Introduction
Having retired in 2005 I decided to venture into the
world of the Double Flowered Begonia. Prior to this I had been growing
and showing Fuchsia’s at a national level for many years and to a
certain extent had been responsible for changing the way that they are
now being grown by the top flight of showmen. I decided from the outset
that rather than try and change anything in the begonia world I would
simply listen to the older/wiser growers with a view to accepting that
everything that they had to say was gospel. Sadly, the more I listened
the more I found that the information being passed on did not in my
opinion totally add up e.g. a cutting has only one eye, leaf cuttings are
not viable, a plant cannot produce tubers above soil level and so on.
This was to lead me down a path of exploration and experimentation in
order that I could glean a greater understanding/knowledge of the plant.
I have been fortunate enough to make friends with a
number of our top growers both north and south of the border and have
concentrated my efforts on both growing cut blooms and developing my own
ideas on propagation. My work involving propagation was published
within the NBS handbook 2017 therefore I do not intend to delve into
this subject in any great detail. This year will bring many challenges
as I intend for the first time to grow a number of pot plants having
previously only ever grown one during the 2016 season. My inspiration
with regard to pot plants comes from Jim Mihulka, the Coalburn duo John
and Mairi Hamilton and from the south Bob Bryce.
For the purposes of showing, judging rules north and
south of the border are basically the same for pot plants with the main
difference being that in Scotland a grower can now have more than one
tuber of the same variety in a pot as opposed to a single tuber
elsewhere. This recent change brings pot plants in line with pendula,
basket and species growing and, at the same time in my opinion makes it
simpler for both the grower and judge as no longer will the grower have
to discard a number of plants due to basal shoots failing to face in the
required direction or lacking in number or for that matter having to
delay growing pot plants until they have grown or acquired larger
tubers. It also allows the judges to concentrate on judging the exhibit
without focusing their attention on how many tubers may or may not be in
the pot. I will be interested to see if there is a difference in quality
between a pot plant grown from a single tuber than one grown from
multiple tubers.
All my starting up and propagation takes place within
my 10 feet x 8 feet greenhouse in which I have two custom built
propagators (one either side running from the front towards the
rear) and at the rear a single hot bed running left to right. It
should be noted that I do not heat this greenhouse unless in an
emergency as being a Scot born and bred I do not part with money
lightly. On the rare occasions that I do heat the greenhouse I have to
heat an area 10 feet (3.04m) x 8 feet (2.44m) by approximately 6 feet
(1.83m) in height. By only heating the two propagators the heated area
is reduced to 8 feet (2.44m) x 3 feet (0.914m) x 14 inches (35.56cm) in
height (inclusive of the sand bed) for each propagator. I will leave it
to you to do the calculations but there is a significant cost saving. My
larger greenhouse measures 20 feet x 12 feet and is used from April each
year. It is unheated but can be kept frost free if required.
The content of this diary is produced only as “FOOD
FOR THOUGHT” describing how I approach my growing on a monthly
basis. If it proves helpful to you in any way then it will certainly
have been worth while. Happy growing.
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Growing Diary – February
Prior to being contacted by Brian Simmons to cover
my growing diary my season was already underway and I will therefore
commence my diary from today’s date 9 February. In order to get you up
to speed I planted both my adult (mainly two year old tubers) and
cutting tubers on 5 February in a multi purpose peat based compost and
watered them in. This is the first year that my adult tubers were pipped
prior to putting them into compost and this would equate to starting
them on 15 January in previous years. Already I can see a bit of
confusion setting in so let me explain. For me it would normally take
some three weeks from planting unpippped tubers to getting them all to a
stage of being pipped so that process had already been achieved before
planting.
I regularly hear growers discussing starting dates
with one saying for example that they started their tubers on 15 January
(not pipped) and another saying that they felt that 15 January was too
early in the season and that they did not start their tubers until 5
February (pipped). Unknown to them their tubers were started on more or
less the same day with the 1st grower bringing their tubers
to life by introducing them to heated compost whilst the 2nd
to heated air (increasing seasonal temperatures).
As I put pen to paper so to speak within the right
hand propagator of my greenhouse are my cutting tubers in 1 litre square
pots and to the left my adult tubers in 1.5 litre square pots all have
an ambient temperature of approximately 18-20°c. In previous years I
started my tubers in an “open root run” system but approximately five
years ago I changed to my current setup. There are numerous advantages
with this system e.g. less compost required, no root disturbance when
potting on, better control of watering (each individual plant can be
watered according to its own needs) and so on.
It is my intention to update this diary every two
weeks or so and for any NBS member who may wish to seek
clarification on any of its content then feel free to do so via the NBS
facebook and if time allows, I will endeavour to answer them. For those
of you who have not visited this site it is run by Phil Champion on
behalf of the NBS and is a very worth while addition to their
portfolio.
