[RhysParticipant]

It’s the first time I’ve tried it and my second set of seeds were sown last week on 5th March (a fruit day with the moon in Aries) and I got 100% germination on 8 strains within 5 days in a incubator kept at 25C. 8 seeds of each sown, all through by day 5 and a lot through on day 4.

The seeds were my own mostly: Alicante F3, Shirley F4, Ailsa Craig F2, Super Marmande F2, a Russian black variety, a big beefsteak variety, Riesentraube and Ferline purchased last autumn from a small operation who were at the RHS autumn show.

Now I’ve got all the seedlings for the season mostly sown, I’ll have a go doing a formal sowing experiment on different days over a 10 day period to see if there’s any difference.

The ones I sowed in February have grown on nicely but are slightly leggy – whether that’s just through sowing in February or sowing on a rising moon, I dunno. They are ready to be potted on to 15cm pots this week and final resting grounds of 30cm pots in mid April. As they are all cold tolerant, the aim is to try and get them outside as quick as is practicable.

[RhysParticipant]

Thanks for the insights – i”ll limit my wooden surrounds to the potato towers (one of which I am going to use to grow carrots).

By the way, I did a test this morning of a small area of border (probably 2ft square) of how effective the autumn mulching was. The mulch was spent potato and tomato haulms buried under soil with a topcoat of 2 or 3 inches of horse manure which had plenty of straw in it. I wanted to see how many worms were in it and was amazed to reveal 4 or 5 absolutely giant worms, the biggest I’ve seen – about 12 – 15cm long and 1cm diameter when I dug the spot up (intention is to put a potato tower there). Similar numbers of worms were found in the ground when carrots were harvested on an undug bed, but their size in comparison was fairly weedy. Also the soil dug very, very easily, indicating that the bed is of a fine quality.

Safe to say that the mulch and manure appears to be fantastic for worms and hopefully the area will be productive this summer as I sow a few ‘extras’ like half a dozen celeries, one courgette and a few beet, alongside two potato towers placed at the sunniest spot we have in the garden.

There’s nothing like personal experience to ingrain what was simply a faith in your wisdom to date, is there??

[RhysParticipant]

So, the slower of the two varieties has taken 14 days to poke its nose out.

I guess in future I can try a few experiments to see if I can speed it up any way or other…….

[RhysParticipant]

It’s really a question of deciding whether I need to sow some more or not.

I’ll wait another week for the Bendigos before having another go then.

[RhysParticipant]

However, I have tested a couple of beds with a fork each month to see how easily they go in compared to areas where the no-dig isn’t being done.

Despite all the rains this winter, the fork goes in easily to full depth where no-dig has been practiced for 12 months. Worms exist (which I know because digging up carrots recently exposed about one per carrot removed).

So I”m thinking now that I don’t need to do any more tests and will trust the worms to do their best.

[RhysParticipant]

I used to live in Manchester and travelled around the country a lot on business, including the M56/M6/M5 corridor more times than I care to remember.

You’ll get down to level with Bristol area on the M5 from Manchester in 3 – 3.5hrs outside rush hour and excluding major road works, once you’re on the M56, if you go a steady 65 – 70mph.

How long from there to Charles’ place I don’t know, but unlikely to be more than 30 mins from an M5 junction.

[RhysParticipant]

I put some down which wasn’t more than 2 months old in November on our rhubarb patch and the surrounding comfrey plants. Both are already starting to grow visible shoots as of 6th February 2014.

So I guess you could put some of it down if you have a rhubarb bed??

The other thing I’ve done is put it around the hedge surrounds where weeds were growing and to date, 3 months in, we’ve got no new weeds appearing.

All the rest is still rotting down in a 1 metre cubed open compost bin.

[RhysParticipant]

http://www.greenmanure.co.uk/advice/choosing-the-right-green-manure/

Not recommending anything in particular, but there’s plenty of information out on the net to guide you to different green manures depending on what your specific aims and objectives are.

[RhysParticipant]

I’ve got some stuff rotting down which I’m turning every 2 days or so which I intend to put on the raspberries in March, after 4 months of the worms doing their stuff, which I can visibly detect on a monthly basis in terms of the fresh manure turning blacker, the worms growing bigger etc etc.

I’ve read on the net that you could risk it, but I’m not going to first time around. Raspberries are, after all, the most expensive plants in town!!

Don’t have any blackcurrants so can’t comment about those……

[RhysParticipant]

Two pear trees, a plum tree and a cherry tree got the treatment.

We’ll see how they flower and fruit in the spring.

[RhysParticipant]

We planted our second row of dwarf beans last year in early July and they cropped in September up to early October. If anything the yield was slightly higher than the ones planted on 20th June. Last year in the SE was a bit odd with a hugely cold spring and then a hot, dry, sunny summer.

[RhysParticipant]

Within the last 50 years, before when C60 was ‘magic’.

I don’t know the truth about the all the properties of water, but I do suggest you go read Schauberger’s book on water before you poo poo it. He wasn’t a physicist, he was an engineer, a fluid dynamicst, call it what you will.

How well can physics describe the properties of any fluid other than ‘dry water’?? According to the Feynman lectures, not very well……..

[RhysParticipant]

I bought a set of ‘saucers’ for my 12 inch tomato pots and with the hot summer this was a great way to know when to water the plants. It ensured that the roots never dried out and I put the feed in at the top of the pot, feeding a small amount every day.

It worked an absolute treat and someone I knew also had excellent results with the ‘quad grow’ system which uses the same principle but has a cover over the reservoir.

[RhysParticipant]

That was my gut feeling too, but your experience has confirmed it.

Cheers.

[RhysParticipant]

Jane

I’ve been saving tomato seeds for up to three years (depending on strain) and I’ve found that, by preparing seed from the biggest, most luscious fruit (usually around end August) that the next year’s plant is, if anything, more vigorous than the previous one.

This may be that I am, in effect, selecting out strains that grow well outdoors in SE England (which may be a harsher selection than growing in greenhouses).

It has worked very well for Shirley (3 seasons) and Alicante (2 seasons) and I’ve saved a whole variety this year (including Maskotka, Black Cherry, Black Krim/Russian, Bush Beefsteak, a very big Beefsteak of unclear origin, Ailsa Craig, Sub Arctic Plenty).

I’ve also used my own garlic bulbs to replant this year – we will see how well they do (original stocks purchased commercially).

As for campaigning against the EU regulations, there’s actually a pan-European group organised from Austria online to address concerns etc to the lawmakers. I signed their petition and get regular updates. It does help if you can understand German though!

[Author]

Posts