Allotment News

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  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    Jj - what haile says - bedding plants or seeds. first is more expensive but instant results - seeds are cheaper but you have to wait.

    haile - at 6" tall they can go in now (outside I presume?? make sure you are past frosts first though). it's not so much pinching out but removing the side shoots (laterals) - these are the lateral stems that come out at the junction between the leaf and the main stem. in most tomatoes they should be removed so the plant has a main stem that you can train up and tie in to a cane/wire etc. this improves cropping but you can leave them on to create more of a bush plant but they don't crop so well then. I always remove the lateral stems

    pinch the laterals off when they are large enough to get hold off and pinch out the growing tip of the plant at the top when it's got tall enough (judgement call as some can grow 12' or so!)
  • I just bought some pepper seedlings at cubs' school. Yippee, don;t feel bad about forgetting to plant mine now. They have PROMISED they are not chillis!image

    Now need to pot 'em on!

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    1. you will see the flowers form on their own bracts - they look different to leaves and come from the main stem, not from a leaf axil like the side shoots. the flower bracts will develop leaves on the end as well.

    2. yes - and the stems will develop more roots if you do

    as you're growing indoors, mist the flowers to encourage setting as you won't have the wind of outdoors to do this. make sure the plant is well watered but not overwatered. tomato fruit can suffer from various problems the most common being blossom end rot - the tip of the fruit where the flower was goes black and can lead to the fruit becoming prone to fungal infection. this is caused usually by lack of water during the fruiting period.

    feed the plants with a tomato feed (something like Tomorite) at least once a week after the first trusses have set. as the plant gets larger and more fruit trusses set you can remove the lower leaves from the plant - this helps air flow around the fruit reducing fungal infections.

    luv

    percy thrower
  • Question for FB.

    Do I have a male and female Capsicum plant?

    One is growing side shoots the same as tom plants, other one isn't.

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    Answer for Nicko

    No

    some pepper plants produce side shoots quite early; others take a while to develop but eventually do produce. again pinch them out as far as possible. pepper plants gradually develop more and more growing tips and for best cropping it's best to try to reduce the number of these and the side shoots eventually pinching out most growing tips to reduce the number of flowers and fruit so those left develop better.
  • Lettuce looks like it likes the soil H, is that beetroot just behind?

    Thats a bliddy big catapult you have ready for the cats crapping in the garden !!!

  • Your runner beans are exactly the same size as mine, I feel better now, but my beetroot are defo smaller and my cats dug up the spinach (Or I weeded it by mistake!)

    What's the tree? I have a rowen I planted when it was a lawn - seems mean to evict it now.

  • Well if we are comparing piccies.......

    My Garden!

    Hope the link works!!!

  • It was taken a few weeks ago so things have grown a lot since then, but you get the idea, I hope!
  • We need to be friends on FB me thinks b4 content can be seen Mandy.
  • A big dollop of horse and moocow shit at the end of the year and next year will be better.
  • Pelleted Chicken poo round here.

    imageWell us Foxes like chickens!!

    I'll get me coat before Nicko gets it for me (again).

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    I am using well rotted horse shit on my patch - plus some chicken shit pellets as needed.....

    a spud question as I haven't grown spuds for many a long year

    I'm growing them in bags but they have put on an enormous amount of top growth so much so that the strong wind of late is damaging them and breaking off the flower shoots before they have flowered - and before I managed to stake them. so my question is:

    do spuds NEED to flower to produce tubers?

    I would think wind damage is a common problem with commercial growers but I don't know if yields are affected by loss of flower
  • Hmmm good one mate.

    Flowering I think is to promote seed potatos. So you should still get tubers but they won't be any good for seed pots.

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    been doing a bit of googling on this and it doesn't seem to matter if they flower or not - it's the number of weeks underground that seems to decide the yield........

    from one forum:

    "Leaving the flowers on or taking them off won't affect the yield either way. Usually about the time the flowers open, the potatoes are forming underground. I use the blossoms as a signal that soon there will be "new" potatoes for me to cook"

    a few suggest to start digging up about 3 weeks after the 1st flowers as the foliage is starting to die back - I knew that bit - but wasn't aware of the flowering not being that important
  • They don't need to flower. My Dad is harvesting his from his pots and they haven't flowered yet. I tend to leave mine to get a bit bigger as have more mouths to feed.

    Mine are fortunately quite sheltered by a house wall.

  • How exciting! Bounce bounce bounce! New potatoes soon by your reckoning. It's as good as watching the nest box.

    The second sowing of beet seeds have risen up, no sign of the first lot. More lettuce and rocket seeds I reckon. And some more chard. Last years survived very well, and is still tasty even though it's bolting. (Doing a Usain)

  • fat buddhafat buddha ✭✭✭
    we are drowning in salad leaves at the mo - rocket has rocketed and is threatening to take over the deep bed! and my outdoor toms are going great guns and will be flowering soon.........and we'll be having chard tonight

    bastard slug had one of my ridge cucumbers though so have put a couple of fresh seeds up - plenty of time with them

    I am enjoying growing veg again and ripping up an old flower bed and creating a deep bed was a good idea. our garden is only 10m x 6m and is now stacked with pots of all sorts of stuff - and more yet to go out - but still has the hard landscaping and shrubs in place. it will be a jungle in a few weeks.....
  • You'll be growing a full beard again and talking like David Bellamy soon hehehehehh
  • We had our first radishes last night. Spinach on Monday and the strawbs are turning pink. image
  • First salad leaves this weekend too.

    Need to plant more beetroot and carrots and spinach.

  • I've not had a single salad leaf or rocket appear. image As a result I sowed a sprinkling of mixed leaves in a tray in the greenhouse. I now have a tray of blimming mustard seedlings.

    When did you sow things Kwilter, January? Or is your entire garden under glass? Or both?

    I'm still harvesting new growth on last year's rocket, which is nice.

    I want to know who lifts the first spuddies.....

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