WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6 WEEK 7 WEEK 8 WEEK 9 WEEK 10 WEEK 11 WEEK 12 WEEK 13 WEEK 14 WEEK 15 WEEK 16 WEEK 17 WEEK 18 WEEK 19 WEEK 20 WEEK 21 WEEK 22
Welcome back to our weekly follow us! If you missed the last twenty-two weeks, the links to them are above - and as usual - the key is at the bottom: scroll down now!
This week, weather conditions have been dry (but overcast), with only occasional and weak sunny spells. Temperatures have also remained well below the seasonal average, continuing the autumnal feel!
Daytime temperatures climbed from 180C at the beginning of the week to a high of 210C in the middle, before falling back to 160C at the end. The historical average for mid-September is 210C, so temperatures have been cool other than for a brief spell in the middle of the week. Night-time temperatures have been extremely variable, ranging from 70C to 160C and ‘see-sawing’ to both sides of the historical average of 12oC! Rainfall has been inconsequential with less than 0.5mm, while wind has been moderate, and occasionally gentle.
Pea ‘Half pint’ (syn. ‘Tom-Thumb’) sown in Planter 1 continues to be slow with the swelling of pods reduced by cool temperatures. The number of pods is less than expected with far fewer than earlier in the season. Flowering has now ceased and the combination of last week’s wet conditions and the extended period of cool temperatures are the likely cause of the early onset of powdery mildew on foliage. The Pea ‘Half-pint’ has fared poorly compared to Dwarf French Beans ‘Purple Teepee’ sown directly in a planter alongside; this has cropped well, though flowering on these plants has also now ended. It has been decided to pick the peas this week to free up the planter to sow a crop of Cress ‘Land (American)’ and Lettuce ‘Lamb’s (Corn Salad Vit)’ – giving these 3-4 weeks to establish before the first frost.
The quartet of herbs in Planter 2 remain too good to remove and not suffered unduly in the cool conditions. Coriander ‘Confetti’ and Dill ‘Dukat’ both appear to be especially good variety choices for use in the planter, as both have remained slightly below 50 cm in height and (most importantly) remained upright, albeit with the partial assistance of the training. The smaller and stockier Parsley ‘Afrodite’ alongside has not been affected by shading from taller surrounding plants and its colour and condition remain excellent. ‘Parsley ‘French’ would almost certainly have become unruly at this point and it is true to say we are converts to curly rather than flat-leaved parsley! All that needs to be said has already been said about Basil ‘British’: it survives rather than flourishes in our weather conditions.
Mustard ‘Red Frills’, Mustard ‘Golden Streaks’/ Mustard ‘Red Giant’ in Row 2 and Mustard ‘Mizuna’ in Row 3 in Planter 3 have all established well after germinating in just 5 days and will now require thinning next week. The plants are in excellent condition and are free of flea beetle damage, at least for the moment!
Finally, harvesting of Kale ‘Emerald Ice’ and Kale ‘Nero di Toscana’ (Cavolo Nero) in Planter 4 has commenced a week earlier than predicted, with the selective removal of mid-sized leaves - mostly from lower portion of stems, to maintain distance between the rows of plants. The leaves have suffered some slight flea beetle damage but are still useable and sufficiently tender when freshly picked that there is no need to remove the leaf stalks.