Veggie Plot Advice please - seeming lack of success ?

[LIZS]

Planted 2 1m square plots after Easter with a variety of seeds and plants . Potatoes seem to have taken over more than half of one including where we planted carrots and parsnips. Peas and beans are being eaten away by something and not trailling up the wires I'd put there. Tomato plants (including the MN ones) are thriving but no baby tomatoes yet. My query really relates to the salad leaves I planted - we've got what look like flowering weeds growing in that area which I assume these wouldn't be what we sowed :( People refer to "pinching out" plants like the tomatoes so what maintenance should you do and when ? Are we too late and have we allowed the plot to go to pot ?

[AuntieMonica]

Hi there

first off, the potatoes you say that have taken over, are you sure they are potatoes? if so, they may be rogue ones left from last years crop, that were missed during harvesting. if not, they may be comfrey, a wild herb that like to grow alongside pots.

peas and broad beans are most revered by birds, pigeons in particular, have you got them under a net?

the salad leaves may well have bolted ie gone to flower too soon, it happens a lot in dry spells, if you spot early bolting, you can pinch out the centre and try to water more frequently if possible.

i'm not sure about tomatoes, these are my nemesis, so maybe someone else will eb alogn shortly

[LIZS]

It was a new plot this year so potatoes definitely this year's. No net for peas or beans - oops - and suspect you're right about the salad which presumably means it is inedible now.

[AuntieMonica]

the salad might be ok, take the middles out and if there are some young leaves in the centre, they may well keep growing.
it's all edible, just might be tough and 'old' otherwise.

still no luck on the tomato growers input, maybe someone will see this now?

[MamaChocoholic]

Tomatoes just grow (they will grow on a compost heap quite happily), so you could just leave them to get on with it. But if you want to get the most fruit, you want to avoid the plant putting too much energy into foliage and not enough into fruiting. So wherever a new leaf/stem comes off the main stem, look for another leaf growing in the joint, and pinch this off when young, so you have one central stem with all the leaves and tomatoes hanging off it. Do you have any flowers yet? The ones I have outdoors are flowering, but haven't set any fruit yet. Be sure to water well, and feed lots, tomatoes are hungry creatures. As the summer comes to an end you should start removing any new flowers that form to allow the fruit that is there to ripen fully, and you can remove any leaves that keep the sun from the tomatoes (or that might be my superstition, that tomatoes need direct sun to ripen fully).

[vanillamum]

Pinching out tomatoes was a mystery to me until someone said look for the shoots which are growing out of the "armpit" of the plant between the stalk and the big leaf shoot. Also if the tomato plant is looking a bit crooked it is worth attaching it to a cane using a figure of eight so tie string round cane then tie a bigger loop around plant's stalk.