Statice hanging in the barn to dry.
Tuesday 29 August 2017
Friday 25 August 2017
Wednesday 16 August 2017
No dig potato update
Apart from a few volunteer Kiflis that have been left to grow, all the spuds are now lifted.
Some were planted under leaves and some under wood chips.
Pro's of using leaves
Easy to mound up
Easy to harvest (also easy to furtle about for early tubers as they became large enough)
Tubers were quite clean
Cons of leaves
In windy conditions leaves needed holding down with chicken wire until the canopy had grown
More slug damage than normal
Pros of using wood chips
Easy to mound up
Relatively easy to furtle (compared to soil)
Easy to harvest
Cons of wood chips
More scab
Chips mixing with soil as tubers were lifted
Some were planted under leaves and some under wood chips.
Pro's of using leaves
Easy to mound up
Easy to harvest (also easy to furtle about for early tubers as they became large enough)
Tubers were quite clean
Cons of leaves
In windy conditions leaves needed holding down with chicken wire until the canopy had grown
More slug damage than normal
Pros of using wood chips
Easy to mound up
Relatively easy to furtle (compared to soil)
Easy to harvest
Cons of wood chips
More scab
Chips mixing with soil as tubers were lifted
Tuesday 1 August 2017
Tunnel Update
Cucumbers every day, peppers look promising and the toms are going strong.
Palermo peppers, grown from seed saved earlier from supermarket peppers.
Palermo peppers, grown from seed saved earlier from supermarket peppers.
Sunday 23 July 2017
No-Dig, so far so good
So far the no-dig method is working well. Hardly any weeds, less watering and the plot looks vibrant.
Thursday 20 July 2017
Golden Bear white rot success
We usually lose about 50% of our onions to white rot but have only lost two out of 120 from this years crop of Golden Bear. It's possible the one bed is less contaminated plus the dry weather may have helped but rot still claimed half the Red Baron nearby.
GB is marketed as resistant to downy mildew but I read it has an increasing reputation as having some white rot resistance too. Maybe the roots produce less allicin so the rot isn't triggered into being active. Whatever the reason I'll be growing them again next year.
GB is marketed as resistant to downy mildew but I read it has an increasing reputation as having some white rot resistance too. Maybe the roots produce less allicin so the rot isn't triggered into being active. Whatever the reason I'll be growing them again next year.
Saturday 15 July 2017
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