Tuesday 08 April 2014
Weed Control Fabric Issues
Well at least we got some sunshine on Tuesday making a welcome break from a week of cloudy weather.
On the plot our plum and greengage trees are now in full flower. This is a surprise as it should be their lean year after producing an excellent crop of tasty fruit last year. As far as I can remember lean years in the past have been obvious from spring onwards as the trees have produced very little blossom.
That’s not the case this year. All three plum trees to the left of the path in the picture (Victoria, Marjories Seedling and Oullins Gage) and our Greengages to the right of the path (Mannings and Reinne Claude) are in full flower. Of course that doesn’t necessarily guarantee a bumper crop but there’s more of a chance than years with only a few flowers.
I was busy preparing a bed for our onions and shallots. Half the bed had been covered with weed control fabric since last summer’s crop of peas, beans were planted and the other half covered once the potatoes were lifted .
The fabric had done a good job and the soil beneath looked good and was weed free having been covered for the best part of a year. I gave it a couple of runs over with our little tiller to freshen up the top surface so that it will be easy to plant our plugs of onions and shallot.
After a quick tilling job it looked like this but then my problems started. I’d had a few problems when removing the fabric. Whilst it was a nice sunny afternoon it was very windy. The fabric over this bed consisted of two pieces each 5.0m long by 2.0m wide. Once free of any holding down material they were almost impossible to control in the strong wind. I just about managed to fold them up into a suitable size but at one stage this involved chasing one of the pieces across a couple of allotments as the wind caught the fabric and a large black sail headed off across the site. As I almost caught up with it another gust of wind came and it was off again out of my reach. In the end I managed to out manoeuvre it and get an all important boot on one corner getting the fabric back under some sort of control. I decided I might be better off waiting for a calmer day to place last year’s onion fabric over this year’s onion patch.
Wednesday 09 April 2014
Looking Promising
Wednesday wasn’t as sunny as Tuesday but the wind dropped and a few sunny periods lifted the temperature to a very pleasant 15.9°C.
It’s now round to that time of year where a regular look in the home greenhouse is required each morning to check on progress and see if any seeds or plants needs some water. Our first broad beans Witkeim Manita have germinated with their first green shoots pushing through the soil. They’ve taken 13 days to germinate in the greenhouse.
Last week our Himrod grape had the tiniest of buds ready to break but now it’s all systems go and before long it will be a case of cutting it back to stop it taking over the greenhouse. At the moment it’s hard to believe these fresh new shoots will grow so rapidly. The tiny flower buds are just visible nestled inside the unfurling leaves.
On the plot things are starting to appear more under control with the plot taking on a very spring like look with lots of fruit blossom and flowers taking over from that winter drabness the plot takes on in winter.
Thursday 10 April 2014
Caught Out by a Mild Spell?
Thursday was another pleasant spring day and although we didn’t have a massive amount of sunshine the temperature managed a very pleasant 15.1°C.
The weather tempted me to plant our early potatoes. It’s a couple of weeks earlier than I’d normally plant them but over the last week the weather has been milder than we might expect for early April.
Temperature Chart Friday 04 April 2014 to Thursday 10 April 2014
For the last week the temperatures been above the 12°C expected at the beginning of April and I may have been lulled into a false sense of planting safety. Anyhow some of our first early potatoes Rocket and Casablanca are planted and will have to put up with whatever the weather throws at them.
This is the first time we’ve planted potatoes through weed control fabric. I wasn’t too sure of the best method to use but settled for cutting a decent size hole at each planting location then planting the potato tuber with a trowel.
The fabric had already been laid in place last week. No string lines were required to line up the rows as the lines on the fabric could easily be used to both line up and space out the tubers.
On completion this is how the two rows of early potatoes look. The aim is that the shoots will emerge through the holes in the fabric. There are one or two issues I still have to finalise with this method. If shoots come through and a frost is forecast I won’t just be able to earth up some soil over the young shoots to protect them. I have some old straw used to protect our carrots over winter and I might keep that where it could be used as frost protection if needed. The other issue is how to lift the potatoes when they’re ready. It might have to be a similar technique to the one I’ve used for the leeks which is lifting and replacing the fabric from one edge. I might be jumping the gun of course as I don’t really know how the crop will perform grown under this fabric. Watch this space for updates.
Friday 11 April 2014
Figgy Corner
Friday continued the spell of mild and sunny spring weather of the last few days.
I did some more tidying up in the home greenhouse clearing out some of the rubbish that has accumulated over winter. One corner of the greenhouse has now been given over to our two fig trees.
Our larger fig had a top dressing of new compost applied and our smaller fig was repotted into a larger pot as it was drying out far too quickly in its small pot. Even at this early stage of the season the large fig has three generations of fruits. The largest fruits which have over wintered on the tree look rather pale and I’m expecting them to fall off without going on to produce any useful fruit. The two tubs in front of the figs are our over wintering osteospermums. These will need some fresh compost before they are moved outside once the danger of any frost has passed.
These are the newest two generations which appear a much more healthy shade of green and are growing rapidly. I’m hoping that the trees will like their new location just inside the greenhouse door.
I’ve still got plenty more areas to sort out in the greenhouse before its ready for its summer crop of tomatoes, aubergines and peppers.
Saturday 12 April 2014
A Conference That Flowers
Saturday saw an end to the lovely spell of early April weather as the sun disappeared for the day and the clouds returned. The cloud was thick enough to give a sprinkling of rain around teatime. What breeze there was had a distinctly chilly feel to it.
Last September one of our Peasgood Nonsuch apples fell off the tree and smashed it way into the greenhouse.
Now it’s entirely my own fault that this happens as it’s a silly place to allow an apple tree to grow. The problem is that this particular apple is a superb cooking apple.The apples are growing on a old cordon tree that used to be trained along a fence but has decided to become a tree. I’m greedy in allowing this tree to grow as large as possible on the grounds it will produce a bigger crop of apples. In the end it comes to an apple falling through the glass to prompt me into taking action. So last autumn the pruning saw came out and the apple tree was subject to a severe pruning. It’s not the only cordon survivor as next to it are a Bramley apple and Conference pear. Whilst the saw was out they all got the same treatment. I was pretty sure that pruning would put an end to any chance of fruit this year.
The Conference pear has proved me wrong and has produced a reasonable amount of blossom. It’s a little too early to tell whether the two apple trees will have any blossom or not but with a bit of luck we’ll have some tasty pears by the autumn that won’t be in a position to fall off the tree and through the greenhouse roof and will also be easier to reach and harvest.
Sunday 13 April 2014
Wind and Sun
On Sunday we had the unusual combination of a lovely sunny day day combined with gale force winds. It certainly wasn’t a day for moving weed control fabric around on the allotment.
High Wind Speeds -
It’s not that often we managed wind speeds exceeding 30 mph especially outside the winter months.
I did manage a little more sorting out in the home greenhouse by renewing the capillary matting to the metal staging. The old matting was well past its sell by date so it was consigned to the dustbin and replaced with some new matting.
I now need to sort out the pots and seed trays on the shelving beneath and another part of the greenhouse won’t look too bad. The space underneath has finished up as a storage area as there isn’t enough light for growing successfully.
Whilst I was pottering about I took pity on this tray of viola Symphonia Mixed sown last June and left to over winter in the cold frame.
I picked out the “best” of the seedlings and potted them on to see if they recover.
It will be interesting to see if they manage to rejuvenate and put on some sort of display. The seedlings did have plenty of roots so I’m hopeful they’ll make a full recovery. I wonder what I should do with the remaining stragglers.
Monday 14 April 2014
Potato Trial
Monday was a lovely sunny day and yesterday’s gale force winds had abated.
In the afternoon we set off to the plot to plant more shallots, onions and potatoes. I hadn’t really anticipated any wind damage on the plot, a sort of it’s spring now so we don’t get any wind damage. That wasn’t exactly the case.
We’ve been given these fencing panels by our plot neighbour Jan to replace some of the panels forming sides to our compost heap. Some panels are now starting to show their age and are coming apart at the seams. The wind had blown the panels over onto our garlic. The leaves look a bit flat but we’re hoping that they’ll make a full recovery. The panels have been moved to a safer location for the time being.
The wind decided to rearrange some of the weed control fabric that had been put down. This piece had been carefully set out for growing peas and beans but will need some rearranging.
One thing I did notice about using weed control fabric is how much wetter the soil is under fabric that hasn’t any holes cut in it for growing or planting through. All the pieces lifted this spring have had holes or slots cut in them to allow different crops to grow through and the soil underneath has been in excellent condition. Last autumn I put down one new piece without holes in it to cover a bed purely to stop any weeds growing over winter. When I moved this fabric the ground under it was considerable wetter than under all the other fabric as though the soil had sweated under the fabric.
So whilst Sue was planting more onions and shallots I planted another two rows of potatoes. These haven’t been planted under weed control fabric and I’m using these two rows as a direct comparison with the two rows planted last week under fabric.
The potatoes have been planted in two different beds but the beds are as close together as I could manage taking the correct crop rotation of the beds into account. The potatoes are Rocket and Casablanca with a row of each under fabric and one planted as normal. I’m still not entirely convinced about growing potatoes under weed control fabric. I’ll probably try a few second early roots under some fabric but most of our remaining potatoes will be planted normally this year. That is our normal using a trowel.