Holiday time

Well, we are off to New York on Thursday, and staying in London village tomorrow night so just tidied up a few little jobs before we go.  

These are potatoes that have grown from shop bought ones that sprouted in the fridge. I cut the eyes out with a sliver of potato and popped them into roottrainers. They are growing nicely. 

They will go into pots once our greenhouse us up and running [2nd May]

This is a potato grown from seed; not a seed potato - I am talking about the seeds inside the fruit that formed on last year's potatoes after the flower fell off. It was germinated on kitchen roll, and transferred  to this 3 inch pot. After I took this, I repotted it into a deeper pot and it will go into the greenhouse until it in turn flowers and fruits. 

Moon Trial GW Harvest

I have today dug up and weighed GW

Sown on Oct 13th

Harvested on April 14th

6 months in the soil

Weights prior to sowing:

10, 9, 8, 11, 6

weights at harvest:

41, 29, 36, 36, 24

Overall increase in clove weight 382%

Moon Trial GB Harvest

I have today dug up and weighed GB

Sown on Oct 9th

Harvested on April 9th

6 months in the soil

Weights prior to sowing:

9, 12, 9, 7, 10

weights at harvest:

38, 44, 42, 34, 46

Overall increase in clove weight 440%

Cloves significantly bigger than the last harvest; foliage healthy with a slight browning. No splitting visible but the loves have almost all lost the original clove covering [no gooeyness on the outside]. 

Using loo roll insides

Alot of gardeners will use the insides of loo rolls to sow long rooted plants such as peas and beans. I have a huge number to plant this year, and once I knew this, I started collecting them [last summer]. 

I started to get quite a collection, so I had to work out how to store them otherwise Mark would be chucking the whole lot out when we ran out of space. 

So, I have been folding them and storing them as shown:

This means, once they come out, they can be used as squares, rather than as rolls:

They can then be used to split square pots as such:

This gives you 4 separate areas within one pot.

Or, as below, where you can have 9 different areas within one pot

Moon Trial GV Harvest

I dug up and weighed GV 

Sown on 16th Sept

Harvested on 17th March

6 months in the soil

weights prior to sowing:

13, 13, 9, 6, 10

weights at harvest"

34, 17, 24, 19, 16

Overall increase in clove weight: 169%

2 have split cloves, with all foliage healthy with slight browning at the edges

Moon Trial GA Harvest

I have today dug up and weighed GA

Sown on 11th Sept

Harvested 13th March

6 months in the soil. 

Weights prior to sowing:

11, 9, 12, 8, 9

weights at harvest

34, 17, 24, 19, 16

Overall increase in clove weight 223%

No split cloves visible. All foliage is healthy with a slight browning at the edges. 

Visiting Piglet Willie and pricking out

On Saturday 28th I visited Piglet Willie and was also taken to see the lotties. Very interesting, and great soil after years of hard work. 

I was given plenty of goodies, seedlings, seeds, a redcurrant, salsa, chilli sauce, and a winter squash. Yum yum. Plus a fabulous lunch and home made cookies.

Piglet Willie's Blog

On the Sunday, I pricked out the Pointy Sweet Peppers that he gave me, and there are 42 of them. All have moved well and are looking perky. I'll spread them around the village and amongst friends once they are big enough to go into their own pots. 

I have also sowed some Rose de Roscoff onion seeds.