Harvesting Potatoes, Still Very Dry

The weatherman is promising rain next week and the plot certainly needs it. I decided to dig up the potatoes on plot 5 and could hardly get the fork in the soil. Of course, now we really need the water, there's a hosepipe ban.

It's quite strange on the site – no sign of the daily sprinkler brigade but some dedicated souls can be seen going back and forth to the taps with watering cans. There seemed to be some muttering going on but I don't think it was printable.

Normally I use a hosepipe to water the large greenhouse but today it was back and forth with the cans. I actually suspect I used more water than if I'd used the hose but the law was obeyed.

Now somebody has commented on my hosepipe ban rant that United Utilities have stated it is legal to use a hosepipe to extend a tap and to fill watering cans from the pipe. This would be a real help to those with plots a long way from a tap. I've contacted UU for confirmation on this and will post an update.

Anyway, against all the growing rules, I'd left some of the traveller potatoes from last year to grow on and these had done reasonably well. Travellers, those potatoes left in the ground after harvesting, can be a reservoir for disease and pest problems which is why you should try to get them all whilst harvesting.

Normally I'd just weed out the odd traveller but being as they had grown a fair bit and looked as if they were doing well and I'd nothing urgently needing the space, I thought 'why not?'

The yield per square yard was nothing to boast about, but we've ended up with about 20Kg of 'free' potatoes. The properly planted potatoes on plot 29 are going to be next up, hopefully the yield from them will be better.

The dry soil means it's good for hoeing. When you hoe in wet soil, the hoe tends to drag or push weeds up with soil on the roots. Being tough little devils, the weeds just seem to re-root and carry on growing. With dry soil, you just cut through the majority and those that are dragged up whole dry out and die quickly.

Hoed over most of the patch from the potatoes down to the Wonderwall brassica cloche except around the sweetcorn. I was getting a little tired by now and had visions of slipping up and cutting through the corn.

The sweetcorn is doing rather well, it's certainly caught up with those who planted earlier than I did on the site. Starting in pots really does seem to give me the edge. Ensuring there's plenty of nitrogen to fuel growth is the other 'secret' to good sweetcorn. I like to use pelleted chicken manure but if you've weak looking or worse still, yellowing sweetcorn it is well worth giving them a high nitrogen feed.

I dissolve 25gr of prilled urea in 10 litres of water and give a litre per plant with a second application a week later. If you can't get prilled urea, which is 40% nitrogen, then sulphate of ammonia at 50gr per 10 litres. Sulphate of ammonia is 20% nitrogen.

I know it's not organic – but a small inorganic boost saving the crop seems reasonable to me. It's not as if you're going to cause problems with nitrogen run-off!

The brassicas are looking great. Although the primary purpose of the Wonderwall is to protect against birds and butterflies, the micro-climate it creates seems to really help things along.

When I planted out, they seemed quite lonely spaced apart but they're already filling the gaps. If they carry on like this, could be my best brassica year ever!