Described below are a number of tips which may be of interest to allotment gardeners. I believe that whilst some may be original undoubtedly some are not. If you have any tips which you would like to pass on to a wider audience I would be pleased to receive them. Allotment gardeners have a reputation for inventiveness and using any materials to hand. Apart from protecting the environment by utilising materials discarded by others, it has the additional benefit of reducing your costs. Typically plastic containers of all types get reused as do pallets. So if you have any tips you wish to contribute please email me.
Garlic:
The best time to plant Garlic is Oct/Nov as it needs a cold spell to enable it
to clove. Otherwise one large 'round' results; too big for the Garlic press.
Potatoes:
I tried Concorde and Rocket first early potatoes last year. They were planted in
adjacent beds and grown under identical conditions. I suffered virtually no slug
damage with the Concorde crop but severe slug damage with the Rocket. Guess
which I won't be growing again? I find the second early Kestrel is also very
good at resisting slug damage. Pink Fir Apple was also tried; a very strangely
shaped potato. Although the taste was good the keeping qualities were not.
Another one I'll miss out in future.
Root Crops:
A useful tip from Mike, for starting root crops like parsnip, leeks carrots etc
is to use the cardboard tubes left over from toilet rolls. Filled with compost
they make an ideal container for starting plants and they can be inserted
directly into the soil after the seeds have germinated.
Runner beans:
I know 'its each to his own' as far as growing crops is concerned but I thought
I would pass on my experience with growing Runner Beans. I grow my beans up
canes arranged in a letter 'V' (not the normal inverted 'V') arrangement which
are supported at the row ends by two stout posts with cross beams mounted near
the top. This enables the beans to hang outside the canes for easy picking. It
also allows me to create a central trench which I fill with compost to which a
small amount of Growmore has been added (my compost is very variable). Our
allotment soil has a high clay content (at least mine has) and I find the
friable compost excellent in encouraging root development. I am trying a variety
called 'Enorma' this year after being most impressed with those grown on Chris's
adjacent plot last year. I hope to replicate his results (but he is pretty good
at growing crops!). I find that adding a small amount of lime when watering (say
a tablespoon to two gallons of water) improves cropping.
Watering:
Watering vegetable crops, with an infrequent really good soak, has been found to
be more beneficial than frequent light watering. Lightly spraying tomato plants
and runner beans with water in the evening, when in flower, encourages fruit
setting and improves the crop yield significantly.
Weeds:
Bindweed is a most pernicious weed. A successful way to control it is with
Glyphosate (Roundup or similar) treatment. Train it up a cane, giving it a false
sense of security, and spray it once or twice with the Glyphosate to which a
small amount of washing up liquid has been added to act as a wetting agent. Good
luck!
Horsetail is also a very difficult weed to eradicate. However, it can be tackled
in a similar manner to bindweed. Glyphosate and washing up liquid can be used
but in addition for best results, it is necessary to damage/crush the weed to
enable absorption of the weed killer as it is pretty impervious to liquids. A
number of applications will be necessary. No wonder it was used as a kitchen pan
cleaner prior to the advent of the abrasive commercial products.
White Fly:
A tip passed on from Norman is that a saucer containing Jeyes Fluid in the
Greenhouse keeps away White Fly. If you try it, let me know how you find it. It
has also been suggested that Jeyes fluid can be used to cleanse onion beds and
prevent white rot. Has anyone had any experience of this?
I first started work on my plot in Lister Drive Allotment's last year 04, the only reason I started it was because I have only a small back yard, and the idea came to me after I saw some people relaxing in the sun, on there plot in 03. As I was passing on my bike, I asked a person who was digging his plot, how do I go about getting a plot on this Allotment, he gave me a name & telephone number to ring, so I did, his name was Dave "Secretary of the Allotments"
He said he would ring me back when a plot became available. I never gave it another thought until four month's later.
Dave rang and said there was a plot available, so I went around there on my bike and had a look. As you can see from my photo's, the state the plot is in. As I start to build my shed and dig over the ground you will see the changes in my plot from my Photo's. So after after a lot of hard work, it is beginning to look like a proper Plot? Well nearly
