Beetroot: Forono and Boro F1

Lots of beet to pick. The Forono surprised me by growing rather quickly this year, and being ready the same time as new variety Boro, despite being sown later. The trouble with Forono is that the long roots are particularly prone to slug damage, so cannot be left too long. Unlike newer varieties, it can be prone to being woody if left too long. So far, so good, but there's an awful lot of beetroot sandwiches to get through!

Actually, we have been experimenting with roasting beet along with other vegetables. It take quite a long time, and is prone to bleed a little, but is an excellent addition to the roasting tray.

Leek: Caretan

The leeks could have been better this year. I planted to early and they have bolted, and also developed quite bad rust infection. I've grown this variety for a number of years, but never had this problem before. Usually they are large, long standing winter leeks without problem. The one thing I did differently this year was to plant very early. I'm hoping the bolters won't be too woody.

Harlequin Ladybirds

Found several Harlequin ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis) today. Reported them to the Harlequin survey with photographic evidence. They were all sheltering in my quince crop.

Since the harlequins have arrived, there seems to have been a corresponding drop in the numbers of two-spot ladybirds which overwinter in our windows. Possibly just a coincidence, but I'm inclined to think there may be a connection.

Ladybird identification guide

Potato varieties - some further thoughts.

I had considered finishing with Nicola now that blight has started affecting us regularly, but its resistance to slugs and scab is good, problems are actually greater evils as far as storage and general usefulness. As long as action is taken early enough, it seems cutting foliage/strawing down do stop the blight from affecting the crop or and the yields isn't actually affected as badly. I have tried Sante in the past but I didn't rate the culinary quality, the yields weren't spectacular either and I didn't find the disease resistance any better than Nicola, though obviously the latter is more susceptible to blight. A possible alternative is Charlotte, which is a similar type of potato with a similar season and slightly better blight resistance, but less versatile than Nicola, with a smaller average tuber size.

The only other second early/maincrop I've ever liked was a round, purple-eyed variety whose name I forget. This was the highest yielding potato I've ever grown, but it simply couldn't find it after a couple of years. I think it must have been Picasso. Whether it would be as good in this location I don't know, its susceptibility to slugs might be a bit disappointing.

Potato crop: Nicola

Dug the remaining rows of Nicola today. Exceptionally clean crop this year with very little slug damage and only a tiny bit of scab.

Yield was a little less than the Rooster, 7 kg for two rows (6  or 7 tubers) but size was good, with a number of perfect tubers of fist-size for  baking. Most of the spoiled tubers were fork-damaged. Only one plant had blighted tubers. Considering how early blight struck this season, we were lucky to have any potatoes to store at all.

I think it is definitely worth getting seed in as early as possible. The first two rows of Nicola went in a couple of weeks before Easter, and were large, fully leafed plants whilst the later sowings were just breaking.

This is the potato council's evaluation of Nicola:

"Second early maturity, high number of uniform tubers per plant, medium to long dormancy. Good resistance to common scab, potato leaf roll virus, potato virus Y and bruising. Resistant to potato cyst nematode Ro1. Medium low dry matter, good boiling qualitities" Potato Council website

Best of all, no damage done to any toads today. I did see a grass snake tail slipping silently away as I cleared the straw, maybe the toads have all been eaten.

Not sure why these won a prize, they look dreadfully uneven!

Compost: don't include triffid in the mix!

This is a cautionary compost tale. In theory almost everything of plant extraction should be possible to compost. But not Parrot's Feather Myriophyllum.

I cleared a lot out of the pond last summer as it tends to overwhelm the surface and cause the aquatic oxygenaters to die back. I mixed it in with chicken straw and grass as the bottom layer of the new heap I was making, thinking that a year underneath a hundred-weight of hot, actively steaming muck would kill it off. Wrong. When I came to harvest this heap earlier in the summer, the bottom layer was still full of wiry, strongly-rooted stems that looked far from dead. It was impossible to use in this state, so I left it. Within a week, the stems had started to grow and produce fresh green leaves. This plant does not need water, it can grow in fairly dry soil like any other. It is truly a pest. I have now treated with glyphosate, which has wilted it a little, but I'm still not sure that I can just compost over it again. I think I'll have to dig it out and destroy some other way.

The Elderflower Wine

Well, the cup is coming home again this year. Having not made any this year, and not even having gotten round to bottling last years, an eleventh hour effort last night paid off. Now we just need to rememer to start drinking it, having got out of the habit somewhat in the last few years.

One of the many

Just to illustrate the problem, there are probably half a dozen toads per square yard in the vegetable garden. Nestling under leaves and boards, finding their way deeper into the soil via cracks or mole/mouse tunnels. All ready to be trodden on, spiked or bisected by a spade at any point. It has made gardening really difficult. Only a tiny percentage have been harmed by gardening directly, but it's very upsetting when it happens. One jumped under my foot as I walked down the path this week. On the other, hand it's obviously a fantastic habitat for them. I can't say I've ever noticed any benefit from the presence in terms of reduced slug numbers though. Both are present in plague proportions!

Potato Rooster

Decided to lift the 'Roosters' today. In previous years I've left them far too late, and lost an awful lot to the hole burrowers.

A good yield, about 10 kgs in total. Not bad from 7 small seed potatoes in 2 rather cramped rows. Less scabby than last year too, the sulphur had done a reasonable job, though hadn't eradicated it completely. Certainly not enough for exhibition standard, though the Nicolas were perfectly clean, and took first prize in their category today.

Best of all, no toads spiked. Putting the straw down was an excellent idea. It stopped any blight spores affecting the tubers, prevented any greening and discouraged the toads from burrowing into the soil. Most were just nestling under the straw, and were easily brushed off with it. I will leave it down until spring and hope the same applies when I come to dig then.

Autumn musings

Superb autumn sunshine again today. I feel I should be doing something, but the ground is too hard to dig at the moment. Digging when the soil is in this condition creates too many fissures which quickly attract sheltering toads and toadlets, which will probably end up on the tine of my fork at a later stage. I'd rather wait until the soil condition is right.

I could have cleared out the 'tomoato tardis', but he blighted tomatoes are still yielding the odd fruit. Instead I spent a while photographing the abundant insect life. Lots of seven spot ladybirds, so nice to see after the influx of harlequin ones in previous years. This one was feeding on a fennel flower. The self-seeded borage was attracting multitudes of honey and bumble bees, lots of different species.

A good picking!

I couldn't resist posting a photo of today's pickings