Friday, 07 June 2018
Extra Mini Tomato Plants
The "sort of" fine weather has continued over the last week. However, with the breeze predominantly from the east or north east it's meant we've had lots of cloud coming in off the cold North Sea. Some days this has cleared by lunchtime resulting in a sunny and warm afternoon but on other occasions it's persisted all day and it's been a bit on the chilly side.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 09 May - 08 June 2018
The one thing we haven't had is any decent rainfall so visits to the allotment involve lots of watering as well as trying to get beds dug over and planted up. So far this spring and early summer is turning out to be quite challenging on the allotment.
All our tomato seeds this year were sown on the 22 April, a little bit late even for us, but this was due to the cold start to spring. All our seeds germinated well and were soon potted on out of their seed trays. We had four varieties Sungold, Shirley, Tigerella and Red Robin. The first three varieties are all now moved on into their final growing positions and are looking just like I expect them to.
The final variety Red Robin has taken me a bit by surprise. Whilst the other three varieties grew on quickly in the greenhouse, Red Robin didn't make much progress at all and didn't look at all like it needed moving on into a larger pot. I had intended this variety to be grown on in pots in the greenhouse as a dwarf variety but clearly I didn't read the blurb in the seed catalogue so closely. It's supposed to have an excellent flavour even though it produces a mini tomato plant suitable for growing on a kitchen window sill.
Tomato Plants - Red Robin
As you can see they're not yet much more than a few inches high but already starting to produce tiny flower buds. It's going to be interesting to see how big they finally grow and how many tomatoes they produce. I'll have to start reading the catalogue descriptions a bit more closely in future.
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
Planted Up As The Dry Spell Continues
Despite the best predictions of the weather models for showers or thunderstorms over the last week or so it's remained stubbornly dry apart from the odd bit of drizzle from low cloud.
Temperature & Rainfall 14 May - 13 June 2018
It's the driest spell I've recorded from the beginning of May through to 13 June with a miserly 19.2mm or 0.76in of rainfall. The only year that comes close to this is 2010 which managed 30.3mm (1.19in) over the same period with a very dry May producing just 10mm (0.39in) of rainfall but by this stage of June we'd had 20.3mm or 0.80in.
The warm weather trend is also continuing into June, following on from the warmest May I've recorded, the first two weeks of June have continued the trend resulting in the warmest June I've recorded at this stage of the month.
On the plot it's been very slow progress sowing and planting. The dry ground has made digging and ground preparation both slow and difficult. As more seeds or plants get into the ground it means more time is spent watering and less for ground preparation, sowing and planting.
Our leeks were finally planted out yesterday and we felt with that completed it meant our beds were finally planted up. To be honest until we get a reasonable amount of rain we've no ground suitable for cultivation. All our empty beds resemble concrete rather than soil. Our leek plants weren't the strongest looking specimens but they've got plenty of time to grow on before they are ready for harvesting. One plant that hasn't minded the conditions is our cardoon. It must be deep rooted and finding plenty of moisture and with no damaging winds so far it's looking rather spectacular.
That statement should be enough to bring on some wet and windy weather!