Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters busy into summer ! and loving James Wong

[bookbook]

Last thread has filled up so quickly! Thought I had better get one up and running before I get off to the plot.
Busy, busy people, just waiting for the harvests to start, fighting the bugs, slugs and weather :)
Last thread here
THREAD 9

you can take quita a bit foliage off the toms.
it needs a few left, but mine have 4-5 leaves left. the toms need air&light to ripen better.

Hello!!! Newbie here! I just got my allotment in April and I've never ever cut grass before so I'm really new at this. I have a question, my potatoes are flowering now. I planted them at the beginning of May. How do I tell when they're ready?

James Wong was saying that you shouldn't take too many leaves off because 80% of the sugars in the ripe fruit are made in the leaves so it might actually make them ripen more slowly. I've taken a few off my front plants to allow light to get to the back ones but otherwise am trying to leave them alone.

Clarabumps, it depends whether you have earlies or maincrop - earlies it's the flowers opening, maincrop you wait for the plant to go a bit yellow. That said, potatoes store best in the ground so if you don't need the space for anything else, you can just leave them and dig them up as needed.

Morning!
Welcome Clarabumps - just jump in and ask away - as Una says - once the flowers have died down, go and have a little scrape around and see if you want to see whats going on - does depend on variety .
Hope you are enjoying the growing ( and could you let me us know whereabouts you are ? )
I'm not a fan of stripping leaves off tomatoes tbh -I've taken a few off around the bottom to lessen the load on water take up, but as you say Una - I think the slower they ripen, the tastier they are, and they keep on cropping up to the frosts. But then again, I truly hate cutting into any growing, healthy plant! My greenhouse does look a bit like a jungle though...
Glorious day here - went to do another currant pick this morning - lots to do, so trying to do it in stages so my back doesn't give up! Picked the last of the redcurrants - quite a few straggly ones left, but they can go for the birds. Done about two thirds of the big Ribena blackcurrant bush - hope to finish doing that this afternoon. Jostaberries this afternoon too.
Happy days - freezer filling up nicely .

Thanks for the schaat (if that is the right spelling!) recipe about 4 pages ago now. We tried them last weekend and they worked really well. The spinach to batter ratio didn't look promising before cooking but they came out looking like the picture (and got rid of some of the spinach!). I've forgotten who posted the link but thank you!

Hoping to go up later for a quick harvest - peas still coming, first runner and french beans, even had a blackberry or two. We're away this weekend so everything will just have to look after itself. But a good soak from the rain will have done some good and should help to swell the beans and the potatoes. We harvested a couple of our second earlies last weekend and they were not bad. DH impulsively said we'd go and dig the rest up on Tuesday evening but it was pouring with rain so we didn't bother.

bookbook I am jealous of your blackcurrant crop. The birds stole the small crop on my only blackcurrant plant.

Welcome to the thread Clarabumps and other newbies that I've missed in the last few days.
Sadik I'm impressed by your garlic crop. Ours did OK this year but we do debate whether or not to bother growing it each year as it has been a bit hit and miss so far.

Cedar it was me, and glad another person is converted to the chaat love! They are addictive!

Welcome clarabumps from a fellow clara. I don't bother growing potatoes so can't help with your initial question sorry but I see you've had good advice from others!

Am very jealous of the near ripe tomatoes tentacle, still green here too. It pains me to buy them from the shops at the moment, but we'll get our glut soon enough! 1 variety this year (craigella) appears triffid like which I don't remember form growing it last year. The plants are currently about 7 feet, so a good 2 feet taller than the other varieties (san marzano, G. delight and orange queen), and also laden with trusses. Very pleased as they are a lovely all rounder.

Thanks, again, for the recipe clarabellski I will definitely be making it again, not least because I have about 20 spinach plants and a packet of gram flour which I don't normally buy DH and I liked them, DD turned her nose up but that was when they were cold as she was out when I made them. I shall try to persuade her to have another try next time.

Just to say that if your ground is a bit slug prone if you leave potatoes in too long they may get slugged.

Much less likely if you are in the bit of the country that is v dry this summer (lucky you if you are)!

Greenhouse is a total jungle so will have to remove some leaves I think. I unwisely planted in my chillies in the same pots as some potatoes - so the potato leaves are now shading out the chillis. Won't do that again.

Thanks for that. I'll wait until they die off then go for a poke about. I'm in the west of Scotland. Ayrshire to be precise. So very wet and a bit cold. I wish we had some hotter weather. It's been a washout the past few days. Although great for my potatoes. Ha!
I now judge all weather on how it affects my veg.

Oh dear! I fell off this thread! Too busy watering and weeding (thank goodness for rain in the last couple of days but will make weeds grow!). Am off to read thread now...

We're in Renfrewshire clarabumps so similar weather woes to yourself!

Other uses for gram flour Cedar : bhajis, pakoras, dosas (which are one of my favourite chickpea related things!), as a coating for tofu/paneer to give it crispy crunch when fried. We love Indian cooking so use it quite a lot.

book I've attached a pic of one of my aubergine plants (the others look the same). Tell me there's hope? I was very jealous to hear your plants were setting fruits already....

Afternoon!
cool, windy and sunny here - after a good bit of a rainfall overnight too :)
Went to the plot this morning to hoe in the brassica cage. Picked the marrow for tea, along with spinach and the first Brokali . Flowers too, and another courgette . I went back yesterday afternoon and picked the remaining blackcurrants and the jostaberries -( the birds hadn't got them all )- and the first of the ripe loganberries.
Cedar - Blackcurrants are in the fruit cage - have to think about how to protect gooseberries for next year, as they are now getting ravaged.
clara - every year my aubergines have looked like yours - I got my very first actual aubergine last year after 4 years of trying. Goodness knows what I have done this year - they all germinated for a start - had to give most of them away. And I did put them into their summer size pot a bit early and we had that week of searing hot .... whatever , the two I have are not an enormous amount taller, but I have multiple stems and absolute loads of flowers , which are busy setting . The picture here doesn't really show , but there are 3 set all along one branch! And about 8/9 so far that are easy to see on the two plants I have .

Lovely harvest bookbook! How long do your sweet peas last in the jar? I love sweet peas but I've been disappointed to find ours only last 3-4 days before starting to fade.

I still haven't ventured onto our new allotment yet because, although the toddler is at nursery 1.5 days a week, I have a 5 month old permanently leashed to me. I'll try to convince DH to accompany me this weekend so that I can cut some lavender flowers and dig up a few weeds.

The patch in the garden is doing well though. Saw the first orange tomato today. Peas and chard have all but finished. Bought a couple of posh wooden obelisks to replace my rickety DIY bamboo frames, so looking forward to growing the next batch of peas up these.

Does anyone else's OH make immature jokes about hoeing, like, all the time?

Elle do you reply to these jokes with the correct response? Or do you say 'Tee-hee' just to annoy him. I've bought my gram flour ready to try the chaat recipe this weekend. Plotwise I think I will mostly be weeding.

Evening!
Elle - sweet peas are a bit that way with me as well - about 5 days really. I do like them on my kitchen windowsill , but have to leave them outside for a few hours, otherwise my kitchen window is crawling with tiny black beetles :)

no my DH doesn't - he knows not to !

I usually say "hmm" and smile and change the subject. They're not bad jokes, quite harmless really, just rather immature ;)

Hello. Spent an hour yesterday in the greenhouse jungle with string sorting out and tying up tomatoes and untangling cucumbers. Next year I'm going to put those metal clothes rails or similar the length of the greenhouse so I can just tie them to that and stop all the faffing about with bamboo and string attached to the braces or the windows. Picked the last of the peas and pulled them up. French beans just coming in now - might go to the garden centre this afternoon for replacements for peas. Coriander has all bolted so I'm going to let it flower and harvest the seeds.

Ooh Clara! That's not far.about 20 mins from me.
It's raining today and pretty cold. Went to my plot last night and spent about 20 minutes trimming leaves off my tomato plants in the poly tunnel. They all of a sudden just developed loads more leaves. How often do you all feed your tomatoes?
I also managed to sneak some peas without having to share them with the kids.
My sunflowers are coming on too!! Yay!

Have just salted my tomatoes - feeling a bit mean and hoping it will work well. Have also had to retie them a bit as the squash had been getting in among them and hooking on for support!

Oh, and I'm absurdly proud of my beautiful carrots!

They are beautiful Una you have every reason to be proud of them.

I growed some fings.

Had a poorly ds but he was asleep this afternoon for an hour so I snuck off to the plot for an hour (which ended up being 2) while dp stayed with him.

We have had quite a bit of rain thid week and the courgettes have definetly enjoyed it. Need to use them all up now so will be trawling back for recipes.

Spent a good hour weeding too and trimmed the tomatoes a little bit.

I have some more rasperries to pick too but didnt have a little tub with me. And tried another apple. Still slightly tart but definetly getting sweeter. I will have millions of them when they are ready. It's an inherited tree so not sure on the variety but according to my plot neighbour it's a nice eating apple.

Here is today's harvest. DD dug the potatoes and announced that she will not become a potato farmer . I'm quite sure why she picked 4 bean pods, I will pick the last of them tomorrow.

Evening all
no plot today - it was supposed to be raining all day, so decided to go out. It didn't rain....
Cath - DH put up some semi- permanent canes along the length of the greenhouse windows, and now I just need to attach the upright canes to them with cable ties. Saved a massive amount of faff this year.
Fabulous photos and harvest - everything is coming in!
Una very jealous of those carrots - I cannot grow them long at all - i just grow the stubby ones now.
Frouby - hope your DS gets better soon
and two clara's in Scotland!