Beating our weird weather/seasons in 2013

[Aberdeenplotter]

soil temperature needs to be mimimum 5ºC according to that website which is equivalent to 41ºF. I could have sworn that nematodes need the soil to be at minimum 50ºF but after a wee bit of googling found this

http://www.sustland.umn.edu/maint/do...llingSlugs.doc which indicates they will work at a minimum 5ºC and the optimum seems to be 17ºC.

All I can say for sure is that nematodes work for me at a minimum soil temperature of 50ºF. Make your own judgements

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'll definitely be using it from now on, even if I have to bulk store it.

Chris, I think there is a limited shel flife(and that's in the fridge). I'll leave you to check that out for yourself

[SarzWix]

A lot of places will send you staggered deliveries of it, timed for the next one to arrive just as the previous one is wearing off, that might be worth looking into.

I'm just thinking that the best way to proceed will be to get as much growth as possible on the plants before the sun disappears in May (assuming it arrives in March as in the previous 2 years) which means early sowing and frost protection, backed up with better draining soil (hopefully) and slug/snail protection, and perhaps continued use of polythene covers to keep the wet off the things that hate it the most.

I hope I'm wrong, and the season unfolds 'normally', but if it does, then none of these changes or precautions should cause a problem either, I might just have wasted some money on early heating and extra fleece?

[chris]

Yes, I'm sure there is - I'm sure I've read that too. I meant in order to re-apply before 6-8 weeks -- sorry didn't explain properly

[Alison]

Slugs and snails (in deference to Alison)

Thank you

Plants by Post are showing as the cheapest at the moment, but, it's not available to order yet. Nemaslug Slug Killer Nematodes: 40m2, 100m2 and Nemaslug Programmes.

I've just ordered some from the Kings National Allotment Society Catalogue and the larger packet was £14.75 so much cheaper than that (the smaller packets are way too small for my lottie) but you do have to be a member or associate member via an allotment society.

[BUFFS]

2011 was no better a summer for us than 2012,when we were being told of the heatwave in england,we had lost the sun in june and it only made occasional appearances til march 2012,you know when light is bad when a patio ,which is in the south facing area has been covered in moss for over 18 months now,as for drainage,when i had problems with flooding,i borrowed one of those smallholder size rotovators and after putting 20 bags of sharp sand over the area,i let it work down to its max depth,slowly opening up the lower levels,never had any more problems after that,and could then grow parsnips....joy..

[redser]

Have a few things in mind. A good dose of slug pellets in March when they start to arise. Grow as much under protection as possible. I grew a few of the same things inside and out and the wind and cold made an enormous difference. By inside I mean the tunnel but also under debris netting outside. The wind alone shreaded young plants to bits. I've raised the windbreak to 2 meters around the plot now so hopefully that will help too, especially with the potato haulms. I'm going to try do things like toms, cucumbers, sweet peppers as early and main crops. Just a small few of each early and keep them trim and well pruned to get fruiting and eating early. Then dispose of these once the main crop (planted out June) take over. I've also read toms in pots crop that bit earlier than in the ground so the earlies will be kept in pots. I started everything under shop lights last year and I'll do that again, but about a month later, say second week of March until mid-April. They made a huge difference and I had very strong young plants that romped away after I got them in the ground. Last year I had huge plants begging to go into the ground in early May and it was a nightmare taking care of them. If I get the timing right it will be early June this year.
I'll space things out a bit more in the tunnel to help the light spread around more. I narrowed the central path a good bit and got rid of all my staging area at the end so I have much more room now. It was a total waste of space in hindsight. The undercover space last year was the difference between a decent year and not having much at all.

[madpiano]

I am already putting out the slug pellets. My slugs are happily crawling around the patio (they are actually quite useful as they are rasping away at the moss).... So far they've not gone sleeping for the winter. They are coming into the kitchen on cold days though....