sjp Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 I think some of the older incarnations of San Marzanos might be prone to BER.most of the books say not to use erratic watering but from your post you ain't. it could be that the plant isn't taking up the water steadily but on a stop start basis or it can't handle the competition from the Sungold which can be a bit vigorous is the BER just on odd fruits or confined to one truss I've had that happen on a stuffer type tomato when the fruit on a lower truss had BER I put that down to to much leaf area so I removed most of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alis girls Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Poor poor poor. Runner beans had one lot and theres loads of flowers but not growing that quick, courgettes keep rotting - new pots - hardly anything there. Tomatoes slow. Had some chard and spinach. I think its London soil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Poor poor poor. Runner beans had one lot and theres loads of flowers but not growing that quick, courgettes keep rotting - new pots - hardly anything there. Tomatoes slow. Had some chard and spinach. I think its London soil. your not alone beans are just coming I've had 2 small hand fulls the last 2 weekends plant have grown but not filled out and the sparrows are taking the flowers. courgettes got slugged about a week after they went out dam thing took part of the stems out. spuds I'm getting a feed out of them but it's going to be the worst year ever for me down to very wet soil stopping them growing some have a single stem barely 8inch high and the wet soil has helped the keel slugs out of 10 spuds yesterday for tea salvaged the equiverlant of 6 at most and that's from a variety that doesn't get much slug damage toms are growing but I've got hardly any fruit setting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Our courgettes are fine apart from the yellow ones which are growing fat at the ends and thin at the top. Butter nuts are doing nothing though. I think it is the luck of the draw when they are planted. Broad beans were a write off after a good start, we had about five meals off them then the black fly wiped them out over one weekend after the hot spell. Tomatoes in baskets are doing fantastically well this year, mainly Tumblers, but the fruits are much bigger than normal and there are so many of them which are ripening very well with no splitting so far . We also have some Tumbling Tiger which seemed to be all leaf but they are now producing decent sized fruit, but nothing ripe yet. They were quite late homegrown plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 the yellow courgettes could be poor pollination with the seeds only at one end or it could be that the seed were packaged wrongly as there are a couple of Italian varieties that grow like that their sometimes called snakes head they can get quite big a bit like a marrow really but are still courgettes I grow them from time to time as they are perfect for a talking point on a display. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 14, 2016 Share Posted August 14, 2016 picket my first carrots of the season barely 6 weeks since they were sown earliest I ever had carrots and very nice they were to with the salmon steak french beans and boiled potatoes that for the first time in a month didn't boil into the water. just wish the early sowing of carrots were fattening up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Sjp, all toms have their own pots but 3 each sharing long drip trays. It seems to be mainly the one plant. The other SM's are plumping up nicely. Tigerellas are almost ready and the Black Russians are changing colour too - the right colour! Runner beans are just setting and growing nicely now. Not ready to eat yet though. There was a patch of blackfly - all gone courtesy of my little bug friends I guess. Hubby picked and froze more French beans while I was away this weekend. He also bottled some gherkins in dill and spicy bits. I won't mention courgettes. Ruddy marrows and I only picked them a couple of days ago! How the heck did that happen!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Home on Wednesday - interested to see how the tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and runner beans have faired Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 16, 2016 Share Posted August 16, 2016 Sjp, all toms have their own pots but 3 each sharing long drip trays. It seems to be mainly the one plant. The other SM's are plumping up nicely. Tigerellas are almost ready and the Black Russians are changing colour too - the right colour! Runner beans are just setting and growing nicely now. Not ready to eat yet though. There was a patch of blackfly - all gone courtesy of my little bug friends I guess. Hubby picked and froze more French beans while I was away this weekend. He also bottled some gherkins in dill and spicy bits. I won't mention courgettes. Ruddy marrows and I only picked them a couple of days ago! How the heck did that happen!!!!!!! I grow my tom in pots but I tend to keep them a bit on the dry side but I do get the odd one every year that won't hold water regardless of how much I put on courgettes once they get to a certain size will fatten up over night but big courgettes (marrows are more pumpkin than courgettes) will keep the chooks entertained longer than the small ones noticed yesterday that one of my black toms have started to ripen I don't think I'm in for much of a tom crop this year plants are growing well but not many flowers and the ones that are there aren't setting fruit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Swings and roundabouts all the time - this year bad for toms and great for beans. Last year great for onions, bad for beans. A good year for strawberries - not so much last year. I think it just keeps us on our toes, more determined to win the following year! The girls will be given a marrow today - probably run away from it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Swings and roundabouts all the time - this year bad for toms and great for beans. Last year great for onions, bad for beans. A good year for strawberries - not so much last year. I think it just keeps us on our toes, more determined to win the following year! The girls will be given a marrow today - probably run away from it! with the exception of the beans and strawberries my seasons about the same as yours by the look of it beans are normally very good for me it's a bit to soon for me to call this year as mine went in a bit late. Strawberries were good last year but I should have re-potted them last autumn but never got around to them. onions this year were late been sown and took an age to grow big enough to pot up them got hit by the first hot spell we had but next year's got to be better than this one if we get a cold winter to break my clay soil up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 Well, my mum's been doing well from the runner beans while I've been away and there're still lots to come. I have some ripe Gardeners Delight tomatoes now which are very tasty. I have one small cucumber about ripe, one plant demolished by slugs and the other two still with flowers. Plums are nearly ripe on the broken branch. The few carrots and 3 parsnips are looking good. Leeks are coming on nicely but not sure I planted them deep enough. Broccoli plants are massive (one bolted) but being eaten by caterpillars despite the nasturtium forest. Had the first of the Setanta mashed yesterday - they were pretty good. Lots of apples coming on nicely. Anyone any tips on storing onions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 picked a hand full of runner beans this am plants aren't much to look at but now the young sparrows have moved on the flowers are now setting beans on both the runners and the climbing beans carrots have nearly doubled in size from last week and that's with now water for a month onions aren't hard to store as long as they've dried properly the tops need to be about 80% minimum dry around the neck before you lift them then they need to sit up some were dry cool and airy traditional method in a bit of old 2 x2 mesh sitting on a couple of concrete blocks on edge sit the onions neck down on the mesh then put a roof of some sort over the contraption to keep the rain off a week or so just to dry the rest of the tops and roots off and any soil that's around the roots you need a very good air flow around the onions else they sweat . the way I do mine is just lye the out on the greenhouse bench not touching each other for a few weeks after about 7 days I pick them over remove as much dry soil as there is. remove any grotty outer skin trim any of the dried stems to about 1 inch from the bend at the neck bin any onions that are showing signs of rot. use any that are still green as they won't keep long if they hadn't started to dry when lifted once fully. dry either put them into old mesh onion bags or into mushroom flats and store them somewhere cool and dry a garage or shed is fine they need an air flow around them but they don't need to be in the dark. check them about every couple of weeks as the ones in the middle of the bag can sweat which will cause them to rot. a good onion stored in this manner can keep till spring depending on the variety of cause Autumn sown over wintering onions don't store very long so use them first. any onion that has gone to seed won't store nor will onions with thick necks (Bull neck) or necks that haven't dried out i.e onions that were lifted with upright stems and still green. if you only want onions at a certain size say about the size of a tennis ball then gentle bend the stems over just above the onion that'll stop them growing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Thankyou. They're on a spare bit of Omlet run mesh sitting in the shed lean to at the moment. So after the coming (hopefully) warm dry week I'll find a bag for them and put them in the shed or garage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alis girls Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 A lovely sized courgette which my elderly dad down for weekend said was a marrow. Blooming small marrow me thinks. Hes sliced it up for roasting and did the runner beans too. He likes to feel useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Thankyou. They're on a spare bit of Omlet run mesh sitting in the shed lean to at the moment. So after the coming (hopefully) warm dry week I'll find a bag for them and put them in the shed or garage there's no rush really to bag them up as you don't want them getting to warm in the middle of the bag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted August 20, 2016 Share Posted August 20, 2016 Perhaps I'll try to put the rack in the shed. I have space, just need to balance it somehow. Sowed a row of carrots today. Probably a bit late but less than ten of my original two rows are still there and you never know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 Perhaps I'll try to put the rack in the shed. I have space, just need to balance it somehow. Sowed a row of carrots today. Probably a bit late but less than ten of my original two rows are still there and you never know. carrots should be OK in your part of the world just need to cover them to keep the carrot fly out I've started to pick carrots that were only sown late June I only really put them in to fill the rest of the onion and leek bed up . the earlier sown ones from early May that survived the snails still aren't ready Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted August 21, 2016 Share Posted August 21, 2016 Started the onions off a while ago and finally lifted them all on Thursday evening before the inclement weather started. They are now finishing off in the greenhouse too! The bull neck ones are in a basket in the kitchen to use first. We had our first runner beans today. Not a lot but added to the French beans they were enough. Also had some of the Oregon sugar snaps with our lunch - same plants and they've had a brilliant year. Still flowering and still producing very sweet and tasty pods. More beans frozen today. Also gave the chooks their first marrow. The pekin tried some and the others ignored. She didn't eat much! Oh well there's always more chutney! The gherkins are also ready for another picking!!! My daughter hijacked some of our Sungold toms. I doubt very much that they lasted her journey back to the boyfriend's house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 We have masses of hanging basket Tumbler tomatoes, sweet corn is over six feet tall and we have started eating our Asterix main crop potatoes, they make amazing chips and roast potatoes, they seem to have escaped the slugs too, which is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alis girls Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Figs and beetroot and half a courgette (snails had rest ) runner beans and tomatoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 29, 2016 Share Posted August 29, 2016 started to lift the spuds yesterday and as feared it's my worst year ever for them 3 quarters of one bed lifted and next to no tubers worth keeping for displaying and less than 40% worst keeping at all. totally down to wet clay soil as a result of a warm wet winter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Crikey! Not done spuds here for a couple of years now. We did do some in pots at that time, but not enough room. Sorry to hear about that mega disappointing discovery. All that hard work. At the moment it looks like the beans are cooking on the stems! I've run out of water completely in the butts now and having to let the hose soak in - taken the head off so it's just a trickling stream, unless I pick it up and shove my thumb over to spray - which I've done to clear the aphids off the garlic chives. Everything is looking very parched around here, although our lawn is still mostly green. That would be the weedy bits . . . I mean wild flower bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted August 30, 2016 Author Share Posted August 30, 2016 Well I have been away for 3 weeks during hot August, so have come home to dying crispy tomato plants which are still hanging onto red fruits. They aren't too bad, considering, still a healthy crop plus hopefully enough green leaves to ripen the remaining green fruit. Despite setting up the watering system to come on twice a day, I have lost things like basil, lettuce, courgettes (which would be just about over by now anyway) and about half my cut flowers, although I didn't expect them to survive. I didn't plant much, knowing I'd be away. The trouble is my patches are too spread out for the sprinkler to cope with. My neighbour planted a load of dwarf beans (no idea what kind) only about 6 weeks ago, and they are romping away. He let his garden lie fallow all year, having received a mega load of manure which he spread out over the entire plot. On the plus side the grapes are ripening nicely and there are still lemons on the tree. I've collected up all the windfalls and removed desicated fruit from the tree - I thought about Xmas decs (ready dried slices as part of garlands) but can't be bothered with it all yet. I can see next years orange/lemon/mandarin crop is setting nicely, although the tangerine tree is down on this year, I think because it flowers late and was caught in downpours. We have had a tough year weather wise, extreme wet and a longer than usual cool spring, followed by extreme heat in July. Basically anything that was supposed to be pollinated from March to the end of May struggled unless it happened to flower on the odd dry day. Then young plants had to be quite tough to survive July. The tomato and pepper plants have been stunted - I am unsure if its the varieties, the weather (south facing) or the fact I've planted them in a brand new patch of garden with oddly fine soil and no stones. Both have fruited and ripened well, considering the plant size. My peach trees looked dead in February, and sickly in May. Now they are full of leaf with absolutely no sign of dying down and preparing for the autumnal leaf fall which makes me slightly anxious that next years cycle might be disrupted as well. Oddly, the apples have been good considering the weather. There are figs and plums in scrumping distance - they are good! I can see that the wild quince are doing OK as well, so we will make some jam and chutney. I have managed to establish some brand new ornamental shrubs and roses, plus some brand new fruit trees and olive trees. I am really pleased about that and have to count it as a major win as they were planted late and have been mollycoddled including scrambling up and down a bank once a week clutching a watering can, waiting for the inevitable accident to happen! I feel that once we get our September downpour followed by (hopefully) another month or two of sun, then I can get a bigger batch of shrubs/trees in and allow them to establish without so much watering worry. The lesson I have to get right for next year in the veg/cutting garden is to site things better and probably water them more. I am never going to be like a local - they plant potatoes and cabbages by the mile, plus excellent tomatoes and peppers, courgettes, aubergines, onions, beans (not runners), herbs and all the fruit you can think of. I just admire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Valkyrie It's not hard work as such for Me as I pace my self plus I'm a lazy "Ooops, word censored!" so I don't do more than an hour or two on any visit to the plot as long as I get the 3 empty beds rough dug by the middle of Feb at the latest and the first of the 3 rough dug by new years day I'm happy that's from a boxing day start what surprised me through with the spuds is how dry they are considering how wet the soil is runner beans are just coming good french beans should yield a good amount of seed if the weather doesn't turn damp like last year just as they are ready to pick.the late sown carrots are fantastic. I've got a half decent marrow growing nicely and some funny looking courgette/squashes on a plant that's from saved seed. and the swedes leeks and cabbages look promising through I did plant the brassicas in the wrong order the late cabbage went in first so the sprouts and red cabbage are well behind were they should be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
