22/2/26 - First Signs of Spring

Hello reader and welcome to my latest diary instalment.  This week's visit to the plot has been lovely.  Despite it snowing only a matter of days ago, today has been a rather pleasant 14 degrees outside, mid twenties in the polytunnel and even sunny.  This weeks update though starts at home, so let's get stuck in...

During the week, the last of the seed trays was taken off the windowsill, off the super 7 heated propagator, and placed into the grow tent.  They've take quite a while, but eventually, we have germination of the peppers and to try and help them along, I've put them under lights.

Progress with the tomato seedlings is great.  We have had good levels of germination and the second set of true leaves are well on their way to coming through.  These seedlings are changing on a daily basis. so there is a chance that these will be ready for potting on before next weekend.  If not, they will certainly get done next weekend.  The really great thing is that both the saved seeds from last year, and the seeds bought from a French supermarket last year are doing remarkably well.

Sticking with the grow tent, I though it was a good idea to start off some microgreens again.  We bought a couple of micro green grow kits a couple of years ago, and I still have viable seed, so I've started off a half tray of rocket and half tray of coriander.  The idea with these is that the reservoir underneath is filled with water, and then on top of the plastic tray, some paper towel is added and sprayed with water.  The seeds are just sprinkled on top of the paper towel and that's it.  The paper towel should be kept damp with some sprayed water every couple of days, but once germinated, and the seeds send roots down into the water underneath, spraying can stop and the water reservoir is just topped up every few days.  The micro green are harvested when they reach 2 or 3 inches high and added into cooking or salads.

Finally for the grow tent, I've decided to put in place one last sowing of Bedfordshire Champion onion seeds.  The ones sown so far have been OK, but not brilliant and I'm concerned that I may not end up with enough.  I would rather have too many that not enough, so I have sown more, but this time in small cells.  I've possibly got another 3 or 4 weeks where I can sow more onions if I want to, so there's certainly no need to panic.

So, to the allotment itself.  Most of the work at the allotment this weekend took place within the polytunnel.  But, before I started in there, I dropped a load of coffee grounds into the compost bin which I had picked up from a coffee shop.  

In the polytunnel, the all year round cauli plantings have been a failure.  It looks like one succumbed to club root, but the main issue was that over the last week, all the leaves on the plants had developed yellow blotches, as if there was something in the leaves.  They certainly hadn't done much and there were only 3 left in the bed.  I was hoping to have harvested them by now and have the bed ready for it's next crop.  So, I pulled out the failed plants and run the hoe over the soil before watering it with a few cans of water.

I was pleased to see that the leeks sown a few weeks ago have started germinating too with growth of around half a cm developing on both varieties.

I had a 1/4 tray of Ailsa Craig onions that had come on strong over the last couple of weeks, so I decided to transplant them on into their own cells.  The seedlings I transplanted a couple of weeks ago are still a bit limp, and one or two of them have died.  I'm still hopeful that they come on.  We still have plenty of time.  I still have a partial 1/4 tray of Bedfordshire Champ seedlings still growing too.

There's no sign of germination on the lettuce sown last week, but that's to be expected, and the sweet peas continue to make their slow progress.

And finally for the polytunnel update, the great bean experiment!  Nothing has ruptured through the soil yet, and I was worried in case the seeds had simply rotted because of over watering.  But when I visited the allotment today, there's evidence that the top of the compost is just beginning to lift on some of the pots which I assume is a sign that the first leaves are about to break the surface.  

Elsewhere on the plot, there is little going on, probably because it has been so wet.  But there are still some positives.  We should be able to start harvesting the tender stem sprouting broccoli next weekend.  The heads on a couple of the plants have started to develop nicely.  Also, the overwintered leaks have started to put on some width.  As the soil starts to warm up with the first signs of Spring coming, we should be able to look forward to harvesting them in another month or so.

Part of my plan for the allotment for 2026 is to introduce as much colour as possible from seed sown plants.  During the autumn, we already added a load of bulbs to a couple of the beds, and the main flower bed at the front of the plot, but with one eye on pollinators and complimentary planting. I want to add colour into every bed if I can.  Often, to go to plants are Marigolds, and while I have a few varieties of Marigold seeds, I also have some old Nasturtium seeds, Dahlia seeds and some new Calendula seeds, all of which can be sown in February if they are being kept under cover.  I've gone with a half seed tray of each.  Next month, I have 2 more Marigold varieties, Sweet Sultans and Nigella seeds to grow, so we should have plenty to grow.  Plus, I'm probably going to double up on some of these too, so we can have plenty for home as well.  While these are on a heat mat in the grow house, they won't stay in there.  At some point, space is going to become an issue, so at that point, they will be moved onto the Garland Super &'s on the window sill, or if weather permits, into on of the polytunnels on the allotment.