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e-book:
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Ministry of Agriculture Allotment &
Garden Guide
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Click image for facsimile of
page 7 July 1945
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If you have grown your own plants in a seed-bed, lift them carefully with a
fork, aiming at getting them out with as much soil as possible adhering to
the roots. Should the weather be dry, give the seed-bed a good soaking the
night before you lift. This applies to all your brassicas.
The sketches on planting cabbage
may help you. If you have to plant in dry ground, water each hole before
planting, cover in with soil and again water. Half-a-pint of water should be
sufficient for each plant.
Always make sure that your cabbage plants are firmly planted by
testing one or two here and there as you go along the rows. |
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If you pull the plant by the edge of a leaf, the part between your finger
and thumb should tear away. But if you pull the plant up, you are not
planting firmly enough.
Early-sown savoys will be reaching the stage when they
should be transplanted. But it is not wise to have this crop in bearing too
early in the winter, and if the larger plants are put out 2 ft. apart this
month, the smaller seedlings could be transplanted 6 in. apart in an odd
corner and allowed to grow on for a time before you finally put them in
their permanent quarters, perhaps as late as the end of July or early in
August. |
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On saving your own SEED |
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Some gardeners like
having a shot at something new––seed saving, for example. Those who have not
hitherto experimented in this direction might like to try it out. But it is
well that they should know that while a few kinds of vegetable seeds can
safely be saved by the amateur, others are best left to the experts.
You know that all flowering plants need pollen to fertilise the
female part of the plant, so that it can produce seed. Some plants are
fertilised by their own pollen, while others have to get it from another
plant. Broadly, those that fertilise themselves are "safe"' those that need
pollen from another plant should be left to the professional seed grower.
Why? Well, you may be growing, say, a cabbage for seed in your garden, while
another gardener not far away may be growing a Brussels sprout for seed. The
wind or the bees may bring pollen from your neighbour's plant to your
own––and your plants next year would be an unbelievable mixture, yet would
be useless to you. |
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Now, if that were to happen in your garden, how much more serious would it
be if you were to allow one of your cabbages to flower and produce seed near
a commercial grower's field of Brussels sprouts growing for seed. It might
cause immense trouble and ruin the quality of his seed. The only "safe"
vegetables for seed-saving purposes are peas, beans of all kinds, onions,
leeks, tomatoes, lettuce, ridge cucumbers and marrows.
Now is the time to mark the plants you intend to save. The best and
easiest way is to tie a label on part of your rows of peas and beans and
leave all the pods on the plants in that section for seed. Don't pick
any at all for the kitchen. So often gardeners leave the last few pods on
their plants. These are usually small, weakly pods and do not give really
good seed. If you remember that one-tenth of your pea and bean crop should
give you sufficient seed to sow a similar area again next year, you will be
able to judge how many plants to leave.
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