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

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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

Can you experts help me please? I grew 4 tomato plants (2 different species) and have had to chop down one of each type as the stems blackened and rotted and most of the tomatoes had a worm (caterpillar?) sized hole in them. So many tomatoes and none to eat!
What did I do wrong?

Probably blight, Ilangennith. I had it for the first time this year. I believe the wet weather hasn't helped.

I naively thought growing tomatoes would be so easy

oh no llan - that is sad. Does sound like blight, but the holes could be snails/slugs - they love a nice tomato too .

llangennith growing tomatoes is usually easy but we have had a funny sort of a summer. It was really hot around Easter, then we had loads of rain, it has kind of yo-yoed between the two. Perfect conditions for blight. Don't give up, 2018 is another year or maybe you could try cucumbers . Blight can be soil or wind spread, so maybe try growbags next year and a slightly different location if possible.

My tomato plants were each in their own pots but close to each other. Heaving with tomatoes but only a handful without a hole or otherwise inedible. I won't even be able to make chutney! I'll definitely read up on blight and other tomato problems.
Maybe I should've thinned them out as they grew?

Oh dear sorry to hear about all of the blight stories!!

We grow our toms in the greenhouse and fingers crossed no blight symptoms. We actually have a really good crop this year...

Our curcubits haven't fared so well and as others have suggested, I think that is due to the wet weather. Powdery mildew on both the courgettes and squashes and very modest crops (none at all on the squashes so far! they keep rotting and falling off).

This year we've also suffered some pretty bad cabbage white and slug damage (again, probably due to the wet weather). Normally I'm too lazy to put up netting and just give up a bit of my harvest to the bugs, but this year they're taking the p*ss!!!

Spent a few hours tidying up/getting the beds ready for autumn/winter crops this weekend.

Also started designing and digging over a new border round the east side of our house.. Very excited about this. Going to fan train a morello cherry up the east wall of the house, accompanied by climbing white jasmine and a variety of partial shade perennials and bulbs on the ground (all white flowering).

There's always something that goes wrong, isn't there? Not too sure why we've escaped blight here. My courgettes are covered in powder but still seem to keep producing.

Quick q, when I pull them out, would you put the plants on normal compost with all this powdery mildew on them.

I remove the worst powdery leaves as I go along. I put them in the council garden waste bin.

I have a fig!

So tonight we are having fig, caramelised onion [just caramelising them now] and goat's cheese flatbreads, with roasted courgette and pepper.

I had to buy two courgettes this weekend. It's been years since I had to buy courgettes. I did get them from a biodynamic farm though so at least they are organic and biodynamic and therefore worth paying for.

Afternoon!
llan - its usually advised to stop the plant growing once it has six or seven trusses, but in truth I'm rather lax about that. But, don't despair, next year will hopefully be better, and you now have more knowledge than you did. We have been relatively lucky up here this year - it has been rather dry tbh, so blight hasn't really arrived , though it was pretty bad last year. Mine are in a greenhouse, so protected ( fingers crossed)
My courgettes have been a bit of a wash out too - first year ever - I have had to dig three of them up due to rot/virus and now #4 is going that way too, along with one of the butternut squashes ( and as far as I can see no set butternuts so far ) Crown Prince are doing better at the moment, so hoping its not all doom and gloom.
Alternative buying courgettes! , but so jealous of the fig. What variety do you grow? I would love a fig, but would want a tasty one IYSWIM. Just picked up a quick flatbread recipe on here which I am going to do tomorrow .
pamela - mmm toss up - I think I would put in the council waste tbh - they can get higher temperatures than a slow composting. I even put my courgettes in a compost bag and put in general waste, as I wasn't sure about putting it in the council green waste.
No plot today - I should have gone, but must be getting old - the last couple of weeks have been a bit draining, so stayed at home and pottered in the garden and greenhouse instead. DGS tomorrow, so no plot then either, so roll on Wednesday. I need to go and pick a cabbage to make some coleslaw .
Just picked up the allotment seed catalogue the other day, so will be having a good browse.

Morning! After two weeks away we arrived back on Saturday. Trip to the plot on Sunday to see what was happening. Everything seemed OK - lot more weeds but apart from that no unpleasant surprises! Picked yet more beans. The runners are pretty much over, just lots of french beans. So we'll be eating our way through those this week.
Yesterday I took down my old pea plants - it was so hot I was working at half speed. Then later in the day I noticed the tomatoes in the garden have got blight so I had to clear those. I now have a fruit bowl full of unripened tomatoes. The slugs/snails/woodlice had got at the ones which ripened while we were away. I only had two plants so not too bothered. Every year, one way or another, they get blight and every year we say we won't bother. But somehow when my dad offers us a couple of spare plants I find myself saying yes!

Nice to see everyone else is having a busy time on their plots.

We're drowning in beans as well at the moment Cedar. We grew a purple variety this year for the first time - didn't realise they turn green when you cook them! Ah well....they look lovely on the plant!

My boss has just handed me a carrier bag full of very ripe plums from his garden, about 4kg! Eek! I'd like to make plum jam but the last time I tried it (admittedly about 10 years ago) it ended up being stewed plums in syrup. Does anyone have a tried and tested method for plum jam they'd be willing to share?

Hi all
We had a good clear up over the BH weekend. Chopped the tops of the remaining potatoes and I will leave them in place for a couple of weeks. We have potatoes coming out of our ears at the moment. broccoli has been ditched due to the caterpillar invasion but we had a lot from the plants and so I didn't resent the caterpillars too much. DS2 took all 500ish of the caterpillars (all called Geoffrey apparently) and relocated them to the bottom of the woods (where I'm sure they will promptly have been eaten by birds but I haven't told him that!)

Tomatoes are still green but my beds don't get full sun and so Im not surprised. Sweetcorn has brown tassles but doesn't look ready yet.

My biggest issue is my lovely rhubarb. First year and so Ive only taken a very few stems but the sight of it all dying back when I could have been eating it is killing me!

what can I plant now to produce through the winter or have I left it a bit late. I have leeks, spring onions and lettuce in plus romanesco broccoli. Few carrots (although I'm not hopeful about these given the state of the last lot) and a few parsnips. spinach is still going strong but I might do a couple more plants.

I have a whole 8 foot by 4 foot raised bed free now that potatoes have come up.

Evening
gosh it's been chilly here today, grey , and drizzled most of the morning. But no plot until tomorrow.
With my runner beans, the first of my sowings failed, so mine are a good 2 weeks behind the french beans
Newt - time for spring cabbage and cauliflower perhaps? Though obviously don't harvest until April/May - but that when there is not much behind. Chardor perennial spinach perhaps too?

My summer surplus freezer is getting very full - tons of rhubarb, beans, plums, pasta sauce, roasted courgette, chard, kale. Will have to start jarring stuff next! With hindsight I should probably not have put in the kale and chard as I should be able to pick those fresh.

My two pumpkin plants died, probably mildew - I have one fruit from each which is a bit disappointing but I didn't really give them enough space!

Clara, I think plum jam needs some pectin - try using preserving sugar. I have also done some plum compote for pie filling which works well.

Newt, what about winter radish? Autumn planting garlic and onions won't give you a crop for a while but uses the space.and green manure might be a good idea for any left over space.

Morning all

Grey and drizzly here this morning. What a rubbishy summer we have had.

Am also drowning in beans. And tomatoes. And cooking apples. And potatoes. And running out of freezer space! Am out visiting family later so will be taking gifts lol.

Had an hour yesterday harvesting with ds. Also pulled another courgette plant up as the courgettes were growing funny. And was fed up of fighting my way past it. Definetly need more space between beds next year.

I am not planting anything else this year. Except some fruit canes in November. I need to rejig all my beds around, and want to apply manure to the full plot and try and treat all the bloody bindweed.

Main jobs over the winter will be preparing everything for next year, sorting a shed, polytunnel and finishing the chicken run. And sorting out raised beds for the main season. Poor dp will be very busy!

I want to relocate the gooseberry bush which is currently in the woods surrounded by brambles. When is the best time to attempt this or doesn't it really matter? Its about 5 foot tall and 2 foot wide.

I'm assuming it will be ok in dappled shade given that its survived for the past decade in the woods?

clara sorry I forgot about the plum jam .
I have only made damsom jam , which sets really easily, but just read my jam bible and the suggestion is for very ripe fruit , don't use any water, just weight for weight fruit and sugar ( weight of plums after taking out stones) and you can use either lemon juice ( 1 tablespoon of juice for every lb of fruit approx) or sugar with pectin in - JAM sugar , or you can buy sachets of pectin to add to ordinary sugar (Una - I made the mistake of using jam sugar instead of preserving sugar for gooseberry jam one year - so I found out by mistake the difference - we had to slice it :) ) .
Una - I know the feeling - my freezer is getting very full of beans at the moment, and the autumn raspberries are just starting. I did buy an extra chest freezer for the garage, and that is alarmingly already nearly full too.
Frouby - know what you mean - gorgeous weather on Monday - yesterday 14º and its going colder today .
Hoping to go and get some weeding and hoeing done today, fingers crossed

I don't know anything about making plum jam but we like eating a pudding which is basically plums with a flap jack style topping. Obviously it has no calories at all

Visited friends the other day and were handed a few apples from their little mini orchard. So we can use some with the many blackberries we've got.

My rhubarb is behaving strangely. I discovered that there was a whole row in the plot that we'd taken over. I think that it had been strimmed the last couple of years which is why we didn't know it was there. I put black plastic around the plants to try and keep the weeds down. None of it really got going in the spring - not enough to harvest. At the moment there is just a line of weedy holes with no rhubarb growing apart from in the middle where one plant has really sprung to life and growing really well. Which is really good but I'd hoped the others might do something similar. Never mind. will give it a good manure this winter and hope for the best.
We had a lovely salted caramel and rhubarb ice cream on holiday by the way, it was delicious.

Thanks everyone, did a further bit of googling and also read the bit about not adding any water.

The plums were lovely and ripe so I've cut them up and left them mascerating in sugar in the fridge overnight. Will boil them up with equal weight sugar later and a splash of lemon. Fingers crossed! If it fails again, then I've only wasted the cost of the sugar & lemon...

Newt we grew broad beans over winter and they were so low maintenance and were ready to eat in early May.

I wouldn't think it was too late to grow things like pak choi or chinese leaf for harvest in October/November. They take around 8 weeks.

You could also try some white lisbon spring onions to give an early crop of alliums in the Spring

Have done almost nothing in the garden the last couple of weeks (except drink tea and watch chickens) so today I had to tackle the shameful state of the greenhouse cut down and throw lots of dying plants out. Basically the tomatoes are all over but the chillies are ripening finally. Some of my tomato stems start to go brown and furry looking this time of year - is that just normal fungus attacking a plant on its way out or should I worry? Other than French beans and a few raspberries it's all coming to an end. Popped into work today to try and get my room sorted and noticed the school raised beds are completely over grown and when I asked apparently no one is using them... so I've got my eye on them!

Cathpot that could be the start of blight on the tomatoes. Mine always get blotchy dark patches on the stems which gradually spreads up the plants to the fruit.

We've still got a few french beans, lots of perpetual spinach, chard, squashes, pumpkins and leeks growing. But not much to grow on over the winter apart from the leeks.

Yesterday we had beetroot and fennel grown from the plot for our tea. The fennel was very nice roasted with a bit of oil and balsamic vinegar.

Afternoon!
Cold morning, but a lovely day
Cath - that does sound like the start of blight tbh ,. Nobody will notice if you adopt raised beds , surely? :)
Cedar - Sounds like a nice bit of stuff for over winter - there is always sprouting broccoli , kale cabbages and cauliflowers as well.
I swop some of my pears for apples, it looks like being a good year again, after the pear tree has had a lot of pruning over the last couple of years.
I am starting to make a dent on some of the important jobs. I managed to sow my green manure , deadheaded and cut flowers, weeded the savoy cabbages and cauliflowers . Went into the brassica cage to cut some broccoli, and realised two of my sprout plants had caterpillars ( and holes ...) , so spent a little while picking all those off - they had not touched anything else, but the net is near the plants there, and the cabbage whites managed to get in. Not too much damage done , thank goodness. Started digging up the old strawberry plants , ready to manure the area for next year. DH came back with me this afternoon, and he cut the grass, while I picked stuff - runner, green and purple beans, a couple of cabbages , and raspberries. They're just getting going. Pulled up loads of borage all around the edge of the squashes - I want them to start ripening now. Noticed a leek had sprung a flower spike, so dug that up for tonights meal.
Came home and made a big tub of no churn raspberry ripple ice cream :)