Grow 2021-24

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jevs
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by jevs »

It's started.....the courgette invasion!!! Picked my first two on Saturday, picked 7 today. Just as well i love them.

Meanwhile everything else seems to be doing rather well.

First salad spuds (Charlotte and Pink fir apple) dug up with loads of potatoes. Red Duke of York and King Edwards to come yet.
Runner beans looking good in full flower (red, white and pink flowers)
Outside tomatoes are looking super.
Cucumbers have flowers on (marketmore)
Been using perpetual spinach in my curries.
Carrots really doing well now
Parsnips are good
All brassicas growing like mad
Dwarf French beans starting to flower
Beetroot
Onions, garlic and shallots ready to lift
Leeks doing well.
Sweetcorn in flower

I've still got loads to plant. A few weeks ago I sowed a few bits at work under the lights on the prop bench. Most of them are ready to plant now

Swede
Parsnips
Lettuce
Spinach
Rainbow beetroot

Still time to get seeds in....

All year round cauliflower
Beetroot
carrots
beans
Courgettes
salad crops
potatoes
and i'm sure there's plenty more
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Up the Junction
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by Up the Junction »

jevs wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 5:05 pm It's started.....the courgette invasion!!! Picked my first two on Saturday, picked 7 today. Just as well i love them.
Had a week of eating courgette fritters, courgette-based stir fry and plain old courgette... at least we have yellow and green varieties this year.

Don't think I'm getting nay toms other than cherry varieties until August. Will be a very short season this year (assuming I can hold the blight off, that is).

The new £30 greenhouse from Wilko is up now, so we have our conservatory back again.


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mushy
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by mushy »

Do you think it will hold up in strong wind UTJ?
Fancied one myself but they appear to have sold out now.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by Up the Junction »

mushy wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 12:49 pm Do you think it will hold up in strong wind UTJ?
One thing's for sure, it'll be well tested here - I've added a few extra tent and goal net pegs so the frame shouldn't move, the cover is another matter entirely - at present it's only held by a few string ties.

Can't complain for 30 notes, though. They'll probably be in stock again soon.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by rigoberts song »

I had a result the old lady in our row of cottages who I kept an eye out for during covid let me have her husbands greenhouse he died a few years ago.
So been popping round watering her plants topping up her bird feeders etc and tending my tomatoes and cucumbers at the same time.
When the crop really comes I'll let have a few too. What an advantage a big greenhouse is.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by mushy »

rigoberts song wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 9:23 pm I had a result the old lady in our row of cottages who I kept an eye out for during covid let me have her husbands greenhouse he died a few years ago.
So been popping round watering her plants topping up her bird feeders etc and tending my tomatoes and cucumbers at the same time.
When the crop really comes I'll let have a few too. What an advantage a big greenhouse is.
You've been shagging her as well haven't you My Song?
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by rigoberts song »

Nooooooo she's 94
However her daughters a posh solicitor from Cheltenham and warming her up .
Better get back on topic before the gardening mods Tenners and jevs tell me off.
I'm off watering now before it gets too hot !
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by Up the Junction »

Thinking of doing a rain dance in the garden tomorrow. Was expecting a downpour all day on Wednesday, latest forecast is isolated showers at best/ worst.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by mushy »

rigoberts song wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:38 am Nooooooo she's 94
However her daughters a posh solicitor from Cheltenham and warming her up .
Whose probably in her mid 60's?
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by Up the Junction »

At last: four solid hours of rain overnight. Like manna from heaven.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by Tenbury »

Up the Junction wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 9:41 am Like manna from heaven.
..... for slugs :)
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by rigoberts song »

I'm trying to keep to gardening Mushy before Tenners and jevs ban me .
Anyway you never see a new Stradivarius.
Been harvesting a few of the blighted spuds there's about 6 under each but they are a good size and taste nice.
Tomatoes cucumbers are flying and my leeks looking good.
Onions are a real success story never grown them before.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by WHU Independent »

It was all going sooo well.

new potatoes are lovely, the toms are coming on a treat and my onions really taste tlike onions - strong!.

Now the disaster. I grew 16 rocket from seed. They grew well and I repotted them into bigger pots and the 6 i didn't have pots for went outside. The ones inside the greenhouse really grew whilst he ones in the ground grew but slowly and not as abundantly.

I wlaked into the greenhouse today to find that all the 10 pots of Rocket had been eaten to the stem and not only that whatever is resposnible destroyed the two potted brussel sprouts plants in the greenhouse as well.

The stuff in my allotment (which is next to the greenhouse) is fine atm and I haven't seen any sign of slugs.

I immediately moved all 10 rocket plants nd both 6 sprout plants out of the greenhouse and well away from it. I want my mate to have a look at then and tell me what he thinks. I lookwed at te pots and I can see really tiny blaclKant like things running around the earth?

Any idea what thhis could be please? and will it attck my toms and lavender I have growing in the greenhouse?

TYIA :)
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Re: Grow 2021/2

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rigoberts song wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 9:22 pm I'm trying to keep to gardening Mushy before Tenners and jevs ban me .
Anyway you never see a new Stradivarius.
Been harvesting a few of the blighted spuds there's about 6 under each but they are a good size and taste nice.
Tomatoes cucumbers are flying and my leeks looking good.
Onions are a real success story never grown them before.
Sounds good, RS... you're doing far better than I am this season. Only cherry toms so far (the rest are still green) and the cat has trampled most of my onions (not the springs though, for some reason, it must have an aversion to those...)
WHU Independent wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:00 am Any idea what thhis could be please? and will it attck my toms and lavender I have growing in the greenhouse?
I don't know about your lavender WHUI but your toms *should* be safe... I've had a few issues with black fly and beans etc but the tommy plants are entirely unscathed. The biggest worry for those in the next few weeks will probably be the potential onset of blight.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by jevs »

Hard to say Indy but pigeons can be a serious problem for Brassicas. The only way to deter them is to put a fleece or netting over them. The only other major pest is the large white butterfly and caterpillar. Again, netting is the only real answer.
Both the above shouldn’t be a problem for Toms and Lavender.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

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jevs wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:10 pm Hard to say Indy but pigeons can be a serious problem for Brassicas.
Yes, we've had real problems with cabbage whites this year. Don't recall seeing them at all last year. They're everywhere.

Done our entire pea stock in just over a week - pretty disappointed with the results this season. Still waiting for any toms but cherry varieties to ripen - it's a game of chance now whether they'll beat the blight. Still, the cucumbers and courgettes are rife - have a fridge full of those buggers.

Fingers crossed now for the sweetcorn - could have 100 plus to devour if they all come up trumps.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by Tenbury »

I get plenty of cabbage whites, but they're not really that hard to deal with, the butterflies give you about 6 days to find, and squash, the bright yellow egg clusters, even then the caterpillers seem to take a day or two to go rampant. I grow a fair bit of brassica, and I get by without even netting them. That said, my b's aren't anything to brag about, I think it's cos they're in deep beds, and so not firm enough....... wind rock really seems to weaken them.
Tomatoes.. too many (been freezing passatta for a week)
Cues.. OK
Peas... Poor.
Sweet corn... promising
French beans... just started
Squash..... might be ready by next summer!
Overall, given how much effort and time I spend, and how much I actually get to eat......... complete waste of time :D

ROLL ON NEXT SPRING....!
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Re: Grow 2021/2

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Tenbury wrote: Wed Aug 03, 2022 4:07 pm Overall, given how much effort and time I spend, and how much I actually get to eat......... complete waste of time :D
Beginning to think that might be my conclusion for this season too, Tenners!

Fingers crossed August is going to throw up some good crops.
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by rigoberts song »

Apart from the potato blight it's Been good down here.
Had to work hard for about a week in the drought getting loads of water on everything .
Only total failure had been the parsnips sowed 20 seeds not one has come through.
Otherwise great yield of cucumbers tomatoes onions garlic Swiss chard and quite a few spuds under the blighted leaves the other batch of spuds are still going well and the leeks are flying.
Any ideas for a quick win where I've harvested spuds ? want something pigeon proof and quick growing its mild down here until late oct and damp.Any ideas welcome thks RS
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Re: Grow 2021/2

Post by jevs »

Plenty still to sow RS.....quick growing salad crops such as lettuce, rocket, turnips, carrots, swede, beetroot, spring onions, spinach, dwarf french beans can all be given a chance. I'd even consider bunging in a maincrop potato such as King Edwards in containers.

Once you get to October, it'll be time to get autumn garlic, onions and shallots in.
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