I am feeling quite "sagely". Why I don't hear you ask. Spring was late in the UK this year [2006]. The weather did not break until early June. I predicted to my lottie neighbours that he autumn would be a long affair. So what grow season we had lost in the spring we would gain in the autumn. That has come to pass except that mother nature threw a curve ball in July when almost the whole month the day time temperatures were in the thirties centigrade.
This had the effect of making most of the plant blot as they had suffered in the late spring only to be faced with searing temperatures as they matured. I got round this in a small was by planting more seeds in July to take advantage of the extra growing season. Living as I do in England and its situation in the Northern hemisphere at Latitude 52.48 north, as the year progresses the day light hours reduce so that today lighting up time is 18.17. Each day lighting up time is 2/3 minutes earlier. The plants respond to the shorter days by not growing or growing less and it is quite difficult to get anything to germinate. The short days mean the temperature is slowly dropping. It is most notable at night, dew is forming and there is mist in the fields.
This past weekend I had time to dig over a whole quarter of my lottie and spread seeds of a green manure. I only hope the temperature holds up for a couple for weeks until the seeds have come through.
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