It's been 5 weeks since I did the big seed sow and I had more or less given up on the ones still to germinate. There were definitely 5 varieties that were germinating but before I dumped the rest, I decided to do just one more check. Well, some more are coming through so I decided to sow the ones that still looked fine regardless of whether they were germinating or not. So, the final 3 trays are:
Tray #15 (mainly superhots - sadly, these are the ones not looking too clever but they may still come through. We'll just have to pray for a hot summer if they do and hope they catch up with the others LOL)
The trays are in big bags on the pasting table in the back bedroom so should be nice and warm in there today with the lovely sunny weather. It's certainly very pleasant outside at the moment.
Next on my list of seeds to sow .... well, traditionally the brassicas are sown in mid-late March so that will be the cabbages, sprouts, broccoli, calabrese and swede in the next few weeks. I might give the swede, carrots and parsnips a rest this year - more to do with a possible shortage of beds which are currently filled with the garlic , plus those beds allocated for onions and potatoes later. I need growing space for sweetcorn (!) and the peas and beans, as well as the winter squashes and pumpkins plus an experimental bed for the melons. I think I need a bigger plot LOL
LL you have been so busy. OH is the gardener in our house, though I inspect and potter. The veggie plot has been dug over once again, the potatoes are chitting in the greenhouse, and we have tomato seedlings, melons (not grown these before), antirrhinums, pansies. More seed packets waiting to be opened.
We are struggling with our aconites. Fifty were planted three years since, the first year we had one, last year we have seven, this year we only have two. Most disappointing, we thought they would look stunning growing in with our snowdrops. Thankfully the latter are really prolific this year.
Spreckly wrote:LL you have been so busy. OH is the gardener in our house, though I inspect and potter. The veggie plot has been dug over once again, the potatoes are chitting in the greenhouse, and we have tomato seedlings, melons (not grown these before), antirrhinums, pansies. More seed packets waiting to be opened
I think this winter has probably been my least busiest if I was honest Spreckly I just haven't wanted to go outside most weekends and now proper spring is only around the corner so no doubt I'll be running around trying to catch up with myself. Chillies, especially some of the more tropical ones, really need to be sowed very early to get the most out of them before the season ends - again, I'd say I was a bit on the late side but I'm hoping we get weather similar to 2013 when I did the last project. As I'm still posting on the same diary since then, it will be interesting to compare notes.
Last night I pulled the camera out and decided to take some photos of the chilli progress. First - the pasting table is now full (had to split the photo into 2 shots - left hand and right hand side of the new pasting table which I'm very pleased with):
Tray 1 coming along - still no sign of the 2 Moruga Red (bottom left corner - not the 2 dry modules) but all the others have come up nicely:
Squint and you can see all 5 Carolina Reapers have germinated (row at the top of the photo next to the window):
The row at the bottom of this photo have purple leaves - it is called Black Olive. A lot of chilli plants start off green then develop dark colouration as they mature so it will be interesting to see how these develop
I've been following the weather forecast - ideally I'd like it to be much more sunny (wouldn't we all LOL) as it really warms up the back bedroom and the chilli seedlings respond to the warmth and light, but the next few days does not sound too clever - cool, below average, dull and possible raining. I have a radiator on in the back bedroom to keep the temperature in there from dropping too cold but it really is sunlight that is key to them doing well.
lancashire lass wrote:Oh, nearly forgot - I bought a data logger for the polytunnel/greenhouse from ebay (a cheap Chinese thing). Basically it looks like a USB drive and logs the temperature at whatever interval you select (I've selected 15 minutes) - all you do is plug into the computer to download and draw up graphs. All part of the record keeping for the chilli project - the problem with thermometers is that you only see the temperature at the time (unless you have a Min Max thermometer) whereas this should log temperature rise and fall over a period. I've used one of these for work and they are handy things to get a better understanding of temperature fluctuations over time. I've just initialized the logger now so will trial it this week
Well I'm really pleased with the data logger I decided to put it into the back bedroom nestled between trays of chilli seedlings furthest away from the window so it didn't get direct sunlight and more or less recorded the soil temperature. It clearly shows a rise in temperature during the day and a drop at night despite having a radiator on in the bedroom (I put a standard thermometer in there and the average room temperature seemed to be around 17oC)
Uploading the data was simple - simply plug in and open up the programme that you downloaded on initializing the data logger and it produces a graph plus a table of temperatures. You can export the data and graph to a Word document, and from Word when you click on the graph save it as JPEG which you can then post as a picture. A lot easier than I expected. So here's the trial week graph:
This probably looks too scientific for most people but for the chilli project is just perfect - instead of wondering how warm or cold it is in the greenhouse or polytunnel, or what temperature is being maintained, this gives the whole picture. If anyone is interested, this from ebay is the one I got. You do have to buy the batteries separately but you can get them from the battery section at a supermarket.
I finally made it to the allotment today - 8 bags of chicken poop and bedding needed to be shifted, and with only 2 weeks until Easter, I just had to pay a visit to see what needed to be done in the coming weeks.
I got there for 8.30am and wandered round to inspect the beds while taking the first bag up to the shed end of the plot. The footpaths were no longer muddy and starting to dry off nicely. I decided to put the poop and bedding on the bed which used to have the celery in. The soil here really is very claggy and despite bags of compost in the past, is still heavy - I suspect most of that is due to rain water off the apple tree landing heavily on the bed which would compact the soil more. I forked it in and got into a bit of a sweat - first serious bit of digging since last year LOL. As this bed can be in the shade from the apple tree, I've been trying to decide what will grow in it - in the afternoon by midsummer, the sun swings round to the side so I think peas might do well here. I will add some lime to the bed later which should also help to break up the soil. After the last bag, I meandered to the back of the shed to clear some weeds out of the sunflower bed especially the bramble and nettle, and then I disturbed a frog ... maybe I'll finish off another day.
There were just a few weeds mainly dandelion in the pond bed where I had grown the sweetcorn and dug those out. The soil was lovely to dig over so last year's chicken poop and bedding had done wonders for it.
Still in the digging mood but also aware that I didn't want to overdo it too much, I turned my attention to the triangle bed where I want to plant the potted garlic. For a small bed, it proved to be a lot of hard work. Each fork-load of soil was riddled with marestail and bindweed roots. At the same time the wind started to pick up and was distinctly cold. Even with gloves on, my hands got cold handling the clods of clay and trying to prise out the roots. I am going to dig in a bag of top soil before planting the garlic so will need forking over again, so hopefully I'll be able to pick out more roots then. In the meantime I decided to finish off the last bit of digging in the butternut bed where I'm growing the garlic. As suspected, where I had been standing while clearing the soil, it had compacted down and was difficult to dig down but it is all clear now. Unlike the mounds that I created for the autumn planted garlic, I think I'll leave the soil level - the point of the mounds is to allow better drainage especially over winter, but this can be counter productive in spring and early summer when (if!) we get warm spells of weather and the soil dries out too much. So all being well, I should be able to get the rest of the garlic onto the plot next weekend.
Talking of garlic, most on the plot are about 6 inch tall now with some of the later ones about 2 inches. Even all 3 Czech varieties have come up now although one row only had one shoot that I could see. Learning from my mistake last year of leaving the pea and bean netting down too long (basically I put it across the bed to stop the cats from digging the soil and disturbing the cloves), this time I decided to lift them all up to avoid damaging the plants later on.
Surprisingly few weeds have come up although the dandelions that I did dig up had flower buds ready. I think the combination of clearing beds, mulching with the bedding straw or covering some of them with the black plastic has been a big help - for the first time my plot doesn't seem to be that far off getting ready for the big sow and planting. I'm sure when the time comes I'll think differently LOL. Meanwhile I have been thinking about the footpaths and this year I want to put some of the weed suppressant down with maybe some bark chippings. I doubt I'll get the whole plot done (I'm thinking about the cost of buying the chippings) but if I can start at the track side and work my way up, the view from the track will may it look more tidy than it is. I so want the plot to look tidier.
The constant cloud cover and cool temperatures has definitely slowed down the chilli seedling progress I do have a radiator in the back bedroom on a low heat to keep the temperature from dropping below 12oC at night which is critical for the chillies but daytime temperatures and light have been poor. On Wednesday we had a gloriously sunny day and this allowed temperatures to peak at 23oC (the data logger was lodged just under a tray so basically air temperature would have been much warmer) but on Thursday it was so cold. I've left the data logger to keep recording temperatures since it was set up (actually, I didn't know how to reset it ) but I'm glad I didn't because it gives a better picture of temperature fall and spiking over a longer period.
On Friday it was the Spring Equinox and a partial solar eclipse too - we had a sunny morning, so was able to see it. At work we had a live stream of the eclipse so I had it on the computer screen and then when it was nearly 80% covered, went outside - the computer screen was much better for watching it, but there's no doubt the atmosphere outside was more surreal as loads of people came out of the buildings to watch.
As for spring, there are definite signs - this past week the blackthorn (sloes) has been flowering as well as some early flowering cherries. The crocus have also been in flower and there are a couple of daffodils starting to appear. In my garden, the blackbirds have been marking their territory - now that my fruit trees are mature, the male birds have been bagging a tree and getting vocal. It's quite fascinating to watch and listen to them.
On another note, I've just applied for some free tomato seeds given away by Gardener's World/Thompson & Morgan - I've not grown any of those so wouldn't mind giving them a go if my application is successful.
I've had a fantastic day at the allotment - the sun was shining and it was mild, it was very pleasant outside. My task today was to finish digging the triangle bed and the big bed where I've already got 4 rows of garlic planted in autumn so that I could plant the potted plants. I was not confident I'd get it all done today and just took the 2 trays of Cristo garlic, and the 3 Elephant garlic.
I had 3 bags of chicken poop and bedding and after moving them to the side of the house, I was aware that one of the pallets I had acquired from work was missing. I've been collecting them from work to take down to the plot at Easter and there should have been 4. The other day I remember hearing my neighbour doing a bit of woodwork and sure enough, there is a pallet just like the one missing in their garden - I would never dream of taking something without asking first I can get more pallets but that's not the point. So before I left, I had to move the pallets onto the patio as I can't afford to lose any more until some start turning up in deliveries at work.
On Friday I put 3 big bags of autumn leaves from work in the car so at the plot, I scattered them round the comfrey bed and then put the chicken poop and bedding on top. Comfrey are like weeds and don't need much in the way of feeding, but the soil is very heavy clay so this should encourage some worms.
Next task was to start digging over 2 rows in the big bed for the Cristo garlic. I planted the cloves over the Christmas break into small poly bags (the black plastic bag that you often see plants at the garden nursery) It was only meant to be temporary and I was a bit worried that they'd be horribly pot bound, especially as the leaves were easily 9-10 inches tall. Expecting the worse, I was surprised to find that roots emerging from the holes were about an inch or 2 long, and fairly easy to pop out the bag. I remembered one had been treated with mycorrhizae, and the other tray hadn't .... but I couldn't remember which ones LOL. Both looked about the same so it's possible the culture hadn't worked anyway, but still I kept the 2 trays separate when planting into 2 different rows.
Next task was to tackle the triangle bed. For a small bed, it was riddled with marestail root and even bindweed - I just don't remember it being that bad last year. I'd already dug it over last weekend, but it took just as long to dig it over again today. I put a full bag of top soil on the bed, raked over and made 4 mounds - 2 for the elephant garlic, and the other 2 will be for the Provence garlic (a last minute purchase) The Elephant garlic were in much bigger pots yet the roots were incredibly long and had coiled round the base of the pot - as I was planting, I gently teased the roots to spread out and some of them were easily 8 inch or more long!
After planting, I watered in - luckily my water butts at the back of the plot were fairly full as the taps had not been fitted to the stand pipes yet. I decided to add some concentrated seaweed extract to the water to give them a boost. That's when I decided I'd give all the garlic on the plot a bit of watering ... this involved a lot of walking back and forth, up and down the plot umpteen times. I must have walked miles today LOL
I finished at 3.30pm and left after taking some photos. The plot still looks remarkably neat and tidy but at least the paths are dry now, if perhaps a tad too dry ...
The garlic bed near the track side - I think another couple of the Czech garlic have come up so there might be some more yet to sprout!
The big garlic bed now filling up nicely - I prepared a row for the next lot at home still to be planted (Thermidrome) but only had time to rough dig the 2nd row (shouldn't take long to clear next weekend):
The four beds of garlic on the main plot coming along nicely:
The partially planted triangle bed with the 3 Elephant garlic:
and just some of the marestail dug up! I also cleared anything that might harbour pests so anything like dried stalks were picked out:
And finally, the Stockbridge Arrow rhubarb well ahead now (the Early Timperley are still buds):
In the back bedroom where the chillies are, the temperature was very warm for late afternoon (the sun would have been away from the window for a good couple of hours by then) up to 20oC so it will be interesting to see just how warm it actually got when I check the data logger next week. There were some more late germinations too so the heat must have really encouraged them along ... the forecast is for some more sunny days but Nottingham seems to be on the boundary of whether we do or don't get any sun, so we'll see.
Nice rhubarb Some allotments near us have been going for 150 years and now the owners want them off! Another lot have been forcibly evacuated to make way for some bendy bus route! Enjoy while you can?????
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
sandy wrote:Nice rhubarb Some allotments near us have been going for 150 years and now the owners want them off! Another lot have been forcibly evacuated to make way for some bendy bus route! Enjoy while you can?????
sadly allotments are prime for property development, and in the current climate of budget cuts are at serious risk - if there is demand for allotments, by law a council must set land aside but nothing can stop them selling off established plots so long as they provide land for the current tenants ... not fair for those who have spent many years improving the soil to be given a plot that need a lot of work doing to it. It's in everyone's interest to keep the current sites full with tenants - the more people possibly affected have a better chance of preventing a sale especially if you get the media involved (roll out the pensioner who has been on the site for decades to make a point helps too)
Good Friday is usually the time when I get down to the allotment to do some serious gardening ... it did not go to plan this year. Earlier in the week I went down with a nasty cold, fortunately short lived but left me tight chested and wheezy. On top of which it was a damp and dreary day with light rain most of the afternoon so not a good day to be out. Still, I was determined to keep up with tradition and did some indoor gardening instead.
On the chilli front, some of the earlier germinations have now reached their 3rd leaves and outgrowing the seed modules so time for some repotting. I managed to repot all of Tray 1 seedlings ... that's when I realised just how many chillies I am going to end up with. The seed tray had 5 x 8 modules so that was 40 potential plants (there were 2 blank modules and 2 didn't germinate so this time 36 plants) .... I have another 14 trays although the last 2 trays, as expected, have not been productive. The problem isn't so much the work involved but finding the pots and where to put them as there is no space left on the pasting table once the seedlings are repotted - until the weather warms up, I daren't move them into the greenhouse/polytunnel yet. Some of the surplus plants will be for sale but they still need to be repotted and grow a bit more.
The one thing I did notice was the amazing root systems - although I "watered" almost daily, it was just enough to dampen the seed compost but not too much which can contribute to damping off when seedlings collapse. It would seem I might have been more stringent with the water than I realised. Also I used B&Q Verve seed compost (I usually just use a bog standard compost which is just as good) but I have to say I'm very pleased with the results.
The 10x Beaver Dam seedlings were treated different to the others. I have several experiments planned this summer, and I wanted to start with these - five of the new pots were seeded with mycorrhizae spores while the other five were without. Mycorrhizae are a type of symbiotic fungus which bind with the plants roots providing it with nutrients especially phosphorous, and in return they have access to carbohydrates produced by the plants. There has been a lot of literature on the subject implying plants are healthier, stronger, able to withstand drought better (the mycorrhizae extend their mycelia further than a plants roots and therefore increase the potential to find water) as well as produce higher yields of crops. The plants are destined for pots so not quite the same but should still be an interesting experiment to compare with and without the mycorrhizae. I made a point of labelling them too just to make sure I don't forget LOL.
The other task I did was to plant my onion sets. I ordered some Santero F1 sets from Suttons Seeds. The initial despatch date was the 9th March but when I checked again, it had been changed to end of March. When the parcel arrived earlier this week, about 50% of the sets already had inch long shoots so needed to be planted right away. However, I have found that if I plant too early, a lot of my onions don't do well. As the late planted garlic in pots has been such a success, I decided to do the same with the onion sets (there was only 49 sets in the 200g pack) As before with the garlic before planting, I decided to go for the bleach and seaweed treatments. I didn't have any ethanol but instead swilled the sets in soapy water and rinsed them well (the ethanol will kill off any mites that had survived the bleach soak, so I was hoping the washing up liquid would be just as effective) I left the sets to soak in a seaweed solution for 4 hours before seeding the base with mycorrhizae and popping them in the polybags filled with seed compost with a layer of diatomaceous earth on top ... all part of the "anti-pest" treatment. The strategy is to reduce the possibility of hitch hikers on sets as well as minimise the risk of soil borne pests on the plot causing problems. As we all know, diatomaceous earth is used in chicken coops to prevent red mite infestations so fingers crossed it will have the same result on the plot
I'm hoping to get to the allotment tomorrow - weather-wise looking good
Blimey LL! I thought I was carried away with 40ish plants last year and I'm have enough pods stored to keep me cooking till next year I think, everything cropped really well and nicely staggered from last June till december. You are going to end up with 400 odd plants - and suppose you were to get a hundred fruits per plant!
I will post an update on mine in a little while, desperately want to plant them out into the tunnel but it's just not warm enough at night yet.
Thomassio wrote:Blimey LL! I thought I was carried away with 40ish plants last year and I'm have enough pods stored to keep me cooking till next year I think, everything cropped really well and nicely staggered from last June till december. You are going to end up with 400 odd plants - and suppose you were to get a hundred fruits per plant!
I will post an update on mine in a little while, desperately want to plant them out into the tunnel but it's just not warm enough at night yet.
Allotment looks great, heaps of garlic too!
It's unlikely I'd get 100 fruits per plant LOL but yes, the number of plants is problematic in terms of pots, compost and sheltered space for the moment. Don't forget some will be for sale (and the surplus garlic too!), and I am dedicating 2 polytunnels (4m x 2m x 2m) plus the 8' x 6' polycarbonate greenhouse and the 6' x 4' glass greenhouse, as well as growing some of the hardy ones outdoors. Hence thinking about setting up a self watering system was becoming a necessity!
As for the chillies, don't see them as food - only a few are for my personal use (the mild ones) and the rest will be dedicated to experimental growing methods. I don't want to go into detail at the moment but after doing quite a bit of research on the subject, I have not seen other chilli growers apply some of the information I have gathered from scientific papers so could be "revolutionary" ... then again, it's possible nothing will come out of it but I have high hopes.
Well I didn't do any work on the allotment on Sunday as my "cold" seems to be dragging on. I just felt tired and aching. Instead I did call round to the allotment shop which is only open on Sundays for 2 hours and bought 3kg of dried blood (£4.30p) and 3kg of chicken manure (£1.60p) Dried blood is very high in nitrogen so is a good boost for plants in spring, but the main reason I've decided to go for dried blood is the iron content for the garlic experiment - last year I tried some iron sulphate on half of the garlic and I swear blind those bulbs were a shade bigger than the none treated. However, iron sulphate is very acidic whereas garlic do best in neutral to slightly alkali conditions. Garlic need a lot of sulphur for bulb formation so it's possible the iron sulphate treated garlic were responding to the sulphates even though I had treated all the beds with potash (potassium sulphate) as standard practice. So the experiment this year is the use of dried blood to provide the iron without the sulphur (and acidity) but, because it is high in nitrogen it needs to be applied in early spring so that by summer it is depleted and the plants can then go on to form bulbs. More information from THIS SITE
Fertilize garlic while it is growing:
We usually add nitrogen twice during the year to our garlic. We add blood meal directly after planting and side dress with blood meal either once or twice after garlic comes up in the spring. Do not add nitrogen after garlic begins to form a seedhead or scape. If it has too much nitrogen at that time it will grow leaves instead of a bulb!
With the prospect of nice weather this week, I dragged myself down to the plot yesterday determined to get the last of the garlic planted. I only had one row to dig and clear weeds which I had already done a rough dig, but it was the worst part of the big bed where marestail is still rife and the soil very claggy. It didn't help that the rain on Good Friday was a lot more wetter than I thought - the soil was once again heavy. After forking over, I added the dried blood and top soil before planting 2 rows of Thermidrome garlic. Interesting, I noticed that some of the bulbs that had been planted in slightly bigger pots had taller healthier top growth, and roots were much longer than those in smaller pots.... something worth noting if I ever have to plant garlic in pots again.
On the triangle bed, I planted the 7 Provence garlic. I had already cleared this bed and formed 2 mounds ready for planting so I did a top dressing of dried blood so that some of it fell into the planting holes. Despite buying the bulb very late in December, these plants were much taller than any of the others in pots or grown direct on the plot - the cloves from the bulb were bigger admittedly, and as a result, had decided to plant them into larger pots. Like the Thermidrome in bigger pots and the Elephant Garlic, the roots were very long which I teased apart before planting.
That just left me to go round with the dried blood and give the rest of the garlic a top dressing. I just had a little left over when I realised I'd forgotten all about the garlic planted near the track So I put it in the watering can and gave them a drink instead which after thinking about it, was probably more effective than the top dressing while the weather remained dry this week. I had to water the newly planted garlic anyway, so carried on doing a few more rows at the same time. Thankfully the taps were back on the stand pipes at the site so it made the job easier than walking all the way down to the water butts at the other end of the plot.
All the garlic are coming along now and the recent warmer weather has definitely got things moving. Sadly, the Cristo that I planted out a couple of weeks ago were not so clever - I think the windy weather soon after had done most of the damage. It was a surprise really because all of the garlic in pots have been outside throughout winter. Despite that, new growth were coming up so were recovering. As I went round with the dried blood, I did a spot of weeding ... not a lot really but I'm sure that will change in the next week or two LOL.
I left at 1.00pm and although disappointed that I didn't feel up to getting any other jobs done, was happy to see all the garlic now planted. After a rest, I went into the garden and got on with one more job. My local council collects garden waste and in the beginning when it was introduced, you had to fill the recycle bin after it had been emptied for next day collection. As I could never get the bin filled in time, a couple of years ago I bought a brown lidded bin so that I could fill it when I needed to. Then last year the council decided to start charging for garden waste collection - but at the time I could not afford to pay for it. This has meant the hedge trimmings in the garden have been mounting up so I decided to pay for the garden waste collection this year. It cost me £30 (£20 + £10 for every bin - so a single bin will cost £30, 2 bins cost £40 and so on) While I waited for the sticky label to put on my bin to say I had paid, a new bin turned up on my driveway. It left me completed stumped ... then remembered that when the new chargeable garden waste collection was introduced last year, people could no longer use their green recycle bin and got a brown lidded bin on paying the fee. So that means I now have 2 brown lidded bins (one that the council provides, the other I had bought) so if I pay the extra £10 can have 2 bins in use. Considering the mountain of garden waste in the garden, I think it might be worth doing especially as it is only collected once a fortnight.
I have the rest of this week off work so hopefully will get some more jobs done. Repotting some of the chillies is becoming a priority as is getting the new polytunnel set up.
As always your diary is so comprehensive You definetely deserve a rest my girl!
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
Maybe not 100 per plant, but I wouldn't be surprised if they average out at well over 50, last season I had Habs and some superhots producing about 50 pods each and various others that had well over 200 per plant! In fact I reckon I got close to that from an orange habanero too!
I will be interested to hear about your results.....or feel free to pm me anything you don't want to be too public just yet! I have a sciency background and interest so would be keen to hear your plans.
Thomassio wrote:I will be interested to hear about your results.....or feel free to pm me anything you don't want to be too public just yet! I have a sciency background and interest so would be keen to hear your plans
Suffice to say at this moment that my main goal is to try and increase the capsaicin levels in the superhot chilli varieties - capsaicin (and other capsainoids) in the fruits are what give them the heat. Testing the levels however, may be a problem as the only way for accurate results is by a method called HPLC to measure the heat (Scoville Scale) Now I may have opportunity to gain access to one as part of my "training" to learn how to operate various equipment (my job has changed as part of a regrade that came into effect just before Christmas) Also, the academic colleague who got me into growing superhot chillies 2 years ago (the Chilli Challenge) may also be interested as part of his ongoing research (for obvious reasons I cannot divulge anything about it here but trying to increase capsaicin levels was one of his splinter projects ... my intended project may be of interest if it works) so hopefully he'll let me use the HPLC to get some results.
I'll report and post some piccies of how the plants are progressing but I just want to keep the method under wraps for now. If it goes well, then the good news is that anyone can apply it rather than be limited to the science lab so this may be of interest to other serious growers of superhot chillies
I ordered some Sturon onion sets last week and these arrived later on Tuesday. I ordered 500g which works out at about 150 sets. Sounds a lot but not all grow full size, plus there are bound to be some inevitable losses. Unlike the Santero that arrived already sprouting, these are still dormant and in good condition so I will be able to plant them later in the month directly on the plot. As before, I intend applying the disinfecting method I've been using for the garlic to see if this will reduce the risk of pest and disease that may be on the sets.
Drat my cold has been dragging on into an annoying wheeze and cough and not for going away which has had an impact on what I've been able to do during my time off work this week. After Monday's efforts at the allotment, I didn't do very much until Wednesday when I made a half-hearted effort to clear some of the hedge and tree trimmings in the bottom half of the garden to make room for the greenhouse move. Yesterday I was more determined to get the job done as I realised it was going to take longer than I had anticipated and it made sense to do it while I had time to do it rather than try and squeeze it into a weekend when I'll also be busy with the allotment.
After raking over the cleared area, I laid down some plastic sheeting and on top of that some weed suppressant (just made it look nicer than the tatty blue and grey tarpaulin I had put down) I had bought some special barbed pins which you use to pin the sheet down and I have to say I'm quite impressed ... just be aware that they are made of plastic so try to avoid the urge to give the final hammer hit an extra whack as it will break off the flat plastic top
Then it was time to empty the greenhouse of the growbags - usually I bag up and take to the allotment but on this occasion have decided to spread the contents under the fruit trees in the garden. Taking out the tent pegs and the 4 pins that hold the greenhouse base down was not so bad and then it was time to see if I could move the entire greenhouse without having to pull it apart. I'll admit it was a 2 man job but by going to one corner and pulling it a couple of inches, then to the other corner to pull that side up, I eventually slid the polycarbonate greenhouse about 12 feet further down the garden.
Next, emptying the polytunnel - thankfully we had some glorious dry sunny weather because everything ended up in the garden. As before I decided the growbag contents will go under the fruit trees (a task I still have to do) and then I peeled the old polytunnel cover back to one end of the frame. I decided to line the gap between the greenhouse and part way into the polytunnel with lengths of weed suppressant. The reason was because things had been growing inside the greenhouse that had managed to come through some holes in the plastic sheeting on the ground (mainly from cane supports), as well as a foot gap between the sheeting of the greenhouse and polytunnel so I wanted to cover it.
Erecting the new polytunnel frame went surprisingly very quickly - I guess if you've done one before, it is a lot easier to do a second one. The second polytunnel cover has 2 doors, one at each end so the idea was to butt the 2 polytunnels together to make one long one. I decided I wanted the entrance nearest the house (and north facing) so that meant taking the old cover off and putting it on the new frame, and then the new cover on the old frame. Sounds complicated LOL but it has worked out really well. The only problem I can see is that when it rains, water can still get between the 2 polytunnels so I really could do with something like a width of plastic sheet to put over the top. Unfortunately not before the forecast rain this weekend
Today's forecast was for warmer weather with risk of air pollution - just what I didn't need with my asthma and current wheezy chest. I decided to do my weekly shop instead of on a Saturday, then onto Wickes to get some supplies. I really need some bags of compost but by the time I'd got 3 bags of bark chippings, 4 bags of top soil and 2 bags of sharp sand, the back of the car was almost touching the rear wheels. The sharp sand is for the chicken runs which is quickly running out due to the poo picking (which eventually ends up on the allotment beds so helping to break up the clay soil as well as adding nutrients) The top soil is for the onion sets - going with the same theme as the garlic planting, I want the bulb to be sitting on sandy soil rather than the clay soil and hopefully reduce the risk of rot. And the bark chippings will be going in the garden outside the greenhouse and polytunnels.
I also bought a small bag of lump charcoal (not the briquette type) ... purely an experiment to produce "biochar". I've read up about biochar and some of the properties:
Biochar is recognised as offering a number of benefits for soil health. Many benefits are related to the extremely porous nature of biochar. This structure is found to be very effective at retaining both water and water soluble nutrients. Soil biologist Elaine Ingham indicates[29] the extreme suitability of biochar as a habitat for many beneficial soil micro organisms. She points out that when pre charged with these beneficial organisms biochar becomes an extremely effective soil amendment promoting good soil, and in turn plant, health.
For plants that require high potash and elevated pH,[30] biochar can be used as a soil amendment to improve yield.
Biochar can improve water quality, reduce soil emissions of greenhouse gases, reduce nutrient leaching, reduce soil acidity, and reduce irrigation and fertilizer requirements.[31] Biochar was also found under certain circumstances to induce plant systemic responses to foliar fungal diseases and to improve plant responses to diseases caused by soilborne pathogens
You can buy "Biochar" but as the wikipedia link shows, it is just charcoal - but it is important to use lump charcoal, not the briquettes which contain chemicals to help it burn. It will need grinding down and smashing up into smaller pieces (be careful not to breathe the dust in and better if done inside a bag) and then I'll use it on one of the beds on the allotment. I'm not expecting marvellous results in the first year as I believe it takes time for soil microorganisms to multiply and develop but hopefully by next year I should see something.
This afternoon I got on with pinning the new frame and the greenhouse down with the tent pegs. When buying the first polytunnel, I had also bought a set of securing pegs but Royal Mail lost them during delivery (long story) Eventually they ended up back with the supplier who sent them on again but not before I'd decided to use tent pegs instead. So I still had the set which I decided to use on the 2nd frame. Then it was time to start tidying up the garden where I had dumped everything - lots of plant pots, labels, an old pasting board, some trays and the 2 cold frames that used to be at the back of the greenhouse. A lot of stuff has ended up back in the polytunnel because of the forecast rain ... Hopefully I'll be able to finish off the job this weekend between the showers and then I can start planning on filling the greenhouse and tunnels soon Piccies to follow when it looks neat and tidy LOL
, plus those beds allocated for onions and potatoes later. I need growing space for sweetcorn (!) and the peas and beans, as well as the winter squashes and pumpkins plus an experimental bed for the melons. I think I need a bigger plot LOL
I decided to put it into the back bedroom nestled between trays of chilli seedlings furthest away from the window so it didn't get direct sunlight and more or less recorded the soil temperature. It clearly shows a rise in temperature during the day and a drop at night despite having a radiator on in the bedroom (I put a standard thermometer in there and the average room temperature seemed to be around 17oC)
- 8 bags of chicken poop and bedding needed to be shifted, and with only 2 weeks until Easter, I just had to pay a visit to see what needed to be done in the coming weeks.
I do have a radiator in the back bedroom on a low heat to keep the temperature from dropping below 12oC at night which is critical for the chillies but daytime temperatures and light have been poor. On Wednesday we had a gloriously sunny day and this allowed temperatures to peak at 23oC (the data logger was lodged just under a tray so basically air temperature would have been much warmer) but on Thursday it was so cold. I've left the data logger to keep recording temperatures since it was set up (actually, I didn't know how to reset it 
I can get more pallets but that's not the point. So before I left, I had to move the pallets onto the patio as I can't afford to lose any more until some start turning up in deliveries at work.
Some allotments near us have been going for 150 years and now the owners want them off! Another lot have been forcibly evacuated to make way for some bendy bus route! Enjoy while you can?????
although the last 2 trays, as expected, have not been productive. The problem isn't so much the work involved but finding the pots and where to put them as there is no space left on the pasting table once the seedlings are repotted - until the weather warms up, I daren't move them into the greenhouse/polytunnel yet. Some of the surplus plants will be for sale but they still need to be repotted and grow a bit more.
