Week 52+24 - Bed PC7

Week 52+7 - Bed PC7

The grass (and a few weeds) have mostly filled out the bed. We will have to dig in this green manure cover crop about a month before we sow anything into this bed, until after the initial stages of decomposition has taken place. The clover in the path to the right (east) is growing better than that in the path to the left of the bed. This is probably due to the overshadowing bu the remaining brassicas.

Week 49 - Bed PC7

The last two weeks has seen a significant amount of growth in the cover crop.

Week 47 - Bed PC7

Eight weeks after sowing the grass has sprouted, and the clover in the paths is growing as well, but there is no sign of the vetch and clover that was planted as part of the Landsberger mix.

Week 40 - Bed PC7

A clean, freshly seeded bed.

Week 39 - Bed PC7 Planting

Cleared out potatoes, dug up the soil, and then broadcast sowed a green manure mix containing:

• Italian Ryegrass - a fast growing hardy grasing grass which will produce a lot of biomass
• Crimson Clover - a quick growing, vigourous annual which fixes nitrogen and will attracts bees in the spring
• Winter Vetch - a hardy nitrogen fixing forage plant

This combination of green manures is know as the "Landsberger Mix" and is promoted as the ideal overwintering composting crop, producing a lot of organic material, adding nitrogen to the soil and keeping soil and nutrients from washing away with the winter rains, and preparing the soil for next season. The crop will be dug into the soil next spring to compost in place.

In the paths on either side of the bed we sowed:

• White Clover - a low lying nitrogen fixing crop that is suitable for undersowing

This will form a low growing carpet of cover crop that will fix nitrogen and tolerate a certain amount of walking on.

Week 38 - Bed PC7

We finally got around to clearing most of the remaining vegetation off of this bed, though there are still potatoes to be dug.
We were unable to find any nitrogen fixing nodules on the roots of the bean and pea plants. This lack of extra nitrogen might explain why these crops did so poorly in this bed where they had to compete with the hungry potatoes.

Week 33 - Bed PC7

The potatoes are really dying back, but the broad beans seem to have got a second wind late in the season.
These plants now look like others of the same variety did several months ago. It seems that the potatoes really stunted their growth.

Week 31 - Bed PC7

After 3 weeks vacation and more than a month of wet weather, this bed is not looking good.

The potatoes are dying back quite early, but it does not appear to be due to potato blight.

Broad beans are starting to form, almost ready for harvest.

The few pea plants that have grown are almost ready for the first crop.

Week 27 - Bed PC7

The broad beans are starting to flower and the potatoes are doing well. Some of the pea plants are visible but they are not doing well, likely caused by the competition with the potatoes and the dry conditions.

Week 25 - Bed PC7

First-early potatoes to the left were more affected by the frost than the early-maincrop potatoes to the right.

The broad beans interplanted with the potatoes are not thriving, possibly due to the competition for limited water supplies.

Week 24 - Bed PC7

The early Orla potatoes at the north (far) end of the bed were more affected than the Maris Peer potatoes by the late frost.

Week 18 - Bed PC7 Planting

In among the potatoes that were planted in this bed 3 weeks ago we sowed:

• Bastion Dwarf Peas (approx 60 seeds) - a mid season main crop variety, with a high yield and up to 10 very sweet peas per pod
• Hangdown Green Broad Beans (approx 30 seeds) - a Longpod variety which is the best type for hardiness and early cropping with high yields

The peas were planted in clumps of 6-10 seeds and the broad beans were planted in left over spaces.

Week 15 - Bed PC7 Planting

This bed was prepared last week by cutting the sod off the top and removing it. The soil was then dug to the depth of a spade without going too far into the compacted layer of stones about 25cm down. In this bed we planted two types of potatoes:

• Orla Potatoes (23 chitted sets, north part of bed) - a first early variety with creamy white oval tubers with light yellow flesh
• Maris Peer Potato (17 sets, south part of bed) - a second early (or early maincrop) variety with cream skin and creamy yellow floury flesh

In the next few weeks we will sow bot peas and broad bean seeds, to grow up in among the potatoes as a polycrop.