Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

I would blame it on the frost, but actually the Desiree were already bigger than the Lady C when the cold nights arrived. The Charlotte I planted out early at home have yellowish, spotty foliage - they have been under a cloche in the sun with only limited ventilation during the day and I am wondering if they actually got too hot. One bucket that I harvested had a very disappointing crop, but the leaves were completely yellow, The Charlottte I have on the raised bed (90% shade) are romping away and showing few signs of spotty foliage (there is usually some by now). The Lady C were at the back of the covered area at the allotment, so still in a half greenhouse during some of the hot weather (I eventually removed the cover altogether) whereas the Desiree were at the front so may have been less hot.

[Penellype]

Tuesday
Royal Ascot this week, which ties up the afternoons as far as the allotment is concerned, partly because it increases my work load and partly because I like to watch the races! This year it starts earlier than usual (1.15 rather than 2.30), presumably because there is no Royal carriage procession to get through first.

Having cut the grass on Monday there were the usual long bits at the edges to cut. Due to the humidity these were very wet in the morning so I concentrated on the bits that were thinnest and therefore dried out quickest, which is mainly along the edges of the path that runs alongside the roadside hedge. While I was at it I pulled/dug out as much horsetail and couch grass (and a little convolvulus) as I could and cut back the nettles and brambles. I then trimmed off all the little bits of new growth that were poking out of both hedges.

I also cut down some more of the spinach, the leaves of which are still very nice, but getting much smaller as it bolts. A cauliflower, more peas, a tub of raspberries and some strawberries completed the harvest.

The thundery showers missed us so I went back to water the plants in pots in the evening.

Wednesday
The nematodes I had ordered arrived on Tuesday. With the soil still damp, a cloudy day forecast (the sun did actually come out in the afternoon) and rain forecast over night it was a perfect morning to apply them. These were slightly different from the nematodes I normally buy - they don't require storing in the fridge and they come in a compostable tea bag type thing which you put in water and stir for a couple of minutes to release the nematodes. The carrier material stays in the tea bag which means it avoids the problem I've had in the past of it blocking the watering can rose. These cover the same area (40 sq m) but helpfully use half the amount of water although they are a bit more expensive. I went down first thing and got on with it, in the process harvesting the last of the 4 cauliflowers from the bed that is also growing parsnips, digging up the stumps and planting out the beetroot there. This was desperate for planting - I had been going to put it in the tunnel, but the earlier lot in there has a bad infestation of beet leaf miner so I wanted to put it somewhere else.

I went back at lunchtime and cut back some more grass edges and also weeded under the fence. I'd put weed matting alongside the fence which keeps most of it down but there was some horsetail, couch grass and creeping thistle coming in from the garden behind. Creeping thistle is bad news - it is a persistent perennial weed with extremely fragile roots and painfully prickly to handle. I haven't seen it at the allotment before (although I spent 2 years removing it from my friend's veg patch) but it is definitely slowly invading from behind the fence.

I harvested more peas, raspberries (already enough to start freezing some) and strawberries, and cut down some more of the spinach. We again avoided the thunderstorms (much to my relief as I hate them), so I went back in the evening to water the thirstiest plants.

Thursday
The forecast overnight rain was late, but was clearly about to arrive when I looked at the radar at about 6.30am. As it was clearly a slow moving mass of very wet weather I decided to go straight to the allotment and harvest peas, new potatoes, raspberries and strawberries before it became unpleasantly wet. The first batch of Meteor peas are almost finished now and are going to be entertaining to remove as the "dwarf" nasturtiums (Tom Thumb) that I planted in front of them to deter pea moth (no pea moth yet) are climbing the supports and in places are as tall as the peas! I think I will have to cut the nasturtiums back, as the plan is to plant late peas (Terrain) here after the Meteor. I also harvested 2 baby cauliflowers that were growing as sideshoots on the bigger plants. I really am inundated with the things (still 11 plants left plus any more baby ones) at the moment and they grow at the most incredible rate.

It rained for the rest of the day and was still drizzling at 7pm when I stopped on the way back from the stables to collect the water. So much for "rain before 7 fine before 11" - which is a well known and fairly accurate weather lore but only applies to frontal rain bands approaching from the west, not slow moving low pressure systems invading from the east! The accumulated water almost replaced what I'd used for the nematodes and this week's watering.

[Penellype]

Urrgh - problems at work arrived on Friday afternoon and annihilated most of the weekend and yesterday.

Friday
What happened on Friday? I think it rained over night and I went and collected a reasonable amount of water. The tunnel was growing large numbers of weeds and horsetail so I spent some time in there weeding it. The afternoon was showery so not a lot else got done apart from harvesting spinach (while cutting down some of the bolting plants), cauliflower, peas, raspberries and strawberries. Collected water again in the evening.

Saturday
A blur, mainly because worrying about what to do regarding the problem at work (small company of very few people, major disaster with software, no obvious way to fix) kept me awake all night. I know I dashed to the allotment first thing to cut a cauliflower and pick some raspberries for my friend, and having delivered them I didn't stay to do her garden. I think much of the rest of the day was spent on Skype. A pity because it was a fine day and I could have done with getting stuff done in the garden.

Sunday
My friend's garden got weeded and the self watering trays filled in the greenhouse. Called in at the allotment to pick raspberries, strawberries, peas and spinach, plus another cauliflower (these have upto 4 baby cauliflowers growing as sideshoots) and cut down some more of the spinach. Spent most of the rest of the day sorting, cooking and freezing what I had picked.

Monday
More havoc at work and another busy day on Skype. Managed to escape to the allotment at lunchtime, taking 3 french bean plants with me. Removed a few rogue weeds from the tunnel and planted the first lot of leeks (Oarsman), which have grown to a decent size, although not quite pencil thickness. Also planted 2 of the 3 romanesco plants (waiting for cauliflowers to be eaten for the 3rd, which is smaller anyway) and some african marigolds nearby in the hope of possibly deterring the whitefly which are already infesting the plants. Time for some potato water when I get a chance.
I'd made a rather stupid mistake when planting the turnips, which I was desperate to get planted. I'd avoided the tunnel because there was some cabbage root fly in there so I'd decided to plant them at either end of the courgette bed, which was covered with a net. The turnips are nowhere near ready and the courgettes are now starting to flower, so I had to find a piece of netting that would cover one end of the bed and use the existing net for the other end.
Most of the rest of the time was spent cutting the grass edge of the path between the allotments and attempting to separate out as much of the abundant horsetail as I could so it didn't go in the compost. Not my favourite job, and more to do.

Harvested beetroot, spinach, peas, yet another cauliflower and more raspberries and strawberries. One of the few reasonably sized cherries is turning red

Tuesday
Again managed to escape at lunchtime for more grass trimming and horsetail sifting (still more to do) - normally all the grass and horsetail mix would go to the tip, but I can't go yet. Cut down about half the remaining spinach and harvested peas, raspberries, strawberries and a few red currants from the roadside hedge. Gave everything a good drink of water as it has got very warm. Still loads to do, but couldn't stay away from work/Skype for too long. The problem is not much nearer being solved, unfortunately, so I am likely to be pushed for time for a while yet.

[Penellype]

Wednesday
A very hot day with wall to wall sunshine. I don't cope well with anything over 25C and it was already nearly that early in the morning. I went down as soon as I could and harvested raspberries, strawberries and a bucket of Lady C potatoes as the foliage had died down. I weighed them when I got home and there were 1.25kg, which is disappointing but probably due to them being nipped by the late frost. I also trimmed a bit more of the grass edges before it got too hot to work in the sun.

I'd noticed that the grass was getting long again, particularly in the shady bits (probably because its less dry) so I went back at lunchtime and mowed it. Cut down some more of the spinach while harvesting it, and harvested some peas and another cauiflower. This one had 4 tennis ball sized sideshoots on it. Unfortunately the remaining heads are starting to open out and are rather sluggy, but one of my friends at the stables likes them so I give the big part to her and eat some of the smaller ones myself. I was going to plant the last melon in the growhouse but decided it was too hot. Loads of water required in the evening and the bins are emptying fast.

Thursday
Another exhaustingly hot day. Busy all morning but nipped down early to harvest more raspberries and strawberries, also some more red currants from the hedge. I was back in the afternoon and finished cutting down the spinach, which I wanted out of the way before it all got wet. As usual this has been fantastic and I am always a bit sad when the last of it has gone. I also harvested a cauliflower for my brother and decided to plant the melon as it was needing watering 3 times a day,

Friday
Hot and humid in the morning but with thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon I wanted to get a few things finished off so I spent a couple of hours at the plot from about 8am. As it wasn't actually sunny I was able to get on with things like finishing trimming the grass edges and trimming long bits off the hedges without ending up with heat stroke. I also pulled out as much horsetail as I could find - it seems to be growing really fast at the moment.
I went back at lunchtime and picked almost all of the remaining meteor peas (which have about finished), some raspberries and a big bag of strawberries, then headed home to be safe from the storms.

This time I was lucky. There were some ferocious storms around, but having looked like heading this way they split into 2 parts and one went ether side. As a result there wasn't a lot of water to collect, and I had to water the trees and bushes that are in pots.

Saturday
One glance at the radar picture when I got up told me that there wouldn't be much gardening today. A line of rain was approaching followed by already numerous showers that would only get worse as the ground heated up. I belted down to the plot while it was still dry at about 6.45 and harvested some of the little cauliflower sideshoots, raspberries, redcurrants and all of the blackcurrants (of which there were hardly any) as they had turned black. The bush probably needs planting in the soil, and I will have a go in the autumn - if I can dig a hole where the roots of the old leylandii hedge were!

I was right about the rain and showers, and having spent some of the morning in my friend's greenhouse I took refuge at home, stopping on the way back to collect the morning's rain water. The showers turned increasingly heavy and thundery with a couple of torrential bursts of rain, but at least the storms were moving through quickly. I managed to nip down between showers to collect the water after the first storm and collected a decent amount more on the way back from the stables. It has just thrown it down again (thankfully without the thunder this time) so there should be more water for the bins, but it will have to wait until morning.

[Penellype]

Sunday
Another very unpleasant day, very windy and showery and more like October than June. Apart from collecting water in the morning and grabbing a tub of raspberries, some rhubarb (which has suddenly sprouted due to the rain) and the ripest strawberries, and pulling out a few obvious bits of horsetail in the process, nothing got done. I spent most of the afternoon watching the wind do its best to demolish my fruit cage frame, which is getting old. (I discovered on Monday morning that one of the metal poles had rusted and broken off in one of the joints and as a consequence another of the joints had split - luckily I had the appropriate pole and joints to replace them all).

Monday
I'd been hopeful of a better day, but it rained pretty much all day - persistent heavy drizzle of the sort that thoroughly wets you in quite a short time. I nipped down to the plot twice - to collect water and pick raspberries in the morning and on the way back from the stables in the evening to pick strawberries and peas, and got wet both times despite choosing "drier" slots according to the radar.

Tuesday
Thankfully a drier day and the possibility of getting something done. I went down as soon as I could and collected the small amount of water from overnight drizzle. I cleaned up the cauliflower bed, removing all the leaves from the harvested plants that had got left because I was in a hurry, and cut down some of the finished pea plants. All of this has to be chopped in order not to over fill the compost bin, so I stopped when my hands had had enough chopping and picked some raspberries, peas and red currants for the freezer, then went home for a break.

I went back after lunch and started on the weeds and horsetail, which are growing really fast. I was thinking that I was making really good progress, having gone round the hedges, tunnel and most of the raised beds, when I got to the onions. I noticed that several had fallen over and it became clear that they had white rot. My experiment with cardboard under clean compost has clearly not worked, although from first observation the worst affected ones appear to be near the edges of the bed. I think the lack of white rot in 2018 must have been due to the very dry summer, which was not the case this year or last.

I harvested 10 of the worst looking onions, one of which appeared to be ok, 2 completely unuseable and the others partly affected. I cut off all the affected parts and the foliage and put it all in a compost sack to go to the tip (ha ha) and took the onions home to freeze. This is clearly going to be a part of every day's jobs until I have dealt with the lot.

Somewhere I read that watering the soil with water that garlic has been soaked in, applied the year before growing onions, causes the white rot to germinate then die because it has no host to infect. I need to decide which bed is growing onions next year and get on with this - but first I need to buy some garlic, as it is something that I don't particularly like to eat. I wonder if soaking bits of onions would have the same effect - I don't see why not.

I forgot - also sprayed the brassicas in the tunnel with potato water (water that potatoes have been boiled in) as they are covered in whitefly. Quite how this is supposed to work I have no idea as the water runs straight off leaving the leaves dry, but I tried it anyway.

[Penellype]

Wednesday

Another reasonable day in which I got a fair amount done. I took some calabrese and broccoli plants to the allotment and put them on the shelf in the tunnel for planting when they get a bit bigger. I also took my camera down and took some photos, then did some more weeding and pulled bits of horsetail I'd missed on Tuesday. I harvested raspberries, strawberries and some peas from the tunnel and pulled some more onions, most of which needed chopping and freezing straight away due to white rot.

Photos:



Runner beans are growing well. Tomato plants behind them are hard to see but also getting bigger fast.



Melons in the two hotbeds. The copper sheets are an experiment to deter slugs and preserve moisture. From left to right, Magenta (sown 2 weeks later than the others), Alvaro and Emir. There are also some french beans planted outside the growhouse at the edge of the hotbed, and more on the shelf in the growhouse, but they are hard to see.



Meteor peas behind the growhouse have about finished and the dwarf (!) nasturtiums are taking over. My poor onions are under the white net.



The last cauliflower in this bed was harvested the following day. Desiree potatoes in buckets behind are doing well. The Lady C behind them are much, much smaller. Courgettes in the open bed are starting to produce fruit, turnips either end under small nets.



Parsnips and beetroot in the final raised bed.

[Penellype]

More photos:



Cherries! The blueberries on the bush behind are also starting to ripen.



The raspberry canes are weighed down with huge amounts of gorgeous fruit, although the beetle grubs are starting to appear now. Gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes in pots on the left.



Strawberries and peas ready for picking in the tunnel. Cauliflowers are going over and I'm not sure there is anything edible left now.



Cucumbers at the shed end of the tunnel. There is a calabrese and a cabbage this side of the cauliflowers.





Leeks, carrots and beetroot, which is rather hidden behind stray rooted strawberry plants that I couldn't bear to pull out. More strawberries on the shelves.

[Penellype]

A few more photos:



Romanesco. The marigolds are meant to deter whitefly. A stray piece of horsetail has escaped my attempts to remove it all (bottom left).





More strawberries. The white net outside the tunnel is covering summer leeks.

Thursday and Friday were almost a complete write-off, with appointments both days and plenty of rain. Nothing got done except collecting rain water (including half a dustbin full off the paths on Thursday morning, sadly all I had time to rescue) and harvesting a cauliflower, the first 4 courgettes, raspberries, strawberries and peas. The ripest cherry was starting to split on Thursday morning so I ate it.

Saturday
Stables in the morning and Derby day so not a great deal of allotment time. Collected water and picked a tub of raspberries first thing. Stopped on the way back from the stables to pick peas and rescue a few more onions - I now have 4 tubs of chopped onion in the freezer and 10 bulbs that may just keep attempting to dry off in the garage. Not even half way through them yet, so I am in danger of running out of freezer space.

I chopped up some of the onion leaves and put them in a bucket of water to soak over night. I will water the empty bed with this tomorrow in the hope that it will wake up any white rot spores which will then die as there are no onions to infect. I'll then grow onions there next year.

Nothing else got done.

[burnie]

Your work rate is prolific, hats off to you, a garden/plot to be proud of.

[Mark_Riga]

Penellype, my veg. garden is in 2 halves and I have white rot in one half. I find that Autumn planted sets do best where the problem is and it has been lessening over time, the last 20 years. This year for instance, I planted 2 20' rows, 1' apart and onions 6" apart, so 80 bulbs. Half a dozen didn't make it through the winter and of the rest I lost 3 to white rot. I still ate most of them but they were pulled early and a good spadeful of the soil about them was disposed of. I still have 12 in the ground ripening. The comment in my log read '3 with white rot so far 12/06/20'. I haven't found any since though if a bulb is not very firm in the soil a pull it out so a few were lifted early. You need to keep a close eye on them from the start of June, any with yellow tips to some leaves, give a gentleish pull to check the roots are OK.

In beds, Robert Milne recommends 15cm. between bulbs where white rot is present as this should prevent any localised infection spreading from plant to plant. The onion tops should be fine for eating or composting but the base where the infection is needs dealing with.

[thunderstxrm]

I love reading your journey! I can't wait to get an allotment one day, I can only hope to do as well as you!

[Jungle Jane]

Plots looking great Pene,so productive

[Penellype]

Thank you all for your kind comments

Penellype, my veg. garden is in 2 halves and I have white rot in one half. I find that Autumn planted sets do best where the problem is and it has been lessening over time, the last 20 years. This year for instance, I planted 2 20' rows, 1' apart and onions 6" apart, so 80 bulbs. Half a dozen didn't make it through the winter and of the rest I lost 3 to white rot. I still ate most of them but they were pulled early and a good spadeful of the soil about them was disposed of. I still have 12 in the ground ripening. The comment in my log read '3 with white rot so far 12/06/20'. I haven't found any since though if a bulb is not very firm in the soil a pull it out so a few were lifted early. You need to keep a close eye on them from the start of June, any with yellow tips to some leaves, give a gentleish pull to check the roots are OK.

In beds, Robert Milne recommends 15cm. between bulbs where white rot is present as this should prevent any localised infection spreading from plant to plant. The onion tops should be fine for eating or composting but the base where the infection is needs dealing with.

That is interesting - thanks for the info. I noticed the tips of all the leaves were going a bit yellow at the beginning of June, but put it down to dry weather - I had deliberately not been giving them much water in the hope of suppressing the white rot. Then it started to rain... The odd thing is that the infected onions seem scattered through the bed, although there were more of them at the end furthest from the tunnel. I'm going to run out of space in the freezer if I am not careful, and need to have room for tomatoes, so this is a nuisance. I have managed to find 12 so far that don't appear to be infected and these are in my garage, hopefully drying. Last year I did manage to keep some into January, but they were a little further developed than these.

When I got the plot there were onions and shallots still in the soil in various places, most of them rotten. It didn't occur to me that they might have white rot and they went in the compost heap which didn't seem a problem as I had no white rot in the first year. I think I am probably going to have to accept that it is there and do what I can to prevent it causing problems, but I can't see myself being able to dig out a spadeful of soil per affected onion as I would soon have a mountain of the stuff to dispose of, and big holes where the onions were!

Its useful to know that the tops are ok to compost as this will help with the volume of rubbish that I have somehow got to dispose of.

[Penellype]

Sunday
No water to collect in the morning for the first time in a week. I went down early and spent nearly an hour harvesting raspberries and red currants from the hedge. There are a lot more raspberries with beetle grubs in now, but I still brought home 2 tubs of them to freeze. I noticed that something was making a hole in the hotbed where the spinach used to be, so I put the compost back and covered it with one of the squares of roll up path that I use to keep cats off, and made a note to sort it later. I also trimmed all the long bits off the hedges, including some brambles that seemed to almost be growing as I watched them.

After a stint at the stables and an early lunch I spent another hour at the plot pulling out a few weeds, trimming off strawberry runners that were encroaching on the paths and growing through the tunnel net, tying in and removing sideshoots from the tomatoes and cutting down 2 of the cauliflowers in the tunnel which were well beyond salvaging to eat. I also harvested a bag of strawberries (plenty of rotten ones too thanks to the rain). The strawberries are providing a quandary. When the weather was dry I found the ones in the soil were much better, the plants looked bigger and healthier and the fruit was better, while the ones in troughs, pots and towers needed watering and looked less happy. Now I find that the fruit on the plants in the soil is getting eaten by slugs and rotting whereas the fruit from the plants in containers is much less damaged and some of it is really quite big. I think the combination of the 2 methods is a good way to go as it covers all eventualities!

Mr blackbird was busy looking for worms and it was he who was digging up the hotbed near the melon. He was in serious danger of disturbing the plant, so I found a piece of butterfly net and draped it over the bed as a temporary deterrent. This is no good in the long term as the melon will climb through it and attach itself to it creating all sorts of problems, but it will do until I think of something else.

I noticed that a 2nd cherry was beginning to split, and as it had turned red I ate it. This one was not as ripe as the first, but I think in the current weather it would probably have rotted if I had left it where it was. There are another 6 cherries on the tree. The gooseberry bush is again infested with sawfly larvae. I really don't know what to do about this as they have already defoliated half the bush, which was fine when I took the photos less than a week ago.

On Thursday I had taken the first 4 courgettes to my brother's as they like to make "courgetti". I had left a small one for me to eat, which was now quite big so I took it home to make soup, along with some more of the onions.

[Penellype]

Monday
Not a bad day and a reasonable amount of time for gardening. The first job was to sort out the hotbed as the net I put over it was far too near the melon plant. There are various bits of weed matting around strategically placed to cover bare soil so that the cats don't dig it up. I reorganized things so that I could use 2 of these to cover the hotbed leaving the melon growing between them. Hopefully this will also help protect any fruit later on.

Next job was to plant the leeks and the last romanesco plant in the tunnel, which meant removing some horsetail and cauliflower roots. There are still a lot of whitefly around in the tunnel.

Most of the rest of the time was spent picking raspberries and sorting more onions. I cleared most of the half of the onion bed furthest from the tunnel, and found that most of the onions were ok, although there were a few with white rot. The ones nearer the tunnel look generally better so I may leave them for a while to ripen more.

Tuesday
The main job was to cut the grass before it rained, as some bits were getting rather long. I went down early, but the grass was too wet to cut straight away, so I cut back some overhanging elderberry branches and chopped them up for the compost bin. I then decided that wet or not the grass was going to be cut, and got on with it. I knew that it was going to rain and the sky was getting greyer by the minute. (When I got home the radar implied that it had been raining for some time, although it hadn't).

Before I went home I harvested one of the buckets of Lady C potatoes and loads of raspberries - almost half of what I picked had beetle grubs in, but there were still 2 tubs full to take home. I spent the rest of the morning cooking and freezing things and reorganizing the freezers to deal with the results.

After lunch there was a drier slot, although it had really hardly rained at all. I took some potato water down with me and sprayed the whitefly on the brassicas with it. Interestingly all the leaves that were round the outside (which I had sprayed before) had very few whitefly, whereas the newer inner leaves were seriously infested. This appears to at least be preventing them from reinfesting the sprayed leaves, and is probably worth doing.

I harvested another bucket of Lady C potatoes as the foliage had completely died down in these. I decided to use one of the buckets and compost (originally from last year's hotbed) to plant the french bean seedlings that were in the growhouse. I'd been going to put these in the hotbed behind the growhouse, but Mr Blackbird had turned his attention to digging for worms in this area and I though it best to leave him to it. By the time I'd finished it was raining again.

I went back in the evening to water the Desiree potatoes and fruit bushes in buckets as there had been nowhere near enough rain to water them properly. I also tied up the top of the nearly full bag of onion waste and brought it home to go in the dustbin.

I probably should add for completion that I did water the old cauliflower bed with the onion water on Sunday. I won't know if this has any effect until next year, but I may well give it another dousing in a week or 2, as it costs nothing.