Samurailord's Video Updates

[Samurailord]

Early March on the Allotment

After a few dry days and the completion of the drainage channel it looks like I can start to work on building up the top half of my allotment.

The first of the soft fruit beds are in, and there is even the start of a couple of paths.

I have taken a video to record my progress - please let me know what you think.

Thanks

Andy

[Linzy]

Great video. Slugged, caterpillaired and pidgeoned is the story of my life

[Samurailord]

Great video. Slugged, caterpillaired and pidgeoned is the story of my life

Thanks Linzy

It was certainly a very steep learning curve for me last season - I just hope that this year is a little more forgiving!

Andy

[Thelma Sanders]

You say Saturday 2nd of May?

[Samurailord]

You say Saturday 2nd of May?

Whoops - yes, I did say may! Don't know where that came from, apart from that it is my son's birthday, and he had just become a dad himself the day before?

Anyway, it was definitely march!

I seem to struggle with dates when recording - I shall have to start writing them down so I can read from a card !

Andy

[WPG]

Great video Samurailord, looking forward to see how it all develops over the year. Will be interested in your verdict on the woodchip path (I'm thinking of woodchip paths in part of my plot)

You've inherited quite a big pond from the looks of it - do you have plans for it?

[Samurailord]

i WPG

The woodchip paths are only supposed to be a temporary solution until I can scrounge enough flags from Freecycle to lay on to, but they seem to be holding up remarkably well by themselves.

Even running a full loaded barrow over it doesn't seem to move it much, but then again my paths are between raised beds so therereally isn't anywhere for the chippings to go to.

I have no major plans for the pond apart from to find and fix the leak - if there actually is one, that is.

I have some bullrushes and other aquatic plants at home that I will down once I have cleared out all the debris and slime that has accumulated on the bottom.

I hope to attract a few frogs to hekeep the slugs under control a bit to.

Andy

[Samurailord]

March Week 2 on the Allotment - Video Update

Hi all

I have finally managed to get the new season started and planted the first potatoes on my plot this weekend.

I have also finished making the first of my soft fruit and herb beds, and made a video update as well.

Please post your comments here as I would love to know what you all think about my progress.

Thanks

Andy

[bario1]

Thanks Samurailord, finding these vids very informative. Are those buckets really going to be big enough? How many tubers does each plant produce, roughly? I have some 50L plastic barrels that i'm going to try spuds in, never grown them before.

[Jamesy_uk]

I know you like a good experiment but I will say that I usually put 3 main crop in a 40l tarp bag and maybe 4 first earlies. The Anya 6 to a bucket will be interesting to see I guess a lot of good green growth but very small tatties without some heavy feeding and sunlight.

[Samurailord]

As I say in the video, 3 maincrop in a 20L bucket may be tight, but I don't want huge tubers.

I am hoping to harvest these potatoes a bit earlier than last year to try and avoid the dreaded blight

As for the Anya, again I want lots of small, sweet tubers as I have found that the smaller they are the less defined is the 'nuttyness' in the taste.

Not that I don't like the taste of Anya (and Pink Fir Apple too) but I prefer the subtle taste of the smaller tuber.

I have also got far too many seed pototoes of Anya, so putting six per bucket gets rid of a few more.

I do like to try things that are outside the usual norm - sometimes it need a radical look at established 'facts' to determine that the staus quo is not always best.

One good example that I am trying to prove or disprove is that it is bad to try and use supermarket potatoes and garlic in the allotment or home garden.

The established wisdom is that seed potatoes and garlic from established suppliers is better because supermarket bought veg may harbour diseases and be more prone to blight etc.

The only empirical evidence I can find seems to come from the commercial suppliers who have a vested interest in us buying all our seed pototoes from them.

Last year I grew a mixture of supermarket and bought in seed potatoes, and whilst none did really well in the horrible weather we had, the supermarket potatoes did not come down with blight for a full month after the seed potatoes did, and had no sign of any disease or anything else wrong with them.

And they tasted lovely too.

This year I am again experimenting with both supermarket and bought in seed potatoes, and this time extending the variables by planting some in pots and some in raised beds.

For all of my potatoes, both in pots and beds I am planning to top dress with chicken manure pellets once the first shoots appear, and use further top dressing every time I earth up, so they should get plenty of feed.

Sunlight I can't control, but both pots and beds are in the same general area so should get pretty much the same amount of light.

It will be interesting to see how this experiment progresses - I will no doubt keep everyone informed as the season develops.

Andy

[Jamesy_uk]

Ah fair play if you want them smaller then that's a good way to do it, I also have far too many tubers this year about 140 at last count. I can find a home for 20 at my folks garden then 80 odd down the lotty and um 40 for tubs, I will look like a spud by the end of the year.

[Samurailord]

I think I have a similar number - six varieties in total.

My reasoning was that the Anya tubers I had were fairly small already, most no more than an inch long and half as wide, so the plant itself should need less than half as much space as the Maris Piper, and they were suggested at two or three to a 20L pot.

I am looking forwards to the end of June when I should be able to start harvesting my first home grown spuds of the year.

Andy

[Bigmallly]

Nice vid Andy, I'll ignore the Yorkshire comments...............I think you would have got more comparable results if the spuds had been planted in the same soil, i.e. use the soil from your beds in the pots.............I agree with you that 3 seeds may be too many for the bucket, I think I would have just gone with 1.

[Martin H]

I miss the allotment I used to have, this vid brings it all back to me. I'll be following your progress, please keep the updates coming!

I used to grow kohl rabi too, great salad vegetable it is. Never had any success with overwintered ones though, the cold made them tough and woody. My advice would be to bin them and sow more in April when the soil is warm and they can grow quickly.

All the best!