Strawberry TLC

 Unbaffling the Baffled

Strawberries have had me baffled for a while but over the last year or two I've been focused on unbaffling myself.

It seems to me the more popular a plant is and the more information there is written about such it and then the more misinformation there is.

What I've looked for is consistent and often repeated information and messages.

Fertilizer time

Information like, strawberries like to be well watered and well fed. Along with as much sunshine as possible. They also like a rich well prepared soil with loads of added organic matter.

And also now (mid Winter) is a good time to water, fertilise and mulch your strawberries which I'm doing right now.

I mention Macro nutrients during the video and there is a fairly thorough article on Wikipedia about Plant nutrients if you're interested. 

Potashing Peas

Post by My Veggie Garden.

Experiment time. Brum brum.

Experiment time. Brum brum.

I've wanted to try this for some time now. A while ago I was told about putting a layer of comfrey in the bottom of your potato trenches due to the high amount of potassium, nitrogen  and other minerals available in the leaves. The thinking is that as the tatties grow the comfrey breakes down leaving the nutrients avaliable to the tatties, so, here goes.

First of all I decided harvest all the comfrey I have and then mow it all up making it easier to spread out in the trench and increase the speed at which it breaks down.

 Hummm, one big clump = about a third of a catcher on the mower. But wait, there's more :)

 Comfrey laid out in half the trench so it's back for more sultanas, um, comfrey

 Sprouted tatties from the Fruit and veg shop. And yes I know it's preferable to get certified seed tatties but when they sprout in your pantry it's hard not to stick them in the ground so I'll take my chances, fingers x'ed.

The tattie trench filled with comfrey and then covered with about an inch (25mm for you youngsters) or so of soil and the tatties placed on top and then the trench is filled.

And to top things off a nice biscuit or two of straw for mulch. Ta dah.

Now I'll just have to sit back and see what the results are.


What do you think?

Will it work?

Cheers and happy veggie growing to you,

Stewart

Progress Click here 

Final report Click here

It's now or next year!

Yep it's now or next year if you want to plant, from sown seed, watermelons and or for that matter, cucumber and pumpkins and rock melons and you know, all those creepy climby, viney things. You can still leave it for a month or so if you buy seedlings from your nursery, but if you are sowing your own seed you really need to get them in now.

They take about 70 to 80 days to produce fruit and need the heat of summer to produce good growth. If you move into autumn (this would probably exclude the sub-tropics and the tropics where they could be grown much later into the season) and get a early cold snap you probably won't get any edible fruit.

I grow the 'sugarbaby' watermelon here because of the limited space I have in my backyard but I also have a few planted down at the community gardens.

For soil prep I use one ten litre bucket of compost, one ten litre bucket of aged cow manure, a hand full of blood and bone and a small hand of sulphate of potash. I'll also apply another small hand of potash when the vines start to flower to help with fruit set and development. Creating a raised mound in the process into which I plant my seeds.

After planting four of five seeds into each of the raised mound/s at about fifteen to twenty millimeters deep I then water them well and keep them moist untill germination takes place.

Keep them well watered for the first 3/4 weeks then water as necessary. When the fruit is ripening back off all the watering as extra water at this stage will dilute the sugars and therefore the flavor.

Good luck if you plant some,
Cheers for now,
Stewart