Dahlia Season 2017

[johndoe]

Mar 6, 2017 15:54:16 GMT ian said:

Hi JD do you have a mini vacuum cleaner to keep the capillary matting clean hehehehehehe

As it happens.........No.  But I do have a very handy dustpan and brush .

[ian]

nice one

[johndoe]

Already for the ploughing to take place on Friday .   2 ton of horse muck spread over the plot. What a charming job that was .  Once it's all done I can get on with putting the polytunnel frame up.

[Deleted]

Having an allotment has never been the most glamorous of activities! I bet David Beckham has never had to shovel horse muck haha! Must say the plot's looking good JD, reasonably old manure by the looks of it, just a bit of straw in the middle. I've turned all mine in now, in fact I've used so much I may not bother with any nitrogen feed this time, just some Fish/blood/bone prior to setting the Dahlias out.
I reckon you could use some of the timber salvaged from your covers structure to rebuild that wonky shed, before it falls over! Good luck building the tunnels.

[johndoe]

Thanks David, like you say, not so glamorous a job, but well worth doing. Muck, I think was 3 years old, plus a good clump of straw.  Hopefully see the benefit come flower time .

Potted up my first taken cuttings. All 40 with really good roots, after 26 days, so couldn't be happier.  I probably could have potted up the next tray, but I don't like to push them on to quick.  Will do them on Monday.

All potted up and looking good, but as usual Winholme Diane has leaf curl, that'll soon unfurl!!

Well rooted cutting of Blyton Shiraz.  All 40 similar to this, including, Rossendale Hero, Challenger, Barbarry Primrose Hall.

[Deleted]

JD when you say it's getting ploughed on Friday do you mean a bloke with a John Deere tractor with plough attached or maybe a pair of Shire horses pulling a single plough old school? Either way can't wait to see the pictures!
By the way your cuttings looking great, cracking root systems.

[johnjess]

They look great johndoe, I hope mine are growing roots like these!

Now you've potted them on do they get kept on heat of some sort ? Just wondering as I'm meaning to pot some of mine on this weekend and I could use the space in my
heated propagator for more cuttings if heat is not required.

Thanks

johnjess

[johndoe]

Mar 8, 2017 18:00:20 GMT @davidv said:

JD when you say it's getting ploughed on Friday do you mean a bloke with a John Deere tractor with plough attached or maybe a pair of Shire horses pulling a single plough old school? Either way can't wait to see the pictures!
By the way your cuttings looking great, cracking root systems.

My neighbour has a vintage tractor, and competes in ploughing matches. So when he does he's plot, He will do both of mine. A very handy bloke to know .  Will take photos and post them when he does it.  All that should be left to do, is spread some Q4 near to planting out, and a quick rotovation.

Thanks, the cuttings all seem to be doing very well this year, think I've got the conditions just about right

[johndoe]

Ploughing is all done, and what a treat it was to see a vintage tractor at work .  You certainly need a bit of skill to control it, thank god for Ted. Well done mate .

 

That's saved a lot of back breaking effort.  Here's a video link if you want to take a look. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce0BFiMGMII

[Deleted]

Proper job Ted! Looks like an old Fordson to me (being blue with a split front grille) lovely Tractor and sounds well too. I like the way he ploughed all from one end which hid the wheel tracks. I imagine he had a long list of plots to do, definitely made short work of it. I don't think you could get that depth of cultivation without double digging.
I watched a couple of your videos, spotted a couple of famous faces at Harrogate amongst those cracking blooms, not least Mr S of Blackburn and the other Mr S from Kent!

[johndoe]

You know your tractors, David. It's a 1959 Fordson, he's also got a 1947 one as well, that he's wife drives at ploughing matches. A real top bloke as well. As well as his, my two, I think he had a couple more to do. Double digging, makes me shudder just thinking about it .

I'm glad you enjoyed the other video, yes, well spotted, mind you, you couldn't miss those dashing handsome features of our National Champion, Mr Sutherland. And Mr Dave Spencer, who was national champion the year before!!

I still think Harrogate show is better than the National, but that's only my opinion

[Cat]

Cleaned and disinfected the greenhouse today ready for the off. Got a little garden job on tomorrow - fingers crossed for some dry - water + electrics = unhappy me!

[johnjess]

Hi guys,

so I finally potted on my first set of cuttings at the weekend. I had four very healthy looking cuttings in the cell tray, I cautiously removed each from its cell ready for moving to their new pots. 2 I would say were what I was sort of expecting, not a huge amount of root but growing down toward the bottom of the cell, the others were different though, one had a root that I would say was 'U' shaped as if it was trying to grow up rather than down to the bottom of the cell .

The final one and probably the healthiest looking of the cuttings had no roots at all, is this possible? It had two sets of leaves and a growing tip so had definitely grown from when I took the cutting. I can only assume I broke any root it had when removing from its cell .

So now hoping the moving of the cuttings has been successful ! Fingers crossed!

[Cat]

fingers crossed johnjess. I am hoping our solo hillcrest candy has rooted it seems to be holding firm in its pot now and looking fresher. We are looking to change the cells we use this year, lasts years just didn't work for us, not strong enough so at the moment we are putting any odd cuttings (we have 8 we have taken but not quality) into mini cutting plant pots. On hold a bit at moment with everything waiting for OH to have his day off he doesn't sleep through. Then hopefully we might get going with the season

[johnjess]

Hi Cat, good luck with the Hillcrest Candy I hope it keeps going. Do you have any more cuttings of it yet or still just the one?
Its on my order of cuttings from Halls of Heddon, the cuttings I have at the moment are really as a fallback option if I can't keep the H of H ones
alive. Order comes in April I think , can't wait!!