Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 12! Plotmenters hoping for better weather

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Well, previous thread is nearly full, and I am busy the next couple of days, so thought I had better get this up and ready.
Thanks for the plot title Una
Everyone welcome to join in and share their experiences, tips, the woes and joys of growing their own .
Summer and harvests here we come ( and we''ll do our best to beat the pests)
Previous thread HERE

Can certainly try. We've been watering each evening but it does look droopy by then.

Don't know whether it's the same with you, but the wind we've had alongside the sun has been sucking all the moisture from the plants. The things in the greenhouse actually fare better as they aren't so exposed.

Have set up the bottle, thanks for the tip.

Evening!
LiZS - its usually due to inconsistent watering, but is caused because of a drop in calcium uptake , so I tend to feed weakly in every water rather than feed once a week. Once they have it , the tomato won't recover, but later set fruit should be fine if you can water a little more regularly .
Just a quick run to water tonight, and of course picking beans and courgettes -. The beans are going straight in the freezer . ( Though I still have a bag left from last year -I need to make a bean curry or pickle with those )
I have every finger and toe crossed as we are forecast rain on Friday - dare I hope???

I’ve given up hope of rain, though a friend said it seemed to have maybe rained a bit overnight recently so maybe all hope is not lost.

Terracotta watering spikes have been working well so far with my tomatoes. They aren’t particularly big yet so will see how they do when they are. I’ve found that small terracotta plant pot with bottom sealed with white tack does much the same and thinking about it I might do this with a few things on allotment whilst away. I ‘m having to fill bottles for tomoatoes about once every 5 or 6 days and can leave them the rest of the time.

lovelygreens.com/how-to-make-diy-ollas-low-tech-self-watering-systems-for-plants/ Olla pots effectively but with a bottle sticking out the top . Will take a pic of the one in cucumber pot.

Cucumber

Wow my cucumbers are barely a few inches high, no fruit yet. Outdoors again though.

Impressive cucumber pictures.

I sowed some beetroot at home and they all germinated so I planted them out but mostly they've succumbed to the heat which is annoying. I shall carry on watering the ground hopefully in case they make a miracle recovery. Trouble was they were too big to stay in the seed trays any longer.

We are picking beans, blackberries, salad leaves and spinach/chard at the moment. I am freezing blackberries as we won't eat as many as we have and also some of the beans.

The ladybirds have apparently triumphed over the blackfly which were on the beans. Although I think some of the flowers were ruined by the blackfly. Or maybe they haven't set because of the heat?

Morning
Back from an early watering/picking at the plot - its going to be even hotter today by all accounts

Post - lovely cucumbers- so tidy too! Mine trail everywhere, I am not so organised :)
Cedar - I am thinking heat = no runner beans . French and purple french are doing well, in the same area , and no real blackfly to speak of, so thats what I am assuming ( fingers crossed) . The borlotti beans are a bit further behind, as I had to resow them, so they are only just at the producing flower stage at the moment.
So I watered, picked the courgette I left yesterday , dug up sad potatoes , and a few beetroot. Sweetpeas /cosmos and dahlias cut too.
I harvested the cauli I saw the other day - even under enviromesh, the curd had turned pink in the heat, but it doesn't affect the taste ,luckily. Ipicked the first lettuce that I planted around the sprouts as a catch crop . Not had these before - it was a free packet of seeds , so will be interested . NDN then came for a chat, and gave me one of her "Big Daddy ' tomatoes .
So I might make a chutney or piccalilli today with the courgettes , cauli and surplus green beans . Though boiling vinegar in this heat , I may leave it until tomorrow !

I am also debating making chutney book but as you say its very warm. Am definetly making a courgette and lemon cake though.

Never made picalli, might give that a try.

Had a couple of hours this morning before it got too hot with DS. We picked 5 courgettes, a box (those catering sized mushroom trays) of french and runner beans, half a dozen cherry tomatoes and 5 mini cucumbers that have appeared literally overnight! Oh and ds helped himself to a good handful of rasperries and a good handful of blackberries.

Weeded a couple of beds but it was too hot to do much.

Now collapsed on the sofa contemplating whether to prep and feeze all the beans or leave some fresh. The problem is with the weather we are mostly living off salads and sandwiches. Not dinners that I do veg with. But it seems a shame not to eat stuff fresh. I might do some kind of tomatoey, garlicky green bean thing to have with our bbq chicken kebabs tonight.

Thanks, can’t take credit for it as was given it by a neighbour! He started picking a few weeks ago by the sound of it so think he started them very early. Debating whether it’s too hot to pay a visit to the plot in a minute.

I am waiting until this evening to go and visit the plot. Otherwise it will be pointless watering the plants the water just evaporates too quickly. Plus I really can't contemplate lugging watering cans around at the moment!

I wasn’t planning on watering but went down and friend’s butternut squash looked awful, as did one of her blueberry plants, some beetroot and the tomatoes didn’t look too good either. Sorted that out and my heart sank a bit when I saw more courgettes that were on way to marrows so picked them plus beans as she said she was happy for me to do.

Was just on the way to pick her sweet peas that I rescued from going to seed the other day and her DH was there, obviously didn’t go with them! Tried to give him his beans and courgettes and he was having none of it as would just stick them out the front with a help yourself sign. Given I have the harvest of 6 courgette plants currently I may yet be resorting to this ! Glad he came down as her runner bean frame was starting to fall over so he can deal with that and he kindly said he’d keep an eye on my plot next week whilst we’re away.

I did chuck a bit of water over my leeks and blueberries. The hops plant is starting to form buds and one of my pumpkins is pretty much orange now.

Been to the plot for one last harvest and water before I go away. I've 2 lettuces, lots of beans, wine berries, raspberries, 3 cucumbers and of course courgettes to take with me.

Still no rain here (Surrey/Hampshire border). It was so humid last nightI was hoping for a storm but nothing. Watered last night, picked first courgettes, last rhubarb (mine is a late cropper) and probably last broad beans. First runners should be ready over the weekend. I need to do the water bottle thing with my tomatoes too - they are in a patio pot. I'm contemplating moving them and a few windowsill pots of basil and coriander to the allotment before we go away as someone will be watering there but not at home.

We had a bit of rain over night but not as much as I was hoping for. The ground in the garden looks dry even though I know it rained. We are forecast some on Sunday though and it looks as if it will be cooler next week.

Beans are definitely not setting - must be the heat. There were plenty of flowers, just no beans coming from them.

Picked another punnet of blackberries, spinach, lettuce and about 4 beans yesterday when we were over there watering.

On more exciting (to me!) news my broccoli finally has something coming which looks like a head. This is the first time I've grown broccoli and so its all new to me.

I have a squash!!!! Slightly concerned that the flower at the end of it looks to be rotting off but fingers crossed....

clara fingers crossed !
we had some rain late afternoon/early evening . Lots of thunder , and a heavy shower. Managed 3.9 mm on my weather station. It looks as if it has never rained this morning, but with a bit of luck we have more due later today .
I made fruit & veg pickle last night. it was a long , hot job but it used up some courgettes/ cauli/ green beans - 6 jars stored away :)

I've now worked out why so many of my early courgettes have stayed tiny and not grown (I'm a courgette novice ): they'd started growing before the male flowers appeared, so were able to grow a wee bit before their flowers fell off.

So I now know to give up hope of them growing any bigger and pick them

• RAIN - lots of it !!!!

Rain here overnight too and still raining on and off. It sounded like loads but doesn't seem to be all that much in the water butts, i was expecting them to be full.

Ahhhh, that's better!

Here too

we have a little weather station , and it registered 17.1 mm in the hour of the thunderstorm , ( truly spectacular thunder and lightening !) but it depends on how big the roof is I suppose, as to how much is harvested. It has started raining again just now .So I won't need to water today hurrah!!