March Weather

The weather for March was mild and sunny but with a lot of frosty nights, and very little rain towards the end of the month.

58mm of rain fell this month (recorded at the closest weather station in Birr) which is very close to normal conditions, but most of it in the first three weeks. The mean air and soil temperatures for the month were slightly above normal at 6.7 degrees C and 6.9 degrees C respectively. The total amount of solar radiation for the month (intensity of energy from the sun including overcast days) was slightly higher than normal (26340 Joules/sqcm). These monthly mean conditions hide fact that the first half of the month was wetter and cloudier and the last 12 days were drier and sunnier than normal.

In the temperature charts above (extracted from the Met Éireann summary) the maximum temperature throughout Ireland dropped considerably from the 18th to the 21st when all of the precipitation was snow or hail, and there were ground frosts at night throughout the month.

These charts show how little rain came in the latter part of the month.

Week 13 - Bed EX8 Planting

This bed was dug as a rough lazy-bed into which we planted:

• Meteor Dwarf Peas (2 short double rows) - an early hardy variety ideal for both autumn and spring sowing, grows to 35cm high
• Express Broad beans (4 short rows) - a fast maturing longpod variety growing 60cm tall
• Orla Potatoes (27 sets) - a first early variety with creamy white oval tubers with light yellow flesh

One row of the peas was sown using pre-sprouted seeds which involved soaking seeds and allowing them to sprout indoors. This is useful in the early spring when the cold soil can prevent or slow germination. Unfortunately, the roots had grown too long (they should have been planted a few days earlier) which probably reduced any advantage.

Week 13 - Bed PC8 Planting

The top inch or two of sod was cut off of this bed and set aside to decompose into a loam for potting with next year. The soil was then dug to a roughly a spade's depth but we did not loosen the compact layer of stone under this layer. This would have taken quite a bit of work and we are interested in seeing how this will compare with the double dug beds.

In this bed we planted:

• Orla Potatoes (15 chitted sets) - a first early variety with creamy white oval tubers with light yellow flesh
• Meteor Dwarf Peas (30 seeds) - an early hardy variety ideal for both autumn and spring sowing, grows to 35cm high
• Express Broad beans (10 seeds ) - a fast maturing longpod variety growing 60cm tall

The potatoes, peas and broad beans were mixed together as a polycrop. This is an experimental bed to see if these plants will grow well together. The peas and the beans will fix nitrogen and the potatoes will provide some support for the climbing peas. We selected early varieties of crop.

The pea seeds were pre-sprouted, which involved soaking seeds and allowing them to sprout indoors. This is useful in the early spring when the cold soil can prevent or slow germination. Unfortunately, the roots had grown too long (they should have been planted a few days earlier) which probably reduced any advantage.

We ran out of broad bean seeds and will have to plant more later, and should sow some more peas as well.