Friday, July 13, 2018

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Summer 2018 Update Garden

Climbing Rose & Lupins looking well!
C
Onions Growing well

Lettuce & Cabbage under Hoop

Carrots Germinating

Turnips Germinated

Winter Onions

Strawberries in buckets

Side of Garage

Lettuce in Buckets & Cabbage in Pots

Summer 2018 Update - Back Greenhouse

View from the Door

Chilli Plants

Layout RHS

Layout LHS

Chilli Plants on Table


Chilli Plants under Table

Summer 2018 Update - Front Greenhouse AreaHer

Herb Bed & Surrounds

Front Greenhouse - View from Door!

Chilli Plants on Shelves

Layout of Tomato Buckets (probably 1 or 3 too many!!)

Looking well!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Tomato List 2018

I did a inventory check yesterday on my tomatoes and have 74 plants across around 26 varieties..
Most are listed here and there are a couple of strays as usual :)





Ailsa Craig
Ananas Noir
Artisan Pink
Beefsteak
Black Cherry
Black Russian
Black Sea Man
Brandywine Pink
Brown Sugar
Buffalo Horn
La Carotina
Goldkrone
Green Grapes
Harbinger
Hillbilly
Japanese Black Trifele
King Humbert
Lima Korai
Moonglow
Rosella
Summer Cider
Sungold Cherry
Unknown Black
Vesennij Michurinskij
Yellow Perfection


Forgot to sow a few of my favourites but have plenty there so will do for this year :)

Friday, May 4, 2018

Fertilising & Feeding Guide

Liquid V's granular or bulky feeds

In general granular or bulky feeds like seaweed, manure or compost take longer to have an effect as they need to break down n the soil first. Liquid feeds, on the other hand, are readily available to your plants and will have an immediate effect.

It is a good idea to apply bulky organic feeds at any time of year to improve the long term health of your soil. If treating a specific issue or to give a plant a boost it will be more beneficial to use a liquid. Remember a liquid doesn't build the soil so they should always be used as a addition to your broader soil feeding regime.

The exceptions to this rule are container grown plants. They will always need direct feeding because of the limited root space available to them and the fact that they are growing in a simple growing medium like peat. Peat, coconut fibre or peat free compost has has very low nutrient levels so your plants will need a supplementary feed.






NPK
It is a good idea to start is with a home soil test which will show the levels of the major nutrients Nitrogen (N) Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K). Potassium can also referred to as potash but it is the same thing. Wood ash from a fire or wood burning stove is also a good source of potash with ash from hard woods like beech or oak being best.

There are also a range of micro nutrients but you will need to get a professional test for these to show up. Any micro nutrient deficiencies will show up in your plants with symptoms like yellowing between leaf veins (magnesium deficiency) or brown curds on cauliflower (boron deficiency) but most good garden soils will have sufficient quantities.

Plants need nitrogen for leaf growth, phosphorus for root growth, and potassium for fruit growth. All plants need all three, but leafy crops particularly need nitrogen, and fruit crops won't develop well without enough potassium. When you look at a bag of fertiliser you will see the NPK values displayed as 3 numbers.
For example an average tomato feed is labelled as 6:3:10. It has 6 nitrogen (N) for foliage, 2 phosphorous (P) for healthy roots and a high 10 potassium (K) to produce all the fruit we're hoping for. Cabbage, broccoli, chard and other leafy crops will benefit from a high nitrogen feed. Feeds high in nitrogen should be avoided on fruiting plants, however, as they will grow lots of lush foliage at the expense of the fruit.

The major NPK nutrients are in a refined, soluble form in chemical fertilisers which means they don't benefit the soil and are easily washed through into the ground water. NPK is also present in organic fertilisers but they tend to be in a slow release form, usually with some extra bulk which feeds the soil life as well as your plants. Where possible it is always better to use slow release organic fertilisers than artificial for this reason.

Use the minimum possible
With a direct feed, whether artificial or organic, you should use as little as you can. It does not follow that if some is good then more will be better as plants can only use a certain level of nutrients. The excess will be wasted or, worse, run off into water courses and cause algae growth and problems down the line.

Nitrogen will result in lush, leafy growth. Adding too much causes fast and weak growth which leaves your plants open to attack by pests or disease. In the case of fruiting plants excess nitrogen will also reduce fruit yield and quality.



The Tunnel July 2022