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August 15th update keep beds full, cucumbers tomatoes and melons, save seed, make compost, insect covers, store onions

Written by

Charles Dowding

Last Updated

August 15, 2020

Early August has been unusually warm here, night minimum temperatures averaging16C/61F and day maxima averaging 27C/81F. Growth is fast as long as one waters – we use a hose, which takes time while using less water. Sometimes we water in bright sunlight, and that is fine.

However, since 13th we have much wetter, less hot and gloomy weather. It’s ideal for late blight! I would harvest remaining potatoes soon, and see no advantage to leaving them in the ground.

Drone view Homeacres 10th August, shows about half of my garden

Storm clouds near Homeacres, evening of 13th August, gave no rain here

Sweetcorn now ready with tassels browning, but is for a photoshoot on 18th so I cannot pick it yet

No dig

I have been hearing of drought in the east of England, especially Norfolk. One gardener wonders if a compost mulch is a good mulch when so dry. By the way, compost is a mulch, and works in dry conditions.

Another gardener in Norfolk wondered about spreading his autumn compost now, to increase mulch thickness. I would say that can work, from my experience and also following feedback from dry places such as Arizona and other arid areas. See more about no dig in dry climates on our Testimonials page.

Comparing growth with no dig bed nearest to camera — Comparing growth in two beds, with no dig bed nearest to camera and dig bed further. All vegetables are summer plantings and with no new compost added. We have been watering these beds. Left to right French bean, cucumber, carrots, kale, celery, beetroot, leeks, chicory, celeriac

Carrots, 66 days since sowing — 66 days since I sowed these Nairobi F1 carrots between lettuce, dig bed on left and no dig right

Trial beds dig left, no dig right — Second plantings on 12th August. The dig bed on left has so far given 53kg harvests, and the no dig bed has given 60kg, from plantings of the same vegetables

More sowing and planting

There is plenty of sowing to make still, see the timeline. We sowed more spinach yesterday, while the sowings of 10th August are just showing first leaves. I find that 14-18 days is enough time in the greenhouse, for seedlings to be ready. During the hot weather, I was watering twice a day.

13th August greenhouse seedlings mustards, rocket, endives

Kale and watermelon — Chinese cabbage left, kale right for winter in tunnel, watermelon soon ready

Coriander seedlings — Coriander Cruiser at 18 days, some sown in the modules and some pricked out

Clearing to replant

Because days are now shortening rapidly, I sometimes clear vegetables before they are quite finished cropping. to have clear space for new transplants. My second online course has a lot about this.

Last pick of French beans — Bean plants could have given more but I have a second planting now ready

Bed now ready for transplants of Chinese cabbage, which do best in clear space

Weedkiller in compost

If not affecting you, please skip to next para.

However there are many gardeners suffering this horror, and I quote one from You Tube to illustrate the problem:

I had stunted growth of my chilli plants this year with curling leaves, I repotted them in a different compost and they shot up afterwards although I think it’s too late and I won’t be getting a chilli harvest from four plants this year.

I didn’t know that weedkiller in compost was even a thing. I’ve had this problem a few times and always thought I’d done something wrong with watering or not keeping my plants warm and in fertile soil. (Michael Skelton, engineer).

If you complain to the UK government HSE, they ‘empathise’ and pretend it’s your fault. Still worth letting them know, otherwise “there is not a problem”. Please do report any problems to CRDEnforcement@hse.gov.uk and UKHotline@corteva.com headed “Pyralid contamination”.

At Homeacres I have a dying and probably dead plum tree and sea holly, where I spread some compost I had been given to try, but shall never know the exact cause, and can prove nothing!

Tree probably killed by herbicide — My Opal plum tree in its 8th summer on Pixy rootstock, was healthy and productive until this year

The effect of pyralid weedkiller on broad beans — Classic symptoms are curling of NEW leaves, and stunted growth with deformed fruits, if any

Watering

In dry conditions, the best use of water is to help new plantings establish, say every 2-3 days for a week or two: as with the chicory below right.

Also water fruiting plants, to enjoy more harvest. I did not water climbing beans until 10 days ago, when their pods start to develop and swell, We water celery (my new video), which needs water always. On the other hand, best not give more than maintenance ration to celeriac, until it really starts swelling in a week or two.

Celeriac has been watered only a little — Celeriac Prinz which has been watered only a little, few weeds thanks to no dig

Celery Victoria and Hadrian — Three months since we transplanted this celery Victoria and Hadrian, after clearing spinach sown last August, then we added homemade compost in May before transplanting celery

Chicory in ground 20 days — Chicory for radicchio, transplanted as 3 week seedlings, 20 days before photo, Leonotis in front

Cucumbers

Cordon cucumbers are a main harvest from undercover growing in summer. My cucumber and beef tomato plants are cropping magnificently, however my cherry tomatoes are poor. Perhaps they dislike the heat more than tomato plants for large fruits. Outdoor tomato plants look healthier than the polytunnel tomatoes, while greenhouse tomato plants are in good shape.

Ridge cucumber with leaf mildew — Outdoor ridge cucumber plants now have mildew on older leaves, but continue to crop and this is Tanya. I cut skin off before salting them a little, the taste is great.

Cordon cucumbers in the polytunnel, Carmen F1 transplanted 3 months earlier and they should continue to give harvests for up to six weeks more. Marigolds for beauty and to discourage aphids

Tomatoes

Arielle tomato plant polytunnel — Polytunnel Arielle F1 tomato plant, super healthy, is next to…

Santiam Sunrise tomato plant polytunnel — Santiam Sunrise tomato plant, sown and transplanted same dates as its neighbour Arielle

Mountain Magic tomatoes outside — Outdoor Mountain Magic tomato plants in the small garden

Melons

The recent warmth has helped melons growth a lot. I grow them up strings to save space but find it makes them crop later. This can be a problem in the UK, with our normally cool summers. So far I picked just two from the Early Granite, super tasty. All these are from Real Seeds.

All plants were sown mid April and transplanted third week of May. Compost mulch and no feeds given. We are making a video about training and side-shooting them, for Course no. 3 releasing next February. Note there are no supports for the heavy fruits – another myth!

How to know when a melon is ripe? The aroma… you will know!

Early Granite melon plant, these almost ripe

Kasakh melon plant with fruits showing a promising tinge of yellow

Minnesota Midget melon plant, from home saved seed

Tiger melon plant, less leaves and plenty of fruit

Augergines, watermelon

These love heat as much as melons. I save seed from last year’s Early Moonbeam watermelon, and it looks promising now.

The black aubergines have cropped well, but I lost one plant with leaves going limp, and brown blotches, from Erwinia I think.

The aubergines started as plug plants from Delfland Nurseries near Ely. They are organic and seasonal, worth a look if you miss sowing dates.

Black Pearl F1 grafted aubergines and Gem marigolds

Watermelon Early Moonbeam — First large fruit of Early Moonbeam in the greenhouse, has yellow flesh

Seed saving

This is a good time for saving many seeds, or being ready to. Remember the four vegetables for which you need only one plant to save seed from, they do not need or ‘suffer’ cross pollination. French bean, tomato, lettuce and pea. We have harvested pea seeds, and lettuce from the polytunnel, but not outside. Find out more in my Saving Seeds video.

French or bush bean Orinoco for seed — French or bush bean Orinoco, not picked and all for seed, in about a month, is outside

French bean Cupidon with dry pods — An earlier harvest of French bean Cupidon, from the polytunnel and ready to shall out the seeds

Tomato seeds fermenting — Tomato seeds will germinate better from fermenting in water, until you see fungal decay, then wash and dry.

With a seeding spinach plant, 12 months old and the clusters of ‘seeds’ (are really fruits!) mostly dry and ready for rubbing off

After some winnowing, spinach seed is from 8 plants growing together, to ensure cross pollination

Charles winnowing seeds in a breeze — A nice breeze enables one to winnow seeds, with fluff and debris blowing away while seeds fall into the bucket, see previous photo

Compost making

I love the options for compost making in high summer. Yesterday Martin turned the heap we finished in mid May, and commented on how soft and crumbly it is already.

We now have many crop residues, such as beetroot leaves, tomato and cucumber prunings, onion tops and clearings of lettuce, beans etc. Plus grass mowings, with some old wood chips mown as well, a bit of soil, paper and cardboard. More details are in this video, and it seems a fair few people are now making variations of Homeacres compost bays. See their measurements on this page, and more descriptions + videos in online course 1.

There are many unnecessary worries about what you can and can’t put in heaps. Here is an example from Mr Fothergills newsletter, about blackspot on roses

“At this time of year roses are more prone to black spot. If you discover it on your foliage, cut away and remove from site. Do not place on your compost heap, as this can encourage it.”

At Homeacres I put all diseased material on the compost heap. except for onion white rot (also club root if I had it). I add blighted leaves, mildew, blackspot and rust. No problems have ensued, even from adding diseased leaves in winter, when heaps are not hot. Diseases mostly need living tissues to survive on, not compost or soil.

Homeacres current compost heap — Homeacres current heap in middle, planks are local Douglas Fir, untreated

Compost heaps in Ontario Canada — New compost bay in Ontario, after watching my videos, photo from Joanne

The first heap of 2020 before turning, about a tonne, took seven weeks to fill

Dryness

In dry weather, I keep noticing healthier and lusher growth of plants on bed edges, near to the paths. Having no wooden sides and weed free paths, ensure full use of path moisture, and nutrients as well. I explain a lot about paths in course 1, because they are not dead space just for walking.

The stand-out exceptions are my two beds with wooden sides (the trial). Plants near to the wooden sides go limp faster than ones in the middle.

Chard plants drier in the middle — Chard is much smaller in the middle of this bed, while plants on the edge can root laterally to the paths, with no wooden sides

Beetroot plants drier on the edge — Beetroot leaves wilt the most on plants which are close to the wooden sides of this bed

Removing insect covers

Yes you can! once plants are growing strongly, especially if their height means a gap at the sides, which would allow insects in.

Here I was also expecting the weather change and these plants grow so large in the damp warmth of late summer. For caterpillars I spray the Bacillus thuringiensis every 18-20 days. Sorry if it’s hard to find in the UK.

After removing a mesh cover, perfect brassica leaves include cabbage and swedes transplanted 38 days earlier

Mesh over Brussels sprouts plants — Brussels before removing mesh, and asparagus behind, salads to right after beetroot

Brussels after removing the mesh, just two months after we transplanted them between carrots

Storing

Already we have garlic and onions hanging in the conservatory, I want to try plaiting a few onions too, we shall see!

Potatoes can store in sacks, as long as they are dry when you sack them. I keep Charlottes in my shed, which is currently very warm, and they keep well. The potatoes and squash growing on compost heaps do not make a significant difference to nutrients in the heap, from what I have observed. Compost is rather more about biology than chemistry.