Late May - developments on the allotment

Okay then, it’s been a week or more since I last Blogged. Our weather had been particularly wet – the wettest April on record, which has been followed by unrelenting sunshine with easterly winds. Not that I want to complain or anything but, a bit of nice, kind, southwesterly weather with lots of heat and sun with the odd shower, would have been good.

As always, in spite of the difficult seasonal conditions, I’ve made my share of mistakes – or maybe, more than my share. And really, it is good to see the sun - constant rain can be quite depressing.

My squashes, pumpkins, didn’t germinate in my propagator – what have I done wrong. Too hot, too cold, too moist, too dry? I don’t know. I was so desperate, I went online and bought a few, and I pleaded with my daughter who gave me a couple of her pots which had two viable seedlings in each – Baby Bear [my favourites – prolific , small fruits which are tasty and store well]. Today, I planted them out – four in a raised bed [lots of manure and watering – they are gross feeders and require lots of nutrients and water]. Perhaps I’ve put too many in this bed but I hope to direct the growing stems down the paths between the raised beds if necessary. This might not work but I will get back on this strategy later. I still have so many plants over. I find I’m approaching neighbours who, I know, will appreciate the plants, to find homes for many of my squash and pumpkin plants. And I’ve been looking around my plot for corners where they might be acceptable and grow on well.

There is an area which I had planned for a further transplanting of brassicas – that might take four or five with a couple of loads of manure.

I will harvest my early potatoes shortly – this will provide another area for, perhaps four plants. Perhaps I could find a couple of spots among my perennial/ flower/ herb area. But, you get the picture!

Magically, and there is always a magically - today one of my plot neighbours who keeps bees, invited me to join him on his checking of the hives.

There was a couple of swarm hives from recently recaptured swarms – amazing! I didn’t count the number of established colonies in hives but, this is a real bee city. And, all of these bees are pollinating our very needy plants, which would not exist without the support of our bees. I have suggested to my beekeeper friend that he might like to have a few squash/pumpkin plants when he has some ground ready. He readily agreed.

On the potato front – slugs had eaten the top growth of all of my Mayan Gold seed potatoes. I’ve never known this to happen before and have been somewhat upset that it has happened like this. I have now re-planted.

As always, the insect life will create their own habitats, left to their own devices. When I entered my poly-tunnel this morning I was instantly aware of a tomato plant looking sickly. The droopy plant and the ‘fine’ compost on the surface of the plot immediately alerted me to the presence of a red ant nest – yet again! As before, I have sprayed with Py liquid compound. As I have said in previous Blogs, this is an organically approved, contact spray but, the little bu**ers are still with me. And I am still on their case.

My broad beans should be ready for harvesting in a couple of weeks. In spite of the dry conditions they are growing on well.

Other beans are not looking so good. Eventually the young plants are appearing above ground and I am trying to give them some water occasionally, although, I know, that the ground where they are sprouting is still quite moist. Their appearance is so slow that slugs are ‘picking them off’ so I’m obliged to put out slug pellets along with my new [beer fed] slug traps. I’m still not convinced about the effectiveness of this method of slug control.

Although it is suggested that sweet-corn is planted outside in June, I decided that my earlier sowing of sweetcorn [Dobies F1 Earlibird] – already potted on twice, should be planted out. It is just beginning to root into the compost of my poly-tunnel. I had to soak the ground thoroughly before planting, in spite of having being dug a month or so ago, as it is so dry. This year I’ve planted them much closer together as I’ve had problems in the past with pollination – yes, I know they should be planted fairly close and in squares as they are wind pollinated but, I’ve still failed, in the past, to have my sweetcorn properly pollinated. This year, I’m planting the young plants 20cms [ 8in apart]. I hope this will work better than my previously generous planting space of the past.

More later!

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.