The Vegetable Patch

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Now bookbook has sadly left us, and stirred into action by @DobbleDobble, I think it’s time to start a general thread for those of us who try to grow edible produce, fruit, veg, herbs, to share successes, failures, questions and answers

Arghhhh I just went to check on my strawberries and dig in a new plant and somehow disturbed an almighty ant farm and eggs! They're huge and I panicked thinking they were maggots. But no. Bloody ant infestation. I'm going to flood them with a few boiled kettles but I fear this is the end of my strawberries, and a total waste of my raised bed which is 2/3s empty. 😡

With whitefly, I’ve had reasonable success with a vacuum cleaner using the upholstery nozzle (the little round one like a round crevice tool with a brush). First thing in the morning before they’ve warmed up, so they just sit on the leaf waiting to be sucked up. It won’t get rid of the juveniles but clears 95% of the adults.

Alternatively Encarsia, bio control, which I’m trying for the first year so can’t report on its success

Also, if anyone thinks this is a good idea, to protect the ladybirds, how long after treatment would you leave the netting up ? If it’s a soap/fat based insecticide which the ones I’ve seen are, then it works by suffocation, so the net can come down once all the insecticide has evaporated.

If a systemic, then it’d be longer term because any insect eating the plant would get a dose, and you wouldn’t to be feeding them to your friendly predators

Thanks do much for your reply @MereDintofPandiculation. Your thoughts are very helpful.

I'll keep the vacuuming one for the part near the house because the other part is too far away for the vacuum.

For the part that's furthest away, it looks like I'll need to use bio insecticides if I'm going to save my cabbages and sprouts. The ones I've seen are rape seed oil based. I'm not sure if that means they are systemic ?
Like you say, I'm concerned not to harm friendly predators.🐞🐝🐞

I'm wondering if anyone can help me with a problem of tiny black beetles and whitefly that are steadily eating through the leaves on my aubergine, cauliflower and cabbage plants ?

The tiny black beetle sounds like flea beetle. I lost all my salad leaves, rocket and kale to these last year. This year I'm growing these plants in the greenhouse and keeping my fingers crossed!

@BulliedBySlugs I'm definitely late with sowing but only a couple of weeks and as I'm in SE am hoping the warmer temps and extended growing season will be enough. Possibly the plants will be smaller but I had a lot of kernels left from a three year old seed packet so thought it was now or never! You could buy small plants if you want a bit of insurance?

I'm very sorry to hear that ! I have found a bio insecticide which is emulsion and rape seed oil based. I'm going to use that and protect each row that I treat until the product has dried.
I seem to have 3 different types of tiny black beetles. Some hop and I think they must be the flea beetles you've described. Some have snouts on and I think they are weevils but I don't know much about them. Others look to be pollen beetles and I don't know much about them either - apart from them all munching steadily through my crops , so we can't be friends.
Sorry about the ants @Beetr00t and the slugs @BulliedBySlugs .

I'm also hoping to sow a few more seeds for similar reasons @StyleDesperation. Good luck with yours. 😊

A small harvest from today. Hoping this heat filled week really helps everything along.

@Beetr00t sympathy re ants, we seem to have more and more ants nests in the garden each year, they are gradually infiltrating our block paved drive and pushing all the sand out and have killed my aubrieta by nesting underneath it and hollowing out the roots. Now I’m getting them at the allotment too, I’ve always had an ants next under my slow worm habitat sheet of plastic but yesterday I managed to dig into another one while weeding and got several tiny stings on my arm before I realised what was happening.

Everything is really taking off now, sweetcorn, broad beans, potatoes, sunflowers. Tomatoes still look a little stunted. Masses of strawberries. Happy days.

Good luck to you too @WitchWand.

I've got a sort of tiered plant shelf on the patio that my dad built me and the veg seeds etc are up there in their pots germinating but the bloody foxes seem to think it's a great game to get up and knock them off! On the plus side when I put one pot back together I saw that one if the sweetcorn kernels has germinated. Only 14 to go!

Sorry to hear about the ants @Beetr00t. Hopefully the existing plants will be ok and your new one can stay in a pot until you've flooded the nest. I'm planning a new strawberry bed in front of my red and white currant bushes.

Anyone else have trouble choosing varieties? I'm a sucker for anything interesting or unusual and I just want to grow it all!

@StyleDesperation I struggle with choosing varieties too, I had a lot of fun buying vegetable seeds off the RealSeed company back at the end of last year. I keep trying to squeeze in more soft fruit types too, I'm currently eyeing up a Glen Coe raspberry I don't really have space for .....

I'm trying to remember when I first sowed potatoes to work out if any might be worth investigating yet. Otherwise no sign of anything else besides mountains of spinach being ready for a while.

Chillis are covered in greenfly, going to get the spray and washing up liquid out tomorrow. Tomatoes also going into their final pots. Plan to sow some more beetroot if I get the chance.

@tizwozliz are they first, second or main crop? I never remember (although I've started a spreadsheet this year!) and go by once the flowers have finished for first and second earliest, time to check, and once the foliage starts to yellow on maincrops/any sign of possible blight, dig them up!

I'm pretty sure I ended up just getting Charlotte potatoes so second earlies. But I might have got something else! I think I have the label around somewhere...

I don't grow any main crop anymore, too much space for too little reward.

@tizwozliz I had no idea what I planted this year as I had 3 different varieties and just grabbed any at the time. I let them flower and then pulled up one plant to have a look, decided I wanted them a little bigger and waited another couple weeks or so.

Thanks @StyleDesperation and nice hear one germinated already!

What are you all doing in this hot weather? Is it too hot to sow?

I've got a load of seedlings which I should have planted out at the allotment last weekend but did manage all of them, they are vast running out of space in the seed trays. Debating whether to do it sooner so they have more space or whether that plus 30 degrees will stress them too much and I'd be better waiting til Sunday....

I suppose at least I can keep them properly watered at the house.

Where is June going???

*didn't

The ones I've seen are rape seed oil based. I'm not sure if that means they are systemic ? No, they’re purely physical in their effect, they block the breathing holes in the skin. Systemics are toxins which are taken up by the plant so that anything that eats them will receive a dose of the toxin.

Debating whether to do it sooner so they have more space or whether that plus 30 degrees will stress them too much and I'd be better waiting til Sunday.... I’d wait till the weather cools. Ideally after heavy rain.

Is it too hot to sow? No, seeds don't need a vast amount of water. If you’re sowing outside, water the drill before adding the seeds. Inside, put them in the shade.

We ate our first courgette last night! Saved a bit to add to our salad at lunchtime, really nice raw. Busily trying to eat up all the chard to clear the pots for this year’s crops

How is everyone doing on the pest front? We've got chafer beetles munching holes in fruit tree leaves and fruit, slugs everywhere and I've just found masses of what I think are flea beetles in my courgette flowers 😩😩😩

Not pests, but I’ve discovered white onion rot in my shallots 😖. I’ll be digging and bagging them up tomorrow. I’m going to try a garlic “tea” on the soil after that, apparently it fools the spores into thinking somethings there so they develop and have nothing to latch on to. Might be ineffective but it’ll make me feel I’m doing something.

The RHS has changed its approach and is now talking about, not pests, but small creatures on which a large number of predators depend.

When I decided, 30 or 40 years ago to be chemical free, I had a grim couple of years when I felt I had every pest going. But then predator numbers built up and, although obviously I still have pests, they’re at tolerable levels. (My only problem is having to plant out veg later than usual because they’re in tubs next to the snail refuge of my neighbour’s drystone wall, and that I have to net cabbages against pigeons.)

Pigeons are the only thing I have any real problems with too, I have got two large pieces of micromesh which I use for brassicas and strawberries to good effect . I get a bit of slug and snail loss but this year it hasn't been a big problem. I lose my redcurrants and gooseberries most years but TBH I only have them because the previous plotholder left them and the roots are too big to dig out so I'm not bothered.

Hi, I have a plum tree query if anyone can help? It didn’t fruit last yr but has loads this yr, but now one section has completely shrivelled and died. Should I cut it off, is it likely to spread? There’s a healthy looking section left with some fruit. What do I cut it with? Back to the healthy looking part?

Oh and I also wondered if anyone could id this one, sorry pic is a bit far away. Also didn’t fruit last yr and I’m wondering if these are cherries.