Starship Trooper

My leek crop has been completed decimated in just over a week. What I initially thought was just a few outside leaves drying and turning brown, quickly escalated into a full scale attack of what - on the surface - looked like the dreaded rust.

But rust is not the culprit.

On Tuesday's school run I bumped into Rachel - fellow novice plot holder, whose plot is diagonally across from my SE corner - and after telling her of my leek woes she told me that there was big sign up at the allotment entrance warning allotmenteers about "some sort of leek-munching creepycrawlie".

So off I headed last night to remove my leek crop from the ground and deliver it home to a fiery death in our 'not to be used as a garden incinerator' chiminaya. And lo-and-behold Rachel was right: a huge sign warning of the deadly Brown Leek Moth - a little blighter from Bulgaria that is apparently marching inland from the Eastern and Southern coasts of Britain, devouring and deep-mining the innards of many a leek crop. They lay their eggs, eggs sprout caterpillars, caterpillars bore down into leaves and flesh, damaged flesh rots, game over.

I snapped a couple of my sorry alliums in two and their weeping bodies told testament to the destructive power of the Leek Moth wrigglers: great slimy bore holes driven right down the shaft of each vegetable, rendering them all completely inedible and only fit for burning.

The bucket of pulled leeks sat sadly in the boot, fragrancing the car with the delicious scent of cheese & onion crisps for the trip home. Which only made the whole evening feel even more tragic.

And I still stink of smoke from the burning :(

Sproutlings Update

Finally, after pretty much giving up on the critters, we have some Hungarian Hot Wax sproutings: four of the seeds have germinated, with potentially a few more to follow. They are currently looking quite lonely on the windowsill as all of their tomato and parsley seedling mates - sown at the same time - were pricked, replanted  and relocated down to the greenhouse outside a couple of weeks ago.

Their only company in the house is a plate of sweetcorn kernals sat in damp kitchen in the airing cupboard.

Outside are the tomatoes - a dozen Gardeners Delight (100% germination rate), nine Ferline (75%), and a mere three Harbingers (25%) - and a dozen Giant Italian flat-leaf parsley plants. They are joined by four cucumbers, a load of leeks (the new plantings quickly germinated) and some Summer Purple sprouting (15 plants = 100% germination rate). A tray of Giant Prague celeriac promises seedling action over the coming days.

In an effort to prevent a repeat of the 'greenhouse blown over in the wind' disaster, I have pushed some of the larger pieces of garden furniture up against it for additional support.

Busted

There's not been much allotment activity over the last couple of weeks due to a combination of bitterly cold winter and a Star Wars Jedi Academy birthday party for my now five year old son. Creating a life-sized Jabba the Hutt head and a Pin the Lightsaber on Yoda game took preference over digging and planting. So except for a tray of tomatoes, cucumbers and flat-leaf parsley being seeded & sprouting*, it's been very quiet.

I'd almost given up on the 5 pots of leek seeds that I'd planted on the 17th and 20th of February, but on Tuesday I came home to find a wealth of tiny seedlings pushing their weenie green heads through the compost. Nestled snugly in my four tier plastic greenhouse the little chaps looked in good health and I was felling warm, excited and quite pleased with myself in equal measures. The prospect of 3 or 4 rows of leeks would quicken the heart of any allotmenteer.

So coming home last night to find that a malicious supernatural wind had blown over my greenhouse** - not only crippling a tray of 5" tall sweetpeas, but decimating the whole collection of 60+ leek seedlings - was a cruel and heavy blow.

I tried in vain to save some - I have about 8 left in a pot and they look worse for wear.

So we start again from scratch... I've planted some more up in a few pots and now plan to plant some more in the coldframe up at the allotment in order to give them a headstart and attempt to play catch-up.


* My Hungerian Hotwax chilli peppers have so far failed to germinate :(
** Considering the greenhouse was weighed down at the bottom with some big heavy pots and a bag of compost I can only conclude it was a gust born of supernatural forces!

Busting for a leek

I left the office 20 minutes early last night in order to pot up some leek seeds. By the time I got home though it was pretty much pitch black so my pottering about had to be in the fluorescent glow of the garage light. The plan to pot up both early and later varieties was curtailed, so only the late Blue Solaise variety got seeded. Three good sized pots were impregnated with 10 to 11 seeds each, a couple of cm apart. As my rows are 4.5m long, if all germinate that should just me a decent row with a few extras to dot in here and there over the plot. The pots were popped into the unheated mini greenhouse.

I've almost finished my allotment excel plan, and depending on the final outcome I may well look to add a second row of these leeks, so another batch of seeds might go in over the weekend, together with the early Jolants.