Kitchen Gardener Rob Smith is ge ing in his seed orders and lamenting over lemons!
You may remember my lemons were colouring up at the end of last year; sadly they weren’t ready for Christmas or New Year, but they’ve finally ripened to a gorgeous yellow and will be enjoyed in a G&T later. While picking the fruit, I noticed that there seems to be scale insect on the lemon, lime and grapefruit plants that I overwinter in the lean-to and these have encouraged ants to feast on their honeydew, which in turn has encouraged sooty mould (it’s a whole mini eco system!). Therefore, I’ll be pu ing ant traps down and wiping the plants over with a mixture of washing up liquid with a few drops of both lavender and neem oil to help control the scale insect. I find using a non-scratch scourer works well as it doesn’t scratch the tree, and it’s too cold for beneficial insects yet. working and clean all the covers to make sure the maximum amount of light can get to the seedlings. I’d much rather know something needs replacing now rather than sow the seeds, plug it in, it not work and the seeds not germinate, so check as much as you can and start to order seed compost or any other bits you need now and it won’t cost as much in one lump sum. I’m also putting together my new potting tray I got as a Christmas present, it’s much deeper and sturdier than the old plastic one I had; it should hopefully last me years and stop me spilling