Penellype's Allotment

[Bren In Pots]

Thanks Pen, I’ll have to give them another go it’s disappointing when they don’t even grow to golf ball size.

[Penellype]

While I am stuck inside yet again watching the rain come down, I thought I would do a mid-month update. The allotment was flooded again this morning, and the current rain is not going to help matters.

The weather has in general caused absolute havoc this year and for the 3rd time I have had to change my plans as things are not working out as they usually do.

The first problem I had was with the hotbed crops, which simply didn't grow due to lack of sunlight. The lettuces were eaten off by slugs and although I managed to grow some, they are a lot later than usual. Further down the line this has meant that the beds are still full and I have had to pot up tomatoes into bigger pots while I wait for space for them. The beetroot in the hotbed has been awful - it has bolted when the roots are only marble sized - usually I have trouble eating them all before they get too big!

Next, the peas. I normally grow 4m of Meteor (including 2m at home), 4m of Hurst Greenshaft (2m at home) and 2m of Terrain. We get a lot of pea moth in this area, so apart from the very early Meteor, I like to grow them under nets. There is room for 6m of peas down the centre and at the shed end of the tunnel. I planted the first lot of peas in a raised bed at home, where they were completely annihilated by slugs. I harvested literally 4 small pods from a 1m row. The other place where I was going to plant them was under water when the 2nd batch were ready, so I planted them next to the raspberries at the allotment, which was not really intended for peas. Things had not improved at home by the time I had planted all 4 lots of Meteor, so I decided I would have to grow all of the Hurst Greenshaft at the allotment. This means that all the 6m of row in the tunnel has now been used up and I still have 2m of Terrain to plant. I can't plant them at home because of the pea moth, so I have put up an extra piece of mesh in the west side bed of the tunnel. This will make them extremely hard to harvest as I can't reach everything behind the mesh, but any that get missed can be saved for seed for next year.

Next the cauliflowers. These were ordered in November and arrive in March as plug plants, which has been fine for several years. This year they got delayed in the post and took nearly a week to arrive (I actually rang Marshalls and got a refund, then paid again when they turned up). This did not exactly help them get established quickly and the ongoing lack of sunshine has meant that cauliflowers that are supposed to be ready in late May still have no flower heads showing on almost all of the plants. Only 3 have had edible sized heads so far, 2 of which I have eaten. The problem is that I have romanesco plants that are supposed to be following the cauliflowers, and these were becoming pot bound. I have had to pot some up into bigger pots (so much for trying to cut down on compost this year!) and I have planted 2 out in the tunnel (which was meant to be brassica-free this year due to pests) because there isn't anywhere sensible to put them. The only empty bed keeps flooding and romanesco are too precious to risk.

Then there are the courgettes. I normally grow 4 plants, 2 for me and 2 for my friend. This year I decided I would grow an extra one early, in the greenhouse, so I sowed a Sure Thing in March, on a heat mat at 17 degrees in my spare bedroom. It didn't germinate. I sowed 4 more, Defender this time, in April. Nothing happened. I sowed another 2 Sure Thing and 2 Defender and this time one of each germinated. I sowed another 2 Sure Thing and tried nipping off the end of 2 Defender and chitting them to see if they would grow. One of them did, but when I planted it the root came out of the top of the compost and it keeled over and died. I soaked 4 more Defender and planted them in a pot and one of these has just germinated. It is too late to sow any more. That's 15 seeds for a total of 3 plants, and they are F1 so they are not cheap! The seeds are sow by December 2027, so they are not old. Meanwhile, the 2 plants that did germinate earlier have had to be potted up into larger pots because they were looking extremely sick and pot bound, because I can't get them out of the house because there is no room in the greenhouse because it is too cold at night outside. The Defender was taken to the allotment yesterday, but we are now forecast 2 more chilly nights tonight (8) and tomorrow (6). I daren't put the Sure Thing out in case I lose both, and I still have cucumbers and melons which should have gone out weeks ago, under lights on the sitting room floor. The melons are about 18 inches long and producing flower buds, but whether they will now have time to ripen is debatable.

And the beans. Beans are dead easy to grow, unless you are me. I managed to get enough runner beans to germinate to supply my friend and the allotment with 6 plants each. I took mine to the allotment and planted them, and within 24 hours all but 2 plants had been completely destroyed by slugs/snails, despite my usual defences of Strulch, Slug Gone and copper rings. The French beans went the same way, with one plant surviving the onslaught. I grew more French beans and planted some out a few days ago, and again they are being shredded. In desperation I put 12 dwarf French beans to chit (I had been going to leave these this year as the climbing ones are more productive and easier to harvest) but after 5 days the only thing that is growing is mould.

The redcurrants have hardly produced any fruit this year (the white ones at home are loaded) and the blackbird is eating them while they are still almost green. He is also helping himself to the raspberries despite black cotton, tin foil strips and a loosely draped piece of bird netting (which is not big enough to cover anything properly). Normally the birds seem to leave the raspberries mostly alone, but this year nothing is being allowed to ripen properly so I have to do something. I have ordered a large net and some aluminium poles from which I hope I can construct a reasonable fruit cage for them.

Yesterday I was standing looking at the allotment at 9am with the sun out for a change, trying to decide what to do. The previous next door allotment holder planted a cherry tree quite near to the boundary with my allotment and the tree is now quite big. I noticed that even in mid June it is casting a lot of shade on the hotbed, which is probably partly why the onions are growing disappointingly slowly. This is the bed I was going to use for melons, but if it is not getting full sun in June it isn't going to be sunny enough later in the year when the melons need to ripen. I decided I would have to redraw my plans and put the courgette in the shadier hotbed and the melons in the growhouse, which leaves a large Sungold tomato homeless - this will have to go in the tunnel.

The constant flooding has finally done for the old raspberries, with almost no new shoots appearing and those which have appeared are only a few inches high. I have been trying to decide what to do with this area, which has useful secure posts and wires. I thought of espalier apple and pear trees, but it is the south side of the plot so they will cast shade, they are expensive, they take a while to produce fruit and they may well not like being flooded. I decided to pH test the soil to see if it is suitable for blueberries, which don't mind being wet. I have some pH testing paper, so I took a soil sample and shook it up with rain water, but the paper remained yellow (neutral). I wasn't convinced, so I tried another strip of paper in some neat vinegar. It remained yellow, so it obviously doesn't work as it should have come out red. I also have a pH meter with a probe on it, which I have used before and which I know can be wildly (and I mean off the scale wildly) inaccurate, but sometimes gives a sensible reading. I took about a dozen readings, which showed everything from less than 1 (neat acid) to more than 14 (neat alkali) but sometimes settled at around about 5. 5 would be ok for blueberries. I already have one bush in a bucket, but the thing with blueberries is that if you have 2 different varieties you get much bigger berries. I have 2 at home (Bluecrop and Dixie) and I was hoping that the one at the allotment (Spartan) would cross pollinate with the pink bush (pink lemonade), but it doesn't because the berries are small. I'm therefore planning to get another bush (or perhaps try and grow a cutting from Bluecrop) and plant it in the raspberry bed. If it survives the flooding I can plant Spartan next to it and I should also have room for fan trained gooseberry and red currant bushes at the drier end of the bed.

Guess what? It is still raining...

[Andraste]

Much *hugs* Penellype

I know you already have raised beds & improve your soil. I'm not sure if you could feasibly raise them higher? I can't think of another flood-beating plan other than perhaps thinking about whether you have a place for digging a soak-away trench?

You're not alone with trouble with beans this year. A very experienced relative had at least 2 failed sowings of runners & frenchies this year with soil sown & pot sown beans. The frenchies responded to pre-chitting but the runners just moulded or sat doing nothing. He's blaming self-saved seed which had to finish drying in the greenhouse rather than on the plant last year.

There are a few things I understand can help keep the acid level high enough for blueberries (I'm not a fan myself - I find them tasteless) like woodchip, leaf-mould, pine needles, coffee grounds. I was reading a blog the other night where they gave an annual nitrate feed in spring & manure in autumn which was working well for them.

[Penellype]

Much *hugs* Penellype

I know you already have raised beds & improve your soil. I'm not sure if you could feasibly raise them higher? I can't think of another flood-beating plan other than perhaps thinking about whether you have a place for digging a soak-away trench?

You're not alone with trouble with beans this year. A very experienced relative had at least 2 failed sowings of runners & frenchies this year with soil sown & pot sown beans. The frenchies responded to pre-chitting but the runners just moulded or sat doing nothing. He's blaming self-saved seed which had to finish drying in the greenhouse rather than on the plant last year.

There are a few things I understand can help keep the acid level high enough for blueberries (I'm not a fan myself - I find them tasteless) like woodchip, leaf-mould, pine needles, coffee grounds. I was reading a blog the other night where they gave an annual nitrate feed in spring & manure in autumn which was working well for them.

Thanks Andraste. The raised beds themselves are mostly ok, although I dread to think what the water is doing to the wooden sides. There is only one that gets a worryingly high water level, the main issue with that and the others is access via the flooded paths. There isn't any way to improve drainage - the allotment slopes away from the road and the bottom part is below the water table when it rains hard. The flood map of the area shows that this part is in danger of surface water flooding. The removal of the big leylandii hedge a few years ago has not helped at all.

The old raspberries are not in a raised bed, just on a slight mound of earth, and that is lower than the raised beds and does get very wet indeed, particularly at one end. I have thought of trying to construct some sort of raised bed, but it is a huge area (about 1mx5m) and I would struggle to construct anything that big on my own. I would also struggle to fill it, and I want to keep the posts and wires as I wouldn't be able to do anything as good myself, which would make constructing a raised bed even harder. I think a gooseberry and a red currant would be fine in the drier end, which is no wetter than where my blackcurrant and existing gooseberry are. I think blueberries are going to be a case of trial and possible error - if they don't like it I will have to think again.

Interesting that you mention coffee grounds and manure as good for blueberries. I have just this morning read an article about feeding blueberries, which specifically says that neither of these are suitable for blueberry bushes. I have some at home which I feed annually with an ericaceous feed suitable for azaleas etc, but I was looking at the article (https://plantura.garden/uk/fruits/bl...ng-blueberries) in case there was any interesting more organic suggestions. The answer seems to be that nettle tea, pine needles, leaf mould and ericaceous compost are good things to put round blueberries.

[Andraste]

Not having grow blueberries myself I'd definitely read around on the recommended feeds - I'll see if I can find the blog post as I'm now wondering if I'm remembering correctly about the manure but they were definitely adding nitrate something or other in spring. Coffee grounds I'm pretty sure are acidic but I would imagine they probably lose their pep as they age.

[Snoop Puss]

The weather is playing havoc with everything this year, it seems.

The main problem here, apart from the drought, is temperatures constantly going up and down. For assorted reasons, this is another year when I've done next to nothing. But my friend down the valley is really disheartened at have nothing to show for all the effort and money he has invested.

Very depressing for him and for you, Penellype.

[Plot70]

I have got both climbing French and runners going but only with a vast quantity of those dreaded blur slug pellets.
I have lots of plants that are alive but doing nothing due to the cold.

[Penellype]

Not having grow blueberries myself I'd definitely read around on the recommended feeds - I'll see if I can find the blog post as I'm now wondering if I'm remembering correctly about the manure but they were definitely adding nitrate something or other in spring. Coffee grounds I'm pretty sure are acidic but I would imagine they probably lose their pep as they age.

I'm wary of coffee grounds. I once tried them as a mulch around something (it might have been leeks) with a control bed nearby without the coffee. The difference in growth was staggering - the plants with coffee around them simply didn't grow. Some years later I read that caffeine is a growth inhibitor and that the best place for coffee grounds is the compost bin, where it adds nitrogen and the caffeine breaks down. Googling it gives more detailed advice saying it inhibits germination and the growth of some types of plants.

[Penellype]

The weather is playing havoc with everything this year, it seems.

The main problem here, apart from the drought, is temperatures constantly going up and down. For assorted reasons, this is another year when I've done next to nothing. But my friend down the valley is really disheartened at have nothing to show for all the effort and money he has invested.

Very depressing for him and for you, Penellype.

Thanks for the sympathy. I am normally a fairly positive person and it takes a huge amount to put me off something I enjoy that I have set my mind to. When I wrote that post yesterday, which took me about half an hour, I was wanting to get on at the allotment and it was pouring with rain for the whole time. I'd checked the forecast and could see that there was a band of rain over York that wasn't moving very fast, and the forecast had just updated to show the temperature tonight dropping to 6 (the same app is now showing 5 tonight). I really felt like giving up.

Things are looking a bit better this morning. The water in the garden has mostly drained away now and the allotment will probably be similar, although still very soggy. There are showers forecast today but then 2-3 dry days before the showers return, and things should warm up to near normal for June. It may feel like there is "nothing" to eat, but I've got a cauliflower to cut today (hopefully not too sluggy) and there should be more soon. The bolting spinach will do me 1-2 more meals and there is plenty of lettuce and some beetroot about ready. The next lot of peas will only be a day or so more before some are ready and there is more fennel and a couple of kohlrabi still to eat. The baby carrots at home are edible if I need them and a couple of tomatoes are not far off ripe. One of the calabrese at home is starting to make a head. The strawberries are nice as long as I cut out the holes - I have seen much worse. Once I have netted the raspberries properly there should be plenty of those and the blackcurrants are turning black. I really should not be complaining!

[Penellype]

I have got both climbing French and runners going but only with a vast quantity of those dreaded blur slug pellets.
I have lots of plants that are alive but doing nothing due to the cold.

Yes, the cold is a real problem this year. There are some red lines that I will not cross and slug pellets are in that category. What I should do is go down every evening and pick the slugs off when it starts to get dark, but it is a 5 minute walk down the road and I am not keen on walking out on my own in the near dark. I'm probably being over cautious, but there has been an increase in anti-social behaviour in the village recently and I don't think it is worth the risk. I could use the car, but it seems very wasteful for such a short journey.

[Andraste]

I trawled through my history & found the blog post. Here's the link: https://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/20...ueberries.html

You're a million % right about manure - it actually said "DO NOT feed with ANY manure"! !

He advocated sulphate of iron alongside ericaceous feed in both spring & autumn to keep the ph low.

The author read like he knew his stuff - a pic on an earlier post featured nick the grief which added kudos for me He also recommended underplanting with Cranberries in a different post which sounded like a fine idea.

[Penellype]

Andraste - the last post on this thread (from the forum index) was showing that you have replied to this thread since I last posted, but I can't see the reply here, which is weird.

Edit - I can now! Thanks for the link.

[Penellype]

July



The newly constructed fruit cage over the raspberries has worked a treat - I went from harvesting 1 raspberry a day to a punnet full over night. The net is a pain, but necessary. I have extended it over the water bin so that I can get inside to harvest. The dead bluebell foliage needs removing and the grass edge tidying - one of the "not absolutely vital" jobs that has got ignored this year.



Some of the beans have survived the slug onslaught, but I have less than half the plants here than I intended. Onions in the hotbed are doing ok, beetroot is mostly leaf although there are a couple of decent roots. The bolted spinach has been removed and it will not be long before there is space to plant a courgette at that end. Unbelievably, after the amount of rain we had earlier in the year, most of the water bins are nearly empty (although I do have a full water butt and IBC container to go at), so I have trays out in various places to catch any rain.



Newly planted romanesco has replaced one bed of cauliflowers. The hotbed behind still contains some lettuce and turnips (under the net) and tomatoes have been planted between these.



Parsnips and kohlrabi under the net are growing well. The potatoes in the bed behind are starting to die down and will soon be ready to harvest.



Newly planted PSB. There is another younger plant to go at the end that is still covered, when it is big enough to survive the slugs. Like last year I am experimenting with surrounding one plant with a a sheep's wool mat and the other with sprinkled wool pellets (I am also doing this with the romanesco). Last year teh wool seemed to make quite a difference, but the sample size was far too small for me to draw any conclusions.

[Penellype]

In the tunnel



The tunnel has gone from almost empty last month to about full now. On the right you can just see part of one of the 2 tomato plants, then there are 2 romanesco which were planted rather earlier than the 3 in the raised bed and are therefore bigger, a row of Terrain peas, newly sown spinach under the pieces of wood and some lettuce at the far end. In the middle there are some french beans either end of the pea supports which have survived the slugs. The meteor peas have just about finished but there is some new growth so I may get a few more pods later. The Hurst Greenshaft further down are in full flow.



The strawberries have just about finished - they have been excellent this year despite the slugs. Under the frame is a cucumber - this is a variety called Spacemaster, which is supposed to be small. I made a mistake here in that this is not a female only or parthenocarpic plant, it requires pollinating. That means that I can't grow it near my other cucumbers, which are female only, as they do NOT want pollinating, so I have consigned it to the allotment on its own. There should be enough insects in the tunnel to pollinate it and I can do it by hand if necessary, At the far end is some beetroot.



The lettuces here (lollo rossa) are some that I had indoors in pots at home until they got pot bound, and I am now growing them for seed. This worked well with salad bowl last year. The wood over the rows of spinach is meant to stop the water from evaporating. I am not sure my wood is wide enough but it was the best I could do.



French beans are growing well in a bottomless MFB at the shady end of the tunnel. 3 rows of beetroot grown in modules have so far survived the slugs where the direct sown ones didn't.



More Hurst Greenshaft peas at the shed end of the tunnel. These are much more shaded and have not grown as tall as the ones in the middle, but there are plenty of pods forming.

[Penellype]

More photos



The apricot tree from home has been banished to the tunnel after producing flowers but no fruit for 7 years. This is its last chance. On the shelves are a tub of strawberries from last year's runners, which have done well, a tray of florence fennel which will be planted soon around the PSB and a pot of purple alyssum which has been attracting hoverflies to eat any aphids. This is a new tactic that I am trying and it has worked quite well in my greenhouse at home, where I had an aphid infestation on some strawberry plants which all but disappeared after I introduced some alyssum.



The tomato plants are starting to grow well near the tunnel door.



Newly planted melon Emir in the growhouse. The copper sheets will hopefully repel slugs and snails and there is a cut off bottle top to make watering easier.



There is another smaller melon plant (Magenta) waiting to be planted when I have housed the tomatoes. These are Crimson Crush, which will go in the hotbed and 3 Garden Pearl. The one in the pot was snapped off in the wind and is looking very sorry for itself. As the stem was not completely severed I have covered the broken bit with compost and left it to see what happens. The other 2 need homes...



One of the remaining cauliflowers - I ate this for dinner last night. The nasturtiums are self seeded and are being allowed to grow for now.