What I did today 2021

[Bren In Pots]

How do you keep it watered? Auto or what?

QW I us a reservoir once its topped up its fine for a week.

[quanglewangle]

Washed greenhouse glass now that the sun is loosing some power.
Didn't look dirty but looked much cleaner afterwards.

[peanut]

Secured the arches that my squashes are climbing up to the greengage tree as it's leaning quite a bit and tomorrow's weather is looking nasty.
Watered and fed the chillies, sweet peppers, cucumbers and my single lonely aubergine.
Made a huge pot of roasted tomato, thyme, garlic and sweet pepper soup. It's delicious!

[MelanieSW]

Planted shallots and onion sets. Next year, here we come!

[annie8]

Cleared the squash and courgettes they are done. Did a brutal prune of the tomatoes and chillis in the greenhouse to encourage the fruit left to ripen.

[Bren In Pots]

Potted up 4 Basil plants that I'd rooted in water they'll be staying indoors on the kitchen windowsill.

[bramble]

Started off y onion setts in modules today.
Sturon, Centurion and Stetton.
I will pot them on when they outgrow the modules.

[quanglewangle]

Cleared and rough-dug ex-sweetcorn and ex-potato plots.

[Bren In Pots]

Cut down JA's to 6 inch high then dug up nettles adding them to their bucket.

[Jungle Jane]

Mowed the lawn today,it was a little bit wet,did some weeding & pruning the shrubs,topped up the bird feeders. Yesterday I took down the two bean teepees,mulched the ground there with the bean plants & the grass cuttings today went there too. Courgette plant has tiny courgettes it wants to grow forever,I’m waiting for a few tomatoes & peppers to ripen,carrots & potatoes ready to lift when I’m ready. The rest of the apples need to be picked. Leeks look very thin still cucumber plant trying to grow more but they’re tiny & it’s getting a bit cold now. Deadheaded the marigolds & geraniums,thinking about overwintering them in a sheltered spot,their second year is more floriferous

[ameno]

Two days ago I emptied my allotment compost bin, then spread it around some of the runner beans (it's not for the beans themselves, it's just those are the areas I want to spread it on for next year and the beans aren't finished yet).

[quanglewangle]

Second dig of autumn onion plot. Now almost pristine. Just needs fertiliser, a quick rake and a few days to settle.

Meanwhile Mrs quanglewangle has partitioned the sets into two piles: the largest 80, for planting; and the rest, for reserves.

[ameno]

Second dig of autumn onion plot. Now almost pristine. Just needs fertiliser, a quick rake and a few days to settle.

Meanwhile Mrs quanglewangle has partitioned the sets into two piles: the largest 80, for planting; and the rest, for reserves.

Getting a bit late for planting autumn sets, isn't it? Don't they usually need to be planted early enough that they reach spring onion size before winter, as any small and they won't survive the cold?

Also, I don't know if autumn onions might be different, but for the ones planted in spring smaller sets are actually better than larger ones (as long as they are still firm and undamaged, of course). Set size has no real bearing on the size the onion will ultimately reach, but larger sets are more likely to end up bolting than smaller ones.

[Jungle Jane]

Its ok planting autumn onion sets now I haven’t even bought mine yet,I feel there’s the next couple of weeks to get them in,before it gets cold at the end of the month,the soil temperature stays warmer longer than the air temperature. They’ll have time to put roots down,mine haven’t needed to grow any green before winter,they just carry on growing when they want. Once mine disappeared completely below the surface of the soil over winter,I thought they’d rot but they were so hard they grew fine

[quanglewangle]

I usually plant mine mid-October. Here are last year's lot around 6 six weeks in on 25 November.

As for set size. I have no real reason for selecting biggest. I will try a row of smalls this year and report back.