Allotments

[Kymmy]

If growing root veg then it's a bit late for manure ( you should do that the year before) Just plant the veg then give them a few doses of Miracle grow once/twice a month

Id suggest some herbs, potatoes do well, tomatoes, onions and perhaps some beans/peas up a sunny wall.

[Caff]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Guess which dopey moo got all the way to the allotment to plant the last of her potatoes then realised that they were still on the chitting shelves at home



Still managed to get the salad bed up and running and my partner dug over the space where the potatoes should have gone.

Already up and ready are spring onions and parsnips from last year, perpetual spinach and loads of rhubarb ...YUMMY!!! Broccolli is just beginning to sprout

I don't have an allotment - just a couple of raised beds and any space going in the borders - but I'd never have thought I'd have beaten you to getting the spuds bedded and running
Great weather for it all though

[Kymmy]

I stagger the spuds, in March 10 plants each of Early, New and Maincrop then another ten plants of each mid April

[Caff]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

I stagger the spuds, in March 10 plants each of Early, New and Maincrop then another ten plants of each mid April

I just find spuds sprouting in the back of the veg cupboard sometimes and see if they'll grow You're so organised
If I could grow good Jersey Royals here I would make a huge effort to grow them.

[Kymmy]

I grew them last year, they make a great new potato or can be left to be a larger maincrop. They sell them as "International Kidney" which is the official variety.. Trying Charlotte this year as my new potato, Pentland Javelin as the earlies and Roosters as the maincrop

[Barewolf]

Just stumbled upon this thread. I put my potatoes in 3 weeks ago and they are already 4" high.

I have roughly 40 strawberry plants in flower as well. Looking good with this nice weather.

[Kymmy]

LOL.. It's only been going nearly 2 years!!!

Partners done a plot of strawberries on the allotment with about 100 plants of varying variaties, so now we get strawberries at varying times Yummy!!!

---------- Post added at 11:27 ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 ----------

A good tip for those who don;t have a big area and want to try a good variety of crops but don't want to buy packets of 1000 seeds is try your local poundland.. They do variety packs like Mediterranean, herbs, salad..etc.. which have smaller packs of 6 varieties in.

Wasn't sure about them myself at first so experimented with them last year and had some great results with a good germination rate.. So for example £4 you can have a mixture of 24 different seeds..

[joglynne]

Good tip about Poundland Kymmy. I grow all my herbs in pots and always end up with far too many seeds, even storing the excess in the fridge they quite often fail to germinate the next year so it always works out a lot more expensive than I would like.

[Kymmy]

Wilkinson also do the packs though a tiny bit more expensive than poundland

[joglynne]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Wilkinson also do the packs though a tiny bit more expensive than poundland

Will check them both out.

[Barewolf]

poundland is good but.....for the price it makes sense to shop around. I usually get mine off ebay in packs of 500. no one is going to use 500 seeds or have 500 cabbages, etc, but they do last a few years.

i guess its ok to buy poundland stuff if you dont have an allotment big enough.

but a pound for 25-50 seeds is actually a poor price. in my opinion.

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Barewolf

poundland is good but.....for the price it makes sense to shop around. I usually get mine off ebay in packs of 500. no one is going to use 500 seeds or have 500 cabbages, etc, but they do last a few years.

i guess its ok to buy poundland stuff if you dont have an allotment big enough.

but a pound for 25-50 seeds is actually a poor price. in my opinion.

Actually it's a pound for 6 packs of seeds, each pack has about 40 seeds in it (more/less depending on size) so that is approx 200-300 seeds per combined pack (more if going for the herb packs)..

I've got Roma tomato seedlings next door which I double seeded and nearly each cell has two seedlings so about 95% germination rate from these packs. So instead of 24 plants I've got a glut of nearly 50

[Chrysalis]

my dads allotment is bliss, he lives in a nice area anyway, but I live on a busy road in a city, been at his allotment is almost completely silent, can just hear birds etc,. and maybe sea in background as is not far away.

[Barewolf]

I'm having difficulty with my Sprouts, Broccoli, and Cauliflowers.

The plants about 7 inches high and something has nibbled the leaves to the stalk.

My first thought was Ants, as the plants are under netting. But i may have found evidence of snail slime on the leaves.

I have made some wooden squares and cut a hole in the middle for the base of the plants, and on the surface i have spread, Chilli, cumin, corriander, all in a paste. Apparently, Ants hate this stuff.

however, for snails..I'm thinking egg shells, I was looking at snail killing products but even though it says its safe, i'm not sure.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Kymmy]

Sounds like slugs... Pellets stay whole and rely on the slugs to eat them so they don't contaminate the plants.. You could always put in a slug trap..

We had brocolli eaten a bit which we thought it was slugs.. Arrived at the allotment 08:00am this morning to find a pair of crows having breakfast They have though only been eating the leaves and the sprouting bits are untouched upto now..