Author: oldlanelottswp

How Often Should I be On My Allotment Garden

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

 

GOOD –  HOUSE/KEEPING – MAKING TIME

Allotment holders as a top tip should consider the equivalent of half an hours work each day on their plot as a minimum time to achieve reasonable results. People often have to multitask juggling work, family time & allotment gardening. |This makes plotting how much time you will have to dedicate to your allotment difficult to gauge.

A couple of hours a week may see you through the quiet season in the winter months, but by early Spring you will need to think about setting aside much more time for sowing seeds & planting. You need to put in an appearance at least once a week just to keep on top of the weeds & pests. The more complex the plot, the more time you will probably have to spend keeping it in line. Following a regular routine with your visits, set days & evenings every week – should make it easier to allocate ongoing tasks on the plot to plan start & finish dates. Taking a more scatter gun approach of squeezing in visits when you can, or not at all when time is tight, can see you falling behind on sowing planting & tidying up jobs. Then there lies disaster, for growing seasons are tight & a measure of good housekeeping on the plot is really important to hit all those deadlines. So basically its  all a balancing act. Nothing beats the excitement & anticipation of the simple act of pulling up a carrot or digging up your “spuds” that have been hidden for months underground, like buried treasure. The truth is once  people have started with the joy of allotment gardening, they find it hard to make time for anything else.

Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

On a cold & frosty morning

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

Old Lane allotments on Friday 14th December very cold morning with frost. All of the water butts were all iced over, is this a sign of what’s to come. Its been fairly mild for this time of the year as we are now in the winter months.

Pictures & blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

Planning Your Allotment Year

Posted on by oldlanelottswp
Photo by Tookapic on Pexels.com
Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

The Allotment Diary

One of the most useful things for any gardener is a diary. Unless you are blessed with a photographic memory it will prove invaluable for the years ahead. In the diary you can keep a record of conditions, your actions, & of course your results. Make a record of what you sow, the date & the variety and also where you have sown on your plot. Make a note of what the weather is like , when the first & lasts frost occur which is useful recorded information. Its also worth recording quantities in your harvest & acceptability. When you come to order your seeds the following year you know what has grown well for you & whats not grown so good. It can be very confusing what you have grown & where recording your information will help you keep track. A diary is also useful to remind yourself of jobs that need completing writing a brief note over the growing season. Organisation & planning is key to a thriving allotment.

Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

Sorting & Storing Your Vegetable & Flower Seeds

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

When your seeds arrive sort them out into sowing order (earliest date first) & store them in a cool dark place ready for the growing season. Remember if you already have packets of seeds stored these need to be sown first remember to check the sow by date on the packets. I personally don’t use out of date seeds if they don’t germinate it will put you back at the start of the busy growing season.

Don’t forget that growing instructions in a book are standardized so check on the seed packet , especially for those close-spaced varieties. I always read the instructions on seed packets as it gives you that reminder.  Check the weather as seed varieties can be planted in February at the start of the season,  but now the winter months seem to be longer as we learnt from early March last year, with the really bad weather conditions. The weather is always key to planting seeds.

 

Blog by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

The Four Seasons

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

These pictures were sent in by Marie & Jim Darlow. Marie Quotes ” Thanks to Old Lane Allotments we have a fabulous hobby these pictures are from this year,  from the beast from the East to a beautiful Summer & then the Autumn clear up.  Thanks for the support we truly have a great community at the allotment”

Thanks Marie & Jim for the kind words & the photographs

image1

Blog created by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary, words & photographs Marie & Jim Darlow.

KINGS SEEDS ORDER HAS ARRIVED

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

Product+2

Dear Plot Members

Just letting you know that are Kings Seeds order has now arrived.  I will be opening the stores this weekend Saturday 17th November & Sunday the 18th November between    9.30 am – 11.30 am  to distribute the orders.

If members could collect the orders it will make the distribution process much easier.

Thanks

Mark Burton  (Allotment Secretary)

Garden Lawn Area

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

Our garden lawn area at the back of the hut building is looking really tidy Martin Kennard who is now on the committee is taking care of it,  to keep it tidy all year round

Big Thanks to Martin (Plot 51)

 

Blog & photos by Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

F1 Hybrid Seeds – What Does It All Mean ?

Posted on by oldlanelottswp
Often the most expensive seed varieties in the catalogues are labelled as F1 hybrids. This article explains what F1 hybrids are and assesses their advantages and disadvantages.We often see F1 hybrid seeds in catalogues and, nearly as often, we wonder what exactly they are. Even more intriguing is the question: ‘Is an F2 better than an F1?’

The simplest way to define an F1 hybrid is to take an example. Let us say a plant breeder observes a particularly good habit in a plant, but with poor flower colour, and in another plant of the same type he sees good colour but poor habit. The best plant of each type is then taken and self-pollinated (in isolation) each year and, each year, the seed is re-sown. Eventually, every time the seed is sown the same identical plants will appear. When they do, this is known as a ‘pure line’.

If the breeder now takes the pure line of each of the two plants he originally selected and cross pollinates the two by hand the result is known as an F1 hybrid. Plants are grown from seed produced and the result of this cross pollination should have a good habit and good colour.

This is the simplest form of hybridisation; there are complications, of course. A completely pure line can sometimes take seven or eight years to achieve. Sometimes, a pure line is made up of several previous crossings to begin to build in desirable features and grown on until it is true before use in hybridisation.

To summarize , an F1 hybrid is the result of crossing two pure lines to achieve the desired result. This seems a lot of trouble to go to but there are definite advantages. Scientific extremely suitable for mechanical harvesting.

We can’t expect to get all these advantages for nothing. Because creating F1 hybrids involves many years of preparation to create pure lines and these pure lines have to be constantly maintained so that the F1 seed can be harvested each year, the seed is more expensive. The problem is compounded because to ensure that no self pollination takes place, all the hybridizing

of the two pure lines sometimes has to be done by hand. So you often have to pay more for your seed or get fewer in a packet. Seed is often collected by hand too to ensure that each plant is as productive as possible.

It is not only the gardeners who benefit, there are advantages for the plant breeders too. With ordinary varieties anyone can grow them and collect the seed which can then be re-sown in the garden or, on a larger scale, sold. So a plant breeder who puts a lot of work into creating a variety which is not an Fl hybrid can soon find someone else selling it and getting a share of the financial reward. But seed collected from an Fl hybrid will not produce plants the same as those from which it is collected. Only by crossing the pure lines can the variety be made – and only the original breeder has the necessary pure lines.

So it works both ways. The gardener gets better, though more expensive, varieties and the plant breeder gets a reasonable return on the investment. Accurate breeding programmes have made it possible not only to bring out the outstanding qualities of the parent plants, but in most cases, these qualities have been enhanced and new desirable characteristics added to the resultant hybrid plants. In addition to qualities like good vigour, true-ness to type, heavy yields and high uniformity which hybrid plants enjoy, other characteristics such as earliness, disease resistance and good holding ability have been incorporated into most F1 hybrids.

Blog Created By Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)

Up In Flames

Posted on by oldlanelottswp

These pictures were taken on the 3rd November 2018 one of our plot members is buying a new shed and they thought the best way to remove the old one was to burn it so we had an early bonfire on the site

 

Pictures & Blog Mark Burton (Allotment Secretary)