Filling emtied spaces

[ancellsfarmer]

Noticed on a recent visit to Lidl, that they had living salad Komatsuna for 99p.
Having had good results from their cut and come again lettuce, I thought this might be useful and got 45 healthy plants from a single pack, to plant on cleared potato ground.Two weeks on, they are growing fast and look very happy and appertizing. Why not try some?

[ancellsfarmer]

[BarriedaleNick]

I do the same with Sainsbury's living salad.  If you are careful you can get 100 plants - far too many at once of course but as above they grow on quick.

[essexkit]

Sainsbury have Living salad punnets for £1....filling the gap left by spuds till Shallots, Garlic , Kohl Rahbi and Turnips are big enough to leave home. Happy Bank Holiday!

[mormor]

It sounds great.  But how do you keep the slugs off?

[ancellsfarmer]

Firstly, apologies for the missing 'p' in the title, Around here, there always someone ready to take it!!
Regarding slugs, its simple.
Standard pellets are deployed at ,or preferably, before planting out. The pre-emptive strike gives them something to feed upon, therefore they are  not hungry (!) when the succulent new plants appear.
Before you all protest, my plot contains no pets or livestock. Its in a field, never seen any signs of hedgehogs, there are only distant hedges, guess they find no cover in netting or barbed wire. The only observed consumer ,of dead slugs, are magpies for which I have absolutely no concience.
However, the art of use of metaldehyde is to space out the pellets for maximum economy and effect. This is best done by throwing the pellets in small quantities UP , not down, aiming for a pellet at approx every 6". In an average year, I would use 2x 1 kG Doff packs on approx 250sq. metres, planting 2-3 crops. Slugs may still be found but the damage noticed is minor, essentially just little grey ones occasionally  within cabbage etc. The odd armed patrol after rain is also useful.

[mormor]

Thanks. I'll try your method!

[saddad]

I use the organic pellets in a similar manner.. it's always a mistake to transplant seedlings or young plants into recently cleared soil, as the slugs have nothing else to eat. I'm alaso a great believer in the damp evening stomp... 

[essexkit]

Nip to Costa and ask for a bag of used coffee grounds near end of day. Slugs don't like the texture underfoot.

[Vinlander]

Nip to Costa and ask for a bag of used coffee grounds near end of day. Slugs don't like the texture underfoot.

In dry weather a circle of growmore works well, and few barriers survive rain anyway.

This amount of nutrient salts will do the plants no more harm than my annual pizza (2 is OK, 3 is one too many) or my bi-monthly Angus burger.

Cheers.

[ancellsfarmer]

Noticed on a recent visit to Lidl, that they had living salad Komatsuna for 99p.
Having had good results from their cut and come again lettuce, I thought this might be useful and got 45 healthy plants from a single pack, to plant on cleared potato ground.Two weeks on, they are growing fast and look very happy and appertizing. Why not try some?

/
Update to the previous post.Planted 10/08/17
First harvested for tonights stir-fry-was delicious!
(Stanley knife blade for scale)
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