April

Tree fruit

• Liquid feed fruit trees in pots with a balanced feed every fortnight.
• Where possible, protect plum and pear flowers from frost but allow insects access for pollination.
• Damp down or mist citrus plants regularly when flowering begins. Maintain a min temperature of 14°C (57°F).

Soft fruit

• Deblossom strawberries planted after September in their first year to help establishment.
• Pick forced strawberries under heated glass.
• Ideal time to plant pot-grown fruit trees and bushes.
• Ventilate strawberries under cloches and mulch with straw or mats.

General care

• Avoid using insecticides on crops in flower.

Sowing and planting

• Chit and plant out second early potatoes in the first half of the month, maincrop potatoes in the second half.
• Sow seed outdoors for beetroot, carrots, Swiss chard, summer cauliflower, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, radish, turnip, spring and pickling onions, peas and perpetual spinach in well-prepared soil.
• Try sowing unusual vegetables such as salsify, Hamburg parsley, or scorzonera.
• Sow seed indoors of marrows, courgettes, pumpkins and squash. Also sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, celery, celeriac, salads and globe artichokes.
• In very mild areas sow dwarf French beans and sweet corn outside under cloches or fleece at the end of April. In cooler areas wait until May.
• Sow a seedbed of brassicas to provide transplants of sprouting broccoli, cauliflowers and cabbages for planting out in June or July.
• Transplant broad beans grown in pots.
• Plant shallots, onion sets and garlic.
• Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers.
• Plant asparagus crowns.
• Pot up tomato seedlings when they develop true leaves above the more rounded seed leaves.

General care

• Support pea plants with sticks, twigs, green support mesh, or wire netting.
• Thin out rows of seedlings as soon as they are large enough to be handled.
• Protect early outdoor sowings with fleece and polythene.
• Continue to force witloof chicory and seakale.
• Dig up selected chicory roots, pot them up, and position them in a dark warm place (10-13°C; 50-55°F), with an upturned pot over them.
  
• Prepare runner bean supports for sowing (in May) or planting out (in June).