Last summer the stem of a neighbour's sunflower broke. He bound it and it went on to grow a full 8' and produce a beautiful flowerhead. At the end of the summer he took the bandage off to find lumpy scar tissue, but a fully-healed stem.There have already been accidents for me this year. First I skidded on an overgrown path, flew through the air twisting my ankle as I went and landed yelping in pain. It is only thanks to multi-tasking my fork and spade into crutches that I am not still stranded there. Never again will I mock inspection committees and their threatening "lose your plot" cards. Well-kept allotments are safe allotments.
Next, I carelessly knocked a bean seedling, badly bruising the stem and
causing it to flop. Remembering the sunflower, I cut up a bit of thick filter paper (from my vacuum cleaner), stapled it round stake and stem allowing just enough room for the stem to fill out. Within days the leaves opened and it seemed strong enough to put out, with the bandage slightly loosened.
Then the temperature dropped, a treacherous wind whipped across the allotments, so emergency measures with fleece have been taken. Forget nurture or nature - we're talking full-time nurturing nature here!
I had a bean seedling once that was seriously chomped by slugs. The advice I got from more experienced gardeners (I was a newbie) was to chuck it out and chalk it up to experience, but I let it grow and it went on to flower and fruit :) They're tough little plants!
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