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

Good luck @CaveMum I’ve moved 3 tonnes into the back garden since Saturday and I’m very tired!

We have acidic soil here and I’ve filled one of my raised beds with a 50:50 acidic soil and compost mix. Is this going to be ok for grieving veg? I know they prefer alkaline soil

Growing not grieving 😂 although I will be if all my seedlings die

@CaveMum my family did square foot gardening last year and it worked pretty well so I'm trying to improve it this year. The courgette took over so if I grow courgette this year it will be in a large pot although you could grow it vertically whereas ours were just left to do it's own thing.

@AppleJane that’s a helpful tip, thanks!

what a beautiful garden @prettybird!

Evening all
the weather is still playing silly. No rain , everything is so dry , having to water asparagus and peas .
But most things are coming along well - will be planting out summer cabbages and cauliflowers this weekend .
I sowed a couple of short rows of spinach today .
My seed downfall seems to be leeks this year - juts not germinating well at all , but will try another sowing tomorrow .
Tomatoes are just about ready ti pot on to bigger pots -, they are doing well, but I am still bringing them inside on a night - temperatures still too low in the greenhouse over night .
Picked spring greens , and carried on prepping up , ready for the big plant out , when ever that is ...

We had heavy rain yesterday after what seems like weeks of complete dryness (don't think it's rained since before Easter). We have been getting frost most nights. I transferred all my sweetcorn from windowsill incubator to larger pots in the greenhouse at the weekend but made sure none of them are touching the glass. Tomatoes didn't germinate very well but there are plants on sale everywhere so I might buy some. I have bought PSB and a watermelon seedling so far.

We had rain but not loads, more forecast for the weekend, I’m still holding back on planting most things, my greenhouse is full. I do have some tomatoes in the greenhouse that seem to be doing ok, I have a 3rd lot of peas which will be ready to go out next week.

I germinated leaks a while ago but they seem to have stopped growing, I can’t seem to get them big enough to plant out.

Strawberries are fruiting, black currants and red currants flowering......oh....and bind weed starting to grow 😬.

I've made a note to myself to start tomatoes a week or two later next year. It feels like a race against time now to see if I can keep them healthy before they go out.

I repotted the tomatoes a couple of days ago and half of them went all floppy but seem to be recovering. Is this normal?!

Two days ago I brought my tomatoes back inside as they were struggling from the dryness/cold weather outside.

I think they seem a bit less floppy now? Might be my imagination!

I went out to the greenhouse after posting and found that some of my sweetcorn had indeed caught the frost despite being away from the glass. They don't look too bad, just the tips of the leaves wilting and it's only a few of them. Had enough of the frosts now, but we sometimes get them till the end of May.

I repotted the tomatoes a couple of days ago and half of them went all floppy but seem to be recovering. Is this normal?! yes. You can’t repot without doing some damage to the roots. A drink of water usually sorts it.

We've had rain for the first time in weeks. It's so nice for the soil. No frosts here for ages, but we tend not to get them that often.

Thanks for the reassurance @MereDintofPandiculation After nurturing them for weeks I was worried. There's a lot more heart and soul going into growing your own than I realised!

@AppleJane I repotted some tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and left them outside. One variety wilted immediately and barely recovered although another was OK but got terribly wind burnt (I think). The ones I left inside are so much bigger now in comparison, so it was an interesting experiment!

@bageljam good idea! I'm going to do a little experimenting once the frosts have passed. I've got enough to play with if I have a few casualties. Once my greenhouse is finished I'm also going to play with a minimum and maximum thermometer.

Help please

After nagging, the asparagus crowns I ordered in October have arrived by post. They are in the fridge.
I have two types, one bed is deep (70cm?)and ready to go, so one variety can be planted tomorrow, or Sunday after a soak.
The question is what to do with the other. I have a 30cm deep bed ready, but could have a 45cm one in say a month's time.
These are long term crops and I only have the choice of the deeper bed because of a recent decision to double the size of the plot. (Think half an allotment size once doubled from existing)
So get them in or wait? If wait, how best to keep them

Thanks

Hello @indignatio I'm lacking in asparagus knowledge but I'm sure someone will come along soon and answer your question

Evening!
sorry , had a busy time , and only just checked i n
Indignatio - when i got mine , the advice that came with them was this - first thing was to unwrap them and put them to soak in water , and plant asap , preferably no more than a couple of days at most So , if it were me , I would plant . I don't think they will survive a month in truth

3 tonnes of soil moved today! I’ll look like Popeye soon! Unfortunately we must have got our sums wrong as the beds are not filled deeply enough so we’re going to have to order another bulk bag.

Still sat here with a kitchen full of small plants waiting patiently for it to warm up. Minus 1.5 overnight and hail yesterday. I'm desperate for some warmth as much as the plants

I'm desperate to move my little jungle out now. Definitely starting a little later next year!

My basil plants were looking lovely but lately their leaves have started to get white stripy patches on them. I've looked online and some say it's underwatering and some say overwatering, any ideas anyone please?!

Good work @CaveMum 💪😂

Wow that sounds impressive, although exhausting @CaveMum

I think I am quite behind on sowing or things germinating. All of 7 peas have germinated, no sweet corn yet. Only just sown the butternut squash, basil and coriander. Hope to sow spring onions, spinach and runner and French beans today.
However, the tomatoes need putting into bigger pots again, already and I see, to have far too many! Do not want to give any away yet in case I put them out too early and lose them! Cucumbers are still tiny.

@didireallysaythat

My very canny grandfather always used to use radish seeds as an indicator of whether or not the soil was warm enough to sow seeds, on the basis that radish seed is cheap, germinates quickly (if the temp is ok) and doesn't "go off" so a packet lasts you a couple of seasons. Still too cold here.

I used your grandfather's tip and my radish are germinating nicely outside!

@AppleJane my grandfather didn't say a lot but I can picture him grinning. Plants were his life and passing on his experience was a goal for him.

Where in the country are you? It's still feels too cold here (East Cambs) but I don't direct sew a lot.