Allotments 4 All

How many times do we read advice in magazines and books about vegetables that contradict each other.
One authority says leave beetroot in the ground over winter and pull as required, and another says store them as they go wooden and tasteless if left in.
Another is manure and carrots which are supposed to get split roots if the ground is freshly manured, others say not (I manure with no problems)

There must be many others out there - over to you!

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage.html

often leave spuds in all winter and lift as required with no probrem at all untill march when they start sprouting. Then use the land for something else after manuring etc.

Dizzimac in the parsnip question has just exploded another myth - about getting fresh parsnip seeds every year.

Come on there must be more myths to be exploded.
!

Not so much an urban myth as what was the lore when I started -bend over the leaves of onions-a hangover from the days when gardens were meant to look tidy?

And parsley only grows for the one that wears the trousers in the household ;D

Spuds and toms, same bed, miles apart, blight, books differ. ??? ??? ??? ;D ;D ;D

Pinch out the tips of your squash etc,, hangover from the old days of pinching out melons under glass to get them to ripen.

And `barsteward trenching` ie double digging comes from when some poor buggar had to dig in the `night soil`- ;D

Great, another myth exploded today relating to heat being required fo the germination of squashes.
I am collecting all these myths for my website,

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage.html

i think that's what's so amazing about this site - you can learn from people who have actual experience & if there are differning views you can hear both sides and then make up your own mind. 

I can help with the beetroot - it's freezing in the winter where I live and I left my beetroot in over the winter. Pulled some last week and cooked it, was lovely in a salad with a bit of balsamic vinegar, some carrots and red onion. Yum! Some of the other allotment chaps have left theirs in the ground too.

there must be a books worth on carrots and carrot fly

eg planting between a row of onions - what pish  you have to block access completely or grow at height

I’ve read that you shouldn’t even think of transplanting beetroot and swede, I did transplanted both last year without any problems.

Does anyone know of any veg that you definitely cannot transplant?

Probably carrots, although I have sown them in loo-rolls and moved them undisturbed.



The photo shows where I pulled one of the carrots out to thin them. The top is only a few days old, look how long the tap root is!

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage.html

My first year of leeks turn into 2 years - I spent ages waiting for them to reach pencil thickness!! 
Why do the books say that???? 

:)

after reading lots of books, watching the programmes and going to horticultural college at the end of the day you do what is best for you, your soil,weather in your area etc,

I tend to do my own thing when it comes to gardening,anyway our autumns are like summers now, the growing season is longer :)

btw I always grow carrots and beetroot in modules no pricking out or thinning,why make more jobs for yourself? ;)/shades x

so all the tips monty don gives ongarders world are all old tosh then ? (He has suggested several things on here which have been trashed so far...)
hmmmm..

:)  as I said do what is best for you, we are learning all the time

Monty gets trashed all the time on the BBC message board ;D/shadesx