Grow Your Own Magazine

Quite a few grapes have asked about cold affecting their garlic, blueberies and a host of other plants.

Some plants, in the main perenials and trees, require a period of cold or they won't bloom, split or create buds. Some plants like hostas don't grow well without a cold period either.

The time factor of cold required by plants varies tremendously. For example Blueberries require a minimum of 1000 hours of sub 10oc temperatures to fruit to their full potential, others such as garlic and strawberries require much less to encourage spliting into cloves and bud formation. Also, have you ever wondered why you see few if any apple trees in tropical climes, apples again require a good dose of cold to encourage fruiting buds to appear. The victorians were at the cutting edge of fruit production in an attempt to keep the "Big House" supplied with wonders of the age such as fresh peaches and apricots. Even these supposedly tender trees were exposed to the winter weather by them and only protected when they were coming into bloom.

When you want to force early crops of for example strawberries its best to kick them outside to get a chilling and then bring them under cover early in the year. If they are just kept in the warm, the required "switch" isnt flicked that demands the plants produce lots of fruit buds. You may get a crop is you molly coddle them inside but nothing like the plant can potentially produce. Staying with strawberries, you should cut back the old leaves in the autumn after fruiting. This is done for two reasons, the first to eradicate the old dying leaves and any pests that they are harbouring, but the main one is to expose the crown to any cold weather present to ensure good cropping. Strawberries are particularly hardy, my last years runners were actually planted out after tapping them out of pots they were frozen solid in, and yes, they cropped very well for first year plants.

Whilst this vernalisation is required by some plants, as stated mainly perenials and trees, others see the spell of cold as the trigger to flower and set seed because the cold fools them into thinking the season has changed. Any of you who sow leeks very early and get them hit by a few frosts may well find that they mainly run to seed or bolt, the same is true with red baron onion sets. This is a good reason to sit on your "itchy" planting and sowing hands, wait and reap the rewards.

So, if you have tender plants, protect them but if they are hardy perenials, keep them out in the cold. They will thank you for it at harvest time.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated Monday 28th April at 11.50hrs