Buy yourself a season extension ticket.
For many, the season is fast approaching its end. Low light levels and cold, wet weather will soon be upon us. The season seems so short, some crops are just not quite ready, but would be perfect in a few weeks.
However, there are ways that you can extend your season and carry on growing a little longer. You can start your season early, or create time in the middle of the season or extend the end of the season. Put these together you should a longer growing season with more time to grow two crops or keep cropping longer.
Starting your season early
Early in the year days are shorter, cold and often wet, which are unsuitable for seed germination and seedling growth.
This can be overcome by various techniques which, if carried out skilfully, will give you a head start producing large healthy plants at the start of the season and an early crop.
Tools required for germination, Propagator or warm windowsill with good light.
I start my seeds at least a month early in a 30-year old propagator. The seeds germinate quickly but the seedlings go leggy if left in it too long, so you must keep an eye out for this.
Remove the seedlings as soon as the first few germinate and transfer to a cool well-lit place.
Early life
Tools required - a cool, well-lit windowsill.
You are balancing the temperature that will give you growth against the low light of the short days. Remember, too much warmth and you will get leggy plants, too cold and you will kill or stop your plants growing. You are looking for a steady growth avoiding the plant becoming leggy, but not too slow otherwise the plants seem to do poorly later.
You can put silver foil behind the plants to reflect some light back on to the plants. Without grow-lights you can control the plant growth by controlling the ambient temperature. Keep it cool and go for steady growth.
Be aware that closing the curtains on a cold night will trap cold air around your plants.
I also supplement the short days and poor light by using grow-lights on a South facing windowsill and a table next to the window. It makes a huge difference and opens many opportunities to grow at any time of the year. On a grey day I will put the grow-light on. I also put them on at dusk leaving on all night. Later in the spring when light levels are better and days longer, I turn the grow-lights off at bedtime.
It is important not to have too warm a room otherwise the plants will get leggy even with a grow-light.
Using this technique, I sow a month before the earliest date on the seed packet. I could start earlier without a problem. My first sowings are early to mid-January.
The space you require will expand considerably once you start transplanting seedlings and days will still be short so you need good light.
I strongly recommend getting an LED grow-light, they are cheap and use little electricity, unlike the mercury lamp that I bought 30 years ago.
I keep my night-time temperature above 7 degrees centigrade for the hardier plants, 10 degrees for some of the more tender plants and 13 degrees for my squash-family plants.
At some time in March the daylight becomes adequate and I phase out the grow-lights, transferring the plants to my conservatory which has better light than my greenhouse. It also gets the warmth from the house and its stone floor keeps night time temperature fine because they slowly release heat stored in the stones.
A greenhouse would also be good, using fleece at night to maintain the temperature.
Later, around April-May the problem is keeping the temperature down.
I harden off the plants April, May depending on plant and then plant out.
When planting out or sowing seeds early in the spring you can use cloches or a polytunnel to protect your plants to get seeds germinated early. Put cloches in place about two weeks before sowing to warm the ground. Seeds need a higher temperature to germinate than seedlings need to grow.
You can start the season about 3 weeks earlier using cloches.
Young planted seedlings can also be protected against the cold and kept up to 5 degrees warmer by using fleece. It also keeps a lot of pests at bay.
Plastic covering will protect plants during the day; however, plastic does not hold the heat well at night. You can use pop bottles filled with water put inside your cloche. The water warms up during the sunny day and gives off its heat at night. A plastic cloche will heat the air and soil during the day but at night it does not hold the heat. However, warm air is trapped under the cloche and the soil will slowly release its heat to warm the air.
A bottomless large plastic bottle can also be used as a cloche. Make a hole in the top, and push a stick through to hold it in place against the wind.
Mid-season can be extended by sowing in pots or seed trays and planting the seedlings or sowing seeds amongst the maturing first crop 3 to 4 weeks before it's harvested. This gives your second crop a month to six-week head start compared to planting after you have cropped.
My Cobra french beans are coming into their own now. They were sown amongst my carrots which are harvested now. They were about six to eight inches tall and climbing the poles when I was harvesting my carrots.
Extending the end of the season by about three weeks can be achieved using cloches to keep your plants above 10 degrees at night, so that they keep growing. You can also use cloches to protect your plants in the winter.
September:
Seeds you can sow this month are more limited they need to be winter hardy and grow big enough to survive the winter.
You can sow:
• Winter lettuces and salads such as rocket, land cress, corn salad, and winter purslane – under cloches
• Hardy oriental leaves such as mizuna, mibuna, and komatsuna,
• Spinach.
These will benefit from some protection e.g. a cloche or fleece.
Spring onions to overwinter till next spring. White Lisbon is winter hardy.
You can plant:
• Overwintering Japanese onion sets, they will be ready a month earlier than the main crop onions next year but will not store as well as the main crop onions.
You can plant out:
• Transplant spring cabbages that you sowed in July
• Ready late spring/early summer avoiding caterpillars.
• Protect the plants from pigeons with netting.
• You can plant an extra row of plants a few inches apart to be picked as spring greens in February/March
• Strawberry runners.
• Plant early for a bigger harvest next year.
• Strawberries will benefit from a generous amount of well-rotted manure.
Plot preparation for next year.
• Collect well-rotted manure to boost next years crops.
• There is a stable in Bromley common where you can dig it out for free.
• If you have a new neglected plot then do a small bit at a time and you will eventually win!
Why not try clearing a patch of ground and try some of the above? Then you
clear the rest of the plot whilst your crop grows over the winter.
It is easier to clear the plot by covering the ground with black polythene or cardboard to kill most of the weeds.
For many, the season is fast approaching its end. Low light levels and cold, wet weather will soon be upon us. The season seems so short, some crops are just not quite ready, but would be perfect in a few weeks.
However, there are ways that you can extend your season and carry on growing a little longer. You can start your season early, or create time in the middle of the season or extend the end of the season. Put these together you should a longer growing season with more time to grow two crops or keep cropping longer.
Starting your season early
Early in the year days are shorter, cold and often wet, which are unsuitable for seed germination and seedling growth.
This can be overcome by various techniques which, if carried out skilfully, will give you a head start producing large healthy plants at the start of the season and an early crop.
Tools required for germination, Propagator or warm windowsill with good light.
I start my seeds at least a month early in a 30-year old propagator. The seeds germinate quickly but the seedlings go leggy if left in it too long, so you must keep an eye out for this.
Remove the seedlings as soon as the first few germinate and transfer to a cool well-lit place.
Early life
Tools required - a cool, well-lit windowsill.
You are balancing the temperature that will give you growth against the low light of the short days. Remember, too much warmth and you will get leggy plants, too cold and you will kill or stop your plants growing. You are looking for a steady growth avoiding the plant becoming leggy, but not too slow otherwise the plants seem to do poorly later.
You can put silver foil behind the plants to reflect some light back on to the plants. Without grow-lights you can control the plant growth by controlling the ambient temperature. Keep it cool and go for steady growth.
Be aware that closing the curtains on a cold night will trap cold air around your plants.
I also supplement the short days and poor light by using grow-lights on a South facing windowsill and a table next to the window. It makes a huge difference and opens many opportunities to grow at any time of the year. On a grey day I will put the grow-light on. I also put them on at dusk leaving on all night. Later in the spring when light levels are better and days longer, I turn the grow-lights off at bedtime.
It is important not to have too warm a room otherwise the plants will get leggy even with a grow-light.
Using this technique, I sow a month before the earliest date on the seed packet. I could start earlier without a problem. My first sowings are early to mid-January.
The space you require will expand considerably once you start transplanting seedlings and days will still be short so you need good light.
I strongly recommend getting an LED grow-light, they are cheap and use little electricity, unlike the mercury lamp that I bought 30 years ago.
I keep my night-time temperature above 7 degrees centigrade for the hardier plants, 10 degrees for some of the more tender plants and 13 degrees for my squash-family plants.
At some time in March the daylight becomes adequate and I phase out the grow-lights, transferring the plants to my conservatory which has better light than my greenhouse. It also gets the warmth from the house and its stone floor keeps night time temperature fine because they slowly release heat stored in the stones.
A greenhouse would also be good, using fleece at night to maintain the temperature.
Later, around April-May the problem is keeping the temperature down.
I harden off the plants April, May depending on plant and then plant out.
When planting out or sowing seeds early in the spring you can use cloches or a polytunnel to protect your plants to get seeds germinated early. Put cloches in place about two weeks before sowing to warm the ground. Seeds need a higher temperature to germinate than seedlings need to grow.
You can start the season about 3 weeks earlier using cloches.
Young planted seedlings can also be protected against the cold and kept up to 5 degrees warmer by using fleece. It also keeps a lot of pests at bay.
Plastic covering will protect plants during the day; however, plastic does not hold the heat well at night. You can use pop bottles filled with water put inside your cloche. The water warms up during the sunny day and gives off its heat at night. A plastic cloche will heat the air and soil during the day but at night it does not hold the heat. However, warm air is trapped under the cloche and the soil will slowly release its heat to warm the air.
A bottomless large plastic bottle can also be used as a cloche. Make a hole in the top, and push a stick through to hold it in place against the wind.
Mid-season can be extended by sowing in pots or seed trays and planting the seedlings or sowing seeds amongst the maturing first crop 3 to 4 weeks before it's harvested. This gives your second crop a month to six-week head start compared to planting after you have cropped.
My Cobra french beans are coming into their own now. They were sown amongst my carrots which are harvested now. They were about six to eight inches tall and climbing the poles when I was harvesting my carrots.
Extending the end of the season by about three weeks can be achieved using cloches to keep your plants above 10 degrees at night, so that they keep growing. You can also use cloches to protect your plants in the winter.
September:
Seeds you can sow this month are more limited they need to be winter hardy and grow big enough to survive the winter.
You can sow:
• Winter lettuces and salads such as rocket, land cress, corn salad, and winter purslane – under cloches
• Hardy oriental leaves such as mizuna, mibuna, and komatsuna,
• Spinach.
These will benefit from some protection e.g. a cloche or fleece.
Spring onions to overwinter till next spring. White Lisbon is winter hardy.
You can plant:
• Overwintering Japanese onion sets, they will be ready a month earlier than the main crop onions next year but will not store as well as the main crop onions.
You can plant out:
• Transplant spring cabbages that you sowed in July
• Ready late spring/early summer avoiding caterpillars.
• Protect the plants from pigeons with netting.
• You can plant an extra row of plants a few inches apart to be picked as spring greens in February/March
• Strawberry runners.
• Plant early for a bigger harvest next year.
• Strawberries will benefit from a generous amount of well-rotted manure.
Plot preparation for next year.
• Collect well-rotted manure to boost next years crops.
• There is a stable in Bromley common where you can dig it out for free.
• If you have a new neglected plot then do a small bit at a time and you will eventually win!
Why not try clearing a patch of ground and try some of the above? Then you
clear the rest of the plot whilst your crop grows over the winter.
It is easier to clear the plot by covering the ground with black polythene or cardboard to kill most of the weeds.