Page 40 - ALG Issue 1 2020
P. 40

 members articles Growing for showing - part 2
 Now we get to the growing. If your
aim is to win at a small local show or allotment competition, good quality well grown crops will often be sufficient.
To achieve this, you first need to get your soil into good heart – this is done by adding copious amounts of organic matter, which will improve your soil structure and help hold water; this is important in this time of climate change and drought, and also it will feed the plants. The organic matter will have a positive effect on the soil for a number of years, so will not just benefit your exhibition crops but those that follow
in the next year or so. Apart from root crops, organic matter can be applied before most vegetables and fruits. The use of organic matter will also improve the soil fauna and flora including bacteria, actinomycetes, protozoa and the good nematodes.
Whether you are a dig or no-dig gardener may not affect your chances of winning too much, but a digger will dig in the organic matter and a no-digger will spread in over the surface and leave it for the earthworms to take it into the soil.
What types of organic matter should you use? Basically, anything you can get at
a reasonable cost, or free if possible. It can be farmyard manure, homemade compost, municipal compost (made by local councils and sold to the public), leaf mould, spent hops or mushroom compost and green manure. Use
as much as possible and at regular intervals, say every two to three years.
In the spring prepare the seed or planting bed when the soil conditions are right (not too wet or frozen).
It is important to wait for the soil temperature to warm up. The temperature required will depend on the crop being grown. For beetroot, carrots, lettuce and most brassicas, 5-7°C is fine, but sweetcorn, runner and French beans and the cucurbits like courgettes, marrow and pumpkins need 10°C, which is not reached in most of the UK until mid-May or later.
If you need to start your crops off earlier, they can be sown in a greenhouse, polytunnel, or indoors in modules and
Once your crops are growing, the main thing to do is to control the weeds
then planted out when the air and soil temperature is right. Don’t forget to harden them off first.
A well-fed soil should mean applications of fertiliser are not really required unless you are growing for size, like large onions or pumpkins.
If your soil has a low fertility or is very sandy, an application of fertiliser may be required. This can be Growmore, blood, fish and bone or a proprietary fertiliser. Growmore is a balanced feed of 7% nitrogen, 7% phosphorous, 7% potassium with no trace elements and is suitable for nearly all vegetables and fruit. If growing leaf crop like lettuce,
            40 Allotment and Leisure Gardener


















































































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