I have experimented in recent weeks with growing dill. The end result has been more dill than I have been able to either use or give away fast enough - but this was after a fairly slow start. The dill seedlings were very weak and pathetic for some time, with most unable to support their own weight. I ended up using padded wire on it’s own or attached to small wooden stakes to support them whilst they grew. I am not yet clear on all the reasons for this weakness. I think dill is somewhat notorious for this sort of problem, but nevertheless I should be able to provide suitable conditions for seedlings to grow to support heir own weight. I think the use of a fan to try and encourage the plants to strengthen did some good. More trials will be required to get to the bottom of it though.

I also learned some lessons about scheduling of plants and have begun to take a more systematic approach to planting new seeds each week, based on an estimate of what I might like to consume in 1 week. This is of course complicated by the fact that different crops take different amounts of time to come to maturity, and the fact that the more variety of plants I have, the more difficult it could be to assess and refine a growth recipe for any one of the species. However, this is essentially a practical project to try to supply much of my leafy greens and herbs for my diet, and so a variety of plants based on what I want to eat is the priority, rather than maximising yields of individual crops, as would be the case in a commercial setting.

At the moment I have rainbow chard, Jericho lettuce, rocket, lemon balm, coriander, and sweet marjoram in the system, along with the over-abundance of dill. Everything seems to be growing well despite the “compromise” conditions, with the exception of the coriander - I am still having tip burn problems, this time with inner tip burn only. It is a little odd that all the other plants do well when only coriander is suffering, so I will be delighted to get to the bottom of this one eventually!