Potting On Germinated Parsnip Seeds

Parsnips have started to germinate in the three Chinese takeaway containers on damp kitchen roll, so its time to fill those toilet roll cardboard tubes and get transplanting the seeds with little roots showing. This will now be a daily exercise until I have 210 of them. Then I may do another 105 and have a third bed of parsnips this year.

The Lidl trays with modules are an ideal size for the cardboard toilet rolls

I stuck the small coke bottle in a loo roll marked the bottle with a Sharpe and then cut just below the line so the bottle sits nice and snug on top of the roll. I then made another cut further up the bottle. It works so well as a funnel to get the compost into the toilet roll. 

And with an appropriate sized scoop we are off

The coke bottle funnel is a game changer and makes filling the cardboard tubes nice and easy

Lets play a game of spot the roots

The arrowed seeds are what we are ideally looking for to transplant into the top of the cardboard toilet rolls filled with compost. The circled seed the root is just about acceptable, but way too long really. Now I have spotted germination I will be looking for short roots on the seeds and transplanting them on a daily basis.  

I made a depression (hole) in the middle of each tube ready to transplant the seed with root down into the compost.

What you couldn't see them in the last picture? Here is a better view 

And after transplanting 16 seeds with roots into the toilet rolls it was time to water using another small coke bottle with five small holes drilled in the cap. The water shows in the cardboard tube.

Here is what's left to keep an eye on daily for the next transplanting sessions

The 16 cardboard tubes on the right of the tray are now nicely damp and indicating they have been adequately watered in. Another tray of toilet rolls is ready for the next couple of days of transplanting.

Sowing Update

 

Eight days on from Sowing Spring Onions on the 5th August, here's how they are doing under the propagator lid, they have been out in the unheated greenhouse for the last 3 days after I saw that germination was happening. The lid will stay on for a few days more until I see more activity happening in some of the cups and then the lid can stay off. Another batch will be sown in a weeks time. 

6 of the 11 Cauliflower Andromeda sown on the 7th April, just six days ago are showing their heads above the soil. The propagator lid is on at the moment once a few more plants surface I will take the propagators lid off. At 11am today being overcast and cloudy the temperature in the unheated green house is between 19.2 and 21.7C with the door cracked open a little. 16C at the moment but anticipated to be 18C outside at 3pm when the sun breaks through. 

Four Brodie Brussels Sprouts showing at the moment also sown on the 7th April with the Cauliflower. 

The first batch of Brassica that survived the mini fools spring heat wave and were potted on into vending machine cups on the 9th April appear to be happy in their new larger pots. 

The grass in the back garden that was trimmed yesterday was gone over with the lawn mower today, and the contents emptied into a 40L Tuff Tub or Flexi Tub or Flexible Rubble Container, or whatever other pet name you have for these very useful items that every allotment owner should have. 

I took the Tuff Tub down to the allotment and added to the active Dalek watered in then added a 10 Litre of shredded compressed paper into the Dalek and also watered that in.

Sowing and Potting On

Melons sown on the 15th March 2020. I think those Amarilli Oro Melons on the right need potting on! The Sugar Baby on the left are catching up but the Rugoso di Consenza Giallo seeds from Suttons have not germinated at all, which is a little disappointing to be honest.

The Joe Mills Grow With Me 2022 - Ganovese Basil was sown on the 15th March and from the looks as if it can also do with potting on.

On the 25th March I sowed all 11 Seeds as that's what was in the packet - Aubergine Jewel Marble F1 - Mr Fothergill's that was supposed to contain 10 Seeds. I put a Black Beauty in the corner cell, but I'm still waiting for it to show its head. These were the first Aubergines to germinate and show from the three varieties I sowed that day. 

So the award for fastest germination goes to Mr Fothergill's Aubergine Jewel Marble F1  

Of the 13 Black Beauty from Seed Parade also sown on the 25th March so far 7 are above the soil. 

Only one of the 12  Aubergine Long Purple - Kings Seeds that came with a copy of Kitchen Garden also sown on the 25th March is just breaking the surface of the cell. 

With sub zero temperatures and frost last week and overnight lows of 1 - 3C forecast which could still drop lower, my babies above will be staying in the house and not going out to the unheated Space Saver Greenhouse just yet a while. 

Now this does cause a little problem because I can only get away with having so much in doors before it will become a bone of contention with my good lady and daughter.

Beetroots can be sown outdoors under cloche in April, so on that basis I have started some off in modules that will go into the Unheated Space Saver Greenhouse. Today so far has been dry 13C but very windy I filled one of the 40 cell CHM Ltd or Containerwise HD Plastic modules with a mixture or Golden Eye and Rainbow beetroots, and then sowed another tray of wilko Cylindra Beetroot seeds. It  was very windy and the wind took the potting tray whist I was taking the tray of beetroots to the greenhouse, so I now have beetroot seeds over the lawn!

Last year I did the Charles Dowding multi-sow approach thing, but think sowing with mates didn't really work out very well for me, so have gone back to one seed per module cell. I will be planting and direct sowing into one of my 105 hole planting membrane and trying to sow in succession a third of a bed at a time in order to not have to process all the beetroots in one go as it can get a bit daunting and time consuming to pickle that amount of beetroots in one hit.  

The cells were filled with un-sieved Clover compost and a sieved fine layer of Clover was put over the seeds in the cells. They were watered with water that had been standing for a few days and was not cold and then placed in the Space Saver greenhouse with a propagator lid placed over them. I will look in a few days to see how they are doing. 

The Cauliflowers got hit when we had the spring heat wave a few weeks ago and only one Andromeda remains so I decided as it survived to sow a new tray with all the 11 seeds that were left in the pack. 

Again during the hot spell a few weeks ago many of the Brussels Sprouts turned their toes up so I have sown a tray of 12 Brodie F1. I need to keep an eye on the greenhouse temperatures and remove the Brassicas as the heat increases in there during the day, as at 9am on a sunny day this time of year the temperature will already be between 20C - 22C.  

Andromeda F1 Cauliflower & Brodie F1 Brussels Sprouts 

Broccoli didn't get hit as bad as the sprouts and Cauliflower 

The Cabbage also didn't get it as bad, once I have potted on the Cabbage & Broccoli into vending machine cups I will sow some more of each. 

I've purchased some more of these spring clips as they are so useful for fixing the debris netting to the blue water pipe hoops. With more fox activity I will be netting up more vegetables this year than normal, as I have the additional beds on plot 1 now to play with. Plus the two Square Foot Gardening bed not using weed membrane need to be netted to keep Basil and his mates at bay.

Sowing Spring Onions

First batch of Spring Onions sown, it will be interesting to see which ones germinate first this year. Only 5 varieties got sown today as I'm using a 3 x 5 Module tray to hold the vending machine cups I'm using to sow bunches of onions for planting into beds once they are beyond the seedling slug risk stage. 

Lidl - De Barletta

Kings Seeds - White Lisbon

Kings Seeds - Ishikura

Dobies - Lilia

Dobies (Rob Smith Range) - White Star

There will be another tray load sown in 3 weeks times and that will repeat every 3 weeks with the last sowing over wintering in 2022.

This is the sowing arrangement I aim for in each vending cup.

Vending machine cups filled with sieved Clover Peat based compost (yes I know save the planet etc etc.) but until they totally ban it and/ or I can find a peat Free compost as good at a similar price I will carry on with what worked for me historically. 

That's not to say if any company out there wants to send me their super-de-dooper peat free compost Free of Charge, that I would not trial it because I would love to do a head to head comparison, and perhaps be proven wrong. 

The compost was left in doors over night to warm up. 

Fine sieved compost 10mm deep over the sown seeds, then watered in using a pop bottle with pin holes in the cap, and water that has been standing for at least 24 hours and is at room temperature, so my seeds don't get shocked with cold water. 

Propagator cover on and then back in the house to keep nice and snug for the next 10 - 14 days whilst germination takes place and before they are moved out into the space saver greenhouse as it's still too cold for them at night they need at least 15 C to germinate.

I was about to sow these spring onions and then I notices that wilko have used the same photo for Ramrod and White Lisbon Winter Hardy on their packs!

Lazy marketing people you can hear them now, 

"Do we have a photo of the ramrod spring onions?" 

"No, just use a photo from another pack no one will notice" 

WRONG !

In The Mood For Sowing

Looking at my sowing plan there are brassicas that need sowing now and once germinated can happily go out into an unheated greenhouse, that's if it survives Fridays storms! 

Dobies - Cabbage Romanov F1 - Sow By 2024

Premier Seeds Direct - Durham Early - Sow By 2020  

Normally I go for Westlands Seed Compost but TESCO have not had it in yet, but what I do have in my sowing store is a bag of Miracle-Gro Multipurpose Compost which I spent some time a few days ago sieving to get the lumps and friable dross out of it to get something more akin to seed compost. I also have a sack of Dalefoots Wool Compost for seeds and a Carbon Gold Biochar Seed Compost. 

For these sowings I have decided to mix equal measures of the 3 of them and see what happens.   

Last year I didn't have any Brussels Sprouts for Christmas and I'm determined to make sure I have some this year so looking at the seeds in my box and what's in date and just out of date I have decided on growing the following:-

Carters           - Fillbasket - Sow By 7/2021

Mr Fothergills - Evesham Special - Sow By 2020 

Mr Fothergills - IGOR F1 - Sow by 2024

Mr Fothergills - Brest F1 - Sow by 2020

In the last nine years I have never been able to grow Cauliflowers as magnificent as I did that first year I got my plot and basically had no idea what I was doing! Hopefully 2022 is going to be a great year and I'm really looking forward to growing the De Purple F1 

Mr Fothergills - Amsterdam F1 - Sow By 2022

Dobies Rob Smith      - Andromeda F1 - 2024

Mr Fothergills - De Purple F1 - Sow By 2025

Thompson & Morgan - All Year Round - Sow By 2021

Alan & Andy On The Plots

The weather today was so mild for this time of year, we were blessed with some sun and we actually ditched the coats and ended up working in our tee shirts. The bed Andy is raking is the one that had the main crop potatoes in. The potatoes were very small and mot really what I was expecting. There are so many small spuds in that bed the we will suffer from some volunteers next year from that bed. 

Andy and I took different sides of the bed and dug and raked the soil over a number of times in order to extract as many mini and micro spuds. I dressed the bed with Natural Grower and then moved onto prepping the bed two down ready for onions.

I had anticipated the need for two and a half beds but at the end of the day we used all but two rows 14 of the 210 holes in the two bed planting membrane. 

Electric A really attractive addition to the early summer salad bowl with beautiful red skin and flesh. The family cook will want to use this beautiful onion in a wide range of dishes. Just the job for a cheese and onion flan. Quite a large onion set and only 34 onion sets in the bag, I was a little disappointed but they were bought by weight and not quantity. 

Radar If you experience severe winters, try ultra-hardy Radar as it puts up with the worst of the weather much better than many older varieties. This outstanding performer has a mild and crisp flavour. There were 76 onion sets .

Snowball White skinned, as its name suggests, Snowball has a lovely, mild flavour and the bulbs keep well. A great choice for baking whole with the Sunday roast! There were 86 onion sets. 

Hoops and Nets installed to keep the foxes out of the bed and the birds from thinking the top of the onions are worms or something else they may like to eat. No water on the site now as it's always turned off a couple of weeks before bonfire night. So good thing that I have full water butts on the greenhouses. 

The stall holder clips hold the netting nicely in place and paving blocks have been used along the ends.

 

The bed in the background on the left next to the netted bed, was cleared of weeds by Andy and the netting transferred onto the bed on the right which has the onions in. 

The tomatoes plants had taken a hit from the frost a couple of days ago and so all the green tomatoes were harvested and brought home to go into the Space Saver Greenhouse. Job for another day is to remove the wigwams and put the Winter weed membrane over the two narrow plots.

It was nice working with my son-in-law today, we work well together and he did all the sowing saving me from having to keep getting up and down on the kneeling stool. We enjoyed a break half way through the morning with a cup of coffee each and a few Jaffer cakes.  

Very Early Watering Visit

 

I planted out Radish and Beetroots on Saturday and there was not Sunday visit and this morning I woke up at 5:10 and decided to get to the allotment as quickly as possible, so a swift breakfast followed by my medication then a dash to the allotment for 6:30 to be confronted with a broken gate latch.

The Bull nose ring was found on the floor, recovered and placed on the bolt on the back of the door so that idverde can come and fix it.  

This is something that I have historically brought to their attention the last time during the site inspections last week. 

There was talk of getting their welding guy to deal with this and if they do I have suggested a slight angle like the one in the photo above be used. 

At this time of the morning the whole of my allotment Plot 1 and 1A is in shadow due to the trees at the far end of plot 1A, and it's an ideal time for watering as it's not in direct sunlight. 

I set the sprinkler on the Onions and the Raspberries on plot 1 and then headed off to see what had come of the beetroots that I put in the ground on Saturday.  

With the scorching sun of Sunday I was expecting to see the beetroots half dead but in fact they were standing and looked to be very healthy, so I gave then a good watering. 

The national Gherkins were looking happy so they too got a good watering. 

Sweetcorn looking good were also watered. 

As the beetroot bed was in the shade I decided to direct sow 3 or 4 Cylindrical Beetroot seeds per hole in the rest of the bed and cover with a layer of compost.

Shadow at 7:55am and the sun rises and starts getting above the trees at the back of plot 1A

   

I then watered using a mist setting and gave the bed a good soaking 

The photo above shows how far the sun had travelled up plot 1 and into plot 1A by 8:11am 

One of the courgettes has been attacked by slugs or snails, but I do have 3 plants in reserve on the table behind the Greenhouse on Plot 1 

I spent some time clearing the floor in the Plot 1A greenhouse and fixing the staging that broke after I jet-washed and cleaned the greenhouse. I really need to get the shading in place in both green houses as the tomatoes need taking to the allotment and setting up in the Quadgrows. 

As with the beetroots, I was a little worried about the radishes but they appear OK so they had a good watering as well.  John has promised me a dozen strawberry runners and I'm thinking they will go in the other raised planter with cover on the other side of the greenhouse next year.

As I was watering I noticed that one of my plot holders has build something that I have always fancied have a bash at 

I do hope he is going to turn it into a greenhouse, he does have a small one on the plot already.

The little summer house on the grassed area is a retreat for his wife and child and him at a squeeze, he has a small shed to erect beside it as his man-cave.

By 9:30 both plots were in sunshine and it was 22C so I made my way home to get my wife sorted for the day.