1/3/26 - Bean Experiment, Sowing and Germinating
...oh, and harvesting. Welcome to the weekly allotment diary update. This is going to be a bit of a bumper update because in the last 7 days, things have really started to ramp up. As things have moved on, I've done a couple of mid-week tasks, but the change of the month is also the signal for the next raft of sowing activities. Let's dive in.
Firstly, earlier in the week, I started looking at the tomato seeds that were sown only a few weeks ago (8th Feb) and noticed that their true leaves had well and truly started coming through. The seedlings have been kept on heat mats and under lights and have been positively thriving on it. They were in need of potting on from the seeds trays in which they had been started into their own individual pots. They have really pushed on since then too. It won't be long before I will need to consider bringing them out from under the lights and leaving them on windowsills, just to ease them off a little bit. It's still quite a number of weeks before I'd be comfortable putting them outside.
The sweet pepper plants are also progressing, but slowly, as they do. They are just starting to push out additional leaves, but I think they are a couple of weeks away from needing to be transplanted yet.
That brings us onto this weekend. I had a great day on the plot yesterday, spurred on by some lovely weather to see out meteorological Winter. The first big news of the visit. An update on the Great Broad Bean Experiment. You may recall that all has been a bit quiet since the start of the experiment, but last week, there were the very earliest signs that germination was in progress as the compost surface was just starting to be raised. This weekend, things look different and there are already some interesting results forming.
We can see clear germination has happened in 4 of the pots, with nothing happening yet in 2 of them. Breaking it down a little bit more, the two pots furthest back in this photo are the control pots. These had beans potted in normal shop bought multi-purpose compost. So far, these are the most developed, germinated and several sets of leaves already formed. The front two pots are a 50/50 mix of the manure and shop bought compost. They have only just germinated, possible only in the last 24-48 hours. Finally, the middle pair of pots contain 100% of the manure. Here, there is little sign of movement as yet. So, early signs are that for growing beans in pots, shop bought compost gives the plants a better start. We have to wait and see if that remains the case though.
Away from the beans, a few other things have been going on at the allotment during the week. The leeks have really put on some growth, going from around 1/4 inch of growth last weekend, to a nice crown of green growth across both varieties.
The polytunnel carrots have also just started showing signs of germination. Growing carrots undercover this early in the season is a total revelation!
While on the allotment, it was also lovely to be able to help a plot neighbour dismantle an old structure left by a previous tenant. It's opened up some more space ready to be put to use. After helping out for a short while, I returned to do a bit of harvesting. At last, the purple tender stem broccoli has is ready to start being harvested. Time to gather a helping of it for Sunday dinner!
Four more jobs remained on the allotment list for this visit, but believe me, I could have done with another full day to really get on top of things. The first two jobs were to do a bit of sowing. The first trough of White Lisbon bunching Spring onions has been sown, and for the time being will be kept under cover in one of the tunnels. They should germinate without any issues though.
Sticking with the sowing, it was time to put in the first tray of this years cut and come again lettuce. I've had great success with this over the last few years. Once the first tray is germinated and showing good signs of growth, it goes home and a second tray is sown. We find that this will keep us reasonably well stocked in salad through 3/4 of the year.
Day time temperatures outside have been very respectable over the last couple of weeks, despite the rain. This means the grass has really started to grow again. We're not at the stage of weekly mowing yet, but the strimmer was deployed for the first time this year, to keep the edges around the paths nice and tidy.
The fourth remaining job for the allotment visit was a bit of prep work. Early March is when I usually start my peas off in gutters. To prep for their sowing which will probably take place next weekend, I took up some gaffa tape, and taped off the ends of my guttering lengths. I haven't done that before, and the compost at each end usually ends up spilling out (predictably of course!) Not any longer!
Well, that was Saturday! Today, things have been equally productive at home. The turn of month into March brings the next phase of sowing where I can take advantage of the grow tent and lights, and later, the polytunnel where things can be nurtured further until the weather decides it's ready to allow things to be transplanted outside.
Up and running as of today, we now have the following seeds on the go...
- Beetroot (Rainbow Mixed)
- Cucumber (La Diva)
- Kohlrabi (Purple Vienne)
- Lettuce (Red Cimmaron)
- Shallot (Zebrune)
- Squash (Waltham Butternut and Uchiki Kuri)
