Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 16 Weather weirdness prevails !

[bookbook]

Hello to everyone !
pull up a garden chair and join in with the trials and tribulations of growing your own , against the odds of weather , pests and diseases.
Previous thread is HERE

Chunky anything less than a week is very quick germination. Give it two weeks before you have another go

I normally expect tomatoes to take a couple of weeks to germinate, chillis even longer.

Thank you, I won’t give up on my tomatoes just yet then!

Good point about the choking hazard @EventuallyDistracted, I might leave them for a couple of years to be safe.

Ground dug ready for the children to plant the potatoes. Rhubarb picked. One cucumber germinated, so more sown. Chillis and red peppers still to germinate. Second lot of peas have yet to germinate or be eaten!

There is an essential rule with seed sowing IME. If you want only 3 plants and sow a max of 4 seeds none will germinate. This of course will be fabulously expensive seed.

In desperation you grab a pack of the common or garden variety from wilko at 25p for 50 seeds, sow all of them in the hope that something will come up. Of course all 50 germinate and turn into strapping plants which you then have to find homes for.

This happens to me every year!

@GnomeDePlume I have had absolutely rubbish germination with Duchy original seeds, and great germination form silky seeds.

Wilko seeds!

Hi all, new to this thread, hope you don't mind me butting in. I need to pick your brains please. Have any of you come across Taunton Deane kale, it's supposed to be a perennial cottagers kale that doesn't flower but guess what mine is doing right now? Do you think it will die if it sets seed? Should I keep snipping the flowers? (They are quite tasty.) Or should I try to find a non flowering shoot for a cutting? I've only had it 2 years.

Afternoon all!
I find tomatoes for me take about 7-10 days on a sunny windowsill indoors .Brassicas 5-7 days in the greenhouse . Love could you be pampering them with heat? They really don't need it . All mine are up now , not quite ready to prick out from last weeks sowing , so all my brassicas are sown now just about.
I did a second sowing of calabrese for a succession to pick ( different , later variety) , and I still have kale and spinach left in the greens to do .
I sowed cucumbers and courgettes yesterday - probably a week early , but my windowsill has been emptied of tomatoes , peppers and aubergines , so thought I may as well crack on and see. Will leave squashes , sweetcorn and french beans for a couple of weeks yet .
We have had some hard frosts this week , but the plum is just starting to break buds , and the asparagus is coming up nicely .The currants and gooseberries are full of flowers too . I need to do another weed in the asparagus bed , and give them a spring feed too .
Dug up nearly the last of the baby savoys , but still have loads of sprouting broccoli to go at - I gave a bag away to a friend this week , as we have had it every other day so far!
Gnome - that sounds about right re seed sowing!
welcome alkanet :) - mm , usually plants throwing up flowers means they are under stress , so I personally would cut them off . The weather has been so up and down , and dry , is it worth watering them ?
We are supposed to be getting sleet tomorrow , which may mean I don't get on with cutting back the path edges - we are re fencing , so trying to get a good job done , and it is slow going - the grass has been growing through the old chicken wire fence , so you can imagine

Any tips for asparagus? Third year they've been in the ground, in the previous years I've let them go all wispy, and this year three crowns have put up about an inch of proper looking asparagus. I'm so excited! The other 7 plants aren't showing any signs of life. Should I mulch or feed or do I do that after I've feasted on my crop of 4 asparagus?

Did same story here. I have 4 spears but I think they are a bit early TBH. Fingers crossed for any others.

Tomatoes are just showing, about 3 weeks on, as are peas and french beans. Also planted squash, cucumbers, lettuce, mangetout this week and various herbs. Need to catch up on flowers next as on,y have sweetpeas and sunflowers on the go so far.

And Morrisons have seed packets 4 for £5.

are they 3rd year crowns didi , or 3rd year from seed?
If I were being brutally honest , I wouldn't pick , but at a pinch , one stalk from each plant is acceptable
I normally mulch before they show any tips , but this year I am just feeding with chicken pellets , as I have mulched them every year up to now .
I cannot seem to get my posts to post if I have a picture attached , so cannot show you mine , sorry!

will try again ....

hurrah!

@bookbook they are three year old crown. And I've got about as much grown as your photo. It's the first year they've had any thickness to them - not sure if that's an age thing or because I mulched in the autumn.

Does anyone else grow garlic chives? Do you find that they spread incredibly? I have a clump of them underan apple tree on the plot. Inherited. They seem to double each year! I really ought to get rid of a load but they look so lush and happy! But I don't really eg them, as I pick most of y he's from home.

What else could I grow under an established tree? Right up to the trunk.

Ooh, and purple sprouting. I've never grown it as it takes soooo long. But I might. But should I have sown it already? And you're picking it now? Until when? It is very delicious.

Hello everyone, I've bought a second hand greenhouse and I'm so excited! I've got to get some slabs so it'll be a week or so before it's ready.

Just a quick question: at what point do I move my tomato plants from indoors to the greenhouse. Should I wait until after my last frost? And do I have to harden them like you would for going outdoors?

Also can I sow spinach seeds directly into a raised bed if a frost is predicted?

Thanks

I cheated today and bought some broad bean and pak Choi plugs, I don’t even like broad beans but dd has been eying them up every time we go to the garden centre, I have planted them in a flexi tub with support canes, I have no idea if that’s ok? Also planted out some peas. The pak Choi I have put into separate pots, I thought I had bought 6 but some had 2 in so I now have 10, do they need protecting from cabbage white hen put out? I am yet to make a frame to protect from CW.

My green house is full, my living room is full, I’m waiting for some warm weather so I can plant out more lettuce, radish and more peas to free up some space. I also have flowers growing including maragolds, nigella, sun flowers and lupins.

@AppleJane I am a novice but I have a digital thermometer in my greenhouse and it has gone below freezing where I live in England this week. Though my tomato plants are only an inch tall so no issue yet! Though windowsill space is fast running out, despite my failure to germinate peppers, chillies or more than one cucumber!

Must go to Wilkes then @GnomeDePlume

All I'm saying is that germination rate is inversely proportional to the price per seed

The best tomatoes I have grown were from an emergency 25p pack of seeds bought when all my heritage varieties failed.

Talking of cost of seeds, I ate a Romano pepper with my salad a couple of weeks ago and sowed 12 of the free seeds. 11 of them germinated 

I've no idea if they will actually grow peppers but I've got a few 'proper' seed bell peppers going as back up. So I wanted two or three plants and currently have about twenty!

@AzureTwist did you start your tomatoes off in the greenhouse or indoors? I'm worried about killing all mine when it comes time to move them.

@AppleJane I have started tomatoes off in the house - first in a small propagator and now on a sunny windowsill. As it is snowing here and going down to zero, my windowsills will be busy for a while longer due to small tomato plants! Love your number of pepper plants ... so far one has germinated and hoping rest do this week! I now have 5 chilli plants in pots.

I have peas, sweet peas, lettuce and other flower seeds in the greenhouse. Oh and French beans, but think I will sow again as wonder if I did them too early. It is fun trying to work out what to plant in what order with this interesting April weather. Second early potatoes look like they desperately need planting, but we have snow here today! Hoping it goes so can get them in!

I spent a couple of hours at the plot this morning, lovely in the sun but very chilly when it went in. I have commenced the annual pretty fruitless war on the bind weed. I got a lot out but I'm sure I will be doing the same next weekend.