Aug wk 2

Monday, 08 to Wednesday, 10 August 2016

A Couple of Surprises

The last few days haven't been brilliant for August. The strong winds over the weekend and into Monday finally abated but sunshine on Tuesday and Wednesday was in short supply. We had a bit of gentle rain starting late on Wednesday afternoon which carried on through the evening and into Thursday morning. It amounted to 6.2mm (0.24in) so it isn't going to save us from having to do some watering at the allotment.

Temperature & Rainfall Records 09 & 10 August 2016

I've noticed those weather models that suggested only a few days ago that we could look forward to a couple of weeks of hot summer weather have done an about turn and at the moment indicate that the hot weather will clip the south of the UK next Tuesday and that will be it. Still they're fickle things, these weather models, and there is plenty of time for them to suggest something else.

On the plot our potato harvest began in earnest. The haulms to our Casablanca, Winston and Kestrel have all died back indicating that the potatoes aren't going to do any more growing.

Casablanca

First up were our remaining roots of First Early variety Casablanca. This variety has produced an excellent crop (24kg or 52lbs) of tasty potatoes with virtually blemish free potatoes. Next in line to be lifted was Winston weighing in at 10kg or 22lbs. We like the taste of this potato and have found in the past that it produces excellent jacket potatoes. The problem is that it seems to be very prone to damage from wireworms and slugs. As these potatoes are growing in the bed that was cleared of strawberry plants late last year I had my doubts regarding the suitability of the ground when the potatoes were planted.

Winston after haulms cut back and weed control fabric pulled back

They were planted as a crop to "clear the ground". In my case I figured that the ground would be well dug over as the crop was lifted as in spring the soil had only been turned over using my little cultivator which doesn't dig the soil as deeply as a spade or fork.

Isn't it amazing how far from the main root of the plant some potatoes grow. In the photo above you can see how far in from the path that the potatoes were planted yet some potatoes managed to reach the edge of the path.

With lots of slug damage to other beds on the plot I wasn't expecting much from our row of Winston potatoes but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the crop. They certainly had more damage than our Casablanca spuds but most potatoes are usable. I think most of the damage was from wire worms rather than slugs as some potatoes had tiny holes in them rather than the larger holes slugs make.

Winston

My second surprise or rather bit of good fortune was whilst visiting a friend on Wednesday afternoon I managed to get some photos of a fox.

She's a regular visitor and turns up expecting an evening meal most days.

Thursday, 11 & Friday, 12 August 2016

Contrasting Summer Days

Thursday was a pretty horrible sort of a day for August. It remained cool and cloudy all day with a gale force wind for good measure. We decided against a plot visit thinking that there would be much better days to visit but then worried that our tomatoes in the plot greenhouse might be thirsty and so decided on a quick visit just to give them a drink.

We just couldn't help picking a few bit and bobs while we were there.

Friday in complete contrast was much warmer and sunnier and Thursday's gale force wind had died down resulting in a lovely summer's day.

We decided to visit the nature reserve at Potteric Carr run by The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The birds generally kept out of camera range but the damselflies and dragonflies were much more accommodating. Most of my photos have been consigned to the delete box but this photo of a family of swans didn't turn out too badly.

It was a bit of a challenge to get a photo when all three had their heads above water at the same time but thanks to that magical burst mode on my camera I got the shot I wanted.

This is the view from the hide where the swan photo was taken and yes the swans can just about be seen in this shot too.

Saturday, 13 & Sunday, 14 August 2016

This Year's Best Potato Crop - To Date

Sunday was the better day of the weekend as Saturday was once again quite a breezy day.

Potato harvesting continued on the plot. Next in line to be lifted was a row of Kestrel. It's the first time we've grown this variety so I was interested to see how it had performed. Back in April at planting time I posted this description of Kestrel.

Another new variety to us this year which is said to be a gardeners' favourite second early variety, producing tubers of consistent size and shape, with attractive, smooth skins and violet eyes. Potato 'Kestrel' shows good slug resistance, Golden eelworm and partial white eelworm resistance.

Well it certainly lived up to its description. It has produced the heaviest crop of potatoes grown in this bed so far. None of the potatoes had slug or wireworm damage unlike the crop of Winston grown alongside them and lifted earlier in the week.

Kestrel

Each row in this bed consisted of 10 potato tubers of each variety and the row of Kestrel produced 12kg (26 lbs) of good sized potatoes. What impressed me the most is that these weren't planted in good soil.

As you can see from the two photos above the soil was well compacted and dry. I'm hoping that the process of digging out the potatoes and turning over the soil to at least a fork's depth will improve the soil condition.

I also lifted a row of Nadine potatoes which I consider to be a good reliable cropper on our plot and the crop amounted to a rather disappointing 8kg (18 lbs) in comparison with Kestrel. Like Kestrel, Nadine had virtually no slug or wireworm damage.

Once the potatoes were lifted the weed control fabric was put back in place. I'll dig over the whole bed once all the potatoes are cleared and we've had enough rain to soften up the ground.

And finally a couple of Kestrels cleaned up and ready for cooking.

They tasted fine so I think I'll be finding space for a row of these next year.

Disclaimer

This weather site is operated as an amateur weather station site and should not be used as official data. I make every effort to ensure my data is as accurate as possible but I cannot guarantee that the data meets the requirements of the Meteorological Office or other professional weather monitoring organisations.