Episode 7 – mid
April
Finally,
weather conditions something approaching spring arrived in Blaydon on
the 7th of April. We were treated to three glorious days
then, no surprise, more torrential rain and then for 4 days, the
temperatures were back into single figures again; 5°C
to be precise, with the heaters running day and night but gradually by
the weekend things started to improve again. However during those three
better days, my pots of cutting tubers dried out nicely and were watered
and the plants immediately started to look like they were ready to get
down to business. Begonias, more than any other plant I have ever grown
seem to respond the quickest to good weather at this time of year. The
adult tubers, that had only been potted up for a day or so didn’t show
any visible signs of growth, but the warm weather must have provided a
nice transition for them from the propagator to the staging.
Tuber update
The adult tubers from the main propagator looked great in terms of root
development when they went into their first pots – virtually all of them
into two litre with a handful of them in one litre, but a few had run
away a bit in terms of top growth, however only the biggest tubers were
affected by this. In the past, I have had the odd issue with some of the
bigger ones being a bit dry underneath when they come out of the
propagators and this can result in a bit of root die back but there was
only one or two this year and the roots seemed unaffected. I keep a
small hand sprayer filled with water to hand when I’m potting on the
adult tuber to dampen underneath the tuber if required before I move it
on, as I do not like to water plants in after they have been potted up.
I much prefer to have the plant watered the day before I move it and the
moisture content of the new compost just right. I can then go at least a
week before I need to water.
Every now and
then I have the odd plant that goes blind. It is always a cutting tuber;
they usually appear to be growing well at the time and for the last 3
years I have always had a Tom Brownlee do this – see below. If it
happens early enough the plant will produce another shoot and I have
flowered these before but I don’t know what the cause is.
Cuttings update
It’s an improving situation with my earliest batch of cuttings that were
damaged due to the excessive propagator temperature and although I have
had losses of about 30% and they have taken a bit longer than usual to
root, they are moving now and possibly because they have been reluctant
to produce roots, a quite a few of them have first been forming tubers
before the roots appeared – see below left. The root movement seemed to
coincide with our first taste of warmer, brighter conditions so perhaps
the extremely dull weather we have has had an effect. The first of my
potted up cuttings had been struggling a bit, even though I had found
some space for them on a propagator but with the brighter conditions
they perked up and changed to that brighter, healthier looking green
that tells you they are growing. They are only in 3 inch pots because of
my limited propagator space, but I realised that I can get more of them
onto some heat if I keep them in small pots – see below right. I have a
different approach to potting up rooted cuttings compared to potting up
started tubers. With tubers, I ensure they are watered the day before
and that the moisture content of the new compost is just right. As
mentioned above, this means that I do not need to water in or water at
all for usually at least a week. With the cuttings, the new compost is
kept a touch on the dry side because then it gets into contact with the
roots better. I then give them a light watering in once potted up. As
soon as the roots show on the outside of the compost they will move into
one litre pots. For those that will be flowered, I will try to find some
propagator space to keep them warm at night, any not selected will just
go onto the staging.
After endless
hours of indecision, I finally made my mind up what to use for my main
batch of cuttings. I have tried out quite a few combinations by using a
3 inch pot as a measure to see which version had the best physical
properties for my mix. I wanted to include some fertilizer in the mix
because it’s never caused me any problems in the past however I am now
also thinking a lot about the impact of the fertilizer strength of the
start up compost for my tubers and specifically the cuttings I am taking
from them. Some of the earlier ones were very thick so were they overfed
and could this have contributed to the rotting? (even though the high
temperature is the obvious contender). I will think carefully about what
I start them up in next year but in the meantime I eventually settled on
the following concoction for the main batch of cuttings!
●
2 parts
Original Humax – this contains silver sand and Nutrimate
●
2 parts
peat
●
1 part
Perlite – I had to relent and admit that it has always given me the
best results so I’ll live with not liking the look of it for now!
My next dilemma
was open bench or seed trays. Probably as a result of my newfound
insecurity about propagation, I have been thinking about using ½ seed
trays to root in instead of an open bench i.e. the whole propagator – my
reasoning?
●
As a form
of quarantining
●
Better
control of watering
●
Rooted
trays can be removed for potting up and slower ones left for a while
longer
Eventually, it
occurred to me that as seed trays are shallower than the depth of my
propagators, the tip if the cuttings would be closer to the cable so
there would be an increased chance of hot spots whereas using my normal
method allows for a bit more heat dispersion due to the greater depth of
compost so I decided not to use the trays, but now that the main batch
is in – see below left and centre. I will try a few in trays as a trial.
I’ve had a
couple of cuttings with a small tuber and a few roots when I snapped
them off – should be a nice head start – see below right – variety
Falstaff
Ingleston
plants update
To be honest,
after final potting they have just been left to get on with what they
know best. There are definitely times when begonias need minimum
intervention and this is one of them. I would have liked it a bit warmer
and brighter but it wasn’t so they ended up with the same conditions as
my adults and cutting tubers – never allowed to get cold and watering at
a minimum until the weather improved and dried them out and then just
enough water to wet the expanding root ball. The plants seem to be
growing but bud movement is a bit on the slow side but I was warned
about this so no surprise. Looking at them today – 15th April
– see below, I am wondering how I am going to have buds big enough to
secure by next week but what will be will be – this could be a harsh
lesson for me to learn!
A chance
purchase of a new toy!
Wandering idly
around our local Lidl – which is proof as if ever I needed it that I’ve
got too much time on my hands, I spotted an interesting looking cold
frame for sale in their gardening section; aluminium and glazed with
clear polycarbonate – see below. Looking closer, I checked out the
dimensions and realised that front to back it would fit exactly over my
big Two West’s and Elliott propagators and although it was only 39
inches long, at £28 I couldn’t resist it. It was the last one in stock
but after thinking about it that night, the next morning I nipped over
to another branch and managed to snap up another two – the third one was
because I thought that Colin would fancy one as well, which he did. My
big idea was that if I had two of them, together they would be
78 inches
long. The smaller of my TWE propagators is 60 inches long but if I
bought a 20 inch extension for it, with a bit of modification and
persuasion I would be able to combine them into a presentable covered
propagation unit, or, as I’ve been planning, I could just get a new TWE
80 x 24 inch propagator next year and use it on that, or perhaps get a
heated mat made to fit them! If nothing else, puzzling over this little
engineering problem was stopping me from fretting continually about my
cuttings!
It’s a small
world
A few weeks
ago, Robert Bryce forwarded an email to me from Peter Booth who is the
President of the Auckland Begonia Circle in New Zealand. It turns out
that Peter originates from Hartlepool, which is about 35 miles south of
Blaydon. This summer he will be back in the UK for a holiday and will be
staying near Hartlepool for a few days, so he will be paying me a visit
in the run up to the National show. I’ll put a report in the diary after
his visit.
What’s keeping me awake at night?
It's
my first begonia talk coming up in Ayr but I’m trying to stay quite calm
about it – I’m saving my fingernails for the next one at the SBS May
meeting when I will face Hecklers Corner, something that Michael
Richardson seems quite keen to keep reminding me about! In fact right
now, I am reasonably happy about everything because I seem to have
rescued a decent percentage of my cuttings, which is more that I could
have hoped for 3 or 4 weeks ago.
Next
episode – general progress report and my first begonia talk at the West
of Scotland
