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I was the same today with the lettuce! Last april was the same i remember , some of my lettuce tip burned then
Fleece is great, but you need to be on the ball as you can’t see whats going on underneath!
Sometimes you lift it off and are surprised , by fast healthy growth and imminent harvest or abundant weeds and wilting plants! 🙂
Hi Tris, thanks thats very kind, I’ll take you up on that if you don’t mind – i’ll try and save seed from it and then share again.
Also that has reminded me I never sent you that pulsar seed! Many apologies, I blame being an overworked veg grower! 🙂
i’ll email you!
oh yes, you can get mottistone seed on ebay uk now, I have just ordered some, if it works I will save seed!
My mottistone from seeds of distinction has been 100% non germination this year and dubious last year – so obviously the same batch.
I have had very dubious / erratic germination with ALL my lettuce seed this year, from various seed suppliers, in various composts….
So i am sowing every two weeks to make sure I have enough!
Also I am planning to save all varieties of lettuce I grow this year,
Seems very odd, perhaps other cosmic factors at play? a non lettuce year? ?
not that i’m aware, but some folk avoid eating legumes completely , thinking they are poisonous to the human system
yes watering over a few days is definitely the best approach, the water just flows throught the dry top layers and the soil saturates from the bottom up, so digging it over wouldnt make any difference , you would still have to water as much. In fact you would be losing the structure which would move the moisture around like a sponge, and instead have mud
“In my opinion, gardeners will take care of food for future, real food – grains aren’t really good food for humans.“
Wise words!
I have just received a roll of 5mm galvanised wire from jacksons fencing, and have made some hoops – works fine, bit tough to bend – a bit of elbow grease is required, and you would need some cutters that can handle 5mm wire.
5mm seems similar to Charles’s hoops, which I have seen – they are definitely not 4mm which I found last year to buckle under wind and rain. I would definitely recommend trying the 5mm.
If you are using 4mm it would be worth 2 hoops to a metre.
6mm wire I couldn’t find, I don’t think anyone makes it anymore, I found a 2nd hand roll on ebay in Scotland but it weighed 190kg!
Happy cloching!
Yes unfortunately we have had lots of damage here…
First squirrels had all our unripe strawberries, then voles and mice ate a whole row (5m) of beetroot before i realised what was happening! Then when I cleared the beetroot they moved onto some squash nearby, nibbling the skins of kuri, So I had to snaptrap them, about 6 or 7 voles and mice, and now no more damage to squash.
And now the worst, rats have eaten about 15 kuri squash in a different part of he garden, when the leaves died down i realised some were nibbled and holed and had been hollowed out from the inside! On a night patrol I saw a family of rats quite unafraid of me nibbling away! They ate them very quickly indeed! Rats have also been nibbling carrots and french beans,
and now my winter beetroot is under attack, again snaptraps set, they have been tripped but no catches, which indicates rats again,
Problem with rats is they are difficult to trap as they are clever, you have earn their trust with food and unset traps, then set them, Poisoning is another option but not eco friendly as posion would find its way into the food chain.
Last year I lost some raddichios to voles and some beetroot but not this much! My friend nearby in Devon has also lost all his beetroot this year.
As for no dig, I’m not sure if that is a factor, we have many moles , drawn to the abundance of worms, and i think voles do share their tunnels a bit. But our garden is quite wild at the edges, being in a woodland clearing, so many places for rats to hide. And voles love our grassy banks, making many runs and homes. We do have a family of tawny owls on night patrol every night
but i think this year they have their fill and still rodents to spare!Yes my land cress this year is very dubious, old seed from last year and new seed from this year both
Just a few weak seedlings emerging from a thick sowing in a tray, not helped by pricking out into an recent abysmal (the worst yet) batch of new horizons which has grown a few trays of tiny yellow seedlings! So I have had to plant out really small plants, luckily once out in the ground they perk up quickly and then growth has been good…
Pricking out and sowing into my own compost now and difference is amazing! Albeit with a lot of summer purslane seedlings
Anyway, this land cress and also my chervil non happenings have resolved me to also save some seed in the spring and thereafter when i can, obviously a message from the plant world
Well, lettuce root aphid has certainly made itself known here, out of 30 metres of lettuce , 8-9 metres has disappeared, and a good percentage of the rest has been slowed and weakened.
Now interestingly there was a very definite pattern to the destruction. The first lettuces to be affected in my north-south orientated beds were mostly at the north-east corner, and were always Chartwell. (each bed had a very similar planting pattern) Then the aphid spread in a south westerly direction taking out, Redlo, Diablotin, Mottistone, Nymans, Intred, Freckles and Maravilla. Now the interesting part – the damage seemed to stop at a line of Bijou and Navarra, and didn’t continue (too much) past that line onto lettuces behind.
Either this means, that along with Bijou and Navarra the lettuce behind are more resistant to aphid (Red fire, Senorita, Cerbiatta, Mazur, Benmore, Lollo Biondi) or the Bijou and Navarra actively stopped the spread. Actually Cerbiatta and LB succumbed most out all those.
Navarra is definitely the lettuce that has been affected least, in that its growth is normal, not subdued. Next year I shall certainly grow more of this one and mix it up in the beds for summer lettuce . In fact looking online it says Navarra is root aphid resistant and I can confirm that! I wonder what others have similar resistance.
Another interesting observation : is the most damaged beds were from mid june plantings from a mid may sowing, and were first picked from the 7th July and then weekly. Now the beds with least damage, in fact hardly any really, perhaps a normal expected amount, were from the same sowing, but were planted out a week or so later and were left unpicked or at least picked much less than the first batch. It seems the root aphid certainly homed in on and caused more damage to the lettuces that were picked regularly and so were smaller / less able to resist.
As for alternatives to next year, yes Frenzy has been a total star here, first time growing it and I wish I had sowed more, it’s a really high yielding, pest resistant and beautiful plant! Late may sowing here is saving the day currently, also a late may/early june sowing of indigo radicchio is now almost ready for harvest and will prove useful over the next two weeks. Also a late june sowing of bubikopf is almost ready for first leaves, again very welcome! But I forgot the late june sowing of Frenzy! Ah how I am kicking myself for that! I would even consider chard next year, even though I don’t actually like it very much! Perhaps an early july sowing of oriental leaves as a reserve might be an idea? Under a fleece hooped cloche to keep out insects but not get as hot as if resting on top, might be worth a try.
But as Charles says this was probably a bad year for them, as such a mild winter and next year will be something else! But hope this info is useful anyway
Dan
Good luck Andy, a righteous but financially challenging endeavour!
I have been growing and selling pretty much full time, for the last 3 years based on Charles’s methods, and probably have a mine of information that would probably be very useful to you, but no time (as i’m a grower), time is a precious commodity) to tell the story here
Suffice to say , salad leaves are the only crop that will make you money, and ‘subsidises’ the veg, which are important, positive and beautiful to grow but , i’m afraid to say pretty much unviable from a business point of view.
Salad leaves and the supplying thereof is a complex, complete art and a deep subject!
I would recommend Charles’s market growing course, a no brainer really as he is doing them at the moment.
Also have a look at this article :
I would to like help you, but so limited on time, but here is my email anyway,
hazelrowanwood (at) gmail (dot) com
good luck indeed!
Dan
apart from beds set aside for mid/late june planting of lettuce,
I have sown kale for second crop, which i’ll pot up before planting out mid july after peas hopefully, potting up is a good plan
as for plans – well i try and leave some empty beds just for emergency plantings and to give some flexibility in case you change your mind on the go!