Page 39 - ALG Issue 2 2015

The first month of summer and we can now expect long days and warm nights that will make everything in the allotment grow. Unfortunately this includes weeds and apart from competing
for moisture and nutrients, they also act as host plants for many pests and diseases. Keep the hoe moving through the soil at every opportunity to control weeds. Do not leave any larger weeds lying on the surface of the soil to shrivel, pick them up before they do because they still have enough energy in them to run to seed. June is one of the hottest months of the summer.
It is important to minimise the damaging effect of the heat by keeping plants well watered and providing them with some form of shade if possible. The longest day of the year is around the 21st of the month and after this time some plants will start to mature. Onions are the prime example. They stop growing and start to swell so it is the time to stop
feeding them with a high nitrogen
fertiliser.
Checklist
Tie and train climbing beans to supports.
Water peas as pods begin to swell.
Keep hoeing and removing weeds.
Water when necessary. Earth up potatoes.
Draw soil over the tops of carrot
roots to prevent them turning green.
Allow ridge cucumbers to run and
spread; there is no need to pinch the tips out.
Vegetables
Sow: Broccoli, Calabrese, main crop carrots, main crop beetroot (to miss carrot root fly), Swiss chard, chicory, Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, endive, French and runner beans, Florence fennel, kale, kohl rabi, pak choi, peas, spinach, spring onions, swede and turnip.
Plant out: Brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, summer and winter cabbage, cauliflowers, celery, celeriac, kale, leeks, marrows and sweetcorn.
Produce in season: Asparagus (last cutting),Broad beans, early French beans, Swiss chard, cabbage, early carrots, garlic, globe artichokes, kohl rabi, overwintered bulb onions, peas, first of the early potatoes, radish, spinach, spring onions, summer spinach and turnips.
Fruit
Net all fruit against bird and squirrel attack.
Keep watering trees and bushes.
Start to thin plums and apples.
Thin plums in early June and once more towards the end of the month.
Start of ‘June drop’ for apples; delay any extra thinning for a month.
Pears are self-thinning. Only remove damaged or diseased fruit. Continue thinning gooseberries. Summer prune the plants towards the end of the month.
Keep paths between rows of
summer raspberries clean of suckers
(spawn) and begin to identify and loosely
tie in healthy canes for next summer’s
cropping.
Protect strawberry fruits from resting on the soil. Peg down runners to propagate new plants if needed. Ventilate cloches on sunny days and remove them when harvesting is finished.
Produce in season: Blackcurrants, red/white currants, gooseberries, raspberries, rhubarb (last picking) and strawberries.
Greenhouse
Maintain a buoyant growing atmosphere by balancing ventilation and damping down (See May).
Maintain biological controls.
Side shoot tomatoes.
Feed weekly once the fruit of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers starts to set. Use a high potash fertiliser or liquid seaweed.
Tie in leading shoots of cucumbers. Pinch out laterals after two leaves beyond a female flower. Stop the leading shoot’s growing tip when it reaches the ridge of the greenhouse.
Pests and Diseases
Only use spray controls in the cool of the evening when beneficial insects are not active.
Vegetables: Carrot fly, blackfly, greenfly, flea beetle and onion fly. Watch out for early signs of potato blight. Remove haulms or spray with approved fungicide.
Fruit: Maintain non-chemical controls against scab, mildew and codling moth. Spray against codling
moth mid-June and early July.
Spray raspberries, loganberries against raspberry beetle. Spray all cane fruits against cane spot and spur blight. Check gooseberry bushes for signs of mildew
and gooseberry sawfly caterpillars.
Inspect all trees and bushes and spray to control mildew and grey mould.
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Holmes Chapel Road, Over Peover, Knutsford, Cheshire. WA16 9RA
Telephone: 0800 046 7443 sales@chrysanthemumsdirect.co.uk
We offer over 430 varieties, the widest range in the UK, suitable for both exhibition and the garden or allotment. MANY NEW FOR 2015
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JUNE