June
Covid, preventing the shop from getting a full supply of stock, which came late, and lockdown stopping travel to dig out manure, the start of the year would have been difficult enough on it's own. I think that people had learnt from covid closures as we had a very busy two weeks when the shop opened. Perhaps people were stocking up as well as getting their potatoes, a good plan with all the previous difficulties due to covid restrictions.
However with two very cold spells in the winter which killed or damaged, some of peoples over - wintering crops left plants coming out of winter needing time to recover, but were faced with an unseasonably spring, stunting growth.
Spring was very cold. Cold nights seem to have persisted this year. It's the cold nights that govern when you can plant out your more tender plants. We had an awful lot of frosts in April, and it was very dry. I did not sow my parsnips until April, a month later than usual and they took an awful long time to come up. Germination was patchy in places. I resorted to sowing my carrots under polythene in April, eventually in their own time they emerged.
May has been cold and wet and windy.
The end result has been very slow growing plants which are a month to six weeks behind. Then things planted out were decimated by the wind.
How do you manage such a rotten start to the year? Normally I would say sow indoors early and use grow lights or a sunny window sill. By the time April , May comes along you can start planting out your hardy plants then your tender plants. The last things to plant out being runner or borrlotti beans followed by squashes and lastly cucumbers, but only when night temperatures are above 13 degrees for squashes and cucumbers.The weather will be warm and they will romp away plants too big to be affected by the likes of flea beetle, giving you an early harvest. I was harvesting Broccoli in mid May last year, but no where near that this year.
This year you just could not put the plants out and they outgrew their containers and there was no space left to grow them on, or sow more. The plants were suffering. This may make some plants run to seed this year.
It was also not the right weather to sow seeds outside. Seeds need a higher temperature to germinate than to grow. Sowing early would only result in the seeds rotting in the ground, the cold wet weather meant anything that germinated was a target for slugs.
So what is the lesson that I have learnt?
Firstly, be prepared to pot your plants up, even if it's only for a few weeks. It will buy you a little more time and allow your plants to grow.
Secondly be patient, wait for the good weather. I was more than usual, however not quite patient enough sometimes.
Winter crops grown for the spring can take quite a beating and bounce back, especially broad beans!
Put your brassicas out first (cabbage family). They are tougher than most plants.
Use some form of crop protection, to allow your plants to toughen up and keep them warm at night.
Protection is important when the growing conditions are borderline for your plant surviving or thriving.
Plant protection does not need to be expensive.
Wind usually blows along the length of our allotment site, not across it. A piece of clear plastic positioned to act as a wind break will give a lot of protection against the wind, and allow light through.
Covering your plants with a plastic cloche or large clear plastic bottle e.g. a pop bottle will raise the temperature during the day, act as a wind break and help warm the soil. It will speed up plant growth.
Covering your plants, with some old net curtain, keeping an air gap between the plant and the netting will keep the plants snugger by a couple of degrees and help keep a frost off. I find plants always seem to do better under fine netting. I suspect it's the micro climate under the netting being better for plant growth as well as keeping wind and pests ar bay.
If you get an item delivered with a large plastic sheet covering it, then use it for a cloche.
Cover your ground with it two weeks before sowing to warm the soil.
A more expensive option is to use fleece to keep your plants warmer by 3 to 5 degrees C.
I think we have all had a very difficult start to this year, but do not give up on the season, things grow quickly in the warmth. Give your plants a feed now to help kick them into growth now the weather is warm. Liquid feeds give the quickest short term boost.
If you have any over wintering crops like runner beans, spring cabbage or peas then they will be ready soon. Early potatoes will be ready within the next month. Plan to sow or plant a second crop of something else. I will be planting calabrese peas, carrots, turnips, dwarf French beans, climbing French beans, salad crops, swede, beetroot. So sow your seeds in seed modules and pot up if necessary to replace your harvested crops.
Things to sow in June
Sow each fortnight beetroot, French beans, early carrots, kohlrabi, early peas, lettuce, rocket, turnips, endive, radish, spring onions to avoid a glut and then nothing for these crops
Sow
French and Runner Beans
Maincrop peas
Beetroot
Carrots
Turnips
Swedes
Cauliflowers
Chicory
Endive
Kohlrabi
Sweetcorn
Squash
Courgette and Marrows
Plant out
Broccoli
Calabrese
Brussels sprouts
Summer cabbage
Pot grown runner beans, dwarf beans and tomatoes can be planted out after hardening off ( putting plants outside on favourable days so that they get used to the wind and sun without giving them a shock from bad weather)
Your leeks may well be ready now, when about pencil thickness. You can use the ground released from your early potatoes
Covid, preventing the shop from getting a full supply of stock, which came late, and lockdown stopping travel to dig out manure, the start of the year would have been difficult enough on it's own. I think that people had learnt from covid closures as we had a very busy two weeks when the shop opened. Perhaps people were stocking up as well as getting their potatoes, a good plan with all the previous difficulties due to covid restrictions.
However with two very cold spells in the winter which killed or damaged, some of peoples over - wintering crops left plants coming out of winter needing time to recover, but were faced with an unseasonably spring, stunting growth.
Spring was very cold. Cold nights seem to have persisted this year. It's the cold nights that govern when you can plant out your more tender plants. We had an awful lot of frosts in April, and it was very dry. I did not sow my parsnips until April, a month later than usual and they took an awful long time to come up. Germination was patchy in places. I resorted to sowing my carrots under polythene in April, eventually in their own time they emerged.
May has been cold and wet and windy.
The end result has been very slow growing plants which are a month to six weeks behind. Then things planted out were decimated by the wind.
How do you manage such a rotten start to the year? Normally I would say sow indoors early and use grow lights or a sunny window sill. By the time April , May comes along you can start planting out your hardy plants then your tender plants. The last things to plant out being runner or borrlotti beans followed by squashes and lastly cucumbers, but only when night temperatures are above 13 degrees for squashes and cucumbers.The weather will be warm and they will romp away plants too big to be affected by the likes of flea beetle, giving you an early harvest. I was harvesting Broccoli in mid May last year, but no where near that this year.
This year you just could not put the plants out and they outgrew their containers and there was no space left to grow them on, or sow more. The plants were suffering. This may make some plants run to seed this year.
It was also not the right weather to sow seeds outside. Seeds need a higher temperature to germinate than to grow. Sowing early would only result in the seeds rotting in the ground, the cold wet weather meant anything that germinated was a target for slugs.
So what is the lesson that I have learnt?
Firstly, be prepared to pot your plants up, even if it's only for a few weeks. It will buy you a little more time and allow your plants to grow.
Secondly be patient, wait for the good weather. I was more than usual, however not quite patient enough sometimes.
Winter crops grown for the spring can take quite a beating and bounce back, especially broad beans!
Put your brassicas out first (cabbage family). They are tougher than most plants.
Use some form of crop protection, to allow your plants to toughen up and keep them warm at night.
Protection is important when the growing conditions are borderline for your plant surviving or thriving.
Plant protection does not need to be expensive.
Wind usually blows along the length of our allotment site, not across it. A piece of clear plastic positioned to act as a wind break will give a lot of protection against the wind, and allow light through.
Covering your plants with a plastic cloche or large clear plastic bottle e.g. a pop bottle will raise the temperature during the day, act as a wind break and help warm the soil. It will speed up plant growth.
Covering your plants, with some old net curtain, keeping an air gap between the plant and the netting will keep the plants snugger by a couple of degrees and help keep a frost off. I find plants always seem to do better under fine netting. I suspect it's the micro climate under the netting being better for plant growth as well as keeping wind and pests ar bay.
If you get an item delivered with a large plastic sheet covering it, then use it for a cloche.
Cover your ground with it two weeks before sowing to warm the soil.
A more expensive option is to use fleece to keep your plants warmer by 3 to 5 degrees C.
I think we have all had a very difficult start to this year, but do not give up on the season, things grow quickly in the warmth. Give your plants a feed now to help kick them into growth now the weather is warm. Liquid feeds give the quickest short term boost.
If you have any over wintering crops like runner beans, spring cabbage or peas then they will be ready soon. Early potatoes will be ready within the next month. Plan to sow or plant a second crop of something else. I will be planting calabrese peas, carrots, turnips, dwarf French beans, climbing French beans, salad crops, swede, beetroot. So sow your seeds in seed modules and pot up if necessary to replace your harvested crops.
Things to sow in June
Sow each fortnight beetroot, French beans, early carrots, kohlrabi, early peas, lettuce, rocket, turnips, endive, radish, spring onions to avoid a glut and then nothing for these crops
Sow
French and Runner Beans
Maincrop peas
Beetroot
Carrots
Turnips
Swedes
Cauliflowers
Chicory
Endive
Kohlrabi
Sweetcorn
Squash
Courgette and Marrows
Plant out
Broccoli
Calabrese
Brussels sprouts
Summer cabbage
Pot grown runner beans, dwarf beans and tomatoes can be planted out after hardening off ( putting plants outside on favourable days so that they get used to the wind and sun without giving them a shock from bad weather)
Your leeks may well be ready now, when about pencil thickness. You can use the ground released from your early potatoes