Spring 2013
@ SKGAS
The Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society newsletter Spring 2013
From the chairman Your allotment society needs you... Much time, not to mention resource, is given over to conservation these days. And that isn’t such a bad idea. It isn’t very long since people could take liberties with cultural and community treasures without a by your leave. But conservation doesn’t just apply to stately homes, ugly tower blocks and public conveniences. It extends to cover open green spaces, and also what you can do on them. So, just by by maintaining an allotment plot, you are conserving a piece of our cultural heritage that has its roots in the middle of the nineteenth century. But you could do more. The reason you have access to a plot is because you are a member of our society. True, you could get a plot direct from the council elsewhere, but you would have to pay more and there would be fewer extras; you know like access to low cost, high quality products in our own trading huts, free manure and wood chippings. And there’s a lot more. Without the society structure (and others like it in the borough) we probably wouldn’t even have plots any more, as the council would have had its way and though perhaps not paradise, our sites would have been paved and covered with houses, not to mention a parking lot. So, what, you might be thinking. What can I do on my own? Well, the point is, you’re not on your own. Together, we’re stronger, and there are lots of things your society needs help with to keep functioning.
You don’t have to stand as an officer of the society, or even attend committee meetings. We need more site stewards to help those already in place to do simple things like hire out machines, little maintenance jobs or even replace the loo roll. A lot of being a site steward is about giving advice and keeping an eye out for people, especially our older or novice members. If you don’t fancy that, how about telling us about any specific skills you can contribute? We occasionally need plumbers, carpenters, builders, or even accountants and solicitors. Even if you can give us an hour every couple of months, that will help. Why not think about lending a hand at festival time? You could bake some cakes, make some jam or chutney, or even grow some extra produce for sale. If you can help in any little way, why not come along to the AGM on April 10 and let us know (see inside for details). All officer roles are up for election, so if you want to be chair, come along and put your hat in the ring. If you can’t make it, please, tell a steward or committee member what you can do and we will ask you for help when we need it. We have very generous members but we need more to people to step up this year to help continue to make this a great society. It doesn’t take much to make a difference and I promise, you’ll see the benefits for yourself. Pádraig Floyd, chair, SKGAS
The Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society newsletter
AGM 2013 Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society Ltd
Registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, 1893 Registered Office: 2 Airthrie Road, Goodmayes, Ilford, Essex, IG3 9QU Company no. IP10805R
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The 85th Annual General Meeting of the Society will be held at the Parkside Community Centre, Goodmayes Lane, IG3 9PX on Wednesday 10th April 2013 at 7.30pm. Refreshments will not be served but the bar will be open for members use. 1. Welcome Address
AGENDA
2. Presentation of prizes (Lists of awards and prize winners opposite) 3. Minutes of the 84th AGM held on 22nd March 2012. 4. Matters arising 5. Chairman’s report 6. Treasurer’s report 7. Secretary’s report 8. Membership Secretary’s report 9. Trading Secretary’s report 10. Election of Committee for 2013-14 (Members are urged to consider joining the Committee to help run the Society). President Site stewards for Benton Road Chair Vice-chair Wards Road South Wards Road North Secretary Treasurer Goodmayes Trading Secretary Vicarage Lane South Membership Secretary Vicarage Lane North Committee members 11. President’s address 12. Motions for discussion (Motions must have a proposer and seconder and be submitted to Padraig Floyd (Chair) c/0 2, Airthrie Road, Goodmayes, IG3 9QU by 27th March 2013). Motions already submitted: 1. ‘This Society resolves to disapply the requirement for a full professional audit for the year 2013’. Proposer: E. Oliver Seconder: tbc 2. ‘This Society resolves to amend the Society General rules (byelaws) with immediate effect’ The Society committee proposes to add the following under ‘Responsibilities of members’: Byelaw 6 “Should a member allow their plot or paths to become overgrown or dangerous, the society reserves the right to undertake grass cutting, strimming or relevant remedial work on the member’s behalf. The member will be liable to be charged for this work at the hourly minimum wage rate plus the society’s normal machine hire charge for the time required. This charge will be added to the plotholder’s renewal fee for the following year.” Proposer: E. Oliver Seconder: tbc 13. Any other business
Spring 2013
Allotment Competition winners 2012 Alderman Clark Trophy for best allotment 1st Takis Procopiou (Joint winner) 1st Karnail Banwait (Joint winner) 3rd Pat & Laurie Clarke
(Benton Road) (Benton Road) (Goodmayes)
81 points 81 80
Runners-up Bernard Crowe John Mackin
(Vicarage Lane S) (Goodmayes)
79 78
Highly Commended Roger Backhouse Carl Welch Peter Southern Herbie Persue
(Vicarage Lane S) (Goodmayes) (Vicarage Lane S) (Vicarage Lane S)
75 75 74 74
Chatting Cup for Early Progress Matthew Bailey
(Vicarage Lane S)
57
Service award to be announced Festival Vegetable Competition winners Class A: One single large vegetable 1st John Mackin (Goodmayes) 2nd John Mackin (Goodmayes) 3rd John Mackin (Goodmayes) Class B: Five of the same vegetable/salad item 1st Matthew Oliver (Goodmayes) – onions 2nd John Hale (Goodmayes) – sweetcorn 3rd Karnail Banwait (Benton Road) – large garlic Class C: Three different varieties of fruit, vegetables, or salad items 1st Ed Oliver (Goodmayes)/Sandhya Chanana (WRS) Joint winners 2nd John and Madonna Lang (Goodmayes) 3rd Brian Sexton (Goodmayes)
Please try to attend the Annual General Meeting, especially if you have won a prize or certificate, as these will be presented on the night. This year all attendees of the meeting will be given a free raffle ticket on arrival, and at the end of business there will be a prize draw.
The Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society newsletter
Potato and tomato blight advice from the National Society of Allotment Gardeners The following is reproduced from an advice sheet issued by the National Society of Allotment Gardeners, written by Mike Thurlow, Horticultural Advisor, in October 2012. Hopefully, better weather this year will mean that blight is less of a problem, but we have taken the precaution of stocking up on Bordeaux mixture in our trading huts. Overview Phytophera infestans, more commonly known as potato blight or late potato blight, is a serious disease of both potatoes and tomatoes because it will destroy an entire crop. Attacks are always worse in wet summers but are much less of a problem in drier summers. It will attack greenhouse tomatoes as well as tomatoes that are grown outdoors. It is also sometimes called late blight because the consequences of a blight attack are always seen at the end of the growing summer; just as the crop is ready for harvesting and putting into storage for using later. Symptoms The first signs of a blight attack are dark brown blotches that appear near the tips of the leaves. Under damp conditions a white mould will grow on the underside of the blotches gradually increasing in size and the attack may then spread all over the leaves and down the stems of the plants. A humid atmosphere provides the optimum conditions for the rapid development and spread of a blight attack. It can cause a dramatic collapse of the haulm and reduce it to a rotting mess with alarming speed.
Potato blight shouldn’t be confused with other brown or black marks that may appear on the edges or tips of the leaves of plants. These are likely to be the result of physical damage caused to the haulms from working between the rows of plants. These can be clearly identified by the appearance of a small greyish mould and don’t pose a serious threat to the developing crop. No action is required to control this problem. Background Potato blight Phytophera infestans, survives on any diseased plant debris left over from a previous crop and it can persist for many seasons. It is essential that every last remnant of the current crop is collected and disposed of. The highest levels of plant and soil hygiene must be observed to minimise the risk of an attack to a following crop. Potato blight, Phytophera infestans spores are only produced and spread under warm, damp weather conditions. The heavy dews, fogs and mists of late summer provide the ideal breeding ground for the disease. The risk is greatest when the temperature doesn’t fall below 50F/10C for two days and humidity levels are high over a period of 48 hours. The National Society of Allotment Gardeners recommends the following good practices are followed to minimise the risk of an outbreak of (Late) potato blight, Phytophera infestans: ALWAYS purchase Scottish certified, disease free seed potato tubers from Government registered growers. Open the packaging and inspect each tuber in the unlikely event that any are damaged destroy them immediately.
Spring 2013 NEVER save your own seed potatoes or accept “gifts” from other gardeners. They will not be safe to grow. AVOID using overhead irrigation. It can wash spores into the soil and earth up regularly to protect the vulnerable developing tubers from infection. INSPECT the foliage regularly from late June onwards looking for signs of blight because it can literally appear overnight. At the first signs of an attack cut down the damaged haulms and destroy them this will help to prevent the spores from being washed into the soil and damaging the tubers This action will slow down the development of the potato tubers and although they can be left in the soil for several weeks it is safer to lift and use them as soon as possible. An approved preventative spray can be applied before an attack is detected and a regular spraying programme must be continued right up until the potatoes are ready to be lifted. The haulms can be cut down a week or two before the lifting date without affecting the weight of the final crop. ALWAYS use crop rotations and grow the following potato crop on a new,clean site. Don’t return a potato crop to an area for at least three years. If you do experience a bad outbreak and can’t rotate the crop then consider not growing potatoes for at least one season to break the cycle. Always dig over the potato plot after a crop has been lifted to remove any small, damaged or tubers that are left in the soil. They will always carry the risk of being a source of infection. Only grow early and second early potato crops because these can be lifted and the site cleared before the end of September whilst the soil is usually still dry and warm. The main threat of a potato blight attack is from maincrop potatoes that are left in the soil until October when the potential risk of worsening weather can delay lifting the crop. There is also the added risk of diseased potato tubers being put into store.
How to dispose of infected material The traditional advice used to be to destroy the infected haulms and potatoes on the bonfire but these days bonfires are banned by some authorities. The most effective way of disposing of the diseased material is by using the “green waste” facilities provided by the local authorities. This way any potential risk posed to a developing crop will be separated by distance. The Municipal Green Waste systems used in this country are extremely efficient and they destroy all damaging garden pest and diseases by the generation of incredibly high temperatures within the heap. It is super composting at its very best. The resulting material is effective as a soil conditioner or mulch in the garden. Alternatively you can bin or bury (in a trench at least 45cm deep) the material too. Some blight-resistant varieties Potatoes Romano Sante Winston Cara Blue Belle Lady Balfour Kestrel Sante Sarpo Mira Valour Tomatoes Fandango F1 Cherrola F1 (moderate resistance) Useful website Blight Watch - The Blightwatch service is used by potato farmers and agronomists but it is open to other gardeners too. It now covers the whole of the UK down to individual postcode level. The service operates in conjunction with the Potato Councils Fight Against Blight! service and delivers daily email and optional SMS alerts if blight risks are identified in your selected area(s). www.blightwatch.co.uk The post codes of Goodmayes and Benton Road have been registered and if blight is about to move in on those areas, they will send an email warning us to get checking our plants! This which will be passed on to members by email and via noticeboards at our sites.
The Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society newsletter
Society business Numbering your plot It is each members’ responsibility to ensure that their plot is clearly marked with its plot number. Please check you have done this – it may seem a small thing but it is an important one as it can lead to confusion when there are several un-numbered plots in a row.
Email addresses An email was recently sent to approximately 100 members at the Vicarage Lane/Benton Road and Wards road sites. 17 of these were returned as undeliverable. If you think the Society does not have your email address, or if your have recently changed yours, please contact the secretary at e.s.oliver@hotmail.co.uk with your name, site and plot number and we will update our list. Due to the price of postage email is an important way of communicating with the membership.
Japanese knotweed As reported in the last newsletter, the knotweed at the Wards Road sites was sprayed with a professional grade weedkiller last October. We now need to cut and burn the dead stalks, enabling any re-growth to be more effectively sprayed if it grows back later in spring. To this end, we will be organising a working party on Saturday 16th March, starting at 10.00am. Help from any society members will be welcomed, please bring gloves and cutters (secateurs, shears or loppers should all be useful). Meet at the Mafeking Avenue entrance.
years from Nature Conservation, and a good crowd of youngsters from Palmer Academy, who were enthusiastic and good-humoured and achieved a lot. It was enjoyable working with them, there is hope for the youth of today after all!, says Roger.
Honorary Membership awarded to John Leeds John Leeds is one of the oldest members of the Society. After service on an armed trawler in the Mediterranean theatre he became an engineer with Johnson Matthey working with high value metals including platinum and iridium. He joined the Society at a time when plots were very hard to get and he was given just a fortnight to put an overgrown plot on Benton Road in order. Later he changed plots to Wards Road South after the infilling of the railway cutting. This he found difficult to work at first but his plots were well looked after throughout his membership, helped by being conveniently at the bottom of his garden, also immaculately kept. He has held most of the offices of the Society and was a force for change on a committee that wasn’t keen on progress. After stepping down from the committee he continued as an allotment holder, and his service was honoured with the Presidency of the Society before Alan Hooker later became President. Unfortunately John has had to give up his plots due to worsening sight, but few members have contributed as much to the Society over such a long period as John Leeds. The Society is delighted to award him Honorary Membership.
Tree planting at Vicarage Society website Lane North Roger Backhouse reports that some tree planting has recently taken place to help form a new boundary between the allotments and the new play park. The work was undertaken by a small but very hardworking team of people of more mature
A massive vote of thanks to Goodmayes plotholder Zakir Bikhan, who has stepped forward to act as webmaster for the society. He will be updating and developing the site www.skgas.org , so please visit it and maybe chat in the forum.
Spring 2013
MYHarvest!
If any of our members would like to help out with this research project here are the details. You will also need to visit their website at https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/myharvest/ Have you ever wondered if your owngrown produce could feed your family? your village? or a nation? Lets find out... MYHarvest stands for Measure Your Harvest. In the MYHarvest project, researchers at University of Sheffield aim to collect data of fruit and vegetable yields grown by allotment holders, private gardeners and community gardeners. By measuring your production per unit area of ground you could help us to determine the extent to which own-grown food contributes to UK food security and sustainability today. This will help us look ahead to how much garden space is needed in our cities for owngrown producers in the future.
How can I participate? Record information about one or more fruit or vegetable crop that you grow, or a diary of everything you grow in your garden or on your allotment and tell us about it. Even if your crop produces a poor crop this year, the data is still valuable. What we want to know is the weight of your harvests and the area you used to grow each of your crops. You will need some scales to weigh your harvests and a tape measure to measure your beds. MYHarvest can provide record sheets to help you keep track of your harvests. We suggest you submit your data to us for each crop as you complete harvesting it, by post or emailing a copy of your harvest records. MYHarvest are developing an online submission form and would welcome people to help test this system.
The Seven Kings and Goodmayes Allotment Society newsletter
Treat the headache of blight with Aspirin for your tomatoes & potatoes! Marian Hogg writes: After last year’s problem with blight, I did a bit of research into methods of prevention and treating Tomato and Potato Blight before it gets a grip on the plants. I found this interesting study. It has been enthusiastically adopted by both U.K. and U.S. gardeners with reported success. Rebecca Brown, a Professor of Plant Sciences at Rhode Island University was carrying out research into plants ability to self-medicate from the effects of environmental stress, pests and disease. Her studies showed that applying Salicylic Acid (a component of Aspirin and a naturally occurring compound in all plants that promotes disease resistance) can, indeed, induce resistance to disease/pathogens, stressful growing conditions and some insect pests; as well as promoting better growth. From her experimental trials in summer 2005 using 3 groups of Tomato plants (she used a commercial treatment on 1 group; plain water on 1 group and Aspirin on 1 group). She recommends using 1 or 2 250ml to 500ml
Thank you corner The Society is run by volunteers and help from all members is welcomed as it helps things to run smoothly and keeps down the cost of our plots. If you know of somebody who is due the Society’s thanks, or have an article or item for a future newsletter, please contact the secretary, e.s.oliver@hotmail. co.uk Special thanks to: • Mike Fitzmaurice for overseeing the replacement of the old wooden gates at the
uncoated Aspirin tablets, dissolved in 1 gallon of water, with a few drops of washing-up soap mixed in, this helps the solution stick to the plants. Caution is needed with the amount of Aspirin used, a solution containing more than the above recommended dose has been shown to burn foliage. Apply this every 2 weeks to established plants, and to the water of germinating seeds and young transplanted plants. Vegetable growers here and in the U.S., have adopted this and it seems the results are generally good. Some have noted that, as the Professor says, if they water their Tomatoes at seedling stage, this seemed to make the plants really strong and aid their resistance once planted out. Some have found that it has been beneficial in repelling Whitefly from their Brassica plants, while general use in the garden or vegetable patch/allotment has seen vigorous growth in other vegetable plants. It must be working, as a large pharmaceutical company has recently started selling soluble Aspirin products for gardeners!
Goodmayes site. We now have a new set of metal gates that should open freely and shut securely for many years to come. • Paul Dye, Peter Trimby and their team of volunteers for organising the delivery of this years’ stock of seed potatoes and onion sets - not a small task, considering the number of sacks that have to be weighed out into smaller bags, labelled and shelved for sale. Without the income from this work, our plots rents would cost more.
And finally... Please try to attend the Annual General Meeting, at the Parkside Community Centre, Goodmayes Lane, IG3 9PX on Wednesday 10th April 2013 at 7.30pm especially if you have won a prize or certificate, as these will be presented on the night.