Will I have to water, won’t I have to water?  Rain so far has usefully wetted the ground, but more is forecast and with luck it will top up the soil at just the right moment as seeds are emerging, lettuces hearting up, spuds initiating their tubers and peas and beans are in full flower.  Enough rain now could lead to bumper crops without me having to lay hands on watering can.

Rain also leads to disease.  Potato blight was rampant last year and the strain that predominates here in the south-east, officially called “blue-13 A2 blight”, is worryingly more dangerous than previous types, infecting more quickly, producing more spores and has adapted to overcome resistance genes and most fungicides. To be on the safe side Dithane (mancozeb) was applied to the potatoes to protect the stems that will soon be inaccessible beneath the foliage canopy.  Dithane (and copper fungicide) kills blight in a number of ways and blight has been unable to overcome it despite decades of use

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Colder weather has led to nasty little ground frosts that have nipped the spuds.  Only the ‘Charlotte’ has been badly affected, where about half the plants are unlikely to come to anything now.  The others should all recover soon.

Perversely, salads begin to mature when the weather turns chilly with the lettuces and cabbages bought as plants in March are hearting up and radishes and salad onions reaching a usable size.  Warming lettuce soup might be their fate

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I had a weekend away last week, and before I went everything was watered, fed, hoed, netted, earthed up, planted or sown as required and left to get on with it while I enjoyed the amazing summery weather on the Isle of Wight.  Well, I cannot go any further away at this time of year – too busy.

On returning, I found a forest of brassica transplants ready to go out, but the ground unfit to receive them.  As the brassica patch is already bearing the 'intercrop' of salads these had to be tidied up with weeds removed and the plants thinned.  Then the brassica rows were drawn out as 25cm wide flat bottomed drills, between the intercrop rows, with a mattock and the soil made intensely alkaline with a stiff dressing of garden lime and calcium cyanamide (Perlka) to deter clubroot disease.  Because alkaline soil locks up boron, extra was applied by dissolving household borax in hot water (it won’t dissolve in cold water), and watering it onto the drills.  The chemicals were them cultivated into the soil at the base of the drill.  Perlka is a bit fierce on the roots so it will be left for a few days (it should be left at least 10 days but time presses) before planting out.  All this should have been done weeks ago but the soil has been too wet to traverse.  Birds have already been tearing into the lettuces and deer could polish off the beetroot in a night.  Obviously it would be folly to put out the precious brassica transplants undefended. Although we have spent the winter mending the perimeter fences the deer could outflank us along the railway whenever they wish.  The netting stockpile was therefore brought out and erected over the cabbage patch

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At last the tide has turned and I can now sow at will in good weather and with warm moist soils – perfect.

Carrots for winter harvest were sown this weekend.  For rotational reasons they are not grown on my raised beds this year but in open ground.  This sandy soil is ideal for carrots, but it is also ideal for carrot fly and annual weeds.  The weeds have been allowed to germinate and then killed before sowing.  A narrow, 90cm bed was drawn out with line and hoe and rows pressed crossways into the soil 15mm deep with a lath of timber.  The firm soil at the base of the drill ensure plenty of moisture and a firm grip for the seedling root.  The bed was loosened with a fork before sowing to eliminate any compaction that might lead to forked roots.  This bed is fertile because masses of compost was rotovated in last year so the only fertiliser used was the usual 15g per square metre of sulphate of potash.  Such a narrow bed is very easy to reach into for weeding.  Carrot foliage is too feathery to inconvenience weeds with shade so much laborious weeding is usually required and anything to speed up this task is worthwhile

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