The thing about allotmenteers seems to be that there is an element of competition between them, but the "showing off" is restricted to friends and family, who don't know, and probably don't really care about the methods used, as long as the crops can be shown to be healthy and have great flavour, at a good price.
In such circumstances, there is no motivation to ignore methods which cheaply deliver up great tasting, nutricious food and lots of it.
For example, Arthur across from me, in an act of almost obsequious flattery, was removing lower leaves from his sprouts plants.
He had said that he didn't bother removing them, and when I asked him why he had changed his mind, he said,
"I've been watching this bloke growing stuff, and his stuff grows great, so I'm doing the same."
I gave Arthur some of my sprouts plants, and fed them on my regime. Those plants are twice the size of those he grew himself.
Arthur is 69.
Some of the techniques i have learned, or honed, on here.
The message IS getting through, but it's an organic process...
