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The Allotted Month - October 2007
Autumn has well and truly arrived and the leaves are falling off the trees by the bucketful.
Leaves are welcome on the plot, they make good compost but do have to be collected up for compost.
On the areas that are clear of crops they can simply be hoed in. This year's potato blight did
cause some concern. The recommended practice of cutting off the shaws as soon as blight
appears has paid dividends. This allows the skin on the tubers to harden and resist the
entry of the spores which cause the tubers to rot in store. Visibly affected tubers
were discarded when the crop was harvested after a couple of weeks. The potatoes were
then washed to remove any remaining surface spores and put into store. At the end of the
month the stored potatoes were inspected and any showing signs of rot were discarded.
This will be repeated in another couple of months and at the same time any sprouts will be rubbed off.
The Crimson Clover green manure in section A was sown a bit late, the germination was
poor and there hasn't been much growth. In March the tops will be hoed off before
digging the section for potatoes. All the crops have now been harvested.
In section B the celery (Green Utah) has bulked up well and is being regularly cropped.
Most of it goes into soup. Harvesting the parsnips (Countess) has started and results are good.
The clover was sown earlier than in section A in the areas vacated by crops and has grown well.
This year seems to have been good for the brassicas in section C. Summer cabbage (Minicole)
is almost finished. The club root resistant Kilaxy cabbages are poor by comparison.
Cutting the winter cabbage (Celtic) will start soon, it has good solid heads. Over the
years I've tried various varieties of brussels sprouts. Peer Gynt has always been good
but it is now off the market. Its successor, Maximus, seems even better and this year
it has been the only one grown. The three rows were sown on 23 March, 29 April and 24 May.
The first two rows began cropping at the same time with good solid buttons which break off easily.
The third row will start soon. I'm hoping that successional sowing will crop right through the winter.
Maximus is listed as early and mid season but in the past it has lasted well into the new year.
The calabrese (Chevalier) is still producing a useful number of spears but I expect it to run out soon.
The White Rock cauliflower has a useful advantage over the earlier Candid Charm in that
the curds are protected by ingrowing leaves. A useful advantage in the autumn, but not many
of them are now left. Candid Charm has to be harvested as soon as it matures or the open curds
suffer weather damage. In all of the plot any yellowing leaves are removed to the compost heap. T
his helps with plot hygiene and also lets the air in around the plants.
Not much is happening in section D. The clover was sown a bit late but will go on growing
through the winter and get hoed off in April in time for planting the brassicas.
The only pesticide that I use is liquid Derris. This year, apart from the growing points
of the peas when there were signs of thrips, I haven't used it.
The Allotted Month - November & December 2007
These two months are not the busiest on the plot.
No seeds need sown, nothing gets planted and the weed growth is slow.
Even the harvesting is easy, no heavy lifting of potatoes, just pull
some Maximus sprouts, cut some Chevalier calabrese and Celtic winter
cabbage, and pull some Angela swedes. The Musselburgh leeks and
Green Utah celery need a spade but come out easily.
Only Countess parsnips need some digging to avoid breaking the roots.
That has been just as well as other priorities kept me off the plot for most of three weeks.
This is the time of year for a review to help with ordering seeds for next season.
On section A the failure was the carrot crop. I make my own seed tapes but this year
tried laying them with the seeds under the tape - failure!
By the time failure was clear it was too late to resow.
The other crops were fine and an spray of derris on the peas at the first signs of thrips worked.
The Defender courgettes in section B were poor. Of the four plants,
two made hardly any growth and the others didn't thrive as well as usual
and finished cropping early. For the first time there wasn't a glut from start to finish,
but still enough for the kitchen. All the other crops did well,
particularly the catch crop of a row of Concorde early potatoes.
The odd one out is section C was the club root resistant Kilaxy cabbage,
it will be dropped. I'll be looking for another variety to replace Candid Charm
and White Rock cauliflower. They both have heads that are just too big for
the two of us so I may try a smaller headed type. Maximus sprouts have
totally replaced growing an early and a later variety. The plants tend
to stay upright, the sprouts are firm and tight with a good flavour and
pull away from the stem easily. Prospects are good for cropping right
through to March when they have to come out for the new season.
The potato section had a smaller crop than usual but still enough for us.
I usually grow a few Heritage varieties but they often have a low yield
so some of them are being dropped. I grow a total of 18 rows of potatoes
so that will be the number of varieties for next season - down from 24.
Although I like to try something new, over the years I have homed
in on good reliable varieties for the plot. For information they are now listed.
I've already started winter digging and that will continue over the winter so that
everything is ready for the new season.
The Allotted Month - February 2007
It's not that in the last three months nothing has been happening.
There were just other things that had a higher priority than the monthly 'Plotter's Progress'.
However, after this gap, I should now be back to the normal monthly report.
The plot itself hasn't been totally neglected. There were fairly regular visits
for harvesting most of the remaining winter crops including winter cabbages (Celtic),
sprouts (Maximus and Wellington), parsnips (Countess), swedes (Angela) and leeks (Musselburgh).
The 'Wellington' sprouts were disappointing, this year they will be dropped in favour
of another row of 'Maximus'. The other winter crops all performed well with very good results
from the winter cabbage, swedes and 'Maximus' sprouts - a very good replacement for 'Peer Gynt'.
At the time of writing there are still leeks, sprouts and a couple of rather large swedes
waiting to be harvested.
I usually get my supply of farmyard dung over the winter. Other commitments have meant I haven't
managed that this year so the potato section has only been dug over, rather than its usual
double digging. After twenty years of getting dung every fourth year, the soil in Section D is in
good condition. The crop should be good. All the seed potatoes are now 'chitting' in old greengrocer's
tomato trays to be ready for planting in April. The aim of chitting is to prevent the long,
straggly and weak shoots that can otherwise develop. Exposure to daylight produces short,
sturdy shoots which don't fall off during planting. The 'Crimson Clover' green manure has been hoed
off and is now making compost. This section is now ready for planting.
As far as possible, and until the last of the sprouts and leeks have been harvested,
Sections A and B have had the clover removed and the ground dug over in preparation for the season.
Section C has had its first application of ground limestone, sprinkled between the rows of clover,
and will get its second in April after removing the clover. Brassicas like firm soil. This section
isn't dug, it is simply hoed before planting out and the roots soon find their way down to
last year's layer of dung put in for the potatoes.
Seed sowing will start soon. Starting the plants in 'Rootrainers' has been so successful that
now the only crops that get direct sowing are beetroot, parsnips, leeks and carrots.
The single seeds are first sown in thimble sized modules and moved to 'Rootrainers' once the
roots have made a good ball and start coming through the bottom of the modules. This year
I may use the same process for beetroot following the success last year for the swedes.
Many of the plots on the site are in a similar state to my one. I prefer to spread out the
heavy work of winter digging rather than the frantic and backbreaking work that some plot holders
have before they can start seed sowing and planting. Spring time is busy enough without having
to do a lot of digging.
The Allotted Month - March 2006
The Allotted Month - April 2005
Things progressed well this month. Section B is now fully
planted up with potatoes and by the end of the month many
of them were showing through the ground. I also plant four
rows (10 tubers each) of "early" early potatoes in Section D.
Although this give only a two year rotation for potatoes
I vary the part of the section where they are planted.
In any case, these potatoes will be lifted after about
ten or twelve weeks and this short growing time doesn't
allow the dreaded eelworm cysts to mature. I've been using
this method for years and, although there was a serious
eelworm problem when I took over the plot, I now spot very
few of the tiny cysts - even with my specs! As soon as these
potatoes are lifted they are followed by leeks (Musselburgh)
which were sown in the middle of the month. By July they are
ready for transplanting.
Section A is now totally empty. The Crimson Clover has been
added to the compost heap. To begin with the space was completely
full but by the end of the month is had gone down to about a
third and was all piled at one end. Until the autumn not much
else will be added, only a few weeds and even then any that
are near the seeding stage are taken home for the wheelie bin.
I don't like using compost that is full of weed seeds - a common
problem on many plots. The second application of ground limestone
has been hoed in to the top few inches and everything is ready for
planting out the brassicas from the Rootrainers.
In Section C all the onion sets, shallots and garlic have been
planted. I bring on the shallots and garlic in Rootrainers to
give then a good start. The plants for the three rows of peas
(Kelvedon Wonder, Hurst Green Shaft and Onward) are nearly ready,
again in Rootrainers. The three triple rows of carrots
(Amsterdam Forcing, Early Nantes, Chantenay Royal, Flakee and Autumn King)
will be sown in May using home made seed tapes.
The remainder of Section D not occupied by leeks will get
Beetroot, Courgettes, Celery and Parsnips, all in May.
Next month the earthing up of the potatoes will start. I prefer
little and often as it helps with weed control. Also the first
of the brassicas will go in. By the end of May the whole plot
will be pretty well filled with only successional planting of
brassicas and transplanting of leeks to complete the whole planting cycle.
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