Allotment: Woo Hoooo!!! :) :) :)

[jennyjj01]

When you start getting spuds,you are getting somewhere.

Cheers. Feels like a landmark victory. I wish I had some chip sized spuds in.
I've pulled these 3 arbitrary spugs out, leaving my bed looking like a bomb-site. Should i just pop some main crop seeds in the holes? Or wait till I've cleared a big area.

[jansman]

When you start getting spuds,you are getting somewhere.

Cheers. Feels like a landmark victory. I wish I had some chip sized spuds in.
I've pulled these 3 arbitrary spugs out, leaving my bed looking like a bomb-site. Should i just pop some main crop seeds in the holes? Or wait till I've cleared a big area.

Personally I would clear it in the traditional way.If you haveseed spuds however,get em in wherever! Otherwise you’ll be too late.one good thing about climate change,we get about six weeks extra to what we did forty years ago…

[jennyjj01]

When you start getting spuds,you are getting somewhere.

I'm getting somewhere
Well 11 days since I visited the plot and the weeds have gone insane.
Pretty much all my spuds had died back and the weeds made it hard to see where they were. Fortunately I'd laid them out in a grid pattern, so I went at it with my fork. I got carried away and harvested most of the spuds I could find. YAYYYYY.
I filled a morrisons fruit box. Only a 3 inch deep one, but I estimate I have over 10kg of spuds.
Most are little Desiree ones from the lidl 19p christmas bag! Very few will be big enough to make chips.

My carrot patch was weed central. I managed to identify and harvest two carrots, both middle finger sized. Pathetic. They were supposed to be big fat Nantes. Lifted 3 of my 48 onions because they were keeled over,

So..... Biggest harvest of anything, ever, for me.......

Currently sat in a box in my warm garage. When they are dried, I'll grade them a bit and sack em up. This crop is too big for us two to eat in a timely fashion, so some will get frozen. I might try canning some in mason jars.

Speaking of Mason Jars. Wilko are having a laugh. 450g Mason jars with ONE piece lids at £2.50. That's nuts

[jennyjj01]

As I said, the allotment has turned into Weed Central over the last two weeks of neglect. Strawberries, A mass of weeds.... Raspberries cohabiting with bindweed.... Spud bed looking like a WW1 battlefield full of weeds and big holes. Onion bed 50% weeds, including some nasties. Marestail and Bindweed having a party in my absence.

I NEED to have a full day on it, ASAP, in an effort to get a second crop of something. ANYTHING.
There's easily a day of weeding to be done and with the marestail, it will all get taken offsite. Tick Tock..... sowing time is ebbing away.

[jennyjj01]

There's easily a day of weeding to be done and with the marestail, it will all get taken offsite. Tick Tock..... sowing time is ebbing away.

Having neglected the plot over winter, this week I had a couple of days digging over and weeding. It's inspection month and I was expecting a warning letter, so I'm trying to make it look cultivated with a bit of smoke and mirrors and membrane covering.

Thankfully, marestail died down over winter, but I'm pulling loads of bindweed roots, instead.

I found about a kilo of perfectly serviceable stray spuds while digging.

The area were I did no-dig last year, I planted a manure crop of mustard. That seemed to suppress weeds and was easy to mostly just rake clear.

Moved about 16 bits of strawberry plants from wherever I found them into one of the dug over beds. Whether they survive the move or eventually crop is anyone's guess.

Onion Sets and first spuds going in at the weekend.

I think I need to start some seeds this week. Last year, I did really rather badly with my timing..

[Arzosah]

Good luck, Jenny, I'm glad you haven't stopped. I've just been setting up my seed trays today, going to get the coir seeding medium mixed in with a little bit of compost, and get them going over the weekend.

[jennyjj01]

Good luck, Jenny, I'm glad you haven't stopped. I've just been setting up my seed trays today, going to get the coir seeding medium mixed in with a little bit of compost, and get them going over the weekend.

I have lots of those coir brickettes and for a while I was a big fan. But having compared seed progress between coir,seed compost and hydroponic, I'm less keen on coir. The absence of nutrients soon becomes obvious even compared to hydroponic.

I do hope I did the right thing with my Strawberries. They were straggly little orphans pulled out of an uncultivated weedy area. Barely a couple of leaves on each.

I need to plan and implement this week before I miss another growing season. That allotment owes me!

Meanwhile........ several buckets to be sown with Tomatoes: Hopefully my high value crop.

[Arzosah]

I agree about the coir, the lack of nutrition for the seedlings is very obvious. I'm just going to use it to lighten up the compost, not rely on it completely.

Good luck with the strawberries.

[GillyBee]

Some coir is far too alkaline which also throws off plant growth. I was most dissapointed a couple of years ago and am now wary of it.

[Arzosah]

Some coir is far too alkaline which also throws off plant growth. I was most dissapointed a couple of years ago and am now wary of it.

That's a valuable piece of info, thanks GillyBee.