Page 43 - Simply Veg 4 2022

Miniature ball dahlia Mary’s Jomanda
Butternut squashes
winter. Dahlia growers all have their own method of storing the tubers. Some people wash them but I just remove the loose soil from off the tuber with a screwdriver, then drive the screwdriver down the hollow stem and out at the bottom. This frees any water trapped in the stem. I tie on the label with waterproof string right round the tuber and not just round the stem. If the stem shrinks, and the label would come off. I then stand the tubers upside down in boxes and put them under the greenhouse staging over winter.
If you are growing Chrysanths, depending on the varieties, they may have finished flowering or they may carry on
till November. If they have finished, they also need cutting back to about 6 inches (15 cm), unlike dahlias they don’t want drying off. They need planting in compost in deepish boxes and the compost I use is John Innes no 3. They need keeping in a cold greenhouse or cold frame over winter. Chrysanths get a disease called white rust. To prevent it, I start spraying the stools
at this early stage with a fungicide and continue every few weeks throughout the season.
You should still have plenty of crops to harvest but some will be coming to an end. When crops have finished, clear the plants
onto the compost heap. This gives you a chance to clear and weed the ground and prepare it for another crop. Green manure is one possibility and is well worth sowing to help improve the soil.
Runner beans should be finishing soon. I save my own seed so I leave some pods on the plants for the beans inside to grow to their maximum size. I then pick the pods and put them to dry on top of a cupboard in the house, then remove the beans from the pods and store them.
Tomatoes in the greenhouse will also be finishing soon. The green tomatoes that may still be on will not ripen now so pick them off. I ripen them by putting them in a drawer in the house along with a banana skin. You may as well dig up the plants which will leave room to plant other crops
such as lettuce, as I have said above.
In the fruit garden, it is time to put grease
bands round the trunks of your apple trees. If you have put some on previously, check that they are still O.K. or if they need replacing. The purpose of these is to prevent the wingless females of the winter moth from climbing into the trees to lay their eggs.
Last month I mentioned ordering fruit trees and bushes to plant in the dormant season (November to March), so if you need some and haven’t ordered any yet, now is the time.
Key to suppliers
D (Dobies), S (Suttons), M (Marshalls), Sh (Shelleys),R ( Robinsons), B (Browns), F (Fothergills)
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