This topic contains 11 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by ruthparis 7 years ago.
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Hi Stringfellow,
Here in Ireland I don’t start sowing outdoors until March. Its way too cold and wet at the moment and looks like staying that way for the foreseeable.
Hopefully I will get spuds in on Patrick’s Day and then get everything else going from early April.Don.
Tris all potatoes are potentially seed… but for the purpose of trade, “seed potatoes” are grown from, I think, specially bred and healthy stock, and usually in especially clean soil which has not grown potatoes for a while.
Aiming for disease-free, especially viruses.
Yes you can keep your own, often the vigour and health diminishes over time, not always.Tris
Apologies for not responding earlier, I forgot my password and it took me 5 days to remember it, having had to log into another computer after leaving my iPad charger at my cousin’s in Gloucestershire.
I have indeed made a few sowings using the February full moon, notably Kelsae (singles) and van Rijnsburger onions (clumps) on 5th February (back ups in early March); Medania Spinach, Greyhound Cabbage and Alderman peas (for shoots) on 9th February, the leaf day 2 days before full moon, along with some soil blocks with Ishikura salad onion seeds in them.
I sowed my early tomatoes one week late (as I was away first w/e of February) yesterday (Red Alert, Masktotka) along with my home made chilli seeds.
Today I am sowing some Boltardy Beetroot and French Breakfast radish, both with 3 or 4 seeds per module.
The onions are germinating well (with heat from below), the spinach and cabbage showed first signs of germination 2 days after sowing and now have plenty of white extensions from the seeds (no covering).
For the record, I sowed Aquadulce Claudia broad beans in modules at the January full moon, as my December sowings in the ground failed to germinate. They did very well and have all taken well in the ground, transplanted just before the mild wet week at the beginning of February.
After today, I am dormant until early March in terms of sowing, except possibly one more module tray of radish.
Yes, Tris, the Klassmann-Deilmann seed compost is great stuff, so it should be with the price Quickcrop slap on it. So much so, you can almost use it as a benchmark for seed quality, since everything I’ve sown so far has roared away this year using it.
The Thompson & Morgan Medania Spinach seeds are also so good, professionals could almost use them as a test for compost batches, as they clearly germinate so quickly, even without heat. 100% germination within 5 days of 10*3 seeds in 40 module trays I’ve had with the K_D compost.
My first Alderman peas are coming through this morning, 5 days after sowing and the Ishikura onion seeds are all going white in the soil blocks (which is a nice signal of germination, they being black in the bag). The undersoil heating for onion seeds seems to really transform germination – I had my Kelsaes on the windowsill with a radiator under them and the end of the trays which were exposed to the radiator germinated, the other end didn’t. Now I put the trays on the boiler outside for 2 days, germination is roaring ahead, so it seems that onions need the heat more to germinate well, whereas spinach and cabbage don’t. Nor do broad beans or peas, it seems. It’s useful to learn how to prioritise the very limited space above the boiler (so far, my highest priorities are onions and tomatoes, which always now get 3 – 5 days each).
Hi,
The maincrop potatoes sold in the shops are treated with a growth retardant to stop (or at least slow) them sprouting.I forget the name of the chemical used but it is only allowed in minute quantities and there have been concerns in the farming press that it may be withdrawn as many batches have been testing over the limits.
Klassmann compost can be had from BHGS/JFC Monro I think, if you are anywhere near their branches.
Regards
Tristan
Tristan
Thanks for the tip re JFC Monro. Unfortunately, they are based in the SW and I am 200 miles away. I had a look for retail outlets around here and they are a bit absent. I think I need to find 20-30 folks to share a pallet load in future, as then the price will halve.
Hi there – just wanted to share a great resource for excellent Klasmann composts, much cheaper than I’ve seen anywhere else, and they don’t require bulk ordering:
They are based in Lincolnshire and have quite a large free delivery area across Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. Highly recommend if you’re in range – or have someone you know who is (I had a delivery to my parents’ house and picked it up from there when I next visited from the south).
I found their customer service absolutely wonderful – they could not have been more helpful :0)
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