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Under cover

April makes all sorts of promises to the gardener. We look at those fresh green tomato plants and imagine picking the bumper crop. We sow a sweetcorn seed and can almost taste the hot buttery freshness of a bursting cob. The potential is all there for the best-ever year of growing under cover. But it’s up to you to work with all that potential and to make the promises of April come true

Buy tomatoes

If you are buying in plants, April is the time to do so. Don’t leave it too late or all the healthy specimens will be sold out. Better that the plant is nurtured by you for a couple of weeks, than sitting drying out on a shelf in a shop. You can still sow your own of course, but these will usually crop late in the season and if we get a bad summer they may not ripen. Check the rootball of both home-reared and bought-in plants. I don’t plant out in an unheated structure until the end of April, so young plants may need potting on.
Tomatoes are greedy plants, so dig plenty of manure or compost into the border. I like to soak the subsoil thoroughly about a week before planting. Make 25cm (10in) deep holes where the tomatoes will be planted and keep topping these up with water until the whole bed is soaked. Canes can then be driven down into the base of the hole to give a firm footing. Fill the holes with compost, a week or so later, water lightly and plant directly into this. There should be a good store of moisture in the bed for the weeks ahead. Allow plenty of room between plants. About 45cm (18in) apart in the row is fine, but allow up to 90cm (3ft) between rows if you want room to pick. Tie young plants to canes for support. If you are happy to water plants daily, you can grow them on in buckets or large pots.

Pot on cucumbers

These will be growing rapidly. Keep the compost on the dry side of damp if you want to avoid root rot, and pot on into larger pots as needed. It isn’t usually warm enough to plant cucumbers out in April, but if you have a hot-bed, you might get away with it towards the end of the month. You can still sow cucumbers in April. These will grow rapidly to give a late summer crop.

Aubergines and peppers

Pot these on if necessary, but don’t plant out in an unheated structure until all risk of frost is passed. Watch out for greenfly, which seem to really like young pepper plants. If you spot that leaves are curling and distorted, this could be the problem. Give a good squirt of water to dislodge the pests. This is safer than using chemicals on sensitive young plants.

 

For much more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

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