefer the texture). Accent, is on the floury side for an early potato and is excellent for roasting, chipping and boiling. If you have planted enough, they do last well into the main season - and have excellent flavour. Charlottes have a wonderful flavour and more waxy so make a good salad potato or are just superb boiled with spring lamb and mint sauce - yummy!
For the uninitiated - 'chitting' is getting the seeds to sprout before planting. It can be done with lots of different seeds - more later - but, although it is not essential, it is advisable to ensure good sturdy plants. If you decide to chit, the conditions are important - you need cool light conditions - frost free. You will have noticed that all potatoes start to sprout at this time of year, even those you buy from the shops for eating which can be quite annoying as the potatoes also start to go soft. However, for growing we want particular types of sprouts - not those long white stringy things in your veg cupboard, but short sturdy sprouts, preferably with more than a hint of green or purplish green. If you like larger potatoes you can knock off some of the sprouts which will give you a smaller crop of bigger potatoes. A couple of years ago, my potatoes, already above ground, were hit with a late frost. Naturally the shoots died back ( they are frost tender). But, the plants didn't die. I still got an excellent crop of large potatoes from new shoots. I use egg boxes for chitting - set the potatoes with the 'eyes' up ( these can be hard to see, but look for the tiny 'buds' of new growth). Obviously this is not done by most commercial growers, much too time consuming/labour intensive. On the allotment or in the garden, we only have a small amount of space which we want to be as productive as possible.
More later - still all my main crops to come.
I noticed, this morning that the first of my sweet peas - sown on 1st January, in pots in my propagator - has appeared above the soil. :0)