Page 47 - Simply Veg 3.21

For cauliflowers, Aalsmeer
(D, R, Sh, F), or Triumphant
(Sh, B, F). By far the most popular broccoli is Early purple sprouting (most suppliers).
For the key to suppliers, please see the end of these notes.
In the case of salad crops, saving space doesn’t matter as much because I don’t include them in the crop rotation. I just sow and plant them anywhere there is room. I sow radish and salad onions direct in drills
frames with fleece.
If you have sown seeds earlier in drills,
you need to keep thinning the seedlings in stages until they are at their final position. If you have sown seeds in pots or cell trays earlier and thinned the seedlings to one per pot or cell, as I do, you may have some cabbages, cauliflowers, leeks and salad crops ready for planting. Rake a general
Seasonal Jobs
DEREK BROOKS, FNVS
July
I have emphasised before that you should sow seeds in small batches to spread
the cropping, particularly salad crops
and brassicas. So, assuming that you have sown some in the last two months sow some more this month. You have,
of course, to leave room in your beds for these successional sowings. This applies particularly to brassicas because I grow them all in the same bed. They can be sown direct if you wish but I start mine
in 3-inch (7.5 cm.) pots and later transfer them to 5-inch (12.5 cm.) pots before planting. So, in my first sowings I didn’t grow so many that they would fill the whole bed. Brassicas sown now
but I prefer to sow lettuce, corn salad, and endive in cell trays.
Root crops such as turnips swedes, kohl rabi and beetroot can still be sown. They can all be sown direct in drills but as I have said before, I prefer to sow beetroot and kohl rabi in cell trays and carrots in buckets, drums
or long tubes filled with sieved compost.
The main problem growing carrots is carrot fly. They lay their eggs on the soil near
the plants and when the maggots hatch, they tunnel into the roots making them unpalatable. Some books tell you that carrot flies only fly at ground level but don’t believe it. I have had the maggots in carrots that I
fertiliser into the ground first. Don’t forget to cover the cabbages and cauliflowers with netting to keep off the cabbage white butterflies as I have said before.
Apart from butterflies, there are other pests that we need to keep our eyes open for and I mentioned them last month such as blackfly on beans, cabbage root fly and greenfly which attack a whole range of plants. They all need spraying to prevent the spreading to other crops.
As far as diseases go, I think potato blight is the most serious and I wrote about it last month and it is this month when it usually arrives. I suggested that you spray to prevent it so keep doing so this month as well. If, in spite of spraying, the tell-tale brown patches appear on the leaves cut down the haulms but don’t put them on the compost. This prevents the spores washing down onto the soil and affecting the tubers. You may as
well dig up the potatoes because they won’t grow any more. I mentioned other diseases last month like chocolate spot and mildew and we should keep spraying to prevent these as well.
In the fruit garden strawberries can be planted. I have said before, but I must say it again that you must buy them from a proper supplier then they will be guaranteed virus free. Put a net over the strawberry bed if
you haven’t done before. Plums, cherries, gooseberries and red and white currants can still be pruned as I described last month. Cordon grown apples can also be pruned
if you live in the South. Up North, you are better waiting till August. Cut 9 inch (23
cm) long side shoots to the third leaf and lateral shoots to the first leaf. Other fruits for pruning are summer raspberries after the fruits are picked. Cut down the fruited canes and tie the others to the wires.
May and June planted flowers and vegetables should be growing well now and
should be winter and spring varieties. For cabbages choose January King (most suppliers), Tundra (most suppliers), Noelle (D , F), Winter Jewell (D, S, Sh) or Wheelers Imperial (same suppliers).
Some books tell you that carrot flies only fly at ground level but don’t believe it
have grown in buckets, so I now cover them with fleece supported on canes to keep out the flies. At this time of year, I take the cold frames that I have used in spring for hardening off plants to the allotment and grow carrots in them. I sow the seed in bore holes filled with sieved compost and cover the
Calabrese just harvested
Aquilegias
Simply Vegetables 47