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

I have googled the weather more than ever this year, I'm sure!
And every time it seems to suggest to be that there will be just a couple more really cold nights... I've been thinking / hoping this for weeks! So now I don't believe any of it

We're still getting frosts most nights. I have lost quite a lot of sweetcorn plants in the greenhouse.

[quote MereDintofPandiculation]@Pottedpalm That is exactly how my cucumbers behaved last year when I put them out into the unheated greenhouse too early and they were killed by the cold. I would bring them back into the warm. Or maybe they'll be OK as the weather has warmed up a bit.[/quote]
They have been in the greenhouse all along; germinated in the heated incubator thingy ( name escapes me) and then potted on into bigger pots. They were flourishing despite the frost. Greenhouse has a small heater and I have been putting fleece over everything at night. Lost another one today. I will have to start again if this continues, if it’s not too late!

Evening
I have been keeping an eagle eye on the overnight temperatures too.
I had planned on leaving some tomatoes in the greenhouse tonight , but I bottled it , and brought them in , along with everything else too .

what a shame Pottedpalm , but time to get more going
It does look like tomorrow is going to be the turning point ( fingers crossed)
I planted out the peas in plugs today - they have been hardened off well . I picked the last of the kale , as it had gone into flower , and dug up the plants .
The slugs have had a feast of my spring greens now its rained though
I have potted on tomatoes , peppers and aubergines .
Just waiting for stuff to get a bit bigger now - all the sprouting broccoli is hardened off , but would like a couple more big leaves before planting out . Leeks are finally popping out too

@dreamingofsun I'm thinking of putting everything out Sunday too except the cucumbers because they are always so sensitive!

@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername that's interesting about the sweet peas. I've been molly coddling them inside thinking they wouldn't survive! think I will chuck them out then!

Well...after much deliberation I bit the bullet and put my tomatoes, cucumbers and dwarf beans out in the mini greenhouses yesterday! They were so big as I'd had to pot them on a couple of weeks ago. Anyway...just braved the rain and checked on them and they look absolutely fine! I hope it continues that way 🤞

I put some tomatoes out in the greenhouse about a couple of weeks ago, and I have to admit the have grown more than the ones that are still in the porch.

My greenhouse has an internal division so at the moment I'm shutting the inner door but leaving the out door open, so end acts as a hardening off space. I'm starting to move things outdoors now it's noticeably warmer, but I'm still nervous about moving courgettes and cucumbers into the greenhouse. they're still on the porch windowsill.

In fact the only thing I've moved outside so far is container grown broad beans which are coming into flower -they've been hiding away from slugs in the greenhouse. But I'll put peas and sweet peas out soon - they're tougher than beans.

Yes there is certainly lots of moving of plants going on at the moment! My peas are out and seem to be fine and growing. My courgettes were planted out under a large cloche last weekend and are doing fine...so far so good!

Well, it has been a total washout today .
I took everything indoors last night .
Today , I gritted my teeth , and decided to start hardening off courgettes, squashes and lots of baby brassicas , which had been in the greenhouse . It was too windy for the sweetcorn to go outside though .
Later on this afternoon , it stopped raining , so decided to go and do some potting up in the greenhouse - aubergines and cucumbers . I walked outside , and it was almost warm ! It is due to be warmer overnight tonight that it has been during the day for a week or more .
So I popped the sweetcorn out for a couple of hours .
I am going to risk some tomatoes in the greenhouse overnight - it has to be done eventually , so may as well do it now when I have spares .
Onward and upward .....

According to bbc weather this morning the cold air has now left us so fingers crossed we should’ve had the last frost. I’m going to start hardening everything off today, need to plant out my flowers first though to make space.

We aren't fore cast any more frosts for a couple of weeks now and although it's not unknown for us to get them at the end of May I think it's reasonably safe now. However I was quite late in sowing many of my seeds this year so the seedlings are still small, I think another couple of weeks in the greenhouse will be needed to build them up a bit.

Does anyone know anything about fruit trees? I bought a pear tree today, it’s about 6ft tall, just one long twig which has new leaves on it. Someone has told me to cut the top off to encourage it to grow outwards, just wanted to check if that’s right before taking the top off.

It’s been bloody lovely here today, only wish I could have been planting stuff out! Anyway the final load of soil arrives tomorrow morning so we’ll get that into the beds and then finalise what we want to plant - it’s all going to be plug plants from the local garden centre this year as a first go, so we’ll be beholden to what they have in stock!

Evening all!
The joy of some warm after yesterdays deluge , at last!
Now hardening off plants in earnest :) .
I planted out the first succession calabrese , and brokali today , and got ready for tomorrow , so I can plant out the first of the sprouting broccoli too .
Picked a couple of small cauliflowers , and decimated the old sprouting broccoli - dug up all but the last two , which are still producing spears okay .
fruit trees Love - do you know the root stock ? 6ft and one leader sounds like a 1 or 2 year maiden - it really depends on how you want it to grow - look here for advice - www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=164

yay!! I got a picture to load

Lovely stuff, bookbook -how long are you usually picking psb for? I've not grown it.

So the ground is definitely much wetter than it was! And it is warmer at nights now, so The Great Hardening Off 2021 has begun in earnest! so far I've planted out kale and sugar snaps, and i think I'll go wild and plant out at the plot my first 3 tomatoes. I do of course have spares, many, if they succumb. And some tatsoi too, I've loads of that. And, er, cornflowers.

And that will free up space for more stuff to be moved out to the next stage of the hardening off locations, etc etc...

@bookbook a question that maybe you can answer - do you know what the difference is between tenderstem broccoli and brokali?

Evening!
Did more planting out yesterday- luckily before the thunder , lightening and rain ,phew. - planted red cabbage ( swapped for some spare tomatoes ! ) , and sprouting broccoli
Spotted - the brokali comes into harvesting about end of July for a couple of months . Then I do different varieties to keep me going until about now really - I do summer sprouting , bog standard psb , Rudolph and Cardinal . They tend to flow into one another , so once I start picking in Sept/Oct , it generally keeps going quite well . Well, thats the plan anyway!
tiz - well, brokali is a cross between broccoli and Chinese kale , whilst I think tenderstem broccoli has just been bred to produce these stems - , it seems it is the same latin name as ordinary broccoli
It has again done the thundre and lightening today , but with added hail
But the seeds I sowed last week are all up - a slight forest of autumn cauliflowers ,and savoys , and the swede are all looking good .
French bean disaster again though - really don't know what is happening there , I may just have to bite the bullet and buy ready germinated

My dwarf runner and French beans seem to be ok after putting the plants out in a raised bed. I know it's a bit early but so far so good. They were so large and already flowering so hope I've done the right thing...time will tell! I put some netting over them first thing as I'm wary of the birds. I noticed today that my cucumber plants in the mini greenhouses are flowering too. Very pleased to see they seem to be suffering no after effects from their move outdoors.

I also planted minipop baby sweetcorn plants in big pots. These were an impulse buy from the garden centre. Anyone had any success with these?

My chilli plant has a lovely little white flower.

I am going to risk some tomatoes in the greenhouse overnight - it has to be done eventually , so may as well do it now when I have spares I put half my tomatoes in the greenhouse about 3 weeks back (W Yorks @400ft) - they've grown more than the ones on the porch windowsill, ie they haven't been worried by the cold and they're benefiting from the extra light.

French bean disaster again though - really don't know what is happening there , I may just have to bite the bullet and buy ready germinated I've only just sown my first sowing. I'd have thought you should have time for more sowings.

When I had non-germinating been seeds, I discovered a rodent had taken up residence in the greenhouse. A night in a small mammal trap for him and a propagator lid firmly over the beans solved the problem.

I’ve been brave and planted beans out but then realised I got runners and French beans mixed up so now unsure what I have actually planted 😬😬. I’m slowly clearing some space in the greenhouse which the cucumbers and tomatoes need.

I harvested my first veg today, pak Choi looked like it was going to bolt so I have picked a few, I can now plant more lettuce in its place or maybe some beetroot. My patty pan are doing ok outside despite taking a battering from wind, next I might brave planting courgette outside as I have spares if it all goes wrong.

Afternoon !
Thanks Mere - that was the slap on the wrist I needed ! - fresh seeds , sowing this afternoon
howdidi - I tried mini pop about 4 years ago . I didn't have much success - not many set , and I think I left them on the stem too long before harvesting , so they were beyond baby , but not proper sweetcorn either! Haven't tried since .
A trip to the plot today - to retrofit cabbage collars on what I have already planted ( precaution after losing some plants last year to cabbage root fly) I sorted out bird protection and climbing stuff for the peas - they are looking as if they are ready to start climbing . Harvested perennial spinach , as a couple of plants have started to flower - dug those up , as they will be in the way of my sprouts when they get big enough to plant out .
Cut my first purple asparagus :)
It will not let me post a pic again ,