Watering the allotment with dilute comfrey liquid.

I have decided to water all the plants on the allotment with dilute comfrey liquid once a week on a Tuesday.  It will prevent me from over "feeding"  and forgetting when I last did it.  Of course you cannot feed plants because they make their own food through photosynthesis.  Adding nutrients to the soil around plants enables them to access compounds that are necessary for a healthy plant.

Although some of the potatoes have poked their heads out of the soil, I did not water these.  I will wait until more are showing so that I can see the rows.

The parsnips and beetroot have germinated and their rows can be easily seen.  However, the carrot seed does not seem to have germinated and is very slow.

If I have seen no movement before the end of the week, I will have to resow.  The leaf beet and spinach have germinated but where I have used old seed - for the coriander and parcel there is no sign of life.  I have planted two rows of bulb fennel.  I have several varieties and want to discover which are the best for the allotment.  I planted a few lettuce as well.  I will use lettuce to fill the rows where seed does not germinate.

The strawberries have made a lot of growth this week and seem to appreciate the dilute comfrey liquid.  The winter cauliflowers have been watered heavily during the last two weeks and have finally produced quite big heads.  I will be harvesting them in the next week.

Peas are developing well.  I am amazed by how fast the climbing peas are growing.  They must be three times the size of the ordinary peas and they were sown at the same time.

The cauliflower and cabbages have grown about twice the size they were when they were planted.  It just shows what a little warmth and water will do.
The kohl rabbi, swede and turnip seeds have germinated and are developing well.

I think that I have saved the sweet pea seedlings.  They were hit very hard by the cold east wind and then attacked by flea beetle.  From having far too many sweet peas, I have now just enough for one per cane.  I will continue to water them to encourage the side shoots to grow a little quicker.  The flea beetle does not seem to be as attracted to the side shoots.

I used the onion hoe between the onions and cleared away the few weeds that were growing there.  The mammoth onions were planted next to the Bedfordshire Champion and another row of Santero onions were planted next to them.  I have put plastic bottles over the onions to keep the leaves upright.  I cut the bottoms and tops off the bottles.  It looks a little peculiar but it is doing the job.  The idea is to maintain all the leaves because every leaf lost is a scale lost on the bulb.

Almost all the alliums are covered with environmesh to prevent the leek miner fly Phytomyza gymnostoma getting to them.  I am hoping that the cold east wind has seen them off during March and April but that might be wishful thinking.

I put one line of leaks outside the environmesh as an experiment to see if they will be attacked and time will tell if the fly is still around.

Finally, I planted out the oca Oxalis tuberosum  and watered them in with dilute comfrey liquid.

Then home for a well earned cup of tea.