Kitchen Garden Forum

as ever helpful and encouraging. Penny

planted half of my red baron onion sets,very dissapointed with the quality of these there was alot of mildew on them and quite a few of them had rotted.
i also sowed a row of peas ,international kidney pots 1 row,corriander,and spring cabbabe and cauli that was given to me.
i also potted on in the green house toms sweet million-moneymaker-gardeners delight-beefeater.and i sowed 18 of my runners today ,polestar in toilet roll inners for an early batch hopefully,hoping that these can go out when 10" high

Well, to date this year on my allotment I haven't planted a thing! The temperatures in March were to0 low here in Brum or it was too wet to work the soil. Tomorrow I was going to plant my onion and shallot sets but they are forecasting a cold spell for several days possibly down to -3 C in places! A cold spell can fool the sets into thinking they have been through two seasons and cause them to bolt. So I will wait for better weather!
The low temperatures will mean the plants will grow slowly anyway, so you don't really gain much.

I'm behind you, G-come-G, with my tomatoes, which are still at their seedling state in modules. They'll get potted on bit by bit from mid-April onwards. Don't worry, George, about being late with planting; people are usually in too much of a hurry to get seeds sown and seedlings into the ground; once the warmer weather arrives / returns, they'll soon catch up.

The only things I've sown or planted on the plot this year are potatoes [ most of mine are in now], carrots - first sowing mid-March under transparent sheeting which I took off a few days ago -and parsnips just a few days ago. Everything else has been in pots in the unheated greenhouse, but we have just eaten a very tasty salad from the young leaves.

mike

Hi donedigging, I'm sorry I haven't visited this thread and so missed your question. I have both President and Prinz and grew them both last year in a raised bed. We got 30 roots and have had some very tasty soups. I did not detect any difference between the two varieties, I'm afraid, but I think the Prinz ones grew a little bigger.

mike

I've got my first peas and broad beans in the garden, just a 32-cell rootrainer tray each of pea Greensage and broad bean Jubilee Hysor, grown in the greenhouse and now planted outside under a cloche. Also put all the support stakes up for the main sowing of peas and broad beans on the allotment, but I'll wait until this imminent cold spell is over before sowing anything there.
The onions (Radar) and garlic (Purple Wight and Solent Wight), planted last October, have survived the winter and are doing ok though the leaf tips are "burnt", presumably by the hard frosts we had.
I daren't plant out any potatoes yet or sow any carrots, beetroot etc, the ground is just too cold yet.
The parsnips (Countess and Student) are just coming through in the rootrainers. They were sown the KG-recommended way, on kitchen towel on the boiler and then planted!
Tomatoes, celeriac and various herbs are doing fine in the greenhouse which is heated when necessary.

Hi Mike

Thanks for the advice, I will give President a try this year.
donedigging

That was a pleasant productive morning - planted the last 100' of potatoes, half each Charlotte and Maris Piper. The bed had been sheeted over for a couple of months since it was dug. I used a piece of blue dpm that I found when I tidied the garage, weeds had germinated under it showing it warms the soil and lets light through. It won't last very well as I think I must have had it a long time and it is cracking on the storage folds.
The Rocket planted on 6th March are showing nicely and the recent frosts didn't get into the cloche.