My 250g onions are also becoming a concern. I expected them to be ready for harvest around now and hoped they would get to 82mm diameter, but they seem to have stopped at around 65mm. The foliage has gone yellow and to all intents the plants are telling me 'that's it'. They just sat there for weeks on end as the rain lashed down, and once we had a few sultry days the plants seemed to swell out a bit then decide it was harvest time.
My first bags of Kestrel potatoes have been an unmitigated disaster. In normal seasons this bed is ideal as it acts as a bit of a sump for water draining from the surrounding land, ideal for thirsty spuds, but there is a limit and this year I fear they've just sat in waterlogged soil.
Last week the foliage went yellow and it was still barely a foot high so I had no choice but to harvest them. I now have a couple of buckets marble sized Kestrel which is about as much use in the kitchen as I am. If anyone has any clue how best to cook Kestrel let me know as my wife has nothing but utter contempt for them.
I was hoping to enter the Millennium Class at Malvern but seeing as I need 250g onions, potatoes and globe beet it looks like that plan is on hold for another year. My tomatoes are still not looking that great either.
I've given up on my blanch leeks, despite my wife insisting that the seed heads 'look pretty'! I planted 23 and so far at least 16 have gone to seed and the remainder look as if they're about to. This means I will have to be more reliant on celery for collections this season, a desperate measure for someone who until 2 seasons ago was without doubt the World's Worst celery grower! However, I learnt a lot about this crop last year with a little help from my friends, and so far I'm happy with how my plants are progressing. They certainly are one crop that should thrive in this summer's weather. I sowed a little later so that I had fresher plants, and they are just starting to bulk out now, having gone onto an 18" cardboard collar a couple of weeks ago. The soil had some seaweed meal worked into it and I've given them regular feeds of nitrate of soda and calcium nitrate and will now be switching to Chempak no. 8 until harvest time, as well as a few applications of soot water which is reputed to bring out the colour in the foliage. I shall also be giving them shitloads of water from now on, as when I harvested them last season the soil was surprisingly dry despite daily drenchings, proving to me that you can never overwater celery. And in the end I applied Slugclear to the soil despite the warnings of death on the packet as I simply couldn't allow the little snotfuckers anywhere near my plants.
My 'Regar' long beet have motored well despite a very late sowing and with two months to showtime i'm more confident I will have these the refined shape they're supposed to be rather than the weighty monsters I produced last year, and I'm certainly happy with the uniformity of the foliage. Last year 3 or 4 stations produced specimens that swamped the others. There are 14 plants growing in these two drums and I may have a set of 3 to take with me to the RHS Westminster Show in October. The NVS call for 5 in their National Championships which is too many for me and many other growers so no doubt there'll be very few entries as usual (dig dig). Long beet like moist soil at all times, and my drums are therefore filled with an equal mix of sand, soil and compost to retain more moisture.
And last night I planted my 'Dorian' peas with the National at the end of September in mind, 27 days after they were sown. They were all set against 8' canes 10" apart and any tendrils were snipped off. As soon as the plants get their roots down and perk up a bit I'll start tying to the canes every couple of inches. As it was another wet evening I also gave a liberal scattering of slug pellets. It will be interesting to see if 'Dorian' is as mildew resistant as it says on the tin!
11 comments:
I have lost a good chunk of my peas due to the stems mysteriously breaking off at ground level even when the plants were in full flower and looking very healthy. Any ideas why this might have happened? (It seems to be mainly the 'Show Perfection' variety as opposed to 'Onward' my other variety). The weather here has also been awful, very wet, and I am on a heavy clay soil. Last week has been quite sunny though, so I am still at a loss as to why my peas stems are literally snapping off at the base.
Re-small Kestrel spuds, don't write them off. The tastiest spuds are the truly tiny ones (big marble size or a touch larger approx). Treat them like new potatoes, boil them with a sprig of mint and serve with loads of butter. They will be totally sweet and delicious (it really doesn't matter which variety of potato you do this with if they are tiny, the flavour is far superior to the large ones). Some of the nicest spuds I have eaten like this were 'Maris Bard' grown in soil, and sold by a local farmer on his 'hedgeveg' stall. I now go out of my way to buy his potatoes purely because he sells the really tiny ones (if you get there quickly, and before everyone else snaps them up).
I agree that any spud can be made to taste nice.....the problem with Kestrel is they just fall apart in the pan when boiling.
As for the peas.....cutworms probably.
I have a feeling I may have the same problem with my 'Toughball' onions. They seem to have stopped growing at around 70-75cm. I'll give them another week or so before giving up on them.
I have a backup of 'Centurion' from sets which look as though they may come to the rescue.
Why don't you try cooking them in the Canary Islands way called 'Papas Canarias' or 'Papas Arrugadas'. Traditionally the potatoes are part boiled in seawater first, but at home you simply part boil them in a solution that includes lots of table salt, approx 1 tablespoon of salt for every litre of water. Cook them in their jackets until they are 'Al Dente', drain them well and place them in an oven dish. Bake at 220 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes. The heat will crinkle up the skins (Arrugadas means wrinkled). Serve either as a side dish, or alone with dips.
These really are delicious and were one of my favourite ways to eat potatoes when I lived in Tenerife, (they don't come out tasting too salty either).
Any suggestions to prevent further or future cutworm damage if they are the cause of my problem? Thanks :)
Was it on virgin land recently cleared of grass?
Well, hard to say as the allotment has been grown on for at least four years now (having formerly been grass). The thing is that at the end of the season the allotment is left to get overgrown until the spring when it is ploughed and then rotavated again. During this time a combination of weeds, turf and unharvested old beetroot etc do grow away enthusiastically, but only for the duration of the autumn to spring period.
Try planting a physical barrier around each plant like a cardboard tube. The worms are only an inch deep or so so a tube that is two inch in the ground and one inch above ground should stop them getting to the plants.
Bit of a faff if you have a lot of plants.
I'll give that a try next season Simon, thanks for the tip.
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