Testing the allotment soil pH.

I only went down the allotment to get some soil samples to do some tests and found that a big pile of horse muck had been delivered.

Well you cannot miss out on something like that so I have spent two hours getting a few barrow loads of muck and putting them onto the black currant (Ribes nigrum) bushes as a mulch.  This keeps the blackcurrants growing well and the ground moist.  I also put some horse muck onto the rhubarb (Rheum raponticum), whilst other people put custard.

The Champaign rhubarb is throwing up some good petioles and leaves under the black bins but the Victoria is still asleep.  The horse muck might warm the ground and encourage the Victoria to make more of an effort.

The Nemaslug nematodes (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) have come and I am keeping them in the refrigerator at the moment.  I am hoping to put them onto the ground tomorrow - Saturday.  I have enough to do the leaf and roots bed; the peas and beans bed and the brassica bed.   I have used this very successfully for about four years now.

Now, the problem is that I have green manure growing on two of these beds and brassicas on the other.  I will want to dig the green manure in and at least fork where the brassicas are.  If I put the nematodes on now will I cause them a problem when I dig the ground over?  I don' t really think so especially if I dig very shallowly.   Forking should not cause any problem at all.  I will not have to do any digging or forking for a couple of weeks yet because the ground is still a little cold to put plants out. 

Having said that I will be planting the sweet pea seedlings as soon as the cane supports have been put up.  

The nematodes will have time to start their work before I start to disturb the soil.  

I have transplanted both Brassica oleracea var. capitata  "Golden Acre Primo" ; Brassica oleracea var. botrytis "Clapton" (Club root; Plasmodiophora brassicae resistant) and Brassica oleracea var botrytis "All the Year Round, into three inch pots to bring them on.  I still have a lot to do on the brassica bed before I plant any of these out.  I still have some February sown onions to plant as well particularly Allium cepa var. "Vision" which is supposed to be high yielding and can be stored for most of the winter.  I will plant these in sectioned trays.  

I still need the leeks, celeriac and the celery to germinate.  They are taking their time.   

So, why have I decided to test the soil on the allotment? 

I have used a lot of X Cupressocyparis leylandii shreddings dug 600mm deep in the soil as a kind of Hugelkultur and they are reported to be very acidic.  I want to know if they are causing the top soil to be acidic. I am going to put lime on some of the beds  this year particularly on the brassica and onion beds anyway, but I might need to put some on the other beds too.  Most vegetables grow well within the range of pH 6.5  to 7.  I will be able to find the allotment soil pH  quickly with a simple  test.  

However, it would also be good to know what the major nutrient potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen levels are and whether they need to be altered in any way.  The test I have bought should give me an idea of the nutrients in the soil too.  I don't have very much confidence in these test but they might give me a rule of thumb nutrient level.  

I need to demonstrate that I can use a simple soil test for the RHS practical gardening course so I might take a few photographs while doing the test.  I need some distilled water to do it with and I will be able to get some from the college - I hope.  

Picking blackcurrants

I think that anyone that can pick blackcurrants must have the patients of a saint.  I do have a special tool for collecting the currants but there were so many that had not gone black that I wanted to leave them on the branches until they had turned colour.  So there I was carefully picking the black ones.   It does not matter how careful you are you still get some green ones.  I must have gathered about 1kg of currants before I was forced to stop.  This is not bad from bushes that were infested with big bud.

I have to reconsider whether to take these bushes out and throw them away or whether to cut the branches off to ground level and hope that the new growth does not have big bud.  This is what I am thinking of doing.

I did two and a half bushes when it started to rain.  Picking blackcurrants at the best of times is a chore but doing it in the rain is just too much.

Black currant bushes await picking.

I stopped to have a cup of tea and a cake.  I almost fell asleep again but it was too cold.  I just watched the rain come down and waited for my potatoes to start growing over the shed.  There is something like the Amazonian rain forest about my potatoes.

I have another oca.  That makes four out of six that have grown.  I am very impressed.  I keep looking for the other two but to no avail.  I have had to tie back the potatoes or they would have shaded the oca out.

I watered the onions with comfrey liquid again - needless to say it rained soon afterwards.  This will help to wash the comfrey liquid down to the roots.  I also watered the newly planted tomatoes and lettuce with comfrey.

The corn on the cob is recovering from being put out too early and an attack by slugs.  I was not worried about whether it would survive because last year I bunged it into a corner on allotment 25 and it still came really well.

I put some comfrey liquid onto the tomatoes and pumpkins in pots.  The pumpkins are not going to stay in the pots.  They are going to be planted where the onions are now.  I am hoping that the onions will be out of the ground before the pumpkins become pot bound.

The garlic is going over now and needs to be taken out and dried in the shed.  The shed is all ready for them because I cleared it out yesterday.  I will do this soon but I really wanted them to go brown before I lifted them.  I will  take out the rest of the tulips and store them when I lift the garlic.

I cleared out the everyday shed and gave it a good sweep.  I have begun to move any tools that I use rarely into the store shed.  This has given me a lot more room in the everyday shed.  I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.  I may have to take them out again to fit all the canes in at the end of the season but this is of no consequence.

My first row of Early Onward peas is three feet tall and still growing.  I only wish that they had some flowers on them.  I think that I have made it too comfortable for them and they still don't want to produce peas.

The new line of turnips have germinated.  I am only going to allow them to get to golf ball size because I don't want woody ones.  My daughter wants me to grow an enormous turnip  so I will have to leave one to grow on.  I will see if I can grow it really  big without it splitting.

I may have labelled my sweet peas incorrectly because the Gwendoline sweet peas seem to coming out red.  The only red sweet pea I have is Restormel.  So how on earth have I mixed these up?

I have been particularly careful this year to label correctly.  I have a winter cabbage in the Trafalgar Brussel sprout line as well.  How did that happen?  A bit of an irritation but liveable with.

Plenty more strawberries ripening.  I gave them a miss today though.  I couldn't eat another one for a while.  This is the stage when I start to freeze them for jam.

I need to get some beer for my traps.  I will get some tomorrow.