Back to School - Germination Temperatures II

Last time I tried to analyse the connection between temperature and germination I got in a bit of a bind.

The following two links are the best way of summarising the facts.

First the Edinburgh climate:



http://www.rbge.org.uk/assets/files/science/Weather/2009%20in%20perspective.pdf

Note that the soil temperature is roughly midway between the daily maximum and daily minimum and fluctuates less. For outside sowing soil temperature is probably the best guide. With some crops (onions, leeks, brassicas) to give youself a head start it is advisable to start seeds off indoors and acclimatise them to the outdoor temperature after germination in a greenhouse before planting them out once the outdoor temperature has risen.

Secondly someone has kindly summarised the data on the first chart into a digestible form.

http://organicgarden.org.uk/?page_id=2120

All that is now required is to sort the data in order of ascendance of the minimum temperature in the optimum range.



Also I need to set up my 'greenhouse' and install the max/min thermometer I already have, and mabe buy a soil thermometer. Meantime, it continues to be unseasonably cold in Edinburgh. Researching this topic has kept me out of mischief.

As a footnote I have noticed that ALL the germination/temperature information on the internet appears to derive from the one American study (the one with the raw data given in the first picture of my previous post). There were a couple of glaring holes in that study where data is missing. Has no one tried to replicate this study?

I've discovered that the Council has decided to cane Edinburgh allotment holders by bumping up the rent by another £40 over the next 4 years (after doubling from £30 to £60 it in the last 5 years) My next post will try to address this local problem. Councils tend to follow each other. Is anyone else experiencing such a vicious and sustained hike in rents?

Nearly forgot the tune of the week: Money ~ Flying Lizards
Money spent: £24 (Impulse buy of 6 fencing posts)
Time spent: 1hr - fencing duties.

St Valentine's Day Brassica

I don't like adverising my failures, but seeing as I have bleated on about the pigeons you may as well see what I was talking about. And besided if Soilman can show you his manky compost heap...and yes, I just couldn't resist the pun.

Taking advantage of the lowered net the pigeons gave the cavelo nero a haircut:



When the snow weighed down the netting they stripped the curly kale:



Here's a plant they couldn't get at (just to remind me what we I'm missing)



And just to cheer me up here's this year's brassica patch. Last year's is to the right of the picture. I've dosed it with lime today. Note the sturdy posts between which I am going to stretch chicken wire. Its a narrower strip than last year and I will put in a few tall canes centrally, once I top it out with plastic netting, after planting out. Confucious said (something like) A wise man learns from his mistakes - and a genius learns from the mistakes of others.



Today's song: Lime Going To Be Your Numer One (Blondie's version of 'The Tide Is High')

Time spent this week: 2 hrs
Money spent: Nowt

Waiting for spring...

Allotment bloggers are looking for signs of spring, and for my part I've seen my first snowdrops of the year in the wild. I'm itching to get started. Prompted by other blogs I've already been panicked into buying seed potato far earlier than I intended. At least I got what I wanted. But now I see blogs where seeds are being popped into modules and I'm scurrying off to check whether I should be in full sowing mode yet. Let's be a bit scientific about this.

Here I must point out that I am a fan of outdoor sowing. My plot is several miles accross town and doesn't have an operational greenhouse. At home I do have an unheated mini greenhouse that amounts to a glorified transparent Wendyhouse. There isn't much windowsill space either. And given that I have to transport any homegrown seedlings, wherever possible I sow seeds straight into the soil at the plot.

I've got a god idea of the order of sowing (parsnip, broad bean etc)but how soon can I get started?

The key factors has got to be (a)the seeds' germination requirement and (b)how warm can I rely on it being here in Edinburgh and when. So here goes.

How warm does it have to be before seeds germinate?

There's a cracking table circulating on the internet that results from some experimentation done in the eighties. The only problem is that the information is a bit too concentrated. Here's the chart:

note - click on frame to expand charts



Not clear is it (and there are 3 gaps with no data)

So extracted from the chart here's the information about "% germination" at different teperatures:



and here's the information about days taken to emerge at different temperatures:



The dark green boxes indicate the best germination rates, but the light green boxes indicate enhanced germination rates. The white boxes inicate unfavourable conditions and the blank boxes indicate that it's a waste of time even trying under theses conditions.

When you've got maximun % germination and quickest emergence then you're on a surefire winner. But another factor has to be added that is 'earliness' because its all very well germinating beans at the height of summer but if there is not enough time for them to grow beanspods before the first frost kills them So generally there should be a bias to the left most green shaded boxes.

How warm is it in Edinburgh at this time of year?



or pictorally



Crikey this is bad news. The average Max temperature is 18 whereas my Optimum Germination charts suggest you need at least 20, better still 25 to get the best results. The record high in the last thirty years is less than 30 degrees. Conclusion, in theory I shouldn't be getting a return off my plot at all?

I'll have to return to this after I've had a lie dow. But in the meantime I can see that it's far too early for me to start sowing.


Song of the week: Wonderful World (Don't Know Much)~ Sam Cooke

Brass(ica)ed Off

Sorry to report: the brassicas have come to a premature end. The pigeons ate the curly kale and the the cavelo nero through the netting. First the snow weighed down the netting - and the curly kale went. Then the central pole keeled over/broke through the plastic netting and the pigeons went to town on the cavelo nero. Next year I'm going to stress test the brassica defence system. It's war!

On the plus side the cabbages were too low for the pigeons to get to and have kept us in greens throughout. Also how can you resent beeing outwitted, even by bird brains, when they are struggling through the worst winter in years. It's just that kale is such a Caledonian/Latin tradition...

Big effort this weekend 2 hrs Saturday sorting out the brassica mess and finished digging manure into the 'Others' patch. Dug up the last parsnips and (shame, shame) the very last of the potatoes. 2 hrs Sunday preparing the carrot zone and ...planting posts for next years brassica patch.

Time spent: 4 hours
Money spent: £20.99 ('Walk-in Greenhouse' 19.99, seeds(2pkts £1))

Song of the week: Ain't That a Shame ~ Fats Domino

May The Force Be With You

Meet 'The Enforcer':



My latest acquisition, Davros, before becoming a compost bin is to star as a forcing bin for my rhubarb.



My visit to the plot was curtailed as the ground was frozen, but I scoured a base for Davros around a rhubarb plant and pegged him down. Opening night is about 8 weeks from now!

Weekly Stats:

Time spent at plot: 30 mins
Money spent: £68 (£60 annual rental + £8 for Davros)

*Song of the week: Cold as Ice ~ Foreigner

*Song of the week comes courtesy of The Drooling Vegetable (Retd)

Spot the Difference

Here's the plan for this year as dictated by the rotation. The Brassicas area gets lime. The Others area gets manure and the Roots area gets some compost in with the potatoes. As each area rotates over three years they all get the treatment once every three years and the pests don't get a chance to build up.





BUT I have made the adjustments to the overall plan as detailed in the second picture to meet my own priorities for this year. I don't need such a large brassica patch and if I am determined to grow carrots. So the potatoes are being squeezed between the soft fruit and the other roots. Answer: to borrow a bit of the brassica patch for the parsnips and carrots, with the proviso that next year (when this is the roots area) potatoes will be grown here and not carrots or parsnips again.

Wish List for 2010

Prompted by the igrowveg blog I've cobbled together my wish list for 2010

To properly force one clump of rhubarb (this involves getting a bigger tub this year!)
Last year was good, but ths year's going to be better. I've received delivery of a new compost bin today which I'm going to use as a 'forcer'.

To grow fly free carrots. I gave up oncarrots years ago because the carrot root flies liked them so much that he ate them before I did. At a not inconsiderable outlay I have now armed myself with a couple of 'agrimesh' cloches to keep the rootfly out. Will it work - and will I remember to weed once the tunnels are set up?

Try blueberries (awaiting delivery) and raspberries (already planted) for the first time. I have already documented my preparatory efforts for both of these. Seasonal soft fruit Mmmm

Increase the range of brassicas (cauliflower , red cabbage, maybe even kohlrabi? mmm maybe not. Swede anyway) My rotation (more of which to follow) dictates that a rough third of the plot is given over to brassicas. Who wants 50 cabbages all maturing at once?

Grow parsley – lots of it. We eat alot so lets grow alot. (or should that be a lot?) Anyone else mad keen on Tabouleh?

Grow coriander for leaf – Now there’s a challenge! Previous attempts have all run to seed

Successfully grow the ‘wild” rocket seed I saved from last year. There is rocket and there is wild/sweet rocket. This is the skinny leafed variety that the Italians grow and restaurants serve scraps of at exorbitant prices. Some from a salad mix seed packet (free with the People's Friend no less) escaped and grew like bilio in our patch and I let it go to seed. I hope to grow the next generation on for consumption with the less flavoursome, wonderfully bland lettuce

To remember to label all pots and not to mix my bean plants up. Last year I grew 4 wigwams of bean. Those that were monoculture were fine, those I mixed up had to be left for seed as I couldn't be sure whether they were for seed or pod eating. I have in the past seen wigwams set up by people at our allotment site only to find they have grown dwarf french beans instead of runners

To really grow successionally. We all know we should, but do we plan well enough in advance?

Stop Florence fennel bolting for a second year! – OK I’ve really got carried away. If I do, you'll be the first to know

Do let me know what you plan to achieve in 2010.