Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 14 ! growing into summer

[bookbook]

Well, here we are - its the end of May and after a cold spell , we are heading for summer .
Everyone welcome to join us in the joy of growing your own , sharing the ups and downs , tips and advice
previous thread HERE

Can you knowledgable people help me please? I'm on my third lot of runner bean plants (snails got to the first two lots) and finally they've reached the top of the wigwam. I've got a copper band round the half barrel that they're in which does seem to have stopped the snails. But now something is nibbling at the lower leaves.
Could I use Resolve plant bug killer, bearing in mind this plant is something I'm going to eat...eventually?

Thanks for your opinions @Cedar03 and @bookbook. Good to hear you haven’t got it. I went over there today and they look ok. I’ve pruned off a load of leaves and removed a big old perpetual spinach that was next to them, to promote air circulation. Fingers crossed. The tomatoes are by far my favourites. Summer without home grown tomatoes is not really summer.

fingers crossed whatabout - its a fungal thing , so hopefully you have managed to contain it . Its pretty hard to do much about once it gets hold . The best person is @TheSpottedZebra as she is a fanatical tomato grower , and I know had problems a couple of years ago .
llangennith - hmm - anything visible ? have you turned over the leaf . I don't think it can be aphids , as they don't cause holes , but could still be slugs or snails , but once beans get going up supports , they are usually okay . mmm - I'm organic , so don't use any chemicals per se , but I do use soapy water ( just a few drops of washing up liquid in a hand sprayer ) and I have in my arsenal Neem oil , but thats an expensive option . I would try putting some protection around the base - I'm not sure they totally work apart from beer traps , but coffee grounds , egg shells etc can't hurt at least!

Thanks @bookbook I've got coffee grounds there too. I can't see any insects but I'll try spraying with soapy water. It's only the lower leaves affected, even though some are quite large.

Birds llangennith? Pigeons had a good go at my beans before deer took care of the rest!

I find that the slugs or snails will get onto my beans at the bottom but once the plant is well established don't do as much overall damage. I recommend beer traps - cheap beer in small contains with holes in them buried in the soil. Surprisingly effective.

Whataboutbob the only other thing I wondered about with your toms is wind damage. We've had quite a lot of wind just lately, is it possible that that part of the plant has been damaged by the wind? That's why I was asking about black/brownish patches. If you have the black patches then that is blight. As book says, SpottedZebra is the most knowledgeable about toms as she grows a lot.

More fruit picking - I've made two lots of jam (not sure one has set properly and not sure I can be bothered to boil it up so we might just eat runny jam) and several lots of sorbet. Strawberries are more or less at an end, plenty of raspberries coming and also something else which I think may be a boysenberry.

DH had a look at the second earlies yesterday - Charlottes - and there was a not bad little crop from the first plant. We're going to leave the rest for now as they haven't died back yet and might grow a bit more. Squashes are visibly growing by the hour now. Just hope some of them set.

I've bought some organic potato fertiliser as I feel my potatoes need some moral and social support to get past these final few weeks of growth.

I'm off to fertilise right now. The topsoil we bought to fill the pallet collars was heavy on the sand, so although I have mixed well rotted manure in, I feel that they just need a bit of extra now.

I freeze all my extra fruit to add to my overnight oats, as the thawing out process makes the juices all soak into the oats. Blooming gorgeous. I'm still eating frozen wineberries from 2017 as last year mine didn't survive the heat and so didn't produce any fruit at all.

Whatabout - I don't think that is blight, I really think it is from the winds as it looks as if it's been bent and then damaged.

If these are outside, can you do what I do with my beans for the first few weeks, pop some canes around and fashion a net barrier around them to buffer the winds and give them some protection? My outside toms are much further behind the indoor ones, just because of the severe winds we have been having.

That sounds reassuring sack
I have just been to pick fruit and flowers . The white currants are all done , and just picking selected redcurrants as they ripen fully
My first courgette is all lumpy bumpy - I have a horrible feeling it is virus , and there is nothing I can do about it if it is . I did plant 4 , which is at least one too many , so tomorrow I will bite the bullet and dig it up , and hope the others are okay . I did speak to another plot holder who has had 5 of his 8 courgette plants die on him in the last week , so I am not very hopeful. If I get the chance , I may go and see if I can pick up a couple at the nursery and plant them somewhere completely different . I would hate to be without courgettes .

My first wee yellow courgette didn't grow and started rotting. After googling, it would appear that it was because it was early and in the greenhouse and I didn't articially fertilise it

Hopefully the later flowers/courgettes will be ok - there are certainly plenty of bees coming in and out of the greenhouse

I think that's quite normal even if they're outside. My very first fruit did the same. Picked my first two courgettes yesterday, we're going away and didn't want to come back to marrows. Still plenty of strawberries ripening too.

Yes I think that is mosaic virus.

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=143

Hello, are we all enjoying the weather? My harvesting has started now in earnest - lots of soft fruit, and I have reached peak sugar snap pea. They have been bounteous indeed. Oddly, some strawberries that I bunged in maybe 4 years ago -runners I was given, but they've not really fruited much and were due to be pulled out this year - have gone crazy and are fruiting so much! And they're delicious. And the birds are ignoring them, as they're eating other newer strawberries, and ALL of my jostaberries.

I've also picked my first 2/3 courgettes (some were conjoined twins), and have harvested my garlic, just today. Surprisingly it has cloved up nicely. I thought that the clove formation was to do with having enough cold days.

Huh, where did my pics go?

whataboutbob - my tomato friend! I can't actually see from your pic whether it is blight or not, but the darkening on the stem is a sign, as you know. Are there any blotches on the leaves? I frond Roma to be as bit prone, alas - and I no longer grow it. Are you growing any other varieties too?

I'm about 50 miles north of London, and I too have had blight - but only very mildly and I've been cutting it out, and putting the tomato in an isolation zone. Certainly, our weather has been dank and gloomy enough for it to flourish. Still, it's hot and dry now, so that will hopefully help to stop its spread.

Have you tried preventative spraying with aspirin? It's meant to work, but I remain unconvinced. I've sprayed some of my tomatoes and not others, in a wholly unscientific test.

It could be worse - a few years ago, we had super bad blight on 1st of July that killed all my plants.

Just a quick trip to the plot tonight to water and pick sweet peas, black currants and raspberries. A lot of weeding and picking of broad beans and peas on the weekend. And I think I might have an artichoke ready.

@TheSpottedZebra- I’ve made a tomato friend . Interesting about Romas. I’ve also done Black Russian and I hope, a safe bet in Ferlines. I’m hoping that my scrupulous hygiene measures will work. I must admit I hadn’t heard of aspirin. I could try an empirical test on one 0lant and see.
Last year was so hot and dry that no tomatoes got blight at any point, a first in my 9 years as an I think I got complacent.
All the best with your tomatoes everyone.

“as an allotmenteer”.

@sakrifice- thanks for offering some hope of an alternative explanation for the blemish! This year I’ve bought sturdy poles from which I am going to run washing line cord to tether and support the plants as they usually produce so much fruit they bend and some fruits end up on the ground, where slugs clamber onto them. So they will be well supported!

I have an issue with my onions. One bed looks great with lots of upright green leaves but in the centre of the other bed some are wilting and going yellow/Brown. Any ideas?

pull one up that looks bad.

it could be white rot in which case there will be a furry or mouldy it at the root end.

it could be onion fly. to find out if it is, peel back all the layers one by one and see if there is a tiny grub lurking. You can usually see tiny tunnels with a cocoon in there.

Anyone good with blueberries? Mine don’t seem to be ripening - pic attached, they have been like this for weeks unless I’m imagining it. Don’t think I see growth. Any ideas as to what could have stopped them?

Other than that, a productive evening of weeding and watering tonight, and lots more courgette flowers visible.

Are you watering with rainwater Essential?

Mine do that Essential they do ripen in the end though and unlike all my other berries the birds don't seem to go for them. They are always smaller than shop bought ones.

That's reassuring delighted! Well no, I didn't know I should - off to Google! I have been fairly cavalier with it but it possibly needs a bit more attention from me.

The birds seem to mostly ignore the raspberries, loganberry and what I think is a boysenberry (but am not at all sure) in the allotment (and my loganberry in the back garden which has loads of fruit). They ate all my blackcurrants the other year and have stripped my gooseberry in the past (when not netted). Interesting preferences - I don't even attempt to net the raspberries as there are too many spread all higgledy piggledy

I do quite like the idea of trying a blueberry or two at some point but I know they are fussier than most of the fruiting plants.

I found some benefit in using aspirin spray on my squash plants last year to reduce the amount of mildew. I probably should dig out my spray bottle and start trying to spray now to stop it starting in the first place.