We are running a 20 week, 60 hour organic growing course at Llanfyllin Workhouse. Starting back in April. This is post number 6 in the 20 part series, it is both myh course notes, and a chance to share with anyone interested what we have been up to. Actually being aprt of a 20 week course has really given us all some consistent discipline to be much more consisent and thorough gardeners.

A very exciting development for me, and my Sector39 partners is that I am getting involved with the Cwm Harry project in Newtown with the aim of creating a community gardening and growing hub there, whilst growing more produce, propagating plants and runnign courses, and supporting apprentice allotment holders, through a micro-allotment scheme. I will write more about the Cwm Harry prokect soon, but this supposed to be my course notes from OG6.

Planting spuds in unusual ways

We made our no dig deep mulch bed last week and this was to be the day of planting. Later than we had planned to do , by a couple of weeks, but actually we all agreed the air has been cold, even though we have had a bit of sun, so even had we planted them earlier there would have been little advantage.

healthy chits on a potato ready to plant

Burning a hole in the mypex

So we have chitted.. and there looking like they are supposed to be.. a good few strong, and short (not disteneded like when they are left in a cupboard) ready for planting. We are going to cover the whole bed with a Mypex sheet, that being a woven plant fabric, that will allow rainwater to percolate through but exclude the light so there are not weeds and it create a lovely dark, moist environemt for the spuds to form in. We allowed a 24 inch space between the 2 rows and 12 inches along each row per plant

Using a blow torch to make holes to plant the spuds through. It is easy to cut mypex with scissors etc, however it tends to fray, so this method is both very easy and effective and the result is tidier.

Finally the bed is covered in fleece fabric which will keep it all nice and warm for the next few weeks while it is still cold at night.

The idea is to grow these spuds for new potatoes, so they will be harvest early allowing time to follow on in these beds with another  different crop.

the potato bed covered over with fleece

Planting seeds in unusual ways

Well not that unusual, but some finer points about planting seeds.  We are going to start off lots of seeds in trays with individual modules.. making them easy to plant out without disturbing the roots. Seeds need to be planted in a compost with a low nutrient, which stimulates good root development.

All the nutrients the plant needs to start growing are in the seed itself, until it develops its first true leaves. It is traditional to plant in peat compost.. which has negative impacts as it is extracted, there is now an EU directive to phase out peat compost by 2012. The alternatives are composted woody waste.. or coir, which is coconut husks compost.

Best option is to make your own. When making your own it is good to keep a record of what you have added. For example wood ash is high in potassium and aides fruit formation or egg shells which are high in calcium.

We are using bought peat free compost and first off we are sieving it make a fine tilth to plant into. Fine soil means the seeds will be planted at an even depth and will be much more likely to germinate at the same time.

sieving the compost

We are going to use two additives to improve ourseed compost: Perlite and Vermiculite. Both are Ok to use in organic systems. Perlite is a volcanic rock is not mined and it very light so not expensive to transport. It is used instead of sand and grit and aides drainage and is ideal for seeds cuttings and alpines.

vermiculite on the right and perlite on the left

Vermiculite is expaned mica it is pourous and will hold moisture in the soil and releases micro nutrients… so it is especially good for pots and containers.

So we are mixing together the soil with the perlite and are going to give it a watering with watering can with a fine rose. Then the tray is filled with the mixture, making sure not to compress the seed mixture.

Note about Watering: It is good to try and avoid watering from the top, due to damping off disease, which is a soil bourne fungi. It is also good to water with clean water.. it is good to clean rain water barrels in the winter for this reason.  Standing the seed tray on capilary matting is a good technique for this reason, the plants can absorb moisture from below, rather than top watering and can gaurentee that the seedlings dont dry out during a hot day.One end of the matting is placed in a container of water and moisture is wicked up by capilary action.

Plant leeks

the finished seedtray, standing on capilary matting

Leeks are alwasy transplanted, even when direct sown. The idea is to start them in modules and when they are pencil thick or maybe 8 inches tall they are planted out planting them deeper, to ensure a nice white blanched base. So it the plant is 8” tall, the plant it 6” deep with only the top 2” showing.

We are also starting some brassica plants, which we are going to label as all these family tend to look the same when they are small. We are then convering them over with the vermiculite as it is very light and seeds can grow through them easily – it holds water but also is not heavy and wet.

Larger seeds and larger plants like peas and beans need to be planted in bigger modules – smaller finer seeds need less cover.

In bed 6 we qare going to plant a green manure. This will protect the soil and inprove the nutrient content. We are using caliente mustard which we will dig in 6 weeks later or longer – but importatnly before it flowers and seeds. After digging in it is important to wait a coupleof weeks before planting anything else – the chopped mustard releases a mustard gas into the soil which will suppress some weeds and disese and pests – work a small area at a time.

legume bed

We removed the fleece cover from the legume bed to cover the potatoes, they should be fine without it now and have had the chance to harden off. It was our first chance to see how thing had progressed. This was the first bed we planted at the start of the course and interestingly they have over taken broad beans and peas planted in a neighbouring bed, but without the fleece layer to help warm the bed.

We made a note that we need to start off some companion plants.. like nasturtiums and marigolds.