04 Jan - Seed List & Thoughts For 2020

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. My thoughts have been turning towards the upcoming growing season on the allotment, especially in light of the awful season I had last year. I won't dwell on the disappointments I had but, suffice it to say, it was the worse year on the plot I've had in over a dozen seasons growing there.

While I won't wallow in the misery of last season, there are lessons to be learned and I'd be a fool not to heed them. Firstly, brassica root fly seems to be an increasing problem on my allotment site, by that I mean all the plots not just mine. Traditionally I've netted my brassicas to protect them from pigeons and Cabbage White butterflies but this ordinary net no longer seems to be enough. It's time to go with the enviromesh type protection like one of my plot neighbours. 

I've used this type of fine netting to successfully protect my leeks from leek moth which sadly first appeared around 2010 and now is an unwelcome visitor every year. As the adult brassica root fly is a centimeter long, enviromesh type netting should provide adequate protection - it worked for my neighbour last year so I'd be a fool not to go down that road. (Pictured - enviromesh type netting protecting from leek moth).


My biggest disappointment was the first ever failure of my Winter squash crop. I've always been successful with Hunter F1 butternuts over the years and along with them I've grown many other squashes like the silver Crown Prince, the pumpkins Big Max and Jack O' Lantern, the exotic looking Turks Turban and small but perfectly formed Sweet Dumpling among others. (Pictured are Crown Prince & Turks Turban from 2016).



The cause was certainly weather related. When I planted the squashes out in early June the weather became overcast and cool for a number of weeks, squashes hate this and typically don't subsequently go on to develop flowers and fruits. There's no easy solution to this except hope the weather gets hotter from June onward. To help, I'm growing two types of butternut in the hope that at least one of them will cope with whatever conditions appear; I'll also chuck in whatever squash seeds I have knocking around. I'm also trying a different courgette this year, one that will flower and fruit in cool, overcast conditions. 

I've also decided not to grow main crop potatoes this year - shock horror! When I downsized plots there seemed little justification to spend a lot of money in sourcing Sarpo Mira, the best and most reliable main crop I've ever grown. Unfortunately they still aren't available locally and high postage costs for a couple of bags just isn't justifiable for me. Nothing compares to them so I've decided to just grow Rocket early spuds instead. They are reliable, cheap and will grow to a decent size if you want them that way. So, instead of chucking all my earlies in towards the end of March as usual, I'm planting double the number but in succession. Four batches will go in from late March to the middle of May.

So what am I sowing in terms of seeds this year? 

Leeks - Musselburgh
Tomatoes - Roma and Alisa Craig (as I already have them) (greenhouse)
Peppers - Corno Di Rosa Toro (Bulls Horns)
Broad Beans - Bunyards Exhibition
Runner Bean - Firestorm & Snowstorm (red & white flowering)
Lettuce - Lollo / Little Gem
Salad Onion - White Lisbon
Brussels Sprouts - Bosworth F1
Cabbage - Summer - Pimo II
Cabbage - Winter - January King
Potatoes - First Early - Rocket
Onion Sets - Sturon
Parsnip - Gladiator F1
Carrots - Sweet Candle & Resistafly F1
Beetroot - Boltardy
Courgette - Sure Thing
Pumpkin - Big Max
Butternut Squash - Hunter F1 & Waltham (plus Crown Prince if I have some left)
Swede - Best of All

That'll do for now. Bye.