Welcome to New Time

Each week we bring you new articles and opinions from people working in the orgo-eco-ethical sector

 

Home . Contact Us . Living Ethically

---

The First Harvests

by Bryan Smith

Well, what a difference a month makes!

We had some very cold and wet weather early in June, but since then we have seen settled warm, sometimes very hot weather here in Norfolk. This has made all the difference to the plants and there has been a phenomenal increase in top growth.

I have been eagerly awaiting the first crops, and so far I have been overwhelmed by the quality of everything:

The first early potatoes, Arran Pilot, produced some excellent fruit, and we are now getting up to 15 potatoes per plant, some very large. They are all of superb quality, and so are the second earlies, Maris Reer. (ed's comment - I can vouch for this, Bryan's spuds were truly sensational!)

The Japanese onions are full size now but quite a few were lost over the winter period. I will try these again, and plant them in August, but I will probably give them more protection against the frost this time, as the allotment is in a bit of a frost pocket. The other onions and shallots are looking very good and these could be harvested in the next three weeks, providing the weather remains good.

Broad beans are prolific and the early carrots, Early Nantes, have produced some excellent quality fruit, which have found their way to the freezer.

The beetroot is superb and we have also been able to harvest a small amount of calabrese. Runner beans, dwarf beans, parsnips and all 'greens' are doing exceptionally well and we are looking forward to harvesting them later.

The leeks have been transplanted and these are set to give 'winter' vegetables when things get a little short.

I have tried very hard to work on 'succession' crops, but it has been quite difficult to get a continuous supply of salads and vegetables. There always seems to be a break between one lot of spring onions and the next, but we will keep on trying to keep a continuous outcome.

It is great to see that so much of the hard work has paid off and I firmly believe that the introduction of organic material into the soil has helped, as has planting by the moon! The ground holds in water well, and despite the hot weather, it has only been necessary to water in new plants.

So far we seem to have avoided pest attacks, which I am very thakful for. However these are never very far away, and some of my fellow allotmenteers have started to get blight in their potatoes. This will need to be watched for carefully, and if it appears the top growth will have to be cut back.

Whilst I hope to continue with the good news on harvesting, in next months chat I will spend some time on rotation of crops and the preparation of beds for that.

I hope your garden / allotment is also doing well.

Happy growing!

Bryan