Page 49 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2024

Lettuces ready for harvesting
Keep earthing up potatoes as they grow. The main problem with growing potatoes is blight, a disease that could ruin the crop if not checked. It is worth spraying them with a good fungicide
in an attempt to prevent
it. If you planted your
potatoes in March or
April, they may be ready
for harvesting. Obviously,
the longer you leave them
the bigger they will grow
but I suggest that you dig
one up to see how big the potatoes are. They may be big enough for you, but you don’t need to dig them all up at once. Just dig a few up when you need them.
Apart from potato blight, there are other diseases that we need to be aware of. Marrows and courgettes may get mildew
and broad beans may get chocolate spot. Thos doesn’t seriously affect the crop but it looks unsightly on the leaves. It is worth spraying these plants tp prevent these
Tomatoes planted
straw under the developing fruits of strawberries and covering them with a net. Do this now if you haven’t already done so. If you want to increase your strawberry plants you can peg down a few runners into pots of compost, where hopefully they will form roots which can be cut off from the parent plant and allowed to grow to form a new plant.
If you grow Chrysanths or dahlias, when the plants are about 5 or6 inches tall (12
to 15 cm.) they need stopping. This means pinching out the growing tips which causes the plants to produce side growths (called laterals) which will eventually bear the flowers.
In the greenhouse, keep removing the side shoots on tomato plants grown on the cordon system and see that the plants are tied to the canes as they grow. Not only plants in the greenhouse but plants outside as well should be growing strongly by now so keep tying them up.
If you grow asparagus, this is the last month that you should harvest them and it would be helpful to give the plants a mulch.
Keep earthing up potatoes as they grow
diseases.
We need to keep our
eyes open for pests as well, mainly greenfly
and whitefly which I mentioned last month but also blackfly which go on broad and runner beans. There is also gooseberry
sawfly the maggots of which can strip
the leaves very quickly. You may have to resort to spraying to control these pests. Another pest you could get is cabbage root fly which lays its egg on the soil near the plants. When the maggots hatch,
they burrow into the soil and eat the plant roots. The visible sign of this happening
is yellowing of the leaves. The best preventative is to put discs round the base of the plants to stop the flies laying their eggs. You can buy these, but you can make your own using any suitable material.
I mentioned last month about putting
Sprouts ready for planting
Simply Vegetables 49