2/11/25 - Clock change and dealing with white fly
Last weekend saw the clocks go back an hour here in the UK, and the official end of British Summer Time. It marks the point in the year where post-work visits to the allotment sadly come to an end, and any allotment based work is confined to weekends, or days off. Having not been to the plot last weekend due to illness, this weekend has been the first time in two weeks for me visiting and I'm glad to report that all is looking rosy.
Quite simply at the moment, there isn't a huge amount of work to do. There are bits and bob in the pipeline, but in the main, most things can just be left to their own devices. What jobs there are at the moment, are relatively quick and easy, so let's dive into what I have managed to get up to.
Firstly, in the polytunnel, the broccoli and cauli are coming on well. They continue to grow, enjoying the additional warmth that the tunnel provides them during the day. It's just a question of keeping on top of the watering with them. The carrots in the mini raised bed inside the poly tunnel are also going well. We have started harvesting them. I have cut the greens off and left the roots in-situ where they should store well over the coming weeks until we have harvested them all. And finally, the remaining quad-grows of peppers. While the plants themselves are passed their best, they are still laden with unripe fruit. Some of them have started to turn red, so have been picked. I'll leave the rest in place until we start getting frosts. At that point, I don't think they will ever ripen, so I'll clear the, down.
In the mini polytunnel, the pak choi is being harvested, and the lettuce is also ready to harvest too. The Chinese cabbage and kohlrabi are also growing really well. Again, it's just a question of keeping on top of the watering. A good drenching once a week should suffice until they are ready to harvest.
Elsewhere on the plot, the late purchase and planting of rainbow Swiss chard is also ready to harvest. over the last couple of weeks, it really has shot up and is really colourful.
A few weeks go, I also planted next years garlic. With the cold weather yet to arrive, it's having a great head start and most cloves have pushed through, displaying green stalks of up to 10 cm in places. I don't want it to get too much bigger, but at the moment, it is looking great.
Another late planting from plants purchased from the local nursery are the leeks. I split the planting into two half beds. One to the front of the polytunnel, and another using the other half of the chard bed. The plants next to the chard don't appear to be doing very well. In fact, the leaves on those leek plants are curling and withering, so I don't think that they are going to make it. But the plants in the other bed to the front of the polytunnel have really come on quite well, and look relatively strong. Who knows how they will continue to grow, or how they will fair during the winter months, but there is only one way to find out.
The remaining crops I still have in are all brassicas. And at first glance, they are all doing remarkably well. The red cabbages are now starting to head up, and the sprouting broccoli is growing strong. The late sprout plants are also well rooted in and I will be considering staking those out soon, to ensure the winter winds to bend and snap those plants during the worst of the weather.
My main problem with all 3 of those beds at the moment though is white fly. This year they are everywhere. And after talking to other plot holders, I am not alone. All around the site, great swarms of white fly are making their homes on the underside of brassica plants. Earlier in the year, I lost my sprout plants to them such was the damage done. So, what am I trying in order to prevent further loss of crop? Well, many books put white fly aphids down to being nothing more than a nuisance, but not a damaging pest. However, my experience with the sprouts earlier in the year says otherwise. I did a bit more reading up, and then come across a potential solution which is not damaging to the environment or crop. One way of dealing with white fly is by spraying the effected crop with soapy water using natural/eco friendly dish soap mixed into a weak solution. Some sources also suggest to add a little bit of cooking oil to the mix too. Then, it's a case of giving the plants a really good spray, paying particular attention to the underside of leaves, and the hard to reach places.
This afternoon, I've mixed up around 6 litres of the solution and sprayed every surface I could get too. While spraying large swarms of white fly were disturbed, but I continued spraying them, and their eggs with a fine soapy mist. Once I had been around all 3 beds, I noticed a lot of the fly had left the plant leaves, and were on the soil. So, I give the soil around the base of the plants a good soaking too. By the time I had finished, there were still loads of whitefly around, but non of them moved when I knocked the leaves, which I took as a sign that they had been killed off. I strongly expect that I will need to continue this treatment weekly while they are still around. Hopefully, a few nights of hard frost will also sort the remainder of the population out, but that's not in the forecast currently.
