A little thread of calm?

[DrPhill]

Might try an experiment to see if there's any difference in growth according to which paper they are in.

Sun and Mail should be best - more 'nutrient'..........

 

[Chris152]

edit - on reflection, the post was a bit buried here under lots of vegetable info - I'll do a separate thread for it!

 

[Chris152]

Tomaters (first batch i planted):

Pertaters (the net's to keep basketballs out):

And if you've got 10 mins to spare, a friend made this recording of birds at dawn in deepest Cornwall this morning:
https://soundcloud.com/the-wagging-pole ... 15LlXrO-QA

 

[Chris152]

They're coming along nicely, I think.

Are these ready for moving out of the trays into small pots, or can they go straight into grow bags?

And do I have to keep earthing these up? I'm running out of soil between the rows.

Thanks!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

And if you've got 10 mins to spare, a friend made this recording of birds at dawn in deepest Cornwall this morning:

jackdaws and gulls everywhere.

 

[Chris152]

And if you've got 10 mins to spare, a friend made this recording of birds at dawn in deepest Cornwall this morning:

jackdaws and gulls everywhere.

He's been recording the dawn regularly since then, apparently they're starting to quieten down now.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Your toms will go into grow bags. Make sure you tie your strings around the bags if in a greenhouse, it saves struggling to get them around the bags when the plants are larger. Also think about a way of watering them easily - inset a flowerpot or a part of plastic bottle with small holes in it, grow bags dry out while you're thinking about them and are quite difficult to water once dry. Or else find something that holds water to sit the whole bags in -in the summer they won't go more than a couple of days without needing watering.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

He's been recording the dawn regularly since then, apparently they're starting to quieten down now.

They've now found their mates.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Your spuds look great - the earth is to stop daylight hitting the new tubers as they grow, so should be fine.

My first disaster of the year: I planted two rows of sweetcorn - 60 to a row, and two seeds to a hole to make sure there were no gaps. 5 have germinated. I have had to buy more seed, and this time I have chitted them to make sure they work. Will be planting them this evening. Fingers crossed. Very relaxing, this gardening thing.

 

[Nigel Burden]

My tomatoes are around eighteen inches high and some are in flower.
I could do with getting them in the greenhouse but we had a frost last night and the forecast is still giving the possibility of frost in the next couple of weeks. I have had to transplant into larger pots, but not so large that I can't bring them in the house overnight. They will eventually go into 10 or 12 inch pots and six will live in the greenhouse, the others will have to go alongside the back fence and hopefully not get trashed when the dog crashes around the garden during a ratting spree.

Nigel.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

My tomatoes are around eighteen inches high and some are in flower.
I could do with getting them in the greenhouse but we had a frost last night and the forecast is still giving the possibility of frost in the next couple of weeks. I have had to transplant into larger pots, but not so large that I can't bring them in the house overnight. They will eventually go into 10 or 12 inch pots and six will live in the greenhouse, the others will have to go alongside the back fence and hopefully not get trashed when the dog crashes around the garden during a ratting spree.

Nigel.

I'm sure you know, but tomato flowers need the beating wings of a bumblebee or similar to fertilize them. Allegedly you can replicate this with a beard trimmer other vibrating domestic item

I have never tried this, but it would be interesting to find out if it works.

 

[Nigel Burden]

My tomatoes are around eighteen inches high and some are in flower.
I could do with getting them in the greenhouse but we had a frost last night and the forecast is still giving the possibility of frost in the next couple of weeks. I have had to transplant into larger pots, but not so large that I can't bring them in the house overnight. They will eventually go into 10 or 12 inch pots and six will live in the greenhouse, the others will have to go alongside the back fence and hopefully not get trashed when the dog crashes around the garden during a ratting spree.

Nigel.

I'm sure you know, but tomato flowers need the beating wings of a bumblebee or similar to fertilize them. Allegedly you can replicate this with a beard trimmer other vibrating domestic item

I have never tried this, but it would be interesting to find out if it works.

In forty years I've never had a problem with tomatoes, there seem to be plenty of bees buzzing around at home.

As I am not in the position of vibrating domestic items I'll give that one a miss. :lol:

Nigel.

 

[Chris152]

Potatoes showing the first flower buds, tomatoes ready for transplanting into grow bags in what used to be the dining room. Obviously you're all dying for pics but you'll have to wait a couple of days til I've built some sort of frame to support the tomato plants.

Am I right to water the potatoes a bit every few days now? The ground here is incredibly dry, we were trying to remember and think it's only rained one daytime in the last 3 months, and a few nights. It's been a bit of a godsend tbh, when cabin fever sets in there's always the garden to fiddle about in.

Still not allowed to travel here in Wales, I'm quite happy with that generally tho I was hoping today we'd be allowed to go to the sea to exercise. That said, it looks like RNLI in England have been busy saving lives the last week according to the news.

For some reason the waist on my jeans has shrunk a bit the past three months tho? Strange.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Am I right to water the potatoes a bit every few days now? The ground here is incredibly dry, we were trying to remember and think it's only rained one daytime in the last 3 months, and a few nights

I want to say yes, absolutely, but I have never grown potatoes in the UK, other than in Cornwall, and they never needed watering at all, obviously. Here, we water constantly, but it was 35°C last week - completely different conditions. I would think use your judgment - if the soil seems too dry, give it a good soaking.

 

[Chris152]

The potatoes look to be doing fine

but it's now 3 months since I planted them and no flowers have actually come out - they seem to have gone backward!

So I dug one up (it was looking a real mess anyway):

small crop, 400g and small tubers that would have grown larger (they vary from tiny to about 2.5").

Has something eaten the flowers? And should I wait til I dig any more? We'll eat the ones I just dug, but not sure about digging more for a while.

The tomatoes are looking good - 12 plants indoors, about 3' tall and two sets of flowers on most. And several outdoors as I had too many in the end.

Thanks
C

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I was thinking just the other day that your spuds must be close to ready.

Potatoes need 100 days from planting, at least in my neck of the woods. However, you can just wait for the tops to start dying off - every day they have greenery means more starch being stored in the tubers, so it won't hurt to leave them. It probably won't be more than a couple of weeks now anyway - they will start to look a bit manky and decrepit from here on in, which is normal.

About the flowers - some varieties flower a lot, some not at all. Some varieties can actually be grown from seed, which is fun. Modern seed potatoes are from varieties which are cloned, so tend not to flower so much if at all ,and almost never set seed.

Your only worry now is blight...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The tomatoes are looking good - 12 plants indoors, about 3' tall and two sets of flowers on most. And several outdoors as I had too many in the end.
Thanks
C

Get a small paint brush and go flower to flower on your indoor ones - you won't have many insects indoors to do it. If you can't be bothered, shake the flowers.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

The tomatoes are looking good - 12 plants indoors, about 3' tall and two sets of flowers on most. And several outdoors as I had too many in the end.
Thanks
C

Get a small paint brush and go flower to flower on your indoor ones - you won't have many insects indoors to do it. If you can't be bothered, shake the flowers.

Even easier is hold a beard trimmer or other vibrating household device close to the flower. It is the beating of bumblebees wings that does the job, allegedly. Paintbrush or shaking may also work. I freely admit to never trying any of these methods, as my toms live outside.

 

[Chris152]

Thanks both. I'll try the spuds again in a couple of weeks. The Tomatoes are by a patio door that spends most of the day open and they get hit by the breeze and some insect life, but I'll have a fiddle with a brush just in case!
Much appreciated.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Just started picking the first tomatoes, an unknown yellow bush variety from a packet of seed marked Tombola, so basically pot luck. One red bush variety hasn't set very well, but the others are ok.

Being completely useless with things technical, I've never managed to post photos on forums.
So sorry, no photos.

Nigel.