The Allotted Month - November & December 2007

These two months are not the busiest on the plot.
No seeds need sown, nothing gets planted and the weed growth is slow.
Even the harvesting is easy, no heavy lifting of potatoes, just pull
some Maximus sprouts, cut some Chevalier calabrese and Celtic winter
cabbage, and pull some Angela swedes. The Musselburgh leeks and
Green Utah celery need a spade but come out easily.
Only Countess parsnips need some digging to avoid breaking the roots.
That has been just as well as other priorities kept me off the plot for most of three weeks.

This is the time of year for a review to help with ordering seeds for next season.
On section A the failure was the carrot crop. I make my own seed tapes but this year
tried laying them with the seeds under the tape - failure!
By the time failure was clear it was too late to resow.
The other crops were fine and an spray of derris on the peas at the first signs of thrips worked.

The Defender courgettes in section B were poor. Of the four plants,
two made hardly any growth and the others didn't thrive as well as usual
and finished cropping early. For the first time there wasn't a glut from start to finish,
but still enough for the kitchen. All the other crops did well,
particularly the catch crop of a row of Concorde early potatoes.

The odd one out is section C was the club root resistant Kilaxy cabbage,
it will be dropped. I'll be looking for another variety to replace Candid Charm
and White Rock cauliflower. They both have heads that are just too big for
the two of us so I may try a smaller headed type. Maximus sprouts have
totally replaced growing an early and a later variety. The plants tend
to stay upright, the sprouts are firm and tight with a good flavour and
pull away from the stem easily. Prospects are good for cropping right
through to March when they have to come out for the new season.

The potato section had a smaller crop than usual but still enough for us.
I usually grow a few Heritage varieties but they often have a low yield
so some of them are being dropped. I grow a total of 18 rows of potatoes
so that will be the number of varieties for next season - down from 24.

Although I like to try something new, over the years I have homed
in on good reliable varieties for the plot. For information they are now listed.

• Beetroot, round - Boltardy, long -Cylindra.
• Cabbage, summer - Minicole, winter -Celtic.
• Calabrese - Chevalier.
• Cauliflower, early - Candid Charm, later - White Rock.
• Carrots - Amsterdam Forcing, Autumn King, Chantenay Royal, Early Nantes and Flakkee.
• Celery - Green Utah or Victoria.
• Courgettes - Defender.
• Leeks - Musselburgh.
• Onion sets - Setton.
• Parsnips - Countess.
• Peas - Hurst Green Shaft and Kelvedon Wonder.
• Potatoes - Edzel Blue, Kestrel, Maxine, Nadine, Osprey, Pentland Javelin and Sante.
• Shallots - Golden Gourmet.
• Sprouts - Maximus.
• Swedes - Angela
• Sweet Corn - Early Extra Sweet.

I've already started winter digging and that will continue over the winter so that
everything is ready for the new season.