Final weekend, and for a couple of days earlier than, stage two of annual veg rising, in any other case referred to as Peak Bottleneck, has been reached right here.
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| Simply one of many trays on my tiny balcony |
Peak Bottleneck, as each balcony gardener is aware of, is when issues begin to again up and there are too many arrivals (tiny seedlings) and never sufficient departures (greater crops). Suppliers of seeds shall be feeling the identical proper now, with too many orders coming in and never sufficient workers to fulfil these orders. Their answer is to quickly shut down their web sites to stem the move; my salvation lies in a newly bought mini greenhouse, which has been put collectively however nonetheless resides in my front room as a helpful night-time spot for my child crops.
Vegetation in modules or tiny pots dry out rapidly so want common watering; my different time honoured treatment is to pot all the things on into greater pots (7 or 9cm) till they’re sturdy sufficient to be planted into the backyard and face up to rain, wind, slugs, and so forth. A wholesome plant has a significantly better probability of survival however even these shall be challenged by baking warmth and a scarcity of standard watering. Finest to maintain them close by, for now.
I’ve a balcony filled with seedlings and do the Hokey Cokey dance most evenings when a call must be made as as to if I dare depart any of them out in a single day. Daytime temperatures have been within the 60-70°F zone, dropping to round 45°F at night time (chilly) so tiny seedlings are introduced in, greater crops (brassicas, and so forth) keep out. And after I say ‘greater’, I am referring to the crops which have matured sufficient to indicate their first true leaves, like this Bolivian Big achocha – a vine that can finally develop to over 3 metres (and hopefully be dripping with massive, pepper-like fruit).
The tiny seedlings are the modules of tomatoes and chillies that didn’t get sown till the start of April as I did not need them stretching in direction of the sunshine as they grew. Now that they are absorbing the skin mild throughout the day, the tomatoes are doing nicely, 50 and counting, the chillies not a lot. One other night basking within the gentle move of heat 26°C air from my fan heater would possibly assist. I shall persevere.
My job at present is to prick out my tomatoes, if I can discover sufficient spare small pots. I do know the place many of the pots are as a result of they’re at the moment occupied by candy peas sown in early January. These candy peas have to be planted out as quickly as I’ve constructed a construction for them to climb and that job is topic to me deciding the place all the things else shall be planted. After which I can begin once more with spherical two of candy peas, beans, peas, beetroot, salad leaves, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth. It is akin to a type of sliding puzzles the place one bit has to maneuver earlier than the remainder fall into place.
Want me luck!
