Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 15 - will winter ever end?

[bookbook]

Hi everyone , just putting this up quickly , will add on later
Everyone welcome! :)

It's been another busy and fairly miserable (weather wise) week here. My peas (apart from my sugar snaps) have officially given up the ghost which is annoying. I'm going to continue plantings peas for shoots though (I've got a type called serge) which are lovely to eat. My runner beans have only just started flowering so I assume that they'll be a while longer. I've got a bruiser of a red cabbage growing which is rapidly outgrowing the netting but with no clear head. Can the leaves be eaten?

Can I also ask - one of my broccoli plants has two florets (I think that's the word!) - can these be picked now or do I need to wait for them to get much bigger? They're probably each about the size of a coaster (which is the right size when it's only me eating it!).

I've got a bruiser of a red cabbage growing which is rapidly outgrowing the netting but with no clear head. you can eat anything on a cabbage. Don't eat too many leaves if you still have hopes it may develop a heart.

Broccoli - ideal time is just before it bursts into flower, so watch them daily, and if you see a flower open, you've got all the growth you're going to and now is the time to pick. Then remember you may get supplementary florets from the leaf axils, so leave it to grow on. You'll find that as you carry on licking the leaves get smaller and the stems of the florets get shorter, so they'll come a time when in no longer feels worth the effort to pick, and at that point you throw it away and have a space for something else.

Went out into the garden for the first time in 3 days. Picked 5lb of soft fruit - more or less equal weights of strawberries, tayberries and raspberries. Also a courgette, a minuscule head of purple sprouting and a handful of sugar snap peas.

I have a courgette :-) and a rather beautiful beetroot too.

Just been to check on my cauliflowers, they seem to be all leaf and one has a tiny head appearing, I don’t think I’m going to get much out of them. Picked the last of the peas, one courgette and a few tomatoes.

I think my cauliflowers are actually pointed cabbage, do they look similar? They were bought as plug plants. I don’t really mind but I would have preferred cauli🙄!

Picked patty pan squash, peas and pulled a few of my first carrots (one was perfect size, the others a bit small).

I've been harvesting courgettes, raspberries and japanese wine berries. My cucumbers seem a bit slow this year.

Afternoon
well, a very busy weather day - started grey and damp with drizzle . Cleared up nicely , then thunderstorms this afternoon .
enye - I pick broccoli florets once they are big enough to do 2 portions , if that makes sense , as Mere says - leave the plants in , as you will get extra ones off the plant .
Mm pointed cabbage always looks like pointed cabbage in my view Widerness - cauliflowers look like round cabbages , and eventually the inner leaves curl in to protect the curd. Don't know if that helps or not!
elephant - my cucumbers are slow too - normally once they start , they don't stop , but I am only getting one about every 5-6 days atm . Don't know if the cold spell here slowed them down .
Went to the plot straight after lunch as a last ditch attempt to get the last of the redcurrants picked . They are just past their best now ,so left a fair few on for the birds. Just the big blackcurrant bush to do now - hopefully tomorrow . DH was with me to help , and he cut courgettes while I went and picked some spinach , which is desperately trying to bolt .

Wet week here without much done, some beetroot picked for dinner, chard looking good, courgettes and squash plants are growing and some flowers but no signs of many courgettes yet. I wonder if they are too close together for the bees to find them-the flowers aren’t really obvious looking from above-Should I hand pollinate them?
Hoping for some sun this week...

Should I hand pollinate them? If you're getting female flowers and no courgettes, then, yes, hand pollinate. But you say you're getting "a few flowers" - have you had any female flowers yet? Courgettes usually start with male flowers, to ensure that at least some of their pollen gets carried to different plants.

Will check thanks @MereDintofPandiculation

Hello - can anyone advise the best way to pick a courgette please? Do you use scissors to cut it off, or just twist and snap? Or does it make no difference?

Thanks

@Chewbecca I use a sharp serrated knife.

Same here. I keep an old steak knife in the shed.

Evening!
old sharp kitchen knife here too , for courgettes - one I leave at the allotment ( oh , and a sharpening stone too as it cuts the asparagus as well )
Nice warm day today .
Got a bit done - planted out autumn cauliflowers and savoy cabbages . Then started the blackcurrant pick . Done 3 branches - its a bit hard going on the back. Lots to do yet , but hopefully all done in the next few days .
Really have to get on with hoeing and weeding - the rain last week has turbo charged the germination rate !

Thanks, will try a knife tomorrow!

I don't suppose any of you lovely people have any idea what's happened to my two (previously blooming) cucumber plants?

The leaves gradually form these white spots and then wilt, takes a few days and I've had the issue with the plants since late June so I find it odd the plants are still growing at all tbh. The newer leaves are fine, it affects the lowest on the main stem but is working it's way up. Cucumbers are forming but stop growing when about 5-7cm long 😩 could just be because they're the first few(?) new to this and so hopeful I'd have harvested some cucumbers soon but it seems to have taken a turn for the worst!

Also just realised I've namechanged since I was last here. I was Lymphopenia and all your fruits and veggies are looking marvellous!

Stitch, no, I don't know but the same has happened to mine, I'll take a photo when I get up.

Morning !
Hi Stitch - it looks a bit like mosaic virus -HERE
Sadly , once they have it , I don't think there is any control .

Oh no! Some photos of yours would be interesting too @EasilyDelighted - isn't it bizarre? Are yours indoors or outdoors?

I'd half expected a virus but they're still going even though it's had it for a while ...I would've expected it to have died by now

Thank you anyway. Peppers are coming through today which has cheered me up! Happy Sunday everyone :)

Spent a lot of time harvesting and tidying this morning. Pulled up a few peas that are over. Had a feel in my potato bags and pulled out a few but still think they could be a bit larger.

This is my indoor one Stitch - I also ja e outdoor ones but haven't been to the plot today to look at them

@Chewbecca I use secateurs to cut my courgettes.

@stitchandbitch101 wonder whether it could be a mineral deficiency - starting in lower leaves as plants redirect available minerals to newer growth.

Pulled my peas out today as they were looking yellow, found 100’s of pods so now have peas for dinner. Going to plant some leaks in their place and maybe some late carrots (did this least year and had them for Christmas dinner). I have a new potting shed/greenhouse and have put my cucamelons and tomatoes out there but my cucamelons don’t seem to be growing, I’m wondering if it’s because they haven’t been pollinated so I have stuck them outside for the day in hope some bees and insects will work their magic, at the moment the fruit doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger than a grain of rice 🤔.

Lots of weeding at the plot today. Finished picking my gooseberries and more raspberries, and one courgette. I'm growing yellow courgettes only this year, they seem to be much better behaved than their green cousins. Grumpy Ron seems to have taken on my watering, he has an oscillator thingy so just moves it across and drinks tea. Win, win.