Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Everyone - thinking about what to grow this year - lost all Tomatoes to blight last year - thinking of trying 'Ferline' to avoid this anyone got any ideas on other blight resistant varities? I'd love a blight resitant Cherry if these is one? (Growing in polly tunnel)
What about spuds? Grew Sarpo Axona with good success last year - think i will swap to Sarpo Mira for larger spuds this year - anyone grown 'Kestrel'? Any thoughts? I've heard they are both good for Blight and Slug resistance - Seems to have a slug problem on site, so this would help - any other ideas anyone?
Be grateful for anyones experiences.....thanks..

Hi Stu

today I peeled a few of the last of Sarpo Mira, massive spuds, good floury mash / roast / saute consistency, absolutely no evidence of any storage problems, no spuds from about 90kg went bad in storage, I feel they would have still been ok in a month if I had any left. Like most folk i dont have enough space to be self sufficient in spuds so the mira with the bigger yeild is good enough. I grow some international kidney in a large cold frame from march to harvest in late May, they are tasty but not really a great yeild just a bit of an allotment fun to get the first new tatoes on the plate.

The spuds were the only ones on 28 plots not to be blight resistant and left a lot of old hands stud on my plot scratching their head, and thinking 'duh? how come mine are all brown and dead?' The answer is if you cant get to your plot enough you cant spray the bordeaux mixture when you need to, the Sarpo leaves you a nice completely blight free spud (technically speaking they are blight resistant, but I would say 90% blight free as the odd speck of blight on the leaves does not affect the plant and never gets to the spud. You need a bit of space as the plants get up to 3-4 foot in height but will bush up against each other if planetd 20-24 inches apart.

Feline and Legend were grown amonts somr Shirley toms and the blight from the shirley affected the ferline and legend a little bit, but i am still on my last jar of tomatoe and chilli relish and had toms in the fridge up util mid novermber, the problem is the legand and ferline are not a rapid tomatoe and without any greenhouse heat they do not fruit till july and this year it ws 29 July before I picked, so anyone with experience of something earlier and blight free would get my attention.

Feels like we will be getting going again as soon as the snow goes.

CoMpO

Lat year we grew Sarpo Mira on a clay soil - yield was very good and no slug damage etc.

We always grow a slection of varieties on the grounds that conditions usually favour one variety and we get a crop to 'see us through'.

All other varieties grown got blight and SM did have some blight but the difference was that this didn't finish them off - they grew through it.

Even the blighted varieties produced a good crop except one beds with Belle de Fontenay which was rubbish. Smelly soggy tibers!

I have just joined your forum, having read several blogs.
As a result I have already bought some seeds from Moles.

I am looking for ideas around what is easy to grow, costs a lot in the shops and does need too much time as I don't have lots of time.

I have built 5 raised beds 16ft * 4ft.

What do you recommend?
Cheers
Ian

Hi Ian. before Old Herbaceous gets his bit in, let me say WELCOME to the forum and a Happy New Year.

If you have limited time, I would suggest two things: cardboard and green manures. Apparently Tuckers seeds are the cheapest for Green manures if you go by unit costs, but they seem to cater for people with farms rather than allotments, so you might go for catalogues like th organic Gardening Catalogue [which I use] or T&M. These may look expensive, but their quantities are manageable.

Cardboard is being thrown into bins by the ton at the moment and you can use it for covering the paths between the beds or putting on the beds to suppress weeds. Peas and breans can be sown through the cardboard.

The best green manure, in my own opinion, is Phacelia tanacetifolia, as it grows thickly and also, if you let it, produces flowers which attract bees and hoverflies. It is supposed not to be winter-hardy, but usually is, even in bedford. I doubt whether it will survive these constantly cold temperatures, though. The other one, of course, is agricultural mustard.

For overwintering, thick sowings of winter tares will fix nitrogen. I tend to sow these and phacelia in August and September.

You are not too late to get garlic in. Good for spring sowing are Elephant Garlic, Solent Wight and one or two hardnecks. I'd generally plan to sow garlic in the autumn, though, as a general rule.

Are you on the Whitby to Lyme Regis Jurassic belt? If so, I imagine your soil is quite clay-like, but if it is well-worked, you might have success with carrots - our friends in Harrogate grow super ones. I've found parsnips easier to grow that carrots generally, until I found a source of leafmould, which I incorporate in the autumn.

I've also found beans easier to grow than peas, broccoli easier than sprouts, which often need staking, but spinach and several lettuces will just grow themselves once you have started them. And don't miss out on narsturtiums,; put the flowers in your salads in summer. However, it just seeds itself everywhere, like Rocket, which is also easy except in the summer. Purple Cape is a culi-headed broccoli, which seems to me to be an easier product to grow than culis lie "All the Year Round". And if you want to grow summer/autumn brassicas like Calabrese, you'll need time for watering in dry weather. So in your part of the country I suspect this won't be a problem!

Best of luck
mike

PS Stu it is me Dave by the way!! did not realise it was you until I posted my reply, can't wait to get stuck in on the plot but not at the moment!!

Dave (CoMpO)

Thanks Compo - guessed twas you - just wondered if others had any ideas on Tom's especially th are blight resistant - esp. a Cherry? Looking froward to getting stuck in again - been up there today to see if the tunnel had survived the snow - it has! Phew!

I reckon' I'll go with the Sarpo Mira and the Kestrel this year on the spuds!

speak soon bud
Compo - the best ash laiden tea in the west!

Stu

I have grown Kestrel for the last 3 years and think they are a first rate potato. They have been slug free and only the odd one showed blight on the foliage when neighbouring crops were badly affected. It is a second early but crops as heavily as a maincrop and is an excellent cooker as well as being a top exhibition variety. Certainly worth growing.

Hi Allium - thanks for your feedback - yep I reckon' Kestrel is a dead cert for this year. I know Compo had great success with Sarpo Mira as Main crop, this amongst eveything elase fallign with Blight! Might be worth a go!?

Cheers
Stuart

As an additional Stu any of the first earlies usually come to fruition before there is any blight around, swift and rocket are the quickes to mature but I go for international kidney, not so quick but well over by the time blight usually hits the streets. Interational Kidney is the mainland name for Jersey Royals, a prize tatoe in the shops......the beaujolais nouveau of the allotment world.

Dave

Hi Stu
For a cherry tomato grown outside, I'd strongly recommend Latah, from the Real Seed Company. It's not exactly resistant to blight, although I don't think it gets it as badly or as quickly as some others because it has quite small leaves. But the big point about it is that it is incredibly early, which means that you will get a decent crop from it before blight strikes. Good flavour, too. For the last couple of years I've sown it at the same time as I've sown my varieties for the cold greenhouse (first week in March) and both years I've been picking outdoor Latah at least a week before any from the greenhouse.
Hope this helps! Ken

Hi Ken, thanks very much i'll give the a whorle!

cheers STF