[Jason Smith]

Well, I've not seen such slow and poor growth down on my allotment this weekend in such a long time. Not sure whether it's been the same across other parts of the uk but here in Somerset everything is still in slow-go or in shock reverse following the crazy warm temperatures in March, followed by a wet wet April and it looks as though May trends the buck. It's just that I've got a mass of seedlings in the greenhouse that need to be homed in allotment soil but the outlook still looks cold and very wet.

[Ed.]

Could be worse i suppose, it could be snowing

[Dave K]

Jason Smith, on 06 May 2012 - 21:31, said:

Well, I've not seen such slow and poor growth down on my allotment this weekend in such a long time. Not sure whether it's been the same across other parts of the uk but here in Somerset everything is still in slow-go or in shock reverse following the crazy warm temperatures in March, followed by a wet wet April and it looks as though May trends the buck. It's just that I've got a mass of seedlings in the greenhouse that need to be homed in allotment soil but the outlook still looks cold and very wet.

In one sense I planted my crops too early in mid/late March, but on the other hand had I waited for a more assured long term forecast I'd still be waiting to plant anything! Potatoes/carrots/radishes/spring onions are all well established but generally extremely slow with the soil never able to get a good run of sunshine and warmth to warm up for long. However I think that sowing outside in the last fortnight would have been worse as the soil would be so cold that the seeds would take forever to germinate. And waiting for the right conditions outside to transplant seedlings from greenhouse, well still a risk of shock from the late cold to kill them off smartly. It's only my third year of growing but it's certainly the worst spring of the three - at least when the problem is lack of rain you can water the plants, naught you can do against cold, too much rain and lack of sunshine.

I have lots of healthy tomato plants now and wouldn't expect to put them permanently outside until June in any case but I'm definitely braced for a fail with tomatoes if this carries on into summer, as I don't have room to keep them in the sun porch forever and once they reach a certain size it's a heck of job to transplant them outside without damage.

[Adam D]

I don't grow fruit and veg, but I am a keen gardener.

This "spring" has been dreadful for plant growth. The last week of March spurred some into growth and then they were hit by snow and -4C frost, followed by weeks of keek weather and then we had more frosts again at the weekend.

Horrible bleeding weather :groan:

[JanetB138]

This year I started early with the planting in mid February decided on seed potatoes Red Rooster, the have gone mad growing despite the weather, I think April sunshine gave them a good start. Bought some Miracle gro condensed compost which you have to keep watering for it to expand, alright for flowers , but not veg as i found something was eating the streamline beans, so I transferred them back into a pot of compost to which have started growing slowly up the canes. Cheated this year and bought some Sweet peas complete with willow basket, they are doing well,
Carrot seedlings need to be put in a pot s they are ready to be transfered now, Spring onions are still a bit thin and dont seem to be doing much conidering they have been thinned out. Radishes need thinning out now
On Friday im ordering some super tomato plants from Thompson and Morgan they afe expected to produce to 58lbs of tomatoes as they have been grafted onto an old root stock, there is 10 large plugs, so will have to get some more pots and keep 7 for myself and give 3 to the neighbour next door, as he gave me some last year and they did well.

[John Mason]

Just been to water some greenhouse plants and have a pick - purple-sprouting is on the march nicely now and "spring shallots" are now available - these are shallot-bulbs too small to bother with, so I simply planted them all round each bed closely-spaced (2"). Very simple way of getting some 'springs' into the picture.

Cheers - John