Healthy plants resist pests and diseases much better
This week in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden, we will be plantiing out the remaining tender vegetables that have been hardening off in the cold frame. Sweetcorn, squash and beans will all take their places alongside their fellow crops in the garden. The risk of frost has pretty much passed so we should not need to add any proection against the cold.
However, we will need to add chicken wire to our beans while they establish themselves, to prevent the pigeons from indulging. And whilst the slug population is well under control from Nemaslug, we will be adding slug pellets to make sure the snails don’t ruin all of our hard work.
We have yet to spot our first cabbage white butterfly, but our brassicas are already covered in netting to make sure we don’t become victim to a caterpillar invasion.
Healthy plants will resist pests and diseases much better than those grown under stress, so it’s important to adopt a good feeding regime to keep crops happy. Leafy vegetables, such as brassicas will be treated to a top dressing of fish, blood and bone every six weeks. Fruiting vegetables such as courgettes and squash will receive drench of liquid seaweed feed once a week.
In the greenhouse, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and cucumbers will be fed weekly with liquid tomato feed. Its also a good idea to get into the habit of checking over vegetable plants on a regular basis so that attacks from pests and diseases can be spotted early and dealt with quickly.