|
JUNE
With my enforced period of rest no work to worry about for a few
weeks, I had arranged a trip down to the south coast to visit a few old
friends & compare my plants, something that would not normally happen.
120 mile round trip first was Dave & Pauline Coates. Dave's greenhouse
(A) his plants looked good & healthy but my first reaction
and I kept this
to myself that my plants were far more advanced. I am now panicking in
my head and will have to sort out plants that were for the National to be
now used for the Titchfield show. After a nice lunch prepared by
Pauline it was off to Bill Sqibb's greenhouse (B) same thoughts, my
plants are too advanced not just for the mini show even my plants for the
National. Both are growing plants for the National has well. Dave had
given me a plant in a 3litre pot so on returning home I was straight into
the shade house comparing plants (C).
As you can see some difference in
size of plants. The only issue is the 2 plants of my own are of Sweet
Dreams & Dave's in the middle is of Joyce Mihulka. It was now a waiting
game for John Hamilton's update on his plants for the Ayr show which is
the following week from Titchfield. Weekly update I think it was 11 or
even 12 days before John's next piece appeared ( 7 days to a week John).
any way it was the 29th. May. My plants are more like the same as
Johns and
the fact is both Dave & Bill both grow in Levington m3 (soiless), I am
still learning to grow in loam. Will admit though that this year I am
very happy with the way things are going can't wait to let them flower.
The month of June is the first protection against the dreaded little
weevil (D) this one had a sore head after this picture was taken. One
cup full to a 3 litre pot (E) of Provardo works for me
(F) using Dan Ramage cup & stick passed on by John Hamilton, it saves a lot of time for
sure. I have every plant out and treated every pot of Begonia
(G). This
also proved to me that I have too many plants. Now as you can see the
shade house is now filling up rapidly (H)
with120 plants. They need a bit more
room, but I am struggling to shift a few out as they all seem to be growing well.
The greenhouse is no better 130 plants (I). What concerns me even more
everything has to fit into the greenhouse at the end of the year. That is
without too many cuttings so far, I will need to take a batch for pollen in
July though sure something will happen by the time we get there. (conservatory looks like it could hold a few
- furniture in the
garage? talk to the wife she will understand not.)
The next few pictures are ways of taking cuttings that work for me and I
don't use any rooting powder or the like. This plant of whispers threw
out 5 stem cuttings (J). The top 2 I discarded, could have waited till they
were larger but this is a variety I have plenty of. Another way of
increasing stock (K). All you need to think about is any cutting you
take if slightly too large cut a leaf off here & there, they
all root and produce tubers. Here is the tray of cuttings I took at the
end of April (L), sometimes I will leave them in the tray for the rest of
the season, but will show you the root growth after about 4 weeks
(M). 3
& 4 inch pots are used, I need to find somewhere to put these now (N). Only
one failure, a leaf cutting (O), can't win um all. My feeding I am trying
to keep simple as possible, all my plants for the National have had Nutrimate added to the compost,
it cuts down the amount of feeding required and
helps to stop the leaching of nutrients. They have had one foliar spray
of Fulvic acid, this helps the nutrient uptake of other feeds get to the
plant quicker and helps the photosynthesis in grey light conditions. The
special K feed will be used one week after the bud has been secured. All
the above are organic compounds, at present none of my plants show
any sign for the need of any feeding and this is the root system I have in
a 3ltr. pot aimed at my first show (Q). This is the top growth, the plant
is Beryl Spurr (U). Towards the end of the month the first buds will be
selected when the real nail biting starts.
|
