The allotment in September

The summer holiday season is behind us, children will be returning to school where they may well be holding harvest festival celebrations. It’s the height of harvesting season on the allotment in September.

We are often lucky enough to have pleasantly warm, dry days in September but the strongest heat will have gone from the sun and by the end of the month the hours of daylight will be less than the hours of darkness. For many plants this means that growth will slow down or stop. Our vegetable beds will be emptying as autumn approaches, but as one growing year draws to an end, it’s already time to look forward to the next. Empty beds can be prepared for next year. Well-rotted manure or compost can be applied to empty beds where required.

It’s a good time to take stock of your successes and failures of the year and to plan next year’s planting. It’s worth thinking about ordering your seeds now to ensure you can get the varieties you want.

Keep a check on any vegetables you have stored to ensure there is no disease or decay. Remove and dispose of any imperfect ones so that others are not affected.

It’s worth removing some leaves from winter squashes to enable the sun to ripen them.

Harvest from the allotment in September

Continue to harvest French beans, runner beans, peas and sweetcorn from the legume bed. These all freeze well and will keep you in vegetables for the weeks to come.

In the brassica and leafy vegetable area chard, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower and calabrese will be available from the allotment in September.

Second early potatoes should be lifted now if this wasn’t done last month. Maincrop potatoes should also be harvested this month. Potatoes are best stored in paper or hessian sacks and should be kept in a cool, dry place. Check occasionally, and discard any rotting or diseased tubers.

Beetroot, carrots and turnips will still be ready to harvest.

Fresh salad should still be plentiful as salad leaves, lettuce, radish and spring onion will all be available. Outdoor and greenhouse grown tomatoes and cucumbers will still be available to pick too.

Continue to harvest courgettes and summer squashes.

Towards the end of the month or into October butternut, Turk’s turban, pumpkin and other winter squashes will need to be harvested. To speed up ripening remove a few leaves to allow the sun to reach the skins. They may be insufficient growing time left for small fruits to mature and ripen, these can be removed to direct energy to the larger ones.

The greenhouse in September

Continue to water and feed your tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, chillies and peppers.

Remove dying lower leaves and continue to cut off side shots from tomatoes. This improves air circulation and allows more energy to go into the development of fruit. If you have not already done so cut of the tops of the plants. I remove any trusses of small tomatoes that are unlikely to have time to mature and ripen.

The lower leaves can be removed from cucumbers for the same reason. Harvest as they become available to encourage new fruits into next month.

Harvest your chillies and sweet peppers as they ripen. Peppers are best eaten fresh. Any chillies that you don’t use can be easily and successfully frozen whole.

Sow in the allotment in September

There is not much that can be sown in the allotment in September. Try some winter salad leaves and hardy spring onions.

Spring cabbages can be planted out in September. Be wary of slugs and net to protect from pigeons.