2023 - What I did today

Watered polytunnel, fed and watered greenhouse. put supports round my dwarf french beans that are flowering now. Fed courgettes. Harvested some garlic but only a mediocre crop this year as badly affected by rust. Some of the garlic looked immature even though most of the top had died so left in a while longer to see if they improve a bit.

Rust has behaved strangely in my garden this year:

Solent Wight interplanted in the strawberry bed, only just started getting rust, not progressing quickly.

Messidrome grown in a raised bed, quite bad rust, not very big bulbs. Messidrome grown in another raised bed 4 metres away, very little rust, excellent size of bulb. Both grown at the same spacing and given the same fertiliser (plus extra potassium sulphate). The major difference is the quality of the soil, in the bed with bad rust it's quite dense and dries out quickly whereas in the good bed it's very loose and high in organic matter.

Iberian Wight grown in the greenhouse borders, two metres away from the badly affected raised bed, no rust at all.

Leeks in a pot waiting to be planted, kept away from any rusty garlic, quite rusty. Spring onions next to a rusty garlic bed, no rust.