Terry Walton is starting his early vegetables
Seed sowing is under way as I prepare for a productive season
With January moving on, gardeners feel more at ease that sowing time is getting ever nearer. It may be my optimistic outlook but the evenings seem to be getting longer. The greenhouse on the allotment is clean, the staging is up and it’s ready to host its first inhabitants. It won’t be long now.... but hold your horses another week, and then you can join me preparing for a long, productive season.
In this lull before the storm it’s a good time to roam garden centres as their shelves are becoming filled with early potato tubers. Even if you’ve already ordered them from catalogues it’s good to take a look at what’s on offer. There are seemingly hundreds of varieties to choose from and you can be seduced by vivid descriptions of the attributes of some of these exotic varieties. Take care and stick to more traditional types, but never be afraid to branch out and try a few tubers of a new variety.
Remember, there are three distinct types of potatoes; the early type, second early and maincrop. So, decide carefully what your growing needs are before taking the plunge. Each type of potato has its growth cycle; earlies mature in 12 weeks, second earlies in 14 to 16 weeks and maincrop take an eternal 20 weeks. If you want to use your ground wisely and have a double cropping regime then earlies are for you. If you want to have a long growing season and plenty of potatoes to store for the winter then grow second earlies and maincrops. Use your plot wisely if you want a steady crop of varied vegetables for a long season.
On getting these tubers home you have to store them for weeks before you can plant them out. A cool, frost-free spot is essential with a degree of light. Put them in a warm, dark spot and they’ll soon send out a mass of tangled roots that are useless for planting!
I have my heated greenhouse at home so I can take a few risks, as this is under my watchful eye. In the greenhouse within my greenhouse it’s safe to sow my first cabbage and lettuce. For cabbage I stick to my trusty favourite ‘Golden Acre Primo’, which will give me a first harvest, albeit under cloches, at the end of April. The lettuce of choice this season for an early crop is ‘All Year Round’. I fill two half trays with good compost and sprinkle both sets of seeds lightly on the surface, covering with 2cm (¾in) of sieved compost.
I place both half trays in a full-sized seed tray and cover with a lid and put inside my warm greenhouse at about 15C (59F). These should pop through in about 14 days.