the big allotment challenge

anyone watch this tonight? i found it very interesting

 

and it just showed what a novice i am! i hear you talking about pricking out but i didnt want to ask(too embarrassed) what it meant lol well i now know

 

Pricking out = unnecessary tedious work in my opinion. Its easier to just sow two seeds per cell and then kill off the weakest if both survive. I'm sure lots of people will disagree, and they will be more qualified than me (given that I don't grow much from seed), but for me, seeds fall into 3 groups:

1. Those large enough and reliable enough to grow one per cell with ease. No need for pricking out. eg Peas, beans, nasturtium, courgettes.
2. Those that will find their own way even if you sow them too densely. e.g. grass, many annual flowers, cress, mustard.
3. Those that are a lot of bother. e.g. most stuff. In which case its easier to sprinkle them then thin them, or, as I have done in the past, take a wooden kebab skewer, wet the end, spill a load of seeds, then use the kebab skewer to pick up individual seeds and sow them into individual cells.

 

Sowing seeds relatively close together in pots, seed trays, etc. enables most efficient use of heated propagators, lights, sunny windowsills, etc. and many seedlings benefit from being transplanted slightly deeper than how they germinated. For the likes of tomatoes & chillies you probably need only about 1/8th of the space if sowing in pots rather than 40x modular cell trays.

Starting seeds off in smaller containers indoors can enable delaying putting greenhouse heating on by weeks, saving quite a bit of money. It makes growing backups easier (just a few more small pots), and makes the move to cell trays more efficient as there wont be any empty cells due due failed germination, blind seedlings, disorted leaves stuck in seed cases, etc. And weak seedlings can be discarded, only transplanting the most vigorous/healthy ones.

 

I was under the impression that this year they were going to be including more actual gardening after complaints but it still seemed to be lacking

I did enjoy it but i think maybe having 3 challenges in every episode is a bit overkill. It might be better if they had 2 challenges in an episode and mix it up so one week grow and flowers, next week grow and eat and the week after eat and flowers.

 

Watched it last year, didn't like the whole competitiveness of the thing and so stopped watching. If its the same as last year don't think I will bother...

 

I quite enjoy it.
It is what is, entertainment(showbusiness).
"OK GARDENERS YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES".......lol.
I would be ok until it came to the making bit.
I am sure they are forewarned what they have to make.
A surely if you live nearby you would have an advantage.......