Page 47 - SV 3 2024

Seasonal jobs
DEREK BROOKS FNVS
KEY TO SUPPLIERS
D – Dobies
S – Suttons
B – Browns
F – Fothergills
R – Robinsons Sh – Shelleys M – Marshalls
July 2024
Most of the seeds I mentioned for sowing last month can still be sown now but don’t forget to sow them little and often as I have said before. Now
is the best time to sow cabbages, cauliflowers, and broccoli for spring. As I have said before, I sow them in small pots ,3 or 4 in each and thin them to one when they germinate. For cabbages, the most popular varieties are January King and Tundra. Most suppliers sell these varieties. For cauliflowers, the most widely available are Aalsmeer (Dobies, Robinsons and Fothergills) and Triumphant (Browns and Fothergills). The most popular broccoli for sowing now is Early Purple Sprouting (most suppliers). There are also Chinese cabbages there are many varieties of these in the catalogues but there isn’t one variety more popular than the rest.
Root crops such as radish, turnips, swedes, kohl rabi, carrots and parsnips can still be sown in drills and so can salad crops such as lettuce, beetroot, corn salad, endive, rocket and spinach but as I have said before I prefer to sow these in cell trays, and I grow carrots
in drums or tubes.
Dwarf French beans can still be sown if you want a late crop. These seeds can be sown direct in the bed.
If you sowed any of
the salad crops that I
have just mentioned in
cell trays in the last two
months you may have
some ready for planting
and the same applies to leeks sown in pots.
Strawberries can be planted now. It is important to get them planted this month
or next month while the soil is still warm then they will be established before the cold weather comes. If you have grown any from your own runners, they will be fine, but if not, make sure you get them
Bed of annuals planted on allotment
If you want to grow potatoes for Christmas, you can plant some now in bags or tubs of compost. You can leave them outside now, if you wish, but they will need to go in a greenhouse or somewhere else frost free before the frost comes. I don’t grow them like this myself because there are enough of those that I dig up from the allotment in August to last till Christmas, but it is a good idea if you haven’t anywhere else to grow them.
Watering will still be a priority this month both outside and in the greenhouse. If peas and beans go short of water, the flowers may not set properly to form the pods. If tomatoes are not watered regularly they get blossom end rot which causes a dark patch at the base of the fruit. Damping down is another job in the greenhouse as
I explained last month, and the doors and ventilators can stay open now.
Climbing French beans, sweet corn and courgetes
Dwarf French beans can still be sown if you want a late crop. These seeds can be sown direct in the bed
from a reliable supplier because they will be free of virus, a disease
to which strawberries are prone. Make sure you prepare the ground properly by digging in plenty of organic matter such as rotted manure. I have advised you before, to put straw under your developing strawberries to keep them off the
ground and a net over them to keep the birds off so if you haven’t done these jobs yet, do them as soon as you can.
Cabbages for harvesting
Calabrese
Simply Vegetables 47