Name That Weed!
Post categories: carrot
| 20:26 UK time, Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Thanks for all your comments and sorry if you haven't got an answer to your problems yet - next week I promise. Keep the comments coming - it's great to hear what you're all doing. Oh yes, and if you have a picture of your plot or pot you'd like to share, do send it to our seedlings gallery. Pop over to our gallery form to send it to us - we'd especially love to see pics of veg growing in strange places.
Many of you have mentioned that you're growing the Dig In veg outside, so I thought I'd write about one of the main pitfalls - the weeds!ÌýIf conditions are right for veg, they're better for weeds, which grow bigger, stronger and faster. They're the bullies of the plant world.Ìý
To me, weeds are at their worst in carrot patches, because telling friend from foe can be pretty tricky. One year, what I thought was a bumper crop turned out to be three-quarters . Take a look at the pics below, and tell me if that fumitory seedling (right) does not look EXACTLY like the carrots on the left.
After a week or so, the interlopers gave themselves away by growing bigger than the carrots,
and even having a flower or two. Then I pulled 'em up, which served them right.
Other common nasties are pictured in the rogues' gallery to the right.Ìý At the top isÌývetch. ThisÌýhelpfully puts nitrogen into the soil, which is good for plants, but still you don't want it crawling all over your beetroot.
Next is fat hen, which used to be fed to chickens, and then speedwell, once used against coughs and itches.Ìý You can see why people say that a weed is just a plant inÌýthe wrong place.Ìý
But the most evil of the lot, without any redeeming feature to my mind,Ìýis the oneÌýat the bottom: the dreaded couch-grass. One tiny bit will grow and spread and cover your plot if you're not on the lookout for it. See that white "root"?Ìý It's not a root, it's a specially adapted stem that can spread underground, creeping through the soil and then appearing where you least expect it.
The only solution is getting every speck out - and don't rotovate it! Every cut up bit will grow into a new clump ready to choke your veg.
For loads more pics of weeds, check out the brilliant
So, I think you'll all be able to work out what I'll be spending my bank holiday doing - yes, pulling up the weeds! But what about you? Send us a comment and let us know.
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