Page 33 - Simply Vegetables Winter 2022/23

Egyptian onion Allium proliferum group
an increasing number of shallot cultivars becoming available so give these a go.
Other crops that can be started early
in modules are lettuce, chard, spinach, beetroot, many Brassicas, in fact most crops except for the root crops like carrots and parsnips where the tap root can be damaged by transplanting. Brassicas neatly brings me onto cauliflowers which can be sown in October to harvest in May / June. Either sow in seed trays and prick out
into 9cm pots or sow into small modules and then pot into 10cm pots. Grow them cold in a cold greenhouse, cold frame or polytunnel otherwise they become leggy.
If the plants become too large for the 10cm pot move up to a 15cm pot. I leave mine in a 10cm pot and feed if necessary. Plant out in March and cover with fleece on cold or frosty nights, I tend to leave the fleece on but make sure you remove by mid-April. They can be grown to maturity in deep cold frames and just remove the lights (cover) when they start to touch them. I have also grown them to maturity in a polytunnel and got a good crop and it avoided any pest problems. Once harvested they freeze well and will keep you going for a year.
The autumn sowing of brassicas could include calabrese ‘Stromboli’ which matures in March to May from a September to November sowing. Grow them the
same as cauliflowers described above. The cabbage ‘Vivaldi’ is a small cabbage that can be sown in October and will be ready to harvest by late June if not earlier
Kale ‘Midnight Sun’ 3 plants in pot
which should beat both the droughts and dreaded cabbage white caterpillar. Three cabbages that can be sown in August / early September and ready to harvest by April next year are ‘Winter Green,’ ‘Wheelers Improved’ and April. If kept covered with fleece or fine netting when young this should prevent problems with late cabbage white caterpillars. If grown in pots for the first couple of months they should be easy to cover.
I read recently that one of the biggest carrot growers in the
will trap heat this can bring forward the sowing dates by 10 to 20 days depending on when the cover was applied. Once the soil is well moist from the winter rains cover it and this will prevent or at least reduce the leaching of nutrients, prevent weed growth (unless clear polythene is used) and warm the soil. The aim is to warm the soil, sow early and get the plants established before any dry weather starts, even a dry spring. once established many vegetables will produce a crop without watering especially
UK sows his seeds in November to harvest the summer of next year. If you have space which
is likely overwinter why not give this a trial. Sow the seeds outdoors using a Chantenay type as normal in drills , once germinated keep weed free and leave until ready to harvest. If you want earlier carrots cover
The aim is to warm the soil, sow early and get the plants established before any dry weather starts, even a dry spring
if a damp spring. Also warming the soil before any planting will speed up the establishment of the plants and some crops will be ready for early to mid-summer.
Other methods of getting early crops are to sow / plant under cloches of glass, polyethene, plastic or fleece and some can be grown to nearly maturity, others will have the cloches
with fleece or sow in a
cold frame. I should add that this grower has fields in both Nottinghamshire and Scotland so is not down in the sunny south!
Looking at early sowing outdoors on
the allotment or veg plot the main thing is to warm the soil before sowing, you need a soil temperature of 7°C for most of the hardy vegetables. If the soil is covered with polytene sheet, fleece or any material that
removed once they are well established or getting too large. Cloches are a very useful and cheap way of achieving early crops or establishing tender crops like courgettes.
Looking at the other end of the growing season, if future years are anything
like 2022, we are still getting good temperatures (double digit figures) in
late October and nice sunny days which
Kale Winterbor
New Zealand Spinach
Oca crop
Simply Vegetables 33