GETTING YOUR TIMING RIGHT FOR HARDENING OFF
A LATE PRUNE FOR WILLOW AND CORNUS
This is the time of year when it is important to get your timing right when it comes to hardening off plants to get them used to colder conditions. Plants raised in protected conditions indoors or in glasshouses need to be acclimatised to cooler temperatures and increased air movement outdoors for about three weeks- known as hardening off. This thickens and alters the plants’ leaf structure and increases leaf waxiness ensuring new growth is sturdy enough for outdoors. Cold frames are ideal for hardening off. Prop the lid open slightly during the first week then increase the lid, opening gradually.
This is your last chance to cut back coloured-stemmed willow and cornus. If you have been giving such plants cautious haircuts, try chopping them right down to the ground now.
TACKLING TULIP FIRE DISEASE Tulip fire is a fungal disease of tulips caused by Botrytis tulipae, which produces brown spots and twisted, withered and distorted leaves. It is so named because plants appear to be scorched by fire. The disease shows itself in distorted or twisted leaves appearing soon after emergence from the soil and may wither or fail to develop. Brown spots of dead tissue appear on leaves. In severe cases the spots enlarge and extensive areas become brown and withered, giving the impression of fire scorch. A fuzzy grey mould may grow over dead areas in damp conditions. To fight back against this disease check bulbs carefully and discard any with signs of the small black sclerotia in the outer scales, or with any signs of decay. Remove infected bulbs promptly to avoid contaminating the soil with sclerotia. Do not plant tulips for at least three years in sites where tulip fire has occurred (five years if the disease is grey bulb rot). If a contaminated site must be replanted, dig the ground deeply to try and bury the contaminated upper layers deep enough to be below planting depth.
Now is the perfect time before bud break and this forces them to put on a surge, and it is that young, fresh, lessthan-a-year-old growth that will provide the strongest, most vibrant stem colour after the leaves fall in autumn. Anything that gets hard pruned needs to be fed and mulched regularly to replace those stored reserves. Now’s the time for this, too.
ONIONS – BULBS VERSUS SEEDS? You can grow onions and shallots either from seed or from onion sets -small bulbs. The main advantage to growing onions and shallots from seed is that seed are much cheaper. Seed grown onions and shallots also have the potential to produce larger bulbs as they can be sown in the greenhouse in winter, thereby extending the growing season. However it will require a little more time and effort, as well as taking up valuable greenhouse space, so many people prefer to opt for sets which can be planted directly into the garden. Some onion bulbs are heat treated. This simply means that they have been specially prepared to help prevent bolting - something which tends to occur particularly among red varieties. This process extends the growth period of the onions which allows heavier yields to be produced. Shallots and onions are of the same family and share many characteristics. From a culinary perspective, shallot bulbs are smaller and tend to have a milder flavour than onions. The main difference in the garden is that shallots form in clumps or rings of bulbs whereas onions grow as individual bulbs. Regardless of this, they are planted and grown in exactly the same way.
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