24/1/26 - Strawberry Trim and Bed Prepping
Hello fellow allotmenteers. I hope your Winter is going well so far. Though the weather is crap and there's not much growing, there's always something to do on the plot, and this weekend is no exception. This is the second of this weekends posts, with the previous one marking the start of the great broad bean experiment. This one though is where normal service is resumed, just making note of what else is happening on the plot.
It's been week of wet weather, but not especially cold. A couple of things have happened during the week, so that's where we'll kick things off. Firstly, progress in the grow tent and the onion sowings. Once the onion seeds had germinated, I brought them into the grow tent where they would have much better light for longer periods each day that they would otherwise see on the window sill. For some reason, half on one of the seed trays never actually germinated, and I don't know why. And in the other half of the same tray, though germination was generally very good, some of the seedlings have gone over a little. Nevertheless, the second tray has come on quite strong. It's quite odd because both were sown at the same time, using the same mix, germinated next to each other on the same windowsill and watered from the same source.
Just in case the second tray doesn't perk up and make it, this morning I have sown my first emergency sowing of the year, another tray of onions. This time though, I have used some Ailsa Craig seed that should still be viable.
The other thing that has happened this week is that I took delivery of my seed potatoes for this year from Simply Seeds. But, I think I might of over-estimated how many I would need. Think back on it now, it's a little bit over the top. I've got 8KG of seed potatoes for have a dozen tubs and 2x4m rows in a bed. It looks like I maybe looking for some other space on the plot too!
This morning, I went to the plot and while the main reason for the visit was to kick off the bean experiment I also did a couple of other jobs that have needed my attention for a couple of weeks. In the polytunnel, the strawberry baskets are pretty dormant at the moment but post splitting into individual plots, some of the older leaves have browned off and died back. So I spent a bit of time cutting out the dead older growth to allow the new growth to come through when things start moving again in the Spring.
The other main job for the day was on Bed 8. At the end of last Summer, the local nursery was selling off tray of late leeks. I had some space and wondered if I got them in the ground whether or not they would be ready to harvest over the Winter. I planted our half of bed 8 and a small portion of bed 15. For some reason though, the plants in bed 8, though started well, just stopped growing and looked quite poor. In comparison, those in bed 15 have stood up well over the Winter do far, and though not ready to harvest, stand a good chance of producing a harvest later in the Spring.
To cut my losses, I pulled up the leeks growing in bed 8, and then remembered that I hadn't put any organic matter down on this bed this Winter. So once they were pulled out, I gave the bed a quick weed and added a couple of barrows of the latest manure mix onto the bed before covering it back over and leaving the worms to do their thing until I need the bed for planting next.
After a quick catch-up with a couple of allotment neighbours, that was about it for this week. Next week, I'll probably be looking at sorting out the mini polytunnel and the left bed in the main polytunnel. If there's any left, I'll be adding some organic matter into those areas too. We will also be nearing the start of February which is when my planned sowing period really starts to ramp up.
