Monday, 26 July 2021

The heatwave has finished - has summer?

The hot weather has ended after 7 days with no sign of a return according to the weather models. A couple of days made it into my table of top twenty hottest days of the last 12 years in eighth and tenth place.
Top twenty hottest days 2010 - 2021

It's clear from that table that our hottest weather generally occurs through July with 10 of our hottest days falling in July. Six of the hottest days have been recorded in August and four in June.

At the allotment, our problem isn't the hot weather but rather a lack of rainfall. It's 12 days now since we had any rain and the hot spell has dried out the early July rainfall.
These Charlotte potatoes looked like they'd run out of water so I decided to lift a couple of roots to see. Sure enough, the ground was very dry and as I'd expected the potatoes were small and had stopped growing prematurely. I decided I might as well lift the whole lot. The bed needs a good dig over but that's going to have to wait until we get a decent rainfall.

In the cold frame at home we have some Safari dwarf French beans waiting to be transplanted into the allotment.

I'm reluctant to plant these out until we get some rain. We recently planted out some autumn cropping broad beans and winter brassicas and through this dry spell they are needing plenty of water to keep them going.
Broad Beans - Luz de Otono

A mixture of Brassicas - Cauliflower & Cabbages
It's a busy time harvesting so I'm trying to keep watering time down to a minimum in order to spend as much time as possible harvesting. If you've picked blackcurrants you will know what a time consuming job it can be.
There is some showery rain forecast for this week but the day and time of these showers changes all the time and of course, given the very nature of showery weather we could miss out on them altogether.
Posted by Martyn at 22:07 0 comments

Wednesday, 21 July 2021

A new hottest day of the year

Tuesday, became our hottest day of the year taking over the record set on Sunday.
Top Twenty Hottest Days 2010-2021

Tuesday became our eighth hottest day of the last 12 years. It was a bit too hot to do any serious allotmenting however, the hot sunny weather means we’re kept busy watering. The sunshine has brought our dahlias into flower.

The plot is probably at its fullest at the moment but this won’t be for long as I’m about to start lifting our potatoes.

The hot weather is due to end by the weekend and hopefully we’ll get a drop of rain to keep our crops happy.

Posted by Martyn at 16:12 0 comments

Sunday, 18 July 2021

Hottest Day of the Year Brings Issues

Saturday became the hottest day of the year with the temperature reaching 31.3°C or 88.3°F. 
Top Twenty Hottest Days 2010 - 2021
We decided it was a bit too hot to do any serious allotmenting and spent a day sorting out our harvest picked on Friday.
However, we couldn't put off visiting the plot on Sunday which was another hot day. The forecast is that the high temperature might well be with us through to next weekend. I didn't want to leave the plot greenhouse tomatoes another day without giving them a drink.

As soon as I started filling up the watering can, I noticed the brown tell-tale signs of blight on some of the leaves of our early Casablanca potatoes.
A quick check around our other potato varieties and they all seemed to be clear of blight at the moment. It's a disease that can spread very quickly though, so we will need to keep a careful watch. It seems that as soon as we get a couple of humid nights blight strikes. It's not that we can do much about blight other than removing any diseased leaves and hope the potatoes under the soil remain unaffected. On our next visit, we'll start lifting some of the early potatoes and then we will find out if the potatoes have been affected.

It's not our only potato problem. It's been a reasonably wet start to July with around average rainfall for the entire month in the first couple of weeks of the month.
These Charlotte potatoes look as though they've done all the growing they are going to do. At first glance, they look as though they have run out of water and need a good drink. I'll probably lift one root to see if there are any decent potatoes under the haulms. I'm guessing any potatoes are going to be small. 


Posted by Martyn at 22:14 0 comments

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Plenty of rain at the beginning of July

The allotment should be well watered now. Previously July's rainfall had been of a showery nature but on Monday it rained all day. 
Everything in the garden and at the allotment should have got a good soaking and we won't need to do any watering for a while.
Temperature & Rainfall Records for 12 July 2021

The rainfall wasn't particularly heavy but, by the end of the day, it had amounted to 14.6mm (0.6in) bringing our monthly total up to 58.6mm (2.3in) around the average amount for the whole of July.

It certainly wasn't a day for gardening but it did give me chance to catch up with a bit of video editing. Our early potatoes growing in recycling crates have been emptied. The results were mixed with one crate providing a decent crop of early potatoes and the other two a disappointingly small crop. However, Ruby decided that making a potato reveal video of the crates being emptied wasn't going to be straightforward.



Posted by Martyn at 10:29 0 comments

Wednesday, 7 July 2021

Great for the allotment a thoroughly wet day

We had more rain on Tuesday than in the whole of June. It should certainly have given the allotment a good soaking. We didn't have persistent rain all day but rather extremely heavy showers throughout the day.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 06 June - 06 July 2021

One very heavy shower on Tuesday morning gave our heaviest rainfall of the year at 96.6mm/hr or 3.8in/hr. It was just as well it didn't last very long.

June's rainfall amounted to 17.8mm (0.7in) and Tuesday's rainfall came to 19.8mm (0.78in) bringing the month's total up to 37.0mm or 1.46in. 
Posted by Martyn at 09:48 0 comments

Tuesday, 6 July 2021

A wet start to July

We went through the whole of June with very little rain. In the last 12 years only June 2018 had less rain. By the end of the month, the allotment was in need of some proper rain. No amount of watering seems to make up for a good day's rainfall.

Of course, May was a very wet month so it took a while for the allotment to dry out but, after a couple of warm weeks the ground did dry out and the allotment needed watering. In contrast to June, July has started off wet and only a few days into the month we’ve had as much rainfall as in the whole of June. We’ll get a rest from watering for a while at least.

June finished up towards the top of the temperature charts for the last 12 years and finished fourth warmest over that time period.

At the allotment it was a catching up month. April and May were both unusually cold months and, with May turning out wet as well, we were about 3 to 4 weeks behind. It’s true to say that we’ve caught up with sowing seeds and getting other crops planted out but, I’m expecting most crops to be ready for harvesting later than normal.

This year, we picked our first Regency cabbage this week compared to the first week in June last year.

I think the early July rainfall has arrived just in time to give our potatoes the boost that they needed. It's one crop we don't water if at all possible. The early July showers were enough to wet the surface but left a dry shadow beneath the potato plants.

However, Tuesday morning has brought plenty of rain, some of it heavy, so I'm sure the potatoes along with the rest of the plot will have had a good watering.

It’s now a case of keeping crops weed-free and harvesting as and when necessary. With a bit of luck, our early brassicas should keep us supplied with cabbages, cauliflowers, and calabrese for the next few weeks.

Posted by Martyn at 11:37 2 comments
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