Welcome to the fifth ‘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!
Temperatures have increased markedly this week to 16OC (and without any wind it has felt even warmer!), which is well above the seasonal average. That being said, clear skies during the day have come at a cost with 7 consecutive nights of frosts and lows of minus 30C.
We had hoped that the high temperatures combined with our cloche would have been enough to been enough to trigger the ‘Misticanza di Lattughe’ in Planter 1 to germinate, but the fact its hasn’t once again highlights the importance of soil rather than air temperature in controlling germination. Notwithstanding this, a scattering of seedlings were in evidence this morning which at least bodes well for next week. ‘Misticanza di Lattughe’ is a mix of several varieties so it’s likely that germination will continue over several days rather than just a couple of days (which we are more used to).
Spring Onion ‘White Lisbon Winter Hardy’ in Planter 2 continues to grow well and remains on track to start harvesting in the middle of May. The plants appear slightly stockier this week, suggesting that the plants are increasing in girth relative to height. This provides a good indication that the stocking we’ve got of approximately 25 per row is about right. Close spacing would almost certainly produce thinner ‘leggier’ plants.
Lettuce ‘Green Salad Bowl’, Lettuce ‘Red Salad Bowl’ and Lettuce ‘Oak Leaf Green’ in Planter 3 are yet to germinate and no amount of staring at a bare soil surface this morning was going to change this. We’ll wait for 10 days to pass before becoming too concerned!
Radish ‘Diana’, Radish ‘Hailstone’ and Radish ‘Scarlet Globe’ in Planter 4 have continue to make steady progress. We have dispensed with the cloche given the risks this presented of the plants overheating which is a common cause of the roots becoming pithy. The plants have hardened up sufficiently to withstand the frosts we’ve experienced, but we will reinstate this in the event of more severe frosts being forecast. There is no sign yet of the radishes bulbing up, but the growth is well balanced and the amount of foliage isn’t excessive. For these reasons we’ve held off carrying out a second thinning this week. The second thinning is needed to achieve the required 15 radishes per row, which we know provides just enough space for globe radishes. By next week we should be able to use the thinning’s to make a radish top pesto, which is really quite good as the younger foliage is less fiery in taste!
This week’s ‘star-turn’ is asparagus ‘Gijnlim 2000’, which has started to produce an abundance of spears in one of the outdoor planters. Asparagus isn’t an obvious choice for growing in containers because the root system is normally so extensive, but we’ve found this variety to be suitable. It also benefits from being very early! We grow bronze fennel in the same containers which provides year-round interest. It is extremely hardy and because it has a single tap root is not overly competitive. The planters are located to the south side of our greenhouse and the asparagus fronds, which the plants produce once we’ve finished harvesting, match those of the feathery foliage of the fennel; together these provide useful shade to the greenhouse by mid-summer. The foliage becomes quite tall by this time, but is supported by half hoops of aluminium tubing which are fitted into the cylinders on diagonals at opposite ends of the four planter.