The Allotment Book

Time to maturity This helps you allocate space and plan early or successional sowings.

Performance Includes quick germination and predictable growth under a range of conditions.

Ease of care Self-supporting or self-blanching, easy to harvest or quick to prepare.

Adaptability Flexible sowing times or growing methods, or perhaps ability to overwinter.

Keeping time Stays good when mature or stores well.

SEE ALSO ▸ Crop rotation pages 32–5 Sowing & planting times pages 132–3Keeping your plants healthy pages 154–7 Harvesting & storing pages 160–3

Quick guide to crop growing times

Knowing roughly how long a particular vegetable occupies the ground can help you match crops to available space and avoid leaving areas unused. Planning an ambitious growing programme may seem complicated, but sorting the various vegetables into slower crops and those that sprint to maturity can often simplify the task. First decide where to grow staples like potatoes and long-term crops such as winter leeks or sprouting broccoli, and then fit the faster ones around or between them. This table of sprinter and long-distance vegetables gives the number of months you can expect each to be in the ground, but this is an approximate guide and times can be longer or shorter depending on variety, locality and season.

allotment story FROM ONE COB…

Many tenants on British allotments come from all over the world, bringing with them local crops that might seem unfamiliar to their neighbours. A generation ago, novelties that are now commonplace would have included peppers, aubergines, sweetcorn, squash, mizuna, even garlic, but they have been replaced by more recent introductions such as callaloo from the Caribbean, Far Eastern rat-tail radishes and bitter gourds from the Indian subcontinent.

Interest and curiosity spread fast on an allotment site, and other plot-holders are generally keen to try any uncommon fruit or vegetable. Seed suppliers, always alert to something new, soon follow suit, with results that can be seen in their expanding and diversified catalogues.

Raising from seed is the mainstay of vegetable growing on an allotment. Every packet is a promise in the hand, each seed the simple source of a new plant from which more seeds can be saved to perpetuate a new, superior or favourite strain. Saving your own seed is the traditional way in which crops and varieties have spread from one garden 0r continent to another.

Charlie came to England from Jamaica decades ago, and having an allotment meant that he could grow some of his favourites from home, especially callaloo and sweetcorn. He didn’t always save the seeds, but one particular year he threw out a whole cob and its grains germinated. Soon he had the best corn on site, and now he never buys seed, just saves it in time-honoured style from one year to the next.

selecting your crops

root crops

The main root crops profiled here belong to several families, so their specific needs differ in various ways. Radishes, swedes and turnips are brassicas, sharing vulnerability to family problems like clubroot as well as a dislike of acid or dry soils. Most other roots enjoy well-broken, slightly acid soil with good drainage and fairly high nutrient residues from a previous crop, and fit well in rotations after legumes and brassicas. To avoid root distortion during transplanting, they are generally sown direct, in a deep, finely tilthed seedbed free from stones, although some varieties can be multi-sown in modules. Potatoes like rich, well-manured ground and are often planted on their own as a separate rotation course. (See also alternative root crops, page 180.)

Potatoes Solanum tuberosum

Easy to grow and highly productive in improved soils, potatoes are an important staple on most plots and can also be used as a pioneer crop on poor or reclaimed ground. Most gardeners grow early varieties for lifting in summer for ‘new’ potatoes, and the same kinds can be planted after midsummer for a late crop (see also page 199).

Plants are raised from small, selected, certified (disease-free) tubers, or ‘sets’, which are started into growth indoors. The plants are not hardy and their topgrowth needs protection from frost. There are hundreds of varieties, many of them classic kinds with distinctive colours and flavours; modern kinds are often bred for disease- and pest-resistance or drought-tolerance.

HOW TO GROW Buy sets early and chit them (see page 135) at least 6 weeks before planting – early varieties in early spring and late summer, second earlies and maincrop kinds in late spring. Choose an open, sunny position in well-drained soil that has not been recently limed; avoid ground where potatoes were grown in the past 3 years. (Potatoes can also be grown in containers and sacks, see page 199.)

Plant tubers with their shoots uppermost, 10–15cm (4–6in) deep (the greater depth on light soils), in straight drills or individual holes (see page 184 for pogo planter), and cover with soil to leave a slight ridge. First earlies can be cloched to protect and advance growth; all varieties can be planted through black polythene or a sheet mulch (see page 122) to avoid earthing up later.

Protect the tops from frost with soil or newspaper, and earth up stems when 15–20cm (6–8in) high by drawing soil with a hoe or rake up to half their height in a uniform ridge – this stops tubers turning green in the light. Once is enough for first earlies, but repeat with other varieties every 2–3 weeks until their tops meet. Water earlies regularly throughout, main crops once or twice when flowering begins.

Start harvesting earlies when their flowers open fully and a trial scrape reveals useful tubers: lift with a fork and continue as needed. Lift maincrops when the foliage turns brown: cut this off and wait about 2 weeks before forking up the complete crop for storing (see page 206).

WHEN TO PLANT Early spring (earlies) to late spring

SPACINGEarlies: between tubers 30cm (12in), between rows 45cm (18in); others: between tubers 38cm (15in), between rows 75cm (30in)

TIME TO MATURITYEarlies: 12–14 weeks; 2nd earlies: 15–18 weeks; maincrop: 18–22 weeks

HEIGHT 45–90cm (18–36in)

AVERAGE YIELD Up to 1.3kg (3lb) per plant

VARIETIESExtra early: ‘Rocket’, ‘Swift’; 1st early: ‘Arran Pilot’, ‘Concorde’, ‘Pentland Javelin’; 2nd early: ‘Estima’, ‘Kestrel’, ‘Wilja’; maincrop: ‘Cara’, ‘Maxine’, ‘Picasso’

Carrots Daucus carota

The numerous varieties – mainly orange or red but sometimes purple, yellow or white – are divided into two main groups. Small fast-maturing (‘early’ or ‘bunching’) varieties are used for early, late (see page 200) and successional sowings, while maincrop kinds are larger, take longer to grow and keep well in store.

HOW TO GROW Choose warm, sheltered sites for early sowings and open, sunny positions for other kinds. Soils should be light and friable, well drained and free from larger stones, and with plenty of organic matter from a previous crop.

Sow thinly in drills, 1–2cm (

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in) deep, in a finely prepared seedbed, earliest and last sowings in a frame or under cloches. If carrot fly is a problem, time sowings to miss attacks or take suitable precautions (see page 190). Keep the soil consistently moist during germination, and water every 2–3 weeks thereafter.

Thin in stages by pinching off surplus seedlings at surface level (destroy these to avoid luring pests); weed carefully at first, and then mulch when plants have 2–3 true leaves. Pull or fork up roots when large enough, and then firm or water the disturbed soil; clear maincrops for storing (see page 160) from mid-autumn onwards.

Sowing in modules For the earliest crops, sow a round variety like ‘Lisa’ or ‘Parmex’ in pots, soil blocks or modules in late winter. Sow 5–6 seeds in each cell and leave unthinned. Plant strong clusters 23cm (9in) apart each way in a frame or used growing bags indoors, or outdoors after hardening off in mid-spring (see page 139).

WHEN TO SOW Early spring to early autumn

GERMINATION 2–3 weeks at 7°C (45°F) minimum

SPACINGEarly: 8–10cm (3–4in); maincrop: 5–8cm (2–3in); all in rows 15cm (6in) apart

TIME TO MATURITYEarly: 7–10 weeks; maincrop: 10–16 weeks

HEIGHT 23–38cm (9–15in)

AVERAGE YIELD 225–450g (8–16oz) per 30cm (12in) row

VARIETIESEarly: ‘Amsterdam Forcing’, ‘Early Nantes’, ‘Flyaway’, ‘Sytan’; maincrop: ‘Autumn King’, ‘Carson’, ‘Favourite’

Beetroot Beta vulgaris

An easy crop with round, flat or tapering roots that are usually red, but also yellow, white or bicoloured. With the exception of ‘monogerm’ varieties like ‘Solo’, seeds are capsules producing several seedlings that need thinning. Choose a bolt-resistant variety for earliest sowings. For ‘baby beet’ grow at half the normal distance apart, or use alternate roots from maincrops, leaving the rest to mature for storing. The white variety ‘Albina Vereduna’ has good-flavoured leaves for use as greens; those of ‘Bull’s Blood’ are deepest red and ornamental.

HOW TO GROW Sow outdoors in full sun for good roots and less foliage, 2cm (

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