allotment notebook

Saturday 16 May 2015

How to Grow Asparagus.

Just 100 grams of asparagus contains 2.2 grams of protein and at least 900 units of vitamin A and beta carotene, a component that many people feel has great potential as a cancer preventive.
I bought and ready to plant!

How to Grow Asparagus - Vegetable Gardener:
"Plant crowns early.
Crowns should be planted while they are dormant.
That can be as early as late winter.
They should be planted when the ground is workable, between frosts.
As long as the crowns are covered with about 2 in. of soil, they won’t suffer in hard freezes.
They can be planted as late as mid-spring, if plump, healthy roots are still available."

- Asparagus Cultivation:
White, Green and Purple Asparagus.

White asparagus is green asparagus which has been grown in the dark, usually by mounding the beds to cover the crowns with some eight to twelve inches (30.48 centimetres) of light sandy soil so as to exclude light from the developing spears.
It is highly esteemed in continental Europe.
White asparagus is generally peeled before being eaten as it has been grown underground, but with purple asparagus varieties this is not necessary.
Optimum planting density is a little lower for white asparagus than for green.

Purple asparagus is a variant of green which originated in Italy.
It turns green if boiled, but retains its colour if steamed.
Purple varieties of asparagus have a sweeter flavour and are less fibrous making them superior to green cultivars for eating raw.
The original purple variety gave low yields and was very susceptible to disease, but modern purple hybrids have gone some way towards addressing these problems.
It should be stressed that the lack of fibre in the stems means that purple asparagus is less weatherproof and should be avoided in exposed situations.
Purple asparagus is particularly suitable for eating raw.

Cropping Season.
The traditional season for UK asparagus starts on St George's Day, 23rd April, and ends on 21st June.
The season can be extended earlier by growing forcing varieties under protection, and later by planting suitable varieties.
Under cold glass, early asparagus varieties can be cropped from mid March.

- How to grow asparagus plants:

- How to grow Asparagus: A complete guide to growing Asparagus in beds, allotments and large containers:

- How to plant asparagus crowns - Projects: Video projects - gardenersworld.com: "Watch Monty Don's video demonstration of how to plant asparagus crowns, with advice on the soil preparation, aspect and aftercare."
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Marrows and Courgettes.

I bought plants and ready to plant!

Courgettes belong to the same family as cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins and marrows; in fact they are baby marrows.
Courgettes and zucchini are exactly the same plant but they acquired the different name from Italy from where it has found its way to America.
Although courgettes are small marrows the seed companies have been hard at work breeding plants that will only produce the smaller fruits that we want and not show bench monster marrows.
How to grow:
As the courgette plant grows it will produce a mass of white roots on the surface of the soil. Cover these with potting compost, garden compost or well-rotted manure. Keep covering the roots as they appear and gradually over the course of the summer the moat will disappear and the mound will spread outwards.
Jemmer F1 (AGM) - highly prolific on compact plants, bright yellow in colour.
El Greco – early cropping, excellent flavour, mid-green courgettes, RHS Award of Garden Merit.
Marrow Long Green Bush is the true traditional Marrow.
Has all the attributes of Green Trailing, but with a bush habit for more limited space.
Excellent flavour and highly productive.
Summer heading.

Handy Tip: Marrows and Courgettes prefer a deep humus rich soil for both the goodness and its water retention qualities.
Nutritional Value: A good source of pro-vitamin A, vitamins C and E.

Tomatoes.

I bought plants and ready to plant!

'Black Russian' - a large, dark skinned variety
‘Golden Crown’ - An early-maturing cherry tomato producing sweet, yellow fruit.
‘F1 Peardrops’ - Peardrops is a yellow fruited trailing variety with highly attractive pear shaped fruit and a delicious flavour. Peardrops is a traditional green shouldered variety that has a good flavour balance of sweetness and acidity. Plants are useful for planting in mixed baskets and containers or even hanging baskets.
F1 Peardrops - Tomato Trailing | Vegetalis:

How to grow cucamelons.

How to grow cucamelons:
I bought plants and ready to plant!
CUCAMELONS: GRAPE-SIZED CUKES

Doll’s house-sized ‘watermelons’ that taste of pure cucumber with a tinge of lime. These little guys are officially the cutest food known to man & oh-so-easy to grow even for real beginners. Let me show you how to get started…

HOW TO GROW CUCAMELONS:
Cucamelons can be grown in pretty much the exact same way as regular cucumbers, only they are far easier.
They don’t need the cover of a greenhouse, fancy pruning or training techniques and suffer from very few pests.
Sow the seed from April to May indoors and plant out when all risk of frost is over.
Give them a support the scramble over, keep well watered and that’s pretty much all you will need to do!
Harvest them when they are the size of a grape, but still nice and firm.
They make pretty, high-yielding vines that can be planted really close together to get the most out of a small space – as little as 15cm between plants around a trellis.
HOW TO EAT CUCAMELONS:
The fruit can be eaten straight off the plant, or tossed with olives, slivers of pepper and a dousing of olive oil. Perfect for a quirky snack with drinks – or even popped like an olive in a cheeky martini.

PICKLED CUCAMELONS WITH MINT & DILL (cm WEB)
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Melothria heterophylla (Lour.) Cogn.
The roots are edible!
Botanical name: Melothria heterophylla (Lour.) Cogn.
Synonmous name:Zehneria umbellata Thw.
Family name:Cucurbitaceae
Genus:
A large genus of annual or perennial climbers or herbs occurring in the tropics of the world. Leaves polymorphous. Flowers are small and yellow. Some species are medicinal and in some species the fruit is edible.

Species:
A herbaceous plant with tuberous root occurring throughout India.
The plant bears polymorphous leaves and small yellow flowers coloured unisexual flowers.
Fruit is brown coloured with many sub-spherical, smooth seeds.
The roots, leaves and fruits are edible.
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Pumpkins.

Pumpkins - James Wong | Official Site:
I bought the plant and is ready to put it outside!

Jack-o'-lantern pumpkins are a classic fall crop, providing a great opportunity for growers to extend their selling season.
How to Make Homemade Pumpkin Pie - from an Ordinary Jack 'O Lantern Pumpkin.

Those big pumpkins may not be as sweet as the smaller “sugar pumpkins” or “pie pumpkins”, but you can still use them for everything from roasted veggies to oatmeal, to soups, loaves and pies.
The typical "jack-o-lantern" or carving pumpkins tend to have little flesh for the size and are very stringy and flavorless.
Pumpkins are an excellent source of fiber, vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene, an important antioxidant), vitamin C and potassium.

Do nothing but wait, as squash only produce their very best flavour after a few weeks of storage.
The exact length of storage does vary noticeably between varieties.
Between one month for 'Crown Prince' to up to three months for 'Butternut' types.
The only important thing you need to remember is that they be kept cool and dry, in a well ventilated place.
A garage or a shed would be perfect.
And in just a few weeks you won't believe the difference.

Which are the best pumpkins? | Sarah Raven:

I'd probably grow pumpkins for their looks alone, but the right ones can make fantastic eating. I have some tried-and-tested favourites: 'Red Kuri' is a useful size, with waxy texture and excellent taste. It can climb (Teepee Trellis), which is handy in a smaller garden and is a good producer.
Another winner is 'Crown Prince', a hugely long storer with good texture and taste, while 'Munchkin' is pretty, small, abundant, with flesh reminiscent of sweet chestnut.

-‘Crown of Thorns'
Looks and ornamental longevity 7/10
Eating 2/10

Blueberries. By James Wong.

One trial found that lightly cooking blueberries (as happens when you bake a pie) can double their absorbable antioxidant content. Talk about having your pie and eating it.

The homegrown variety 'Rubel', for example, delivers three times the antioxidant payload of supermarket staples like 'Bluecrop'.

Tomatoes. By James Wong.

Tomatoes - James Wong | Official Site:
"Unbelievably, spraying a dilute solution of aspirin onto your tomato plants (we are talking half a soluble tablet per litre of water) is capable of causing their sugar content to soar one and a half times and boost their Vitamin C content 50%.

This treatment can even make your plants more resistant to cold, drought and (not that we'll ever need it in the UK) heat stress too. According to one trial this can even result in a 47% less incidence of late blight, the scourge of tomato growers,
This works as aspirin is a close chemical copy of the plant stress hormone, salicylic acid, which turns on the genes that regulate their defence systems.

The more stress a plant 'thinks' it is under, the more sugars are redirected to the developing fruit in a bid to make them irresistable to passing animals. Plants do this to ensure their seeds have the maximum chance of being dispersed to save the next generation, but it conveniently makes for tastier salad too."
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- Невероятно, опрыскивание раствором аспирина растений томата - помидора (растворить половину таблетки на литр воды) способно повысить содержание сахара в них в полтора раза и повысить содержание витамина С на 50%!

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