Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Florablunder on May 07, 2019, 20:29
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Was at the allotment on sunday and pleased to see that the dahlias were coming up healthy and had so far escaped being nobbled by slugs; popped back up there after work today to find that they all now have brown or blackened leaf tips and one has pretty much curled up and died. Looks like frost damage, but the forecast for this area for the last few days has been for minimum of 6 degrees and it hasn't felt that cold over the last 2 mornings. I wouldn't say my plot was in a frost pocket either. My potatoes were also a bit brown, though mostly they are earthed up, so I think they will be ok. Nothing else seems to be affected. Seems very strange - anyone else had this before?
Weather is certainly keeping us on the hop!
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It certainly sounds as if you've had a frost or 2, mine are still in the greenhouse as I can't rely on it being frost free until after the Ice Saints days ::) - in effect mid-May.
According to tradition, the feast days of St Mamertus, St Pancras, St Servatius and St Boniface on May 11 to 14, respectively, can be surprisingly cold.
The curse of the Ice Saints was widespread not just through Britain but across much of Europe as well
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/weather-eye-the-ice-saints-8pdr6n95f
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I leave my dahlias at my allotment in the ground over winter. I have about 2 dozen, and generally lose some 2-4 a year, which get replaced. Last autumn the council delivered loads of compost from the parks, and I mulched each each dahlia with half a barrow-full. I was astonished when, around 25 March, they started showing through the 10-inch high high mounds. I suppose the very warm February was a cause...
I assumed there would be problems coping with such an early showing, but all was well until last week. When the cold May bank holiday was forecast, I coverd them with fleece last Friday. I uncovered them today, Tuesday, as though it continues chilly, no frost is forecast for the next 10 days or so, and heavy rain and strong winds are expected tomorrow.
Mixed fortunes - there is some blackening of the shoots, but also some remain green. I shall just have to wait and see how well they recover...
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It certainly sounds as if you've had a frost or 2, mine are still in the greenhouse as I can't rely on it being frost free until after the Ice Saints days ::) - in effect mid-May.
According to tradition, the feast days of St Mamertus, St Pancras, St Servatius and St Boniface on May 11 to 14, respectively, can be surprisingly cold.
The curse of the Ice Saints was widespread not just through Britain but across much of Europe as well
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/weather-eye-the-ice-saints-8pdr6n95f
I shall be earthing mine up (dahlias I mean) at the end of the week, and giving the potatoes an extra little layer of soil as well. Best to be careful!!
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I have a row of dahlias - in past times I made the effort to lift tubers and store in a frost-free place then replant each year. But - as they are not essential and the number of tubers has grown so much (not sure how I ended up with so many varieties on my plot) I now leave them in the ground over winter to take their chances. Sometimes I move them to a new spot out of my way and each autumn I cover them with a new mound of garden compost and let them get on with it. Mine are not showing yet... hidden under a mound of compost.
A bit of a bash by frosts seems to do no great harm as they still make new growth even if they are scorched and erupt like green volcanoes each year. (I have a feeling that my family like them more than I do so buy the occasional new variety and I plonk them in - nice cut flowers once fully opened).