|
October
17th The
night temperatures have not fallen low as can be seen from my min /max
thermometer hanging in the greenhouse Fig 1.also
plants are really slowing down as each day I remove fallen leaves and
stems . I gave these plants a small amount of water last weekend as the
sun was strong and some plants appeared to be wilting as I read not to
let the plants wilt. I did have one plant with mildew but sprayed him
and so far had no more problems. I did notice the mildew was on a plant
which was bright green and seemed to want to be growing and must have
been short of water as the yellowing plants have no signs of mildew.
Fig 2 shows the heater set up just
in case the temperature does drop as I have moved all my pot plants into
this greenhouse so only having to heat the one house. The cuttings I
took earlier in the year approx 40 look ok Fig
3 are in the propagator in the small greenhouse which I am
watering quite a lot as the temperatures are high for October. Once
again I did read from a previous Society Bulletin that you get a better
sized tuber if you don’t keep the cuttings short of water. Last winter I
did keep that seasons cuttings very dry and the tubers were very small
when I did finally harvest .We will see what happens this year although
they are spring cuttings and not autumn taken so they have been growing
for several months already this year.
27th October. Still no frost but you can
see how the plants have got a lot smaller Fig 4
from earlier in the month also you see I have fitted bubble
insulation in the large greenhouse. I had a rummage in my shed found out
enough insulation to near enough do the whole greenhouse as you can see
I haven’t gone right to the ridge but fitted the insulation on top of
the wires I use to support my layer of light shading in the summer
months Fig 5. This cuts down on the
space I will need to heat if temperatures drop and the heater starts. In
the past I had grown freesias in this large greenhouse during the winter
but after stopping growing them had kept the insulation in bags in the
dark of the shed .This had stopped the plastic breaking down as which
has happened to the stuff which was left fitted inside the small
greenhouse needing to be replaced this season. I have still got the
magnetic door screen fitted which is still working well and I open the
doors each dry day as with the plastic all around moisture would soon
build and cause issues. I noticed dropping leaves with the temperature
being so high I put a small amount of water on one plant and checked the
next day and it had perked up so I gave all the limp looking plants a
small amount they did look better the next day but as mentioned I’m
being cautious with not over watering. At this time I’ve no plants that
have finished and haven’t harvested any tubers as with not taking any
notes last year I’m not sure when their cycle will be completed and
harvesting to commence. I was thinking about the growing season next
year and have bought some more 10” pots hopefully will have enough large
tubers for these extra pots then will have more choice with what to
enter into competition in the unrestricted classes. Having received
several new varieties this season which I grew in 7 “restricted as
single stemmed plants they looked really good so if they do survive and
throw up enough shoots should be of a suitable size for the unrestricted
class. I did read with interest the Begonia section article by Alan
Harris in the Garden News telling his 10 steps to safely get your tubers
through to the spring. I will keep my tubers in the garage which is
integral as the warnings of power cuts this winter would make it appear
a bit risky to chance keeping them in the greenhouse with no electric
heating. Several years ago when I first started growing large begonias I
tried keeping the tubers in the greenhouse over winter but with the very
cold weather during those years I lost all my tubers. So have learnt
from this especially with the high cost of electricity plus I do not
over winter any other plants any longer as I did twenty years ago prior
to the price of plant plugs being available in the spring at reasonable
costs.
|
