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Gardening Terms Explained

EARLY POTATOES

Early potatoes are ready for harvest before maincrop potatoes. They are broken down into two types:

FIRST EARLY VARIETIES
This group is the earliest to mature and will be ready for harvesting roughly 80 days after they are planted in their growing site (open ground or containers).

SECOND EARLY VARIETIES
Second early potato varieties are ready to start harvesting about 100 days after they are planted in their growing site (open ground or containers).

FROST POCKET

A frost pocket is an area of a ground / garden / allotment where cool air collects in preference to other areas. Because a frost pocket contains cool air, the area it occupies is more at risk from early and late frosts.

The reason for a frost pocket containing cooler than average air is that cool air sinks to a lower level compared to warmer air. So you can expect to find a frost pocket at the bottom of an incline or hill.

HARDEN OFF

When seeds are sown indoors or under cover the temperatures are higher compared to outside conditions. When the plants become ready to be planted outside they need a short period during which the plants are gradually acclimatised to outside conditions. Typically this lasts about two weeks.

The first stage is to place the plants outside during the day in a protected position and then take them indoors / under cover at night, this should last for a week.

The second stage is to place the plants outside for the day and the night in a protected position for another week. After that stage the plants will ready to placed outside in their final positions.

MAINCROP PEAS

Maincrop peas are the last group of garden peas to produce a crop. This will occur approximately weeks after they were sown.

MAINCROP POTATOES

Maincrop potato varieties are the last to mature and will be ready to start harvesting about 130 days after they are planted in their growing site (open ground or containers).

MARROWFAT PEAS

Marrowfat peas are normal garden peas which have been allowed to fully mature and dry out before being harvested. In the UK they are famous for being used to make 'mushy peas' and also as an addition to soups and stews. They are also considered a delicacy in other parts of world, Japan in particular, especially as wasabi peas.

ORGANIC MATTER FOR GARDENERS

A good definition of organic matter (as used in gardening) is matter that was previously living, this includes matter from plants and animals.

Organic matter can be used principally to improve the condition of a soil or to improve the fertility of a soil. In many cases it does both depending on what organic matter is used.

Bulky organic matter, such as garden and kitchen waste, manures, woodchip etc., will principally improve the condition of the soil but will have only a minor impact on its fertility.

Some non-bulky matter, for example chicken manure will do little to improve the condition of the soil but will improve fertility where the non-bulky organic matter contains nutrients which are missing from the soil.

This distinction between different types of organic matter is important for successful plant cultivation. To help clarify the difference, and its importance, we have produced a page on the subject which can be found here.

PEAS MAINCROP

Maincrop peas are garden peas which are ready for harvest about 15 weeks after they have been sowed. If you have followed our advice on the best time to sow peas, this will be first week of April in average areas of the UK

SEED POTATOES

A seed potato is a young small potato intended to be used to grow potatoes later in the year.

There are key differences between a potato sold in the shops for eating and a seed potato:

1. Potatoes sold in shops are almost always sprayed to help prevent them producing sprouts. Seed potatoes are never sprayed in this manner because you need the sprouts to grow and form new plants.
2. Seed potatoes are grown in controlled conditions which inhibit the spread of disease. This is why seed potatoes tend to be grown in cooler areas (e.g. Scotland) where the spread of disease is less likely to occur.
3. Seed potatoes are smaller than the equivalent fully grown potato.

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