Topic: Two questions!

[oakmore2]

Hi everyone

I've been down to my plot today and am wondering if I'm managing to stop anything gorwing well in my plot, so I'm hoping someone may be able to let me know if I'm onto a hiding to nothing on a couple of things?

- I planted out some peas and mange tout plants a few days ago, foolishly didn't cover them and they've been attacked (I think by birds). Some plants still have some leaves on them so I have covered now with enviromesh - do you think they'll grow again, or am I best to take them out and start all over again?!

-second problem is asparagus. I planted crowns last autumn and as yet no growth....have they died over the winter, or am I (as I hope is the case) a bit too impatient? Asparagus on other plots seems to be growing...

ANy help or advice very gratefully received by this useless allotmenteer!!

 :-[ :-\

[Gobby]

Cant help with pea's but have patience with the asparagus, i too planted 4 crowns last november, and only have the first tip poking his head out today.

[saddad]

The peas will probably recover... is the asparagus shaded at all? Mine is behind the toilet block which makes it about two weeks slower than others on the site!!  :-[

[Robert_Brenchley]

My asparagus isn't up yet. I planted it last year, and it was slow then. This year it's got three inches or so of dead leaves to get through.

[shirlton]

The birds are always waiting for an opportunity to eat your stuff. I reckon they sit and wait for the newbies to plant their stuff cos they know they are going to get a free meal. We have foxes, pigeons and squirrels to contend with and we do try to warn new folks about this without sounding like a know all.Some take the advice and protect their stuff whilst others don't bother. The outcome is inevitable

[mummybunny]

shirlton im sure you dont come across as a know all. When i had just planted i was so thankful that the person on the plot next to us told me to cover the beds with netting. He pointed up at the tree behind and it was full of birds waiting for me to leave  ;D. Would be worse if nothing was said and you turned up to an empty plot   ;)

Lucy

[asbean]

The first year I planted peas I left the plot for 1/2 an hour.  One of the old-timers came onto the site and saw about 30 pigeons flying away from my plot.  Of course they'd had the lot  >:( >:( >:(

[Barnowl]

It is early days yet - our spears only started showing up last week but we have light free draining soil and, if you are in the south and have the same. I'd suggest from Spring onwards giving the asparagus bed a good soaking every time it doesn't rain properly for over 2 weeks. Received wisdom is you don't need to water asparagus but around our allotments we all do when it's been dry for a while (some of us even water our onions - gasp  :o ) What do others reckon on this?


(The single heavy soaking instead of light and regular watering is so that you don't encourage any roots to turn upwards).

[little pud]

peas should be ok as long as there some roots left

[oakmore2]

Thank you all for your advice - I shall wait and watch the aspargus, hopefully it'll start to realise it's time to grow!! It's not really shaded, but I wondered whether being 'new' asparagus may take a bit more time than the more established stuff. I shall hope so anyway...

I have covered what's left of the peas so shall give them a chance to rejuvinate before i give up!

Shirlton - I would be very grateful for your advice if you were on my site!! I had been warned about rabbits, so had put up a rabbit-proof fence (which the local youth are doing their best to destroy each time they vandalise our site...), but was not so ready for birds. At least if I need to replant the peas I'll know to get them covered as soon as I plant them out!

Thank you all again for your replies - I love this site, so many lovely people willing to help out newbies like me!!

xx   ;D

[shirlton]

Oakmore we were all a newbie once and have all probably experienced similar problems. We had our first plot several years ago and the only thing I planted amongst the couch grass and marestail was a few Helichrysum. The baby foxes just flattened the all down. I cried when I saw them. Tony and I protect everything on our plot against. Foxes, Birds, Squirrels, pigeons and smaller pests. If we didn't we would have nothing to show for all our hard work.

[ACE]

When I was a boy we used to go asparagus picking on a smallholding. They watered the crowns every day and you could tell if any of the rows were missed as the crop was not big enough to pick that day.

So plenty of water if you want a big crop, remember the picking season is very short, so maximise your crop with a bucket of water daily.

[Kea]

My asparagus was slow to appear in it's first year, established plants were up weeks before. I've had 4 spears so far this season!
Thanks for the watering advice Ace!

[Justy]

If the leaves look nibbled your pea problem could be Pea Weevil rather than birds (I would imagine that birds would have just yanked the whole plant up as they must still be quite small). Pea weevils sort of munch the leaves but they can recover and as the plants get bigger the problem goes.