3rd April

3^rd April

Now that my plot is devoid of marauding rabbits, I began planting out the onions into section 3. They have certainly started off very well under cover in their modular trays at home and now with the weather warming up and the rabbits looking on from a distance, I look forward to the onions growing properly and getting a decent harvest. Perhaps I planted them too early for an indoor start because there were certainly many roots on show that had grown rather long, some even curling round the bottom of the modules. I laid the weed suppressing membrane and weighted that down, then stretched out my line and cut little crosses along the line every 6 inches. I fitted in 37 planting spots along the length repeating the rows 12 inches across. The first row I planted (furthest from the entrance) was the setton variety, the next was the sturon. By this time I had run out of time so resolved to continue next time. Looking at the section it seems I will only fit in 4 rows which would give 148 onions. This is less than last year and I didn’t even complete one row as I ran out of onions. I began wondering if I should have spaced out the rows by 12 inches or less! I watered them in and returned home. Back at home I consulted my book and found it should have been 10 inches. Couple that with the fact I started a little way in from the edge I have used up too much space. Oh well, next year I will have to make sure I set the membrane over a little bit to make space for an extra row. I’m already making mistakes to learn from for next year!

Back home I investigated whether I was going to see any more sweet peas by poking around to dig up the seeds, knowing full well that one seed was planted right in the middle of each module. In some the seed has vanished, I presume rotted away, in others the seed was unchanged from the day I planted it so I rubbed of the hard coating which was now soft (alright, so therefore they are not completely unchanged!) and I just hoped for success, whilst on about 5 there were tiny little shoots, so they were put straight back. All were re-watered. The instructions say water after sowing but not again until seedlings emerge. The trouble with that is the seed needs moisture to soak up to soften the casing and swell to open up, but if they haven’t germinated by the time the compost dries out, what good is that?