It's sowiing time again...


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Sowed two varieties of onion seed this morning.  Up here in the north of Scotland Boxing Day is the traditional onion sowing day.

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  • 1 month later...

Today I bought my onion sets from my local garden centre (11 miles away).  This year I am growing Stutgarter once again -they did quite well last year.  I also visited Homebase to get some Arran Pilot seed potatoes but they were all covered in 2" long sprouts (Chits) and were next to useless, so I will have to go elsewhere to find some.  Unfortunately, the place wher I buy my onion sets is not getting Pilot seed this year.

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All my spuds are container grown.

 

Some first early Lady Christl in Morrison flower buckets cos their cheap. They go in the green house later this month for really early spuds. March will see more Lady C in old water tanks and plastic dustbins, most of them will be left in for 18 weeks because they make great chippers and bakers.

 

Finally mid March in will go the Picasso main crop again in dustbins and plastic water tanks.

 

You do have to be careful with feeding and watering but there is far less chance of pest trouble.

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How many plants per tub, NBL?  I think I might give it a try this year.  They haven't been doing so well out in the garden for a year or two now.  I don't know what is wrong.  The soil is well composted, and manured.  Just doesn't seem to be doing the job.

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Tomatoes and Cucumbers were pretty poor last year too.  Things generally do not look good.  A lot of trees look sick with a lot of deadfall.  I'm always picking up dead branches.  I'm starting to wonder if it is some kind of pollution or what.  You try to grow stuff to enjoy the fresh veggies, but then you still wonder what you are eating.  :(

 

I remember my my grandad and uncle both had allotments in Netherfield back in the fifties.  Not far from the railway sheds.  They always seemed to have great crops in spite of the pollution.

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I regularly walk my daughters dog along the site of the old East Sidings at Toton. The 'soil' is totally black after over 150 years of ash and coal dust, but it certainly doesn't hinder the growth of a multitude of plants, trees and shrubs most of which are self set, other than a lot of silver birch. It must be doing something good !

I also mix the ashes from my chiminea into my compost heaps, and I'm certain it enriches the final product.

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My dad would keep the soot from chimney sweeping and use it, mixed with soil, for growing celery. Our house had the best celery of anywhere.

One thing I remember you must not do is to use fresh soot - it has to be at least a year old otherwise it's corrosive.

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Loppy the flower buckets are only 10ltrs, you get cut flowers delivered in them so the only get one seed, harvest about 2 good boiling's for 2 people not bad for early spuds.

 

The 80ltr plastic dustbins 4 seed about 5" from the bottom, dustbin filled as the haulm grows, kept well fed and watered over 24Ib per bin.

 

Could lack of rain be your problem? Spuds are about 80% water at harvest so a lack of it in the growing period can severely affect the harvest.

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1 hour ago, jonab said:

My dad would keep the soot from chimney sweeping and use it, mixed with soil, for growing celery. Our house had the best celery of anywhere.

One thing I remember you must not do is to use fresh soot - it has to be at least a year old otherwise it's corrosive.

My ex workmate always used to collect old pidgeon poo from inside the belfry when we worked on churches. But said it was too hot for his tomatoes.

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Interesting responses.  Thanks.  I don't think rain is the problem NBL.  Spring is usually quite wet, in fact almost too much then.  July, Aug, Sept.  Tend to be hot and dry, but you have usually harvested by then.  I figure with containers one could keep them in a shadier spot.  My garden gets a lot of sun, maybe the 90s is just too hot.  Green runner beans did about the best last year.  We are still eating some that Mrs. L froze.

 

Re. Chimenea ash.  Yes I use some of that, but you need to make sure just clean wood. No treated or painted wood.  I also let it age a bit.  Used to get some horse manure from a local stable.  I'm a bit wary of that now because of antibiotics and other medications that can be used on horses.

 

I also dig in some crushed egg shells for the Tomatoes.  They are said to need quite a bit of Calcium.  I do not use commercial pesticides.

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Re Horse manure, we have to be careful over here about collecting manure from stables/farms, some of them use a selective weed killer (aminopyralid) on their pastures the only thing it doesn't kill is grass.

 

Big problem is it will pass through the horses digestive system unaffected and contaminate the manure this in turn contaminates the soil. It also lasts several years, I know of at least two allotment owners that have had to have the top foot of soil removed and replaced.

 

Now gardeners in the know do a test before  spreading it usually with a couple of runner bean plants on any unknown supply. If they go twisted and gnarled then get rid

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On 08/02/2018 at 2:27 PM, FLY2 said:

I also mix the ashes from my chiminea into my compost heaps

 

Wood ash is fine but they say don't use coal ash - something to do with teh sulphur content and souring of the soil.

 

On 07/02/2018 at 1:42 PM, IAN123. said:

Have you tried those soft planting buckets for spuds Compo?

 

I use them every year, Ian. The spuds come out clean and slug-free from them.  Not much of a crop size-wise though.  My garden soil is heavy clay and is infested with slugs and blight.  Always lose around ¾ of the crop though those two pests.

 

One of the problems with living next door to a farmer's field is that farmers don't want trees obscuring their soil.  This morning I have been helping my neighbour to cut and move branches from my border trees that were growing over his ploughing line.  It is a shame that local farmes don't observe the recommended distance between ploughing and hedgrows.  It means that the wildlife corridor is far less effective and tree roots become cut by the plough share.

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Farmers round here are not conservationists. A field to them is just an outdoor factory to be intensively cultivated. I suppose they’ve got to make a living. I’m pleased we’ve got a few acres of our own with trees, ancient hedges and lots of wildlife. When we’ve gone it will probably become equestrian - and what do they do with their horses - ride them along the lanes slowly and clog them up for people like me who want to get a move on. Mr. Grumpy. Yes that’s me.:biggrin:

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Went into the shed yesterday and sowed three types of pea in small pots ready for planting out when the weather improves. I always sow in pots because we have a huge mouse problem, living as we do next to fields.  The mice munch the peas even before they sprout if planted directly into the soil.

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I was told many years ago to soak peas in paraffin before sowing to deter the mice,don't know if it worked or not but the old gardener who told me always seemed to have a good crop of everything he planted,is this a case of "The old ways are the best ways"?

 

Rog

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On 03/04/2018 at 11:22 AM, plantfit said:

I was told many years ago to soak peas in paraffin before sowing to deter the mice,\snip\

 

Rog

 

Many thanks for that tip Rog. I still have plenty of peas left so I will try an experiment with them. It is currently snowing hard up here so the experiment will have to wait a week or two yet but I will post results soonest.  Thanks again!

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Don't know if this should be in the "skinflint tips" thread but, I use the tops off aerosol cans to sow some seeds in,peas,lipins,sweet peas stuff like that,a couple in each top and when they start to grow you have nice sized plug plants,I also save the clear thin plastic covers you get from the shops that cover some meats,cakes etc to cover newly sown seeds,like a min greenhouse for individual plant pots as you can just see on the right of the tops

 

P1060506.jpg

 

Rog

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6 hours ago, Compo said:

 

Many thanks for that tip Rog. I still have plenty of peas left so I will try an experiment with them. It is currently snowing hard up here so the experiment will have to wait a week or two yet but I will post results soonest.  Thanks again!

It can be dangerous. My father once watered his greenhouse soil with Jeyes fluid to kill the bugs. He grew his tomatoes by ring culture and they tasted of disinfectant! :(

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I always chit my peas to beat mice.

 

They go into a take away container and are soaked over night, the rinsed and drained in the morning, rinse and drain them every day to stop mould and three day later you get this already for planting up, also it's handy for checking the viability of older seed.

 

Peas_2018.jpg

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Chitting alone doesn't stop the Scottish fieldmice and blackbirds/thrushes, NBL.  They smell someting for free and Vooom! In they go!  I have to grow them on until they are several inches tall before it is safe to plant them out.  I have hopes for the Paraffin trick though :)

 

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On 08/02/2018 at 9:05 PM, NewBasfordlad said:

Re Horse manure, we have to be careful over here about collecting manure from stables/farms, some of them use a selective weed killer (aminopyralid) on their pastures the only thing it doesn't kill is grass.

 

I'm fortunate in having a vet friend who keeps bobboes. His fields are clean and free from pesticides.   They do have intestinal parasites such as worms but what field doesn't? I know he treats his animals for parasites - I used to do his testing :)  Anyway, I digress.....The point of my story is that I have lots of horse poo and keep it until it is well rotted before putting it onto the garden.  I can't believe I'm doing this but here is a picture of my horse poo dump (Pun intended) it is almost empty just now but will be full agian later in spring.

 

26389978617_50ef634a2f_h.jpg

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First cut of the lawn today, so spring really must be here, although I've not spotted any frog spawn in the pond yet. 

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