WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6 WEEK 7 WEEK 8 WEEK 9 WEEK 10 WEEK 11
Welcome to the twelfth ‘Follow Us’ update of 2021, a space where we talk about how we’re growing in our own Ergrownomics raised planters this year, and walk you through how you can achieve the same results at home, yourself...Feel free to follow along, and be sure to follow us on Instagram & Facebook to never miss an update! As usual, key is at the bottom, so scroll down now!
The weather this week has continued to improve, with temperatures at 17-18oC (only a degree of so below the seasonal average). While conditions have been mostly dry, the days have been overcast and slightly dark with poor light levels; there certainly hasn’t been much full sun!
‘Misticanza di Lattughe’ in Planter 1 has very rapidly grown this week and infilled all gaps between the plants, so that it now looks quite crowded. We have started harvesting but have made little impact on the amount of leaf available, despite overfilling daily rounds of sandwiches to the point where there have been complaints that the amount of filling has failed to keep up! The picked leaves are greatly improved by rejuvenating them in cold (ideally icy) water prior to eating, which gives the stems some crunch; however, it is important to dry the leaves using a spinner (a kitchen towel won’t do!) afterwards. The taste is as expected with a combination of sweet and bitter varieties which work best with a light dressing (our favourite is blackcurrant vinegar). The bitter leaves are not particularly pleasant on their own.
Carrot ‘Imperator mix’ has germinated in Planter 2 in record time. We normally count on 14 days but these took just 5-6 days, with the germination rate above 90%: outstanding! The care taken to space the seeds accurately has paid dividends with few clusters evident, which should make thinning far easier.
Lettuce ‘Green Salad Bowl’, ‘Red Salad Bowl’ and ‘Oak Leaf Green’ in Planter 3 have now reached the point when they can be harvested, which is a week or so later than we predicted. The leaves are in good condition but still benefit from plunging in icy water immediately after harvesting. The three lettuces are all sweet and mild tasting, with no appreciable differences between them.
Dwarf French bean ‘Speedy’ in Planter 4 has germinated this week, but only 3 or 4 seedlings per row have made it to the two-leaf stage. Disturbance of the soil surface strongly suggests that germination would have been far greater than 50% had some seedlings not been uprooted and taken away by a blackbird, within whose territory the planter is unfortunately located! Running the plant training lines across the soil surface has protected those seedlings which are left and we have put new seeds in the gaps. We’ll see if this improves matters. Those seedlings which have survived are not in as good condition as those of Dwarf French bean ‘Purple Teepee’ in a planter alongside, which we’ve included as the ‘star of the show’ this week for the purpose of comparison!