Vegging out - March
Week one - perennial plants get going
Pricked out the sweet peppers, the kale and oriental leaves and all are doing well, but not so the aubergine seedling, all are looking very feeble. The tomatoes weren’t moving very fast so I brought them indoors for a spell on a sunny window ledge. Gave everything a weak feed of liquid seaweed. Otherwise a very busy week and not much time for veggies. Thank goodness for perennial plants: the globe artichoke, new last year, is sprouting nicely, there is a good selection of herbs and the fruit bushes are all showing life.
Week two - pea and bean support goes up
Alys came this week and put up the pea and bean support. She sowed some climbing Pea Alderman and some of my unnamed peas saved from last year which might not even be climbers - the perils of being unorganised! There was an infestation of little flying insects in the greenhouse - the perils of homemade compost. So we put all the plants outside for a breath of fresh air for the day and now the insects seem to have disappeared - result!
Mostly it has been a week for pricking out the tomato seedling which had perked up after a bit of TLC last week. All are now on the window ledge in individual pots. I also sowed the curcubits in individual pots - Cucumber Marketmore, Courgette Romanesco Latino, both favourites plus 2 varieties of squash, Sweetmax, which is new to me, and Hunter, which being old seed might not do too well. All are in the propagator and are being watched with interest.
With the sunny weather at the beginning of week I missed the chance to sow some seeds outdoors, then the rains came, so they will have to wait.
Week three - the squashes rocket up
While quite a few of the curcubit seeds failed to germinate those that did shot up and have started to sprawl: Squash Sweetmax was 13cm tall in a matter of days.
Mixed weather this week seems to have given the purple sprouting broccoli a new lease of life, even the plants that the pigeons had devoured are sprouting again - better cover them up.
Meanwhile most of the other seedlings are doing well though the aubergine seedlings are struggling and I’ve given up on the the fennel seeds ever germinating.
Need to make more compost. This makes me think that I should be sowing direct outdoors more than I do, rather than starting everything off in pots. The benefits of perennial vegetables are on my mind and I’ve been Googling them - when things are back in stock, I might take the plunge and order one or two
Week four + - potting on leggy plants
I’ve been pre-occupied with the indoor curcubit seedlings getting ‘leggy’. I’m very happy to sink tomato seedlings and brassicas up to their seed leaves in compost or soil when repotting/potting on but am much less confident about curcubits, fearing the stems will rot. Needless to say these are the ones which are by far the leggiest. So I googled it and it seems that it is ok to bury the stems as long as the pots are the watered from the bottom thereafter. The first problem was finding deep enough pots. Root Trainers would have been ideal but mine are needed for sweetcorn and French beans, so it had to be just a bigger set of pots. Followed the instructions, buried the stems as far as possible, stood them in water then left them over night in the greenhouse. The following day they had all completely collapsed - worst fears confirmed!!! The next day they had all perked up! Gardening is full of surprises, some of them pleasant.
All the seedling are now in the greenhouse and some Red kale and Chinese Salad leaves are even being hardened off ready for planting outside. The tomatoes are doing particularly well. Finally, some short rows have been sown outside: Parsnip Countess, Beetroot Cylindra (my favourite), radish, salad onions and spinach beet (another favourite). The vegetable year seems to be progressing apace.