Good to hear these successes and some reasoning behind them…and the less than satisfactory grows! My first earlies taste delicious but like you Rhys, the number of developed tubers is rather small. I’ve taken to watering the front two plants of the row each time I’m at the plot, after a few days these then get pulled for tea and I then begin the watering of the next two; a tip passed to me by an old hand down at my site, and I’m always keen to receive tips.
I had to buy extra seed and resow parsnips this year, which was a long wait to not see anything come up, and they were fresh seed. I now have some strong healthy looking rows though. Intrigue is building for the mammoth red onion as they are bulbing up nicely and potentially have a further six weeks to enlarge further. Could become an annual regular.
So the lack of rain water is causing challenges this year, but no-dig helps a lot and I’m pleased to not be finding many slugs at all! Happy growing indeed.