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Welcome back to our weekly follow us! If you missed the last fifteen weeks, the links to them are above - and as usual - the key is at the bottom: scroll down now!
This week, weather conditions have remained settled with most days sunny and with clear skies; that said, daytime temperatures remain below the seasonal average for mid-late July, although have increased slightly.
Daytime temperatures were 18-22oC, slightly below the historical average of 23oC. Night time temperatures have also been two or three degrees below the historical average of 14oC on most nights, with a low of 9oC. A number of short-lived sporadic showers of rain have occurred throughout the week, but barely enough even to dampen the soil surface. Winds have been gentle.
No further seedlings of Pea ‘Half pint’ (syn. ‘Tom-Thumb’) sown in Planter 1 have germinated in Planter 1, with the total remaining at 25 and giving a germination rate of just over 80%. A total of 14 plants are required for full stocking, with 5 plants in Rows 1 and 3 and 4 plants in the centre row, which allows plants to be staggered across the rows providing a little more space. While we would normally expect to carry out thinning at the end of Week 3, we are going to wait a few days as the seedlings are still quite small and are not crowding each other greatly. This seems sensible given there remains the risk of uprooting by blackbirds which are extremely brazen (borderline aggressive!) Those plants emerging from seeds sown at greater depth remain smaller than those planted at shallower depth, indicating that the latter is the better choice, at least when there is no requirement to ‘hedge your bets’ from a risk of frost for early sowings.
The quartet of herb root-trainers outplanted in Planter 2 have now fully established. Dill ‘Dukat’, while still the tallest, has started to ‘’fill out’ as a result of removing the growing tip. Parsley ‘Afrodite’ and Coriander ‘Confetti’ have increased in height, the latter very significantly. The foliage of these three herbs is in excellent condition. Basil ‘British’ remains the weakest of the four herbs, but while it retains a slightly mottled yellow appearance the incidence of black spotting has not increased, meaning that downy mildew is being held at bay for now! There is encouraging new growth that has good colour so the plants are a long way from being a loss. The slight increase in temperature could also account for the improvement, but the dry conditions are possibly more significant. The four herbs should be ready for selective picking on schedule next week, which will be four weeks after outplanting.
Hearting Lettuce ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Amaze’ in Planter 3 remain in very good condition with excellent colour, but growth rates of both remain slow, with only the few ‘Little’ Gem’ from the first round of sowing “hearting up”. Growth rates of lettuce, like many crops, follows an exponential curve, with slow early growth that then increases steadily and then more rapidly - before slowing again once crops reach maturity. The plants will “hook up” at some point, but harvesting in the predicted 10 weeks is looking unlikely. On the plus side, if they are so slow that the ‘Tom Thumb’ pea catches up and the two are able to be picked together, then it will be possible to cook wilted gem and peas together - providing lots of opportunities (although probably none better than the gems halved and sautéed with chicken stock and a bit of crème fraiche added!) The Chard ‘Bright Lights’ continues to grow well and the condition of leaves remains excellent, but another plant has bolted indicating that the time allowed for harvesting is well judged at the close spacing adopted within the planter.
Picking of Carrot ‘Sweet Imperator Mix F1’, Spring Onion ‘North Holland Blood Red’ and Beetroot ‘Chioggia’ in Planter 4 has continued. The quality of the produce of all three remains excellent. Some carrots have a light ‘downy’ covering of very fine adventitious roots but these are easily removed without the need for peeling (which remove a lot of the nutritional value of the plants and is unnecessary with home grown carrots). The spring onions continue to expand in girth at a great rate, but this is not a problem as they are usually split along their axis and sautéed (it seems a sacrilege to finely slice them). The beetroot is unchanged with the globes not seeming to be increasing in girth, but the foliage has changed colour to a lighter shade of green and this may reflect nutrients being remobilised and drawn into the root itself.
Picking of Carrot ‘Sweet Imperator Mix F1, Spring Onion ‘North Holland Blood Red’ and Beetroot ‘Chioggia’ will be completed this week, which is a week ahead of planned. However, finishing picking early provides the opportunity to sow a mix of kales (borecoles) ready for the winter. We are weighing up the pros and cons of what varieties to grow. Nero di Toscana (Cavolo Nero) is a given but we are unsure whether to go with ‘Red Russian’ and ‘Redbor’, which we know can be relied upon, or to give ‘Emerald Ice’ and ‘Midnight Sun’ a try. These new introductions look promising, albeit horribly expensive at £2.10 for a pack of 20 seeds. If we can stretch to it we’ll probably go with these..!