June
Hi all, this year seems to have got off to a flyer
with the warm weather the country has been enjoying so far. Although
many areas have been struck with some frosts, here near Dumfries we only
had 3 light frosts since end of January. My plants are looking pretty
good, been very happy with the root development this year. Tinkering
with the compost for the 2nd pot have proved to been successful with
good root showing.
As many of you may know I had problems with my loam
this year so restricted the number of plants to finish in a 4-litre pot.
This left many plants in the second pot of only 2 litres, which seemed a
shame. Halfway through the month of May I kept looking at the plants in
the 2 litre pots & thought I would make up some compost using old spent
compost from previous couple of years. This old compost was piled up at
the end of the garden. So with 15 litres of old spent compost I added 12
litres new peat & 3 litres Kettering loam with all the normal
fertiliser, another 150 litres made up. Will be interesting on how this
performs through the year. As we enter the end of May it was time also
to clear out many surplus plants to the garden. The back of our house
only gets an hour’s sun in the morning & a couple of hours in the
evenings. Went a little overboard & built a display area to house the
surplus plants. The plants in the glasshouse now have a little more room
to spread their leaves. Hanging baskets are now starting to put on lots
of growth & are now showing the side shoots need stopping. I’ve also
started feeding with a high nitrogen feed this helps soften the growth
to allow movement in the stems. With this soft growth when time comes, I
can withhold water & let the plant collapse. Making the plant collapse
helps stop the stem breaking under the weight of blooms later on. When
letting the plants collapse once water is given, the plants can’t pull
the stem back up fully. The basket may look a little flat on top but it
will soon fill up when the side shoots develop. I’ve just checked on a
4-litre pot to see how the root system was going, I have a smile on my
face I’m happy.
Till next time keep safe.
Phil Champion
