"Janet wrote in message
"Sacha" wrote in message ...((snip))

Well of course, the old way of growing them in Jersey was to use vraic
to
fertilise the ground (bladder wrack) and it's piled up in huge mounds
in
autumn and winter storms - free to the farmer who cares to collect it.

Did they used to wash it before use or leave it in the rain to wash the
salt
out or was it used salt and all straight from the beach?

It's also a Scottish crofters method. Fresh off the beach in huge
quantities, dug in or mulched on top of the soil. In coastal areas,
there is so much airborne and rain borne salt constantly landing on soil
and plants,that any on seaweed makes no difference. I've applied tons of
seaweed with no problems and wonderful results.


So Janet, with all that seaweed are you able to grow proper tasting Jersey
Royals especially as you are also probably on granite?

--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars, there's bugger all down here.

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 16:44:28 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


"Janet wrote in message
"Sacha" wrote in message ...((snip))

Well of course, the old way of growing them in Jersey was to use vraic
to
fertilise the ground (bladder wrack) and it's piled up in huge mounds
in
autumn and winter storms - free to the farmer who cares to collect it.

Did they used to wash it before use or leave it in the rain to wash the
salt
out or was it used salt and all straight from the beach?

It's also a Scottish crofters method. Fresh off the beach in huge
quantities, dug in or mulched on top of the soil. In coastal areas,
there is so much airborne and rain borne salt constantly landing on soil
and plants,that any on seaweed makes no difference. I've applied tons of
seaweed with no problems and wonderful results.

at one time it was burnt in pits, before being used

http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/kelpburning.htm



So Janet, with all that seaweed are you able to grow proper tasting Jersey
Royals especially as you are also probably on granite?

It's kelp not bladder wrack that is washed up in big piles after a
gale and used on the fields isn't it?

http://www.marlin.ac.uk/Bio_pages/Bi...R.Ldig.Pid.htm

--
Martin

"jane" wrote in message

Funny this should arise... this is exactly what I did this year. I've
not grown spuds (deliberately!) before and since my Dad loves Jerseys,
I hatched a plan to fool him. Largely successfully, he liked the taste
and it wasn't until after the test meal was over that I told him what
they were.
The only thing against them I found was that they fell terribly, so
resorted to steaming them in the end. The worst scrapers were those
I'd picked over 3-4 days before, so cooked them whole and peeled the
skins off when hot.

I also did a blind taste test of some bought Jerseys and my Int
kidneys and my tester said he preferred mine (and as other halves go,
he'd tell me if he didn't!). Interestingly, the bought ones fell too.

I used Maxicrop every couple of weeks together with watering the rows
quite a lot as they suffered from the early drought conditions. Not
quite the same as adding vraic but the nearest I could get easily. And
in Chiltern chalk I have enough problems with scab without using
calcified seaweed as well!!!

I'm buying double quantities of seed spuds for next time (as I think I
said in the what are you growing next year thread :-) and keeping them
better watered as well - think this may have contributed to them
falling as they were a bit more floury than I expected.

Diary says they were set to chit 6th February, planted 21st March, and
first dug 20th June.

I must stress I don't have any other homegrown first earlies to
compare the taste with - just shop-boughts!


Now that's what we all wanted to hear, someone that has tried it
successfully, thanks Jane. By the way, you can get Seaweed extract in larger
quantities from the Organic Gardening Catalogue or N. A.Kays. (if you can
find it!)

www.kayshorticulture.com/
www.organiccatalog.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

--
Regards
Bob

Use a useful Screen Saver...
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
and find intelligent life amongst the stars.

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 16:53:57 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


"jane" wrote in message

Funny this should arise... this is exactly what I did this year. I've
not grown spuds (deliberately!) before and since my Dad loves Jerseys,
I hatched a plan to fool him. Largely successfully, he liked the taste
and it wasn't until after the test meal was over that I told him what
they were.
The only thing against them I found was that they fell terribly, so
resorted to steaming them in the end. The worst scrapers were those
I'd picked over 3-4 days before, so cooked them whole and peeled the
skins off when hot.

I also did a blind taste test of some bought Jerseys and my Int
kidneys and my tester said he preferred mine (and as other halves go,
he'd tell me if he didn't!). Interestingly, the bought ones fell too.

I used Maxicrop every couple of weeks together with watering the rows
quite a lot as they suffered from the early drought conditions. Not
quite the same as adding vraic but the nearest I could get easily. And
in Chiltern chalk I have enough problems with scab without using
calcified seaweed as well!!!

I'm buying double quantities of seed spuds for next time (as I think I
said in the what are you growing next year thread :-) and keeping them
better watered as well - think this may have contributed to them
falling as they were a bit more floury than I expected.

Diary says they were set to chit 6th February, planted 21st March, and
first dug 20th June.

I must stress I don't have any other homegrown first earlies to
compare the taste with - just shop-boughts!


Now that's what we all wanted to hear, someone that has tried it
successfully, thanks Jane. By the way, you can get Seaweed extract in larger
quantities from the Organic Gardening Catalogue or N. A.Kays. (if you can
find it!)

www.kayshorticulture.com/
www.organiccatalog.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK|countryGB&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=kelp+fertilizer&spell=1

finds dozens of places selling kelp based fertilzers.
--
Martin

They are called International Kidney

"Stuart York" wrote in message
...
Can anyone help me??
I think jersey royals can be bought as first earlys, but under what name
and
where?

Thanks in advance.

Elaine

The message
from "Bob Hobden" contains these words:

It's also a Scottish crofters method. Fresh off the beach in huge
quantities, dug in or mulched on top of the soil. In coastal areas,
there is so much airborne and rain borne salt constantly landing on soil
and plants,that any on seaweed makes no difference. I've applied tons of
seaweed with no problems and wonderful results.


So Janet, with all that seaweed are you able to grow proper tasting Jersey
Royals especially as you are also probably on granite?

Haven't tried Jersey Royals, but any other new baby potatoes grown
with seaweed taste fabulous:-) I'll see if I can get some to try, though
as you probably know, not all potato varieties are available in
Scotland, something to do with protecting the certified-seed-potato
growers from disease. This year I grew Arran Pilot, just because they
were bred here. The whole veg garden had to be deepdug, to remove the
invasive roots of an ash tree, so I incorporated loads of seaweed into
the trenches then put a very thick mulch on the soil surface after
planting. You can't see any sign of it now except as a darker richness
in the soil, it's all decomposed.

I'm not on granite. Arran is diverse geologically, the north end is
rocky high and steep with thin soil. The highest point, central spiky
lump of granite called Goatfell, is across Brodick bay (looking north
from here). The south end of the island is rolling green hills, the most
fertile area. Our garden is on very deep sandy loam, hardly any stones
in it, light easy digging and freedraining.

We've just back from collecting 40 sacks of newly washed-up fresh
seaweed, smells delicious :-)

Janet (Isle of Arran)

On Sun, 02 Nov 2003 17:56:23 +0100, martin wrote:

~On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 16:53:57 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:
~
~
~"jane" wrote in message
~
~ Funny this should arise... this is exactly what I did this year. I've
~ not grown spuds (deliberately!) before and since my Dad loves Jerseys,
~ I hatched a plan to fool him. Largely successfully, he liked the taste
~ and it wasn't until after the test meal was over that I told him what
~ they were.

snip!

~
~
~Now that's what we all wanted to hear, someone that has tried it
~successfully, thanks Jane. By the way, you can get Seaweed extract in larger
~quantities from the Organic Gardening Catalogue or N. A.Kays. (if you can
~find it!)
~
~www.kayshorticulture.com/
~www.organiccatalog.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
~
~http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK|countryGB&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=kelp+fertilizer&spell=1
~
~finds dozens of places selling kelp based fertilzers.

Thanks chaps. That will be very useful!

--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!