Now that all the seeds are in the ground, there is not much to do until mid-April when potato planting begins. My allotment is in a frost pocket so it is very risky to plant spuds before then. I have had the entire crop blasted by a frost in May and two thirds of the crop lost.
On Saturday I had a splurge of outdoor seed sowing - the last for a while. Beetroot, kohl rabi, salad onions, spinach, turnips, rocket, radish and especially lettuce went in. The trial lettuces were sown along with some ‘Warpath' (http://www.kingsseeds.com/kolist/2/VEGETABLES/L/LETTUCE/10/12616.htm ) and ‘Tom Thumb' (http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/product/467/1 ). My
outdoor sowings of ‘Little Gem' made in early March grew so well that I
think I can take a chance and sow direct in the ground from now on. In
fact, all these crops should be very easy to raise from outdoors
sowings from now on.
I find that I need a lot of green salad in June. I even nibble the lettuce hearts as a refreshing snack while working on the plot in the evening. However, once the soft fruit, peas, beans and other summer crops like courgettes mature, I find I am less keen on them. Therefore by May I will sow much less salad, but for now I have sown a two metre length of each cultivar. As they all mature after slightly different growing periods I will get good continuity of supply. I expect ‘Little Gem' type lettuces to take 70-80 days, ‘Tom Thumb' 80-90 days and ‘Warpath' 95 days to mature. This should give a spread of two-three weeks harvest, meaning my next lettuce sowing will be mid April.
To save space these small, quick-growing crops were sown were between the eventual positions of Brussels sprouts to be planted in May in rows 90cm apart. The technical name for this is ‘inter-cropping'. Using my marking-out tool I marked out 10 rows at 30cm intervals. Every
90cm I drew out a deep wide groove in the soil for Brussels sprouts and
dressed this with garden lime to control club root disease.
It
gets a bit technical here, but gardening is a technical, science based
activity and if you can get to grips with it if you will get the best
results more easily. Otherwise if technical stuff is not your thing,
skip the next paragraph.
In addition the whole plot was dressed with 30g per square metre of Perlka, a fertiliser containing calcium cyanamide (19% Nitrogen). This suppresses club root quite effectively by hydrolysing to form intensely alkaline ammonia. My
allotment, like most I have ever had, is riddled with diseases. Recent
researh has shown that the burst of intense alkalinity following
calcium cyanamide application is very effective at controlling club
root. With the poultry manure pellets rotovated in last month it will provide ample nitrogen for the small crops. I added 70g per square metre more Perlka to the Brussels
sprout rows - a full 100g is needed for best club root control but so
much might damage the seeds unless it has few weeks to break down. While I was at it I applied 2-3g per square metre of borax to the cabbage family area of my plot. Boron
deficiency is a serious hazard on my sandy, infertile and very heavily
limed soil. Boron is also held to suppress club root as well. Spreading 2-3g of anything per square metre is very difficult. The way to do it is to dissolve the necessary borax in hot water (it won't dissolve in cold). To
apply the borax I had to measure the width of wetting of a watering can
and rose, and how far I could walk before the can is empty. I then knew the area that the contents will cover. The dissolved borax is then diluted and applied with the watering can so that the necessary amount is applied. Boron
in excess is rather toxic to plants and the difference between too much
and too little is narrow so it is important to get it right. Treating
the boron hungry cabbage family plants supplies enough boron for all
the other plants grown through the rest of the three year rotation.
OK, that's the end of the technical stuff.
Once I had the Brussels sprout rows marked, I sowed double rows of small crops between each sprout row, all 30cm apart of course. I
decided not to cover with fleece. With the frosty nights forecast this
week, that might be a mistake that I will have to rectify next weekend.
These small crops will be finished by mid-June, just before the spreading sprout plants (planted in May) need the ground.
I can now take it easy for three weeks as I have done all that I can and my seeds are in the hands of Fate.