Topic: What to do in the kitchen garden in November...

[kippers garden]

Just to let anyone know that is interested....Here is the link to my usual monthly blog post of 'What to do in your kitchen garden in November:

http://notjustgreenfingers.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/what-to-do-in-the-kitchen-garden-in-november-2/

It covers typical weather, vegetables and salads to harvest, vegetables and salads to sow, things to plant, Jobs to do and pests and diseases that you may see in November.

I don't make any profit from writing my blog, I just want to encourage as many people as possible to 'grow their own fruit and veg'....so please feel free to share this information with whom ever you want to.

Hope my post helps someone out there.

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By the way, if anyone gets the Kitchen Garden magazine I was really pleased to see an article I wrote on the back page (see the photo below) and I would love to hear what you think of it.

Happy gardening 

[Digeroo]

Interesting as usual.  Can you please explain the bit about the manure and lime reacting?

[kippers garden]

Interesting as usual.  Can you please explain the bit about the manure and lime reacting?

Hi there.  I'm not  a scientist so I can't explain in detail lol but the manure cancels the good that the lime does so it won't bring your PH level up if you apply it at the same time as manure.  It's best to lime one year and then manure the next year if your soil needs the PH level rising (which is good for avoiding clubroot in brassicca's as clubroot likes acid soils and liming increases the PH level).

There is some good info here too:  http://www.allotment-garden.org/compost-fertiliser/garden-lime.php

[caroline7758]

Thanks, Kipper. I see your broad beans are in loo rolls. Any particular reason for that? Also, what's the theory behind putting unrotted stuff in a bean trench rather than compost, and why only for beans?

[kippers garden]

Thanks, Kipper. I see your broad beans are in loo rolls. Any particular reason for that? Also, what's the theory behind putting unrotted stuff in a bean trench rather than compost, and why only for beans?

Hi.  I grow mine in toilet rolls until they have germinated as no matter what I do the mice eat my direct sown broadbeans at my allotment, so this way I am guarenteeda high germination rate.

You can use a trench for any veg if you want to but it is tradionally used for beans as the when it has all rotten down by next year the organic material will hold the moisure in the soil which is exactly the conditions that beans like.

Hope that helps

[jimc]

Kippers garden said
 

I'm not  a scientist so I can't explain in detail lol but the manure cancels the good that the lime does so it won't bring your PH level up if you apply it at the same time as manure

I am wondering if this is really true when looking at the words you used and the words from the original article.
To me fertiliser is probably referring to some chemical mix which understandably usually comes from some sort of chemical reaction and is probably acidic and the two mixed together would cancel out or neutralise each other's activity and  could have a negative affect on the soil.
Meanwhile I view manure as something from animal origin and having totally different properties to fertiliser.
As far as (animal) manure and lime reacting, well I don't know!
My soil is pH 8-8.5, very alkalinic, and with all the pH reducing chemicals I have tried there is no noticeable change.
I have very high calcium bore water to use on my garden for 4-8 months of the year but try to use all our spare rain water to leach it out when available. I rely on high inputs of animal manure to gain a reasonable production rate from my garden. Using worm wee adds a lot of nutrients too.

[kGarden]

I was brought up with "Don't manure and lime at the same time" for the reason that Lime will react with Nitrogen to produce Ammonia (gas) so the Nitrogen will be lost ... but nowadays I don't think of Manure being a Nitrogen-rich fertiliser, but rather a soil conditioner; and if I apply Manure in the Autumn then I expect that some/much of the Nitrogen in it will have been leached by the Spring - not to mention that the heap has been sat there all Summer, since the animals were indoors the previous winter making the manure :), so some Nitrogen will have been leached anyway.

Perhaps the issue is that some of the Lime is wasted by being reacted with the Nitrogen, so less beneficial effect.  My skool-boy chemistry memory is that Ammonium is alkaline, so also raising the pH as is lime  (assuming Ammonium, rather than Ammonia, is created)

Thus I must be missing something!  Google mostly turned up "The books say don't Lime and Manure together" and thus I didn't find a reason ...

what's the theory behind putting unrotted stuff in a bean trench rather than compost, and why only for beans?

My understanding is that because Peas and Beans make a symbiotic relationship with Nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil (in the nodules that appear on their roots) they don't suffer from Nitrogen deficiency in the soil.  Normally folk don't put uncomposted plant material on/in the soil because the bugs that break it down initially steal Nitrogen from the surroundings; so rather than using up precious :) compost on the bean trench folk use uncomposted material instead, including newspaper and the like, in fact anything that will hold water. By the following Autumn it will be well rotted; some people mono-crop Beans in the same place each year, so the rotted compost can be dug out and used, and replaced with fresh material; if the beans are just part of the crop rotation then there is a nice reserve of good material left over.

[kippers garden]

Hi both...as I said I am not a scientist, I just quote what I was told when I went to horticultural college and passed the RHS horticultural courses. 

This guide of 'what to do in the Kitchen garden' that I write each month is to help as many people as possible who haven't the time to read up on what to do each month in lots of different places.  I write my blog for no profit what so ever and it is there just to help people.....I think by quoting exactly what chemical reaction happens will confuse people that are new and just learning how to grow their own veg and if it was me it would put me off growing altogether.

My guide is to encourage people to enjoy growing veg as easily as possible....I have no other motive.

Hope this helps 

[goodlife]

Yeeeears ago I did make the mistake spreading 'fresh'ish' manure on ground and soon after using lime on the ground too...and results were VERY sickly plants, those that survived didn't put any growth on for some while...not until I gave the soil around plants good 'flush out' with water and then sprinkled small amount of fertilizer on.

It was lesson learned and haven't done it since....it was years later that I found out about the chemical reaction with lime and 'manure'.