The Mangetout are Through

Not the most exciting photos in the world, but today was a big day in the 2016 growing season.

The mangetout peas I sowed for growing early in the polytunnel are starting to poke through the soil surface and reach for the skies. Green shoots and all that.

The sowing season has gone up a gear too. Today I sowed my aubergine seeds. It's very early and I will have to tend the delicate little things for quite some time, but until now I've had precious little success with aubergines. They are a temperamental crop. Some people do well with them. Some people just can't get a decent aubergine off them. I come firmly in the latter group. Until now. This is the year when I plan to join the former. The tender treatment starts now, with the seeds soaked in tepid water for 24 hours (obviously the water was cold by the end!) and now in a small heated propagator, which I purchased over the winter. It's just a crude, basic one but I'm hoping it is just enough to kickstart seeds into growth. After that, for most crops, double and triple cloches in the polytunnel should afford enough protection until springtime proper arrives.

I sowed lettuces too. I always grow too many at once and never keep up the succession properly, resulting in fields of lettuce all ready at the same time, most of which go on to bolt, followed by no lettuce whatsoever. This year, that changes and I've started by sowing some very early lettuce which I hope will germinate under bubble wrap in the tunnel - similar to the mangetout. The crucial thing with lettuces is that the temperature is not too low (below about 5C) and not too high (above 20C) for the first couple of days after sowing. The second of these is often far more difficult to achieve in the polytunnel and once we get into March I'll probably be using the cold frame for germination.
The varieties for so early in the year are the Cos types and the looseleaf (green rather than red). I have sown seeds of Little Gem, Lobjoits Green Cos and Buttercrunch.

Finally I have sown early carrots too today. Early Nantes, straight into the polytunnel beds. If we were in a cold snap, I would hold off on this, but the bees have been out for a couple of days this week, a song thrush was singing today and it is beginning to feel like spring already. I'm sure that winter will still have a say at some point. I hope so.

I've learned from last year and covered the rows with mesh. There always seems to be an interminable wait for carrotlings to emerge, so you can imagine how disheartening it was last year when first the chickens got in and destroyed a couple of rows and then Boris discovered that the polytunnel was a very good place to go digging.

Tomorrow the first turnips go into the polytunnel beds.

Meanwhile the outside  jobs are more winter-like. Moving, pruning and taking cuttings from dormant plants. Digging, shifting compost, rotavating when I can.

Snowy Icebergs

My lettuce growing has really taken off this year. I've got Little Gems, Lolla Rosso, Lobjoits Cos, Romaine and Iceberg.

The Icebergs are of the variety Maugli and have done exceptionally well in the polytunnel. In fact, this time a few days ago they were really looking the real deal. But then holes started appearing. Just a few small ones at first. I sprinkled some organic slug pellets around the lettuces, but the holes carried on, gradually increasing in size and frequency until some of the lettuces started to look a little ragged.
It was becoming clear that slugs were not the problem. No slime and no remedy despite the pellets. There were also now tell-tale piles of black poo. I delved into the leaves of a lettuce and there I found a bright green, looping caterpillar. The caterpillar hunt went into overdrive and I started finding more and more, bigger and juicier specimens. Beautiful as they were, they most certainly were not welcome. I picked off as many as I could, squishing them disgustingly between my fingers, but it was clear there were more tucked deep down, inaccessible between the hearting lettuce leaves.

Research confirmed that these lime green loopers would, if allowed, grow up to be small white cabbage white butterflies. Not having grown lettuces particularly successfully before, I stupidly hadn't even realised that they would be targeted by cabbage whites.
As picking them off was not going to be effective, I decided to prepare a soap spray. Not ideal on salad leaves as it might scorch them and they would need a good wash before eating, but the best option available. I took to the interweb to remind myself of the best solution to mix up and very quickly came upon an alternative organic solution - flour!

So at 6am this morning, before the blazing sun was having too much effect (yesterday the thermometer in the polytunnel was at scorchio!), I sprayed the lettuces to simulate rain or dew and then applied the flour sifter.

The icebergs had snow on them!

Apparently, the caterpillars are supposed to eat the flour which causes them to bloat and die.

ed - if you're wondering how I've got scorching weather here when you've got clouds and drizzle, this post was written just before the lightning storm took out my broadband. Things have moved on a bit since then. As for the lettuces, the flour was quite effective, but not before the caterpillars had done enough damage to really spoil them. I even found one which had made a cocoon inside the lettuce.
I have some more seedlings on the go though. I'll net the next ones!