It might be a little early but I put out the sweet peas to harden off. If there is a frost then I will bring them in again. I also put out the shallots. I need the room in the greenhouse to plant the early peas. I will continue to plant the peas in sectioned trays, as I did successfully last year, and keep them in the greenhouse away from the mice and the pigeons.
I do not have room to put the peas in yet and I have not put up the sweet pea supports. They are fine in their pots at the moment but I would not like to keep them like this any longer than the middle of March.
I have a lot of vegetables to prick out now. I have started but not finished pricking out the tomatoes and leeks. There are also some cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce and onions that are ready to be put into sectioned trays.
The Apium graveolens rapaceum and the Apium graveolens dulce have not germinated yet. I am keeping them in the warm until they do.
I bought some New Horizons general growing medium, lime, mychorrhizal fungi, chicken manure and seeds. I should have a fairly full allotment this year.
Showing posts with label lettuce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lettuce. Show all posts
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Monday, 18 April 2011
Planting the onions and lettuce.
I got up to the allotment early so that I would have some time to do the planting. I decided to put the lettuce in first. To do this I needed to move the tarpaulin. I took off all the slabs and just slid it across the soil so that it was out of the way. The line was put in four feet from the track way.
Lettuce do not need to be very far apart when you first put them in. If you put them six inches apart along the line then you can thin them out as you take them to eat. This gives more room for the others to get bigger. So, I used the green trowel with the scale on the blade to measure between plants and to dig the holes.
I put some comfrey liquid into the watering can and filled it with tap water. I have emptied the water butts now so I cannot use rain water any more. A three to four inch hole was dug for each of the lettuces and a little mychorrhizal fungi was added before the lettuce plant was carefully dropped in. I do not drag the soil back into the hole with the trowel. Rather, I water the soil around the hole so that soil is washed onto the roots.
This does several things. It puddles water around the plant and this means that they rarely wilt. It washes soil onto the roots so there are no gaps or air pockets and it fills the holes so that a cursory hoe around the row means that the holes are completely filled.
But for about three seedlings I got two rows out of the lettuce. I had already watered the Nemaslug nematodes onto this area so I am hoping that they will be free of slugs for most of their lives. The tarpaulin was pulled back next to the lettuce and the slabs returned to keep it from blowing about. I will make sure that there are also some beer traps to make sure that no slugs get to the lettuce.
I moved over to the other side of this bed to plant the onions. I wanted to be as far away from the hedges along the trackway as I could because Phytomyza gymnostoma shelters in hedges. I doubt whether it will make a difference but I wanted to give it a go and see what would happen.
The onions were planted more or less like the lettuce and then given an additional watering of comfrey liquid. As a further precaution against Phytomyza gymnostoma , I put a three plastic cloches over the lines of onions. I will leave them there until I crop the onions because I don't think that the onions will mind. I will remove the cloches to weed between the onions but put them back as soon as I have finished.
I planted three double rows and I think that this will be sufficient. I still had some left over in the sectioned trays and rather than waste them I will use them in salads for spring onions.
I hoed the area between the onion cloches and the tarpaulin because there were lots of weed seedlings germinating from the compost I put on this bed in March.
I really needed to hoe between the sweet peas as well. Weed seedlings were starting to grow here as well. I was going to water the sweet peas but ran out of time.
The newly planted Early Onward seedlings have settled in really well and are growing away now. The swedes, salsify, scorzonera, rocket, spinach, Boltardy beetroot, carrots, and parsnips have all germinated. The potatoes are also showing through the soil and I will have to hoe them up to prevent the foliage being scorched if there is a frost.
I hoed around the broad beans which are flowering profusely. I will get a crop off these plants in the next few weeks.
The winter cauliflower head was quite large now and I thought that I would take it home. I also picked a few rhubarb stems as well.
Just as I was going to the car, I started to talk to one of the allotmenteers about the skip that the allotment society had provided. I said that although the committee had cleared off the glass on the allotment too far they had not removed the old bath. We went down to the allotment too far to see if the bath was a cast iron one or a plastic one. It was plastic so we decided to carry it to the skip. The problem was that it was full of soil. Turning it over and emptying it was a job for two strong men. However, we had to do it instead and it was a great effort.
Carrying it over to the skip was easy in comparison.
Then I went home.
Lettuce do not need to be very far apart when you first put them in. If you put them six inches apart along the line then you can thin them out as you take them to eat. This gives more room for the others to get bigger. So, I used the green trowel with the scale on the blade to measure between plants and to dig the holes.
I put some comfrey liquid into the watering can and filled it with tap water. I have emptied the water butts now so I cannot use rain water any more. A three to four inch hole was dug for each of the lettuces and a little mychorrhizal fungi was added before the lettuce plant was carefully dropped in. I do not drag the soil back into the hole with the trowel. Rather, I water the soil around the hole so that soil is washed onto the roots.
This does several things. It puddles water around the plant and this means that they rarely wilt. It washes soil onto the roots so there are no gaps or air pockets and it fills the holes so that a cursory hoe around the row means that the holes are completely filled.
But for about three seedlings I got two rows out of the lettuce. I had already watered the Nemaslug nematodes onto this area so I am hoping that they will be free of slugs for most of their lives. The tarpaulin was pulled back next to the lettuce and the slabs returned to keep it from blowing about. I will make sure that there are also some beer traps to make sure that no slugs get to the lettuce.
I moved over to the other side of this bed to plant the onions. I wanted to be as far away from the hedges along the trackway as I could because Phytomyza gymnostoma shelters in hedges. I doubt whether it will make a difference but I wanted to give it a go and see what would happen.
The onions were planted more or less like the lettuce and then given an additional watering of comfrey liquid. As a further precaution against Phytomyza gymnostoma , I put a three plastic cloches over the lines of onions. I will leave them there until I crop the onions because I don't think that the onions will mind. I will remove the cloches to weed between the onions but put them back as soon as I have finished.
I planted three double rows and I think that this will be sufficient. I still had some left over in the sectioned trays and rather than waste them I will use them in salads for spring onions.
I hoed the area between the onion cloches and the tarpaulin because there were lots of weed seedlings germinating from the compost I put on this bed in March.
I really needed to hoe between the sweet peas as well. Weed seedlings were starting to grow here as well. I was going to water the sweet peas but ran out of time.
The newly planted Early Onward seedlings have settled in really well and are growing away now. The swedes, salsify, scorzonera, rocket, spinach, Boltardy beetroot, carrots, and parsnips have all germinated. The potatoes are also showing through the soil and I will have to hoe them up to prevent the foliage being scorched if there is a frost.
I hoed around the broad beans which are flowering profusely. I will get a crop off these plants in the next few weeks.
The winter cauliflower head was quite large now and I thought that I would take it home. I also picked a few rhubarb stems as well.
Just as I was going to the car, I started to talk to one of the allotmenteers about the skip that the allotment society had provided. I said that although the committee had cleared off the glass on the allotment too far they had not removed the old bath. We went down to the allotment too far to see if the bath was a cast iron one or a plastic one. It was plastic so we decided to carry it to the skip. The problem was that it was full of soil. Turning it over and emptying it was a job for two strong men. However, we had to do it instead and it was a great effort.
Carrying it over to the skip was easy in comparison.
Then I went home.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Started sowing seeds
I pricked out the Bedfordshire Champion onions and the Webb's Wonderful lettuce. I will do the Alisa Craig onions tomorrow. The Early Onward pea seeds were planted in those trays with little divisions. These ones had 60 sections and I used three of them just for one packet of seed. I am going to space the pea seedlings a little further apart on the allotment this year. I think that I put them a little too close together usually.
I decided to plant the autumn sown sweet peas in the allotment. I had already put up the canes for them so they were planted with a little mychorrhizal fungi and inoculated charcoal. There was still some noticeable amounts of charcoal that I used for the onions last year lying on the surface of the soil. I think that the frost makes stones rise to the surface and this is what happened to the charcoal. I just collected it up and put it into the planting holes with the rest.
I got quite a few Oban Bay sweet peas to survive the winter and they made up the majority of these seedling. Others were Anniversary, Charlie's Angels, White Supreme, Charlie's Angels and Dynasty. There were about 17 plants in all. I watered them in with some comfrey liquid diluted with rain water. I always seem to be taking home dirty pots and trays so this time I decided to wash them all in the water butt by the tap. The water is not on yet but some people are planting and they have asked for it to be put on again.
I took the dead brassicae off the top bed and put them in plastic bags to bring home. Then I thought that I might well put these at the bottom of the trench in the new allotment. So I left them on one of the compost heaps. The compost on this bed is a little rougher than the compost I put onto the onion bed. I had not reached the bakers tray sieve in my excavations of the mega compost heap so none of this compost was sieved . It needed digging in and now that the Brussel sprouts and the purple sprouting broccoli had been taken off there was a great deal more room for digging. I dug and forked all the bed and then raked it to get rid of any stone. There was some glass in the compost. I just cannot get away from the stuff.
I have only once got seriously cut by broken glass on the allotment. I got a glass splinter stuck down the side of my thumb nail. I got it out but it could have been a lot more dangerous. My allotment is regularly covered in cow and horse manure which contains a great number of potentially very dangerous bacteria like tetanus. I do not want that injected into my thumb. This is why I always take any glass shards, no matter how big they are, off the allotment.
More sweet pea canes were put up before I came home. The digging has taken its toll and I am very tired now.
I decided to plant the autumn sown sweet peas in the allotment. I had already put up the canes for them so they were planted with a little mychorrhizal fungi and inoculated charcoal. There was still some noticeable amounts of charcoal that I used for the onions last year lying on the surface of the soil. I think that the frost makes stones rise to the surface and this is what happened to the charcoal. I just collected it up and put it into the planting holes with the rest.
I got quite a few Oban Bay sweet peas to survive the winter and they made up the majority of these seedling. Others were Anniversary, Charlie's Angels, White Supreme, Charlie's Angels and Dynasty. There were about 17 plants in all. I watered them in with some comfrey liquid diluted with rain water. I always seem to be taking home dirty pots and trays so this time I decided to wash them all in the water butt by the tap. The water is not on yet but some people are planting and they have asked for it to be put on again.
I took the dead brassicae off the top bed and put them in plastic bags to bring home. Then I thought that I might well put these at the bottom of the trench in the new allotment. So I left them on one of the compost heaps. The compost on this bed is a little rougher than the compost I put onto the onion bed. I had not reached the bakers tray sieve in my excavations of the mega compost heap so none of this compost was sieved . It needed digging in and now that the Brussel sprouts and the purple sprouting broccoli had been taken off there was a great deal more room for digging. I dug and forked all the bed and then raked it to get rid of any stone. There was some glass in the compost. I just cannot get away from the stuff.
I have only once got seriously cut by broken glass on the allotment. I got a glass splinter stuck down the side of my thumb nail. I got it out but it could have been a lot more dangerous. My allotment is regularly covered in cow and horse manure which contains a great number of potentially very dangerous bacteria like tetanus. I do not want that injected into my thumb. This is why I always take any glass shards, no matter how big they are, off the allotment.
More sweet pea canes were put up before I came home. The digging has taken its toll and I am very tired now.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Seed planting
I have planted some Musselburgh leeks (Allium ampeloprasum v. porrumand) and a mixture of old lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seed. I will sow some more later in the month and during March. The tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L. var. lycopersicum) I sowed last week are Totem. They are a dwarf stocky variety and I will be growing them on the staging in the greenhouse.
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