Today I wanted to sow a second batch of calabrese (Marathon F1) and some early cabbage (Greyhound). I’m hoping that successional sowings of the calabrese will give a crop over an extended period as last year we had heads ready to pick for about a week and then it was all over. I have been wondering if I shouldn’t perhaps just sow enough seed for perhaps four plants every two weeks for as long as three months to try to get a decent number of heads over the summer and autumn, but management of the plants would appear to be quite awkward in that case. It might in fact be easier to have an area of the plot that is “brassicas ready in July”, then “brassicas ready in August” etc. rather than keeping each variety in its own space. I have time to give that some thought, anyhow.
I used one of the new twenty-cell module trays with enlarged holes in the bottom of the cells and sowed one half with calabrese and the other with cabbages, three seeds to a cell. I’ll thin them down to two and then one as the plants germinate and start to develop, assuming all three seeds germinate in the first place. The seed is from last year so it may be the case that germination is patchy.
I also sowed a couple of trays each of cornflowers and calendula, mainly with the intention of using the flower petals in salads, but also because the calendula are supposed to be good companion plants for tomatoes, so I’ll plant a row down the middle of the double row of tomatoes in the polytunnel.
I noticed that some of my peppers have been attacked by greenfly that presumably moved over from the winter salads. I’ve been knocking the aphids off the plants and removing them, but more aggressive control may be required in time.