Growing fruits and vegetables

[ethelb]

Does anyone want to join me for a growing fruit and veg focussed thread?

I took over an allotment six weeks ago and would love to hear how other's kitchen gardens are getting on.

Im just off to the allotment to plant some oriental veg seeds to fill up my brassica bed. I also need to mow the path/hedge and check for slug damage

Great day on the allotment. Finally got round to weeding the squash bed and planted up the fennel and leeks. It was pissing it down though and DP went on strike before we could get the latest batch of spring onions in. I will have to do them tomorrow.

Dinner of beetroot tarte tartin and salad from the allotment followed by scones with homegrown strawberry jam in the oven now!

I also finally accepted that the brassica massacre was the result of pigeons and have found a bird net tunnel thing for about £18 for them, which seems to be fairly good value. Just waiting for it to turn up now.

Now looking at weed guns and wondering whether to get a cheap wand, splurge on a MASSIVE GUN or hire a gun for a day to get on top of the weeds. Wish I had known about the guns at the beginning though, they would be perfect for clearing an allotment.

ethel - wish it was raining here, we've had practically none for over 3 weeks now, maybe longer. ground is like rock and we still don't have water on the site.

did you just stick your leeks in or did you make a little hole and then not fill it - as some of my books say. i couldn't do the latter as the soil was too dry.

so what should i be putting fertiliser on at the moment (or stinging nettle soup)?

ethelb, the beetroot tart tatin sounds great as does the strawberry dessert

I used some homegrown basil on Saturday in my spag bol, and will be using my mint to make mint sauce with lamb this weekend

My beetroot roots are swelling too, so won't be long before we are eating ours. Did you say you grew the boltary type?

dreamingofsun - hope the weather cools down for you soon and that you see some rain x

How are other people's chillies doing?
Mine are going really well, easily the most successful of everything I've grown or tried to. most unexpected!

Cayenne has been the most prolific by far, loads of chillies already (still ripening) and loads and loads more to come. My Numex Twilight is by far the prettiest.

thespotted - do tell us your secrets. greenhouse or outside? from seed? any special tlc?

Hi all,

Can I join in? Previously only done herbs but this year I have grown tomatoes,cherry tomatoes, onions, Charlotte potatoes, green beans and carrots (some of which the slugs have had) and I've bought an apple tree. Nothing harvested yet (I started late).

I have a qn about my tomato plants. I have them outside in a plastic greenhouse, they are massive, approx 1 metre tall, and flowering (got first green tomato the other day) but they don't seem to have many flowers considering the size of them. One has 2 sets of flowers and the other has 5. Any tips? I have never taken anything off the green parts (apologies for lack of gardening vocab!) am I supposed to prune parts (at the bottom) to get more nutrients to the flowering bits?? Some of the lower "branches" are just grazing the container.

after a while you are supposed to nip out the tip. if they are inside i've heard u should shake the flower to aid polination. are you nipping out the shoots that grown between the trunk and branches? suggest reading up on rhs site

I hope this video might help to maximise fruiting of your tomatoes how to prune tomatoes.

dreaming - I am at the thought that I might have any chilli/gardening knowledge or secrets that might inform anyone!

My chillies are all grown from seed, although in the last few weeks I seem to have been seeing chilli plants for sale all over the place, and I am soooooo tempted to expand my collection.

The total failiure were the free Serrano seeds from Wahaca. But I got them years ages ago and just bunged them into some compost on the off chance. All seeds were sown in Lidl's seed compost and started off in the unheated conservatory. Some in a heated propagator but some not. Not much difference in end result, although the prop. ones germinated sooner.

Then when the seedlings were very crowded I pricked them out into their own pots. I def left this too long with some of the plants. Then when the weather got a bit warmer, the seedlings went into a plastic fabric greenhouse, I potted them on to bigger pots eventually and the plants come out in the day now - probably for the last month. I decided not to risk putting any outside all the time, as we are quite exposed and get lots of wind. We have loads of bees etc so was not worried about pollination. I feed every now and then - just under every 2 weeks? - with tomato feed. Re watering, I have not let them get too wet, but probably water them more 'little and often' than I should - I could probably do it less often and a bit more.

I kept one plant inside as a control and it is definitely the most fruitful. So now I NEED a proper heated greenhouse in which to expand by chilli empire in 2015...

thespotted - glad to hear your cayenne are great as i've just bought a packet in the sale for 10p or was it 25p. you are giving them lots of love, probably a bit more than they'd get from me i'm afraid. glad to hear they are repaying it though. i just have an allotment, but we may be getting water soon. yippee...so expect lots of rain for the rest of the summer

I raised my first lot of potatoes this week- charlottes. Absolutely delicious. I'm never not growing my own potatoes again.

So far I have been shocked at what has/ hasn't been a success-

The potatoes are my favourite and the strawberries are amazing, as are the green courgettes. The chard has grown well too

I've been disappointed with peas- they've grown and I've harvested but there are very few for effort put in IMO . My purple sprouting broccoli has grown and looks great in the bed, but there are very few spears for the space and effort it's taken, plus as I've never eaten it I wasn't sure when to harvest so some of the already too few went to seed ( very pretty flowers though)

Im jealous of all your chillis- I've none on the plant I grew from seed, though I did buy one at the weekend so may have luck yet.

Pregnantpause Glad to hear about the potatoes. We didnt do them this year as the plot wasnt ready in time but now regretting it!

Im off to sow some last min chinese cabbages and the next batch of pak choi, kohl rabi and beetroot. I also need to plant out pak choi and kohl rani seedlings and put up an improvised cloche - pound shop netting and b&q galvanised steel wire!

Ethel you have inspired me to sow done last minute pak choi

Fwiw I have my potatoes in pots- well old holey buckets - because the ground is too stoney- very very successful - we planted low and then filled up as the plant bit grew. Very happy with the results.

Ok so improvised cloche looks shit but will do the job for now. Going away to the countryside for the weekend where hopefully I will happen upon a really reasonable countryside store with tonnes of cloche options hopeful

Good to hear about the pak choi, they grow so quickly they are really satisfying. YOu can sow hanakn right up to the last frost.

Does the PSB already have spears? Shouldn't it wait until next year?

I use cut-down plastic drinks bottles as emergency individual cloches. I knife holes in the base for ventilation if needed.

But this week I bought a pile of very reduced glass bell cloches from Sainsbury's.

Wilkinson a have plastic cloches at a pound now- down from two pound earlier in the year.

They do have spears- shouldn't they?! Should I not be eating them? I really am a novice at this- I bought seeds whose packets were the prettiest then hope for the best

This crazy hot / rather rainy weather is lovely for the garden, isn't it?

My tomatoes are ripening, so now we have 'big' tomatoes as well as as cherry ones.
My beloved chilles are happy as larry. And tuning red.
My aubergines are ripening - finally - are months of doing not a lot.
My tomatillos are doing their thang.
Even my cucamelons are starting to fatten up very slightly

I am so excited that I might order a shed-load of seeds for next year - someone told me about a 1/2 price offer -woo-hoo!

Zebra it is wonderful. I think its the rain that makes things ripen!

We have been. V busy and bottled three large jars of pickled cucumbers this weekend. Im off to see how my lacto fermented ones are doing as it has been so hot!

Tomatoes only just started to ripen this weekend which is just as well as they are so heavy with fruit a branch or two snapped off under the weight of them.

Really wishing i had done chillis this year but we got the plot too late to consider it.

Yipeee My eskimo carrot seeds (for Xmas) and burpes golden beetroot have turned up for some very last minute sowing. Some last min fine beans I put into my squash bed 10 days ago have only just started germinating and I need to get a move on.

I'm going to plant my carrots into coir/jiffy pellets as my soil is so rubbish and other allotment holders don'thave much joy. Do you think it will work?