Page 19 - ALG Issue 3 2016

Expert Guide to...
Growing Winter Crops under cover
Are you a fair weather gardener or do you harvest from your plot all the year round? The new pop-up polytunnels have extended the growing season for many of us and whilst you are harvesting the last of your tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, you could
also be nurturing fresh sowings of winter salads, spinach, winter hardy spring onions, oriental greens, radish and kale. The following Kings’ varieties can be sown over the next two months:
September
Lettuce Valdor, Artic King, and Winter Density
Radish Tarzan
Onion White Lisbon Winter Hardy
Beet Perpetual Spinach Spinach Medina
Pak Choi Green
Salad Rocket
August
Spring greens, such as F1 Spring Hero, F1 Duncan, April, Flower
of Spring, Durham early and Wheelers Imperial.
Carrot F1 Eskimo Claytonia
Beet Perpetual Spinach
Salad Rocket
Spinach Medina
Radish Tarzan
Onion White Lisbon Winter Hardy Pak Choi Green
Mizuna
Kale Nero do Toscana sown in a polytunnel will give you tender baby leaves. Winter lettuces can be sown right up to mid-November. Young leaves from spinach sown in September can be used in winter salads along with the oriental greens and mustards.
All the crops mentioned can deal with the cold and low light levels but in order to maximise the available light, you will need to keep your polytunnel clean both inside and out. Wipe off the algae with a sponge and a disinfectant solution on the inside and lower outsides; cleaning the top outside is a two person job involving a sheet, two tennis balls and some rope! Tie the balls into the ends of the sheet
to weigh it down - soak in disinfectant solution and throw over the top of your tunnel. The sheet can then be moved along the top of the tunnel to remove algae build up, which can be hosed or swilled off.
A water butt kept in your tunnel over the winter will help to raise the temperature a little as the water will retain the heat after sunny days.
Grow Your Own Crop of Blackberries and Hybrids
Fantasia - Has an excellent flavour
and has the subtle flavour of the wild blackberry. The canes are very vigorous, thick and thorny. Ripens early August onwards. Requires 4.5m (15ft) of wall space. Supplied in a 3 litre pot.
Price: £12.15 Code:128
Loganberry
(Thornless) Loganberry - Raised in 1881, this remains the most popular hybrid. Ripening from the middle of July, the fruits are medium-sized and dark red in colour and have quite a sharp flavour. The canes are only moderately vigorous. Requires 2.4m (8ft) of wall space. RHS Award of Garden Merit. Price: £12.15 Code:128
Fantasia
Please add £8.95 p&p to your total order to UK Mainland only, please call for p&p charges to off-shore islands and Scottish Highlands.
Reuben
Reuben - As well as producing extremely large and juicy berries, they are also incredibly sweet, scoring as high as many strawberries on the brix scale of sweetness. Fruiting from August to September they are delicious eaten straight from the bush.
The plants can be spaced closer together therefore increasing the yield potential. It is also suitable for growing in large pots. Height 1.8m (6ft) Spread 1m (3ft 4”).Price: £12.15 Code:1354
ORDER PHONE 01255 830181 Mon – Sat, 9am – 4:30pm
Please
quote: NAS16AU
Please write to: KEN MUIR LTD, Dept NAS16AU, Honeypot Farm, Weeley Heath, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex CO16 9BJ
For SPECIAL OFFERS on-line shopping visit:www.kenmuir.co.uk
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