Monday, August 4, 2014

Rooko's August Top 10 Tips & Tryouts

1. If you are planning to have a soft fruit area in your garden or on your allotment, order the plants now and prepare the ground ready to plant them. The plants should be delivered "bare rooted" during the Winter, ready for planting next spring.

2. Blossom end rot on your tomatoes is generally a sign of calcium deficiency in the plant. Regular (but not over-watering) is possibly the answer, do not allow the growing medium to dry out.

3.If you are working on your allotment over long periods of time during hot/humid weather conditions, ensure you have drinks available to avoid getting dehydrated.

4. If you are planting out Kale/Sprouts, plant them deeply to help their development.

5. Compost heaps should be kept moist but not wet to aid the production of good compost. If the heap becomes very dry, moisten it with water. During heavy periods of rain cover the heap to stop it getting soggy and leaching out. The ideal temperature range for the heap is between 90 degrees F and 140 degrees F approximately.

6. Keep your greenhouse/poly tunnel well ventilated during periods of humid weather. This will help to curb problems from red spider mites and whitefly.

7. Old wives tale? don't plant lilac trees close to your house, you could be inviting woodworm inside.

8. Don't forget to pot up those strawberry runners.

9. Add a high in potash feed to fruiting plants and trees.

10.
SOWING/PLANTING IN AUGUST
1. Sow the following this month: Spring Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Lettuce (Winter hardy), Spring Onions, Radish, Spinach and Turnips.
2. Plant out Savoys, Cauliflowers and Kale.
OTHER JOBS IN AUGUST
1.  Keep weeding & hoeing.
2. If you are storing potatoes for later use, ensure any damaged ones are used, not stored.
3. Pinch out side shoots on tomatoes, leaving 4 or 5 trusses on each plant in general.
4. Turn your compost heap and spray with water if it is very dry.
5. Compost & manure heaps are attractive places for wasps to build their nests, so be wary when disturbing the heaps.

7 comments:

  1. Interesting! Thank you fir the tips.

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    1. You are welcome Endah and thanks for looking in on my blog.

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  2. Thanks for these tips Rooko. My Tomato plants are taller than me so I will go outside now to count the trusses. I bought them at our village Fete so I don't know what variety they are. Marion

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    1. Glad you appreciate the tips Marion. I've got 2 types of tomatoes growing this year. Gardeners delight and the plants are tall like yours. The other variety is a smaller trailing type (forgot to note it's name), which has been left to it's own devices, producing small juicy plum shaped tomatoes. I was always advised to keep 4 or 5 trusses per plant but I suppose it depends on choice of plant and size of fruits required.

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  3. I'm really not sure about the cause of blossom end rot. The old wives tale I was told as a child was that you didn't bring lilac into the house as it was unlucky.

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    1. I'm not entirely convinced about blossom end rot either, but when I've seen the effects on tomatoes it looks like it's from the fruit itself, rather than an external attack or disease, (unless it's similar to blight) As you will know plants need different trace elements to develop and water will circulate them inside the plants.

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    2. I'll go along with it being lack of calcium but it is that erratic watering is the cause that I'm not convinced about, It may be one of the causes bit I don't think that is the whole picture

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