Bambino, Orla and Cara Potatoes

Bambino, Orla & Cara Potatoes

Apologies for not posting any news for sometime, I am in the progress of upgrading my blog and its taking a little longer than expected. So here’s a few catch up posts of what going on in my Vegetable Plot at the moment.

Potatoes

Four weeks ago I planted my Bambino and Orla Potato tubers in pots. This week the foliage has started to appear above the soil in the pots which were filled one third full of soil.

I have decided to grow the following varieties this year:

Bambino – Organic Salad Potato
It is a light and creamy but less waxy variety to other new potatoes. It has good resistance to tuber and foliage blight and scab.

Orla – Organic 1st Early
A reliable 1st early with good disease resistance to blight and scab. It is oval with white skin and creamy flesh.

Cara – Organic Late Maincrop
Cara is a soft, robust and waxy potato suitable for baking and roasting. It has a good resistance to eelworm, drought and blight. It is an oval variety with creamy flesh and pink eyes.

Cara will be planted out into pots this weekend.

Bambino and Orla in pots

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This post has now moved to my new site iGrowVeg.com.
Please view the new post on the link below:

• Growing New Potatoes in Pots

Slug-Free Lettuce – 3 Weeks Growth

Lettuce in wooden seed trays

One of my new year resolutions was to have Slug-Free Lettuce. For the past two years every time I try to grow lettuce in my plots, slugs from miles around arrive to munch on it. So I have given up with trying to grow it on my plots but definitely not given up on growing lettuce.

Here’s my solution – grow it in seed trays in the mini greenhouse and so far so good.

I decided to buy some wooden seed trays so they would look nice in the mini greenhouse. They do until they come into contact with water and heat and then the bottom slightly buckles a bit, but there are still holding the soil and seedlings so I’m not complaining and most importantly it has been a slug free zone.

Here’s the varieties of Loose Leaf Lettuce I am growing:-

Lettuce – Belize
A green oakleaf type with bright and slightly bubbled leaves. It is resistant to aphids, mildew and bolting.

Lettuce – Oakleaf
A dark green leaf tinged with red to bring a bit of brightness to my salad. Large lobbed leaves and is resistant to bolting.

Lettuce – Salad Bowl
A curly edged bright green leaf, a popular choice.

Other Posts on Topics – Slugs and Lettuce:

• Summer Lettuce (Balmoral) 2008 – 13 weeks then eaten by slugs!
• Summer Lettuce (Tin Tin) 2007.
• Pest Control – Slugs and Snails

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This post has now moved to my new site iGrowVeg.com.
Please view the new post on the link below:

• Growing Slug-Free Lettuce

Spring Cabbages have Bolted!

Cabbages Plot 15.04.09

Just when you think everything is going swimmingly and you’ve been waiting all winter for some tasty spring cabbage leaves, this happens!

Bolting
Bolting is where the plant puts on a sudden spurt of growth too quickly and uses up all its energy, then flowers and seeds. It will stop growing as it has completed its life cycle.

Why does bolting occur?
Flowering plants like cabbage, lettuce or spinach have a photoreceptor protein which is sensitive to seasonal changes or hours of darkness. These long day plants require fewer number of hours darkness within a day to set flower. A cold spell of weather can also assist with bolting.

Bolted Cabbage 18.04.09

Solution
According to the RHS, they recommend to sow your spring cabbages at the end of July to prevent your cabbages from bolting early (they will bolt later instead) or sow a bolt resistant variety like Hispi F1, Advantage F1 or Pixie.

I have picked off the leaves of the cabbage plants for the kitchen and thrown the rest of the plant in the compost bin.

One of my plots will be empty for a while until the next lot of cabbages (Minicole F1) grow, so I will be sowing a ‘catch crop’ (a fast growing crop grown in between other slower growing crops) of radishes, small chanteny carrots and leaf beat, so the area doesn’t go to waste.

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This post has now moved to my new site iGrowVeg.com.
Please view the new post on the link below:

• Spring Cabbages have Bolted!