Where did it all go wrong?

I've just been looking back through some postings and I thought I'd tie up a few loose ends with various experiments and new methods I was trying this season.




The raised cucumber platform was....how shall I put it? ......a total fuckfiasco. Once planted the cu's never really got going and indeed it was quite an awkward job getting water to them above my head once the plant canopy got established. More water ended up going down my sleeve and drenching my armpits than got to the roots of the cucs. I'm not sure the gro-bags were moist enough either and coupled with a severe attack of the leaves turning yellow and basically going all crinkly (not sure what that was but definitely not red spider....possibly poor quality compost) then all things considered it means I won't be growing them in this fashion ever again. I shall stick to what I know.....growing them in the greenhouse border soil at an angle along a stout cane.

However, one experiment I tried which i'm happy to say was a total success was putting bottomless pots or sections of drainpipe around the tops of my stump carrot boreholes. This concentrated an amount of water to the root during an overhead drenching with the watering can rather than it dissipating out into the sand and meant I didn't have a single forked root this year. This was in stark contrast to the previous two seasons when I didn't really have a single unforked root! In the early days before the seedlings get growing they also mark where the boreholes are so you can easily re-sow if you have any stations non-germinate. And they also stop the compost washing away and exposing the shoulder which can cause them to go green. All things considered it was a bit of a faff but certainly worth it in my opinion.

Last year I had wooden frames around my stumps with enviromesh tops and polythene sides, and I extended that this season to include a cover over my long carrots. It meant I had lovely carrot fly free roots but watering was a problem during the very dry summer when I needed to give them more than that which fell from the sky. It meant I had ribbed skin finishes rather than smooth tapering roots. Extracting them from the boreholes wasn't very easy either so I shall have to give it all some thought during the long Winter months.

I laid some black membrane over the crowns of my parsnips to stop any canker spores reaching the tops. This worked but I still had some skin blemishes which I am now convinced more than ever is down to carrot fly activity. I don't think it looks the same as the damage caused to carrots because the grubs perhaps don't find them as palateable, but i'm now fairly certain it isn't canker. I shall be including Phorate in my mixes from next season and applying more Phorate powder to the drum tops every time I treat my carrots drums and beds with it. All of my sand will be drenched with Jet 5 which I'm told will kill all known germs and many unknown ones so I'm hoping for much cleaner roots next year.

A few years ago I stored my shallots in the greenhouse after lifting and they suffered severe dehydration during one particularly hot day, rendering them virtually useless for showing. Since then i've stored them outside on a wire rack but this season I've had quite a few of them get purple patches on the skin finish. Dave Thornton informs me this is a fungal infection caused by fluctuating differences during storage which could well be true as we had warm days and fairly cold nights in June and July. Dave stores his indoors on some polystyrene sheets which he is convinced holds the warmth during the night and stops this problem. I shall be reverting back to greenhouse storage therefore but I will make sure I have some fleece to throw over them during the day to stop them drying out.

I grew my best ever celery this season by a country mile (thanks for all the advice Mr McLeod!) and will certainly be repeating a couple of methods with reservations. The bottomless pots screwed into the soil certainly allowed me to concentrate water straight to the roots. However I had a surprise when pulling the pots up last weekend to store them away now all my celery has been used. I expected the soil to be very moist seeing as I have given each and every plant at least a couple of litres most days throughout the summer and early autumn. But it was quite dry and just goes to show that celery really are thirsty plants. In future, if in doubt.....give them a lot more water! I shall also be using cardboard for blanching having switched from damp proof membrane material. No doubt the dry summer was also a factor but I haven't had one loss to celery heart rot. I actually cut the cardboard from very stiff boxes which meant they were more than strong enough to last the season much easier than the stuff you get on a roll.

So there you have it...some failures and some successes. But I firmly believe you have to keep trying different things until you find a method that suits you, and then once you do inprove on that method each season.