Cheers Wicky and Monika, Think I will give the horsetail a two pronged attack. I will hoe off/pull out the summer shoots that are close to my crops and spray Kurtail on the rest of the beggars that appear I have already dug out a pile of horestail roots, laterals and rhizomes big enough to fill an o...

Thanks Beryl and Johnboy,
You are right, everything is at least a month late this spring.
I will hold my horses and not dig out the old bed yet !
Fingers crossed I might have a crop this year after all.

Hi All, I have recently been digging over my allotment ready for this years crops and noticed a marked increase in the amount of horsetail roots in the raised beds compared to normal. Anyone else noticed similar problems ? I am guessing its down to the amount of rain we had last year. I am currently...

Hi All, Has anyone else lost their asparagus bed in the last 12 months ? Mine was only 8 years old and well established. It started cropping early in late March last year during the heatwave - then we had two months of cold wet weather, late frosts in May and no more spears were produced and hence n...

Hi ColinM, Regarding the powdery mildew photo's they are just a very mild showing of the problem, when I had a bad infeststion in July 2003 the whole of the leaves, pods and stems became covered within 7 days of it first showing. You could try spraying with Dithane 945 to see if that gets rid of the...

Hi Colin, As others have diagnosed it must be powdery mildew, this usually occurs when we have a period of warm dry days and cool nights and the soil drys out. I had a bad infestation 6 years ago this month following a warm dry windless spell and it travelled from one row of Onward to other rows of ...

Cheers Allium, I will try your tip

Good Afternoon All, I have noticed more instances of clubroot on my lottie over the last couple of years, this has given me problems trying to grow calabrase and decent sprouts, have any posters tried and tested some clubroot resistant green broccoli or sprouts ? The clubroot doesnt seem to affect p...

I have 4 seed trays with pea seedlings shivering in my plastic greenhouse waiting for the cold snap to dissapear However they will be put into my perspex frames at the allotment at the weekend regardless as my patience is sapping by the minute I also sowed some Adelaide carrots and early radishes tw...

Have noticed in the past couple of years that we seem to have daisys flowering right through the winter on bright days.
Is this a recent thing or have daisys always flowered all year round ?

Compo,

Try spraying the pea plants with liquid Derris just as the flowers open and that should kill off the little swines.
Derris is a naturally occuring material so its OK for the organics to use too.

Andys

OH, Last night I foolishly pulled a flowering Maris Bard which I planted under clear poly in late January only to find two spuds : which were 2.5" dia (6cm to you born after the swinging sixties) . Tell you what though, they were lovely boiled with some spinach, broad beans and finger carrots w...

Hi Lizzie, I have the same problem with my Tendergreen Dwarf beens and have guessed that it may be chlorosis caused by a lack of manganease/magnesium in my soil. I too have planted mine in a heavilly manured bed but tested the PH of the soil and found it still to be neutral. I gave them a feed of a ...

Ian, I have had similar problems with mid season crops of Onward and Hurst Green Shaft which are picked from mid July but never had any issues with March sown first earlies such as Kelvedon Wonder, Twinkle, Early Onward etc. However this year I am going to attempt spraying the flowers of mid season ...

I sowed Connovers in 2005 too and am toying with the idea of cutting one or two spears per plant as they look healthy enough, however the text books say they should be left another year before harvesting
Should I or shouldnt I.......

Andy S