How can I find my old pictures?

[Daphne]

My Charlottes are tasting good, although I don't think the yields are great, possibly more water was required during the season.  They are ripening very quickly now, the first dig was a week ago, and I get a couple of meals worth every couple of days.

I am having a bit of an exotic moment.  A friend gave me a lemon grass last year in a long tom plastic pot.  It bulked up over the summer, I kept it in the partial shade of a rose bush to try to preserve it from the worst of the sun and watered it most days.  I divided it in the autumn into 3 pots, all looking a bit feeble, but they took and are growing away quite well.  I cut some for Xmas pressies, and yesterday we used some young shoots in a curry, very tasty.   I also saw some ginger in a shop yesterday which has started to sprout in a few places.  So I have looked on Google and discovered it grows in hot and humid places, but you can grow it indoors.  So I have soaked it overnight and am about to cut it into 3 and plant in pots, then I will alternate it between indoors and out, bringing it in for winter/spring.  In the same shop I discovered some fig leaf liqueur, which Google reveals is often fig leaves infused in gin, so I am going to give that a go as well as I could paper a whole house with the number of fig leaves we have.  Then last night a friend brought around a bucket full of loquats!  I will have to look at Google again for something to do with them, because we have been drowning in cherries and are almost sick of the sight of them now and I can't face more stoning to turn them into something palatable unless it sounds uber interesting.  Glut or famine.

PS I didn't set out to mention the G word 3 times in one post.  Other search engines are available!

 

[Valkyrie]

Sounds lovely Daphne - especially next door's blue hydrangea!  Wow that's a lot of agapanthus - I rescued mine to bring here and my mum has still got loads of plants - and that is just coming up.  Beautiful white one, although I do love the blues.

I think what put me off Pink Fir Apple was the shape - couldn't be bothered with scrubbing little nooks and crannies.  Your Charlottes sound like a good harvest so far.  Didn't know that about rhubarb.  I've just harvested when it looked good enough.  Some I bought went to seed pretty much as soon as they were planted (at different times) and in spite of cutting off the flower shoot, they died.  I'd see how it goes - if it suddenly bushes up like Daphne's neighbour's hydrangeas, I'd say have a few stalks!

Lemon grass sounds great!  I was going to grow ginger but forgot about it.  Even the turmeric tubers started to shoot a while ago.  But again forgot.

[patsylabrador]

My veg is doing OK. Most of the kale and an outdoor cucumber disappeared so I put in some mini sweetcorn yesterday. Herbs all doing fine and I have more Chard and herbs and tomatoes in the greenhouse. I've got some horseradish growing in a big tub and it's looking very well but I don't know what to do next. Does the plant keep going and you just dig up some or do you dig it all up and when should I do that anyway? The other question is pak choi, is it a cut and come again type veg or should I just use the whole thing. I think they're good to go. 

[Valkyrie]

What a lovely tranquil spot you have made.  Well done with the veg.  Don't know much about horseradish apart from grating the roots and they can be invasive with huge taproots.  With regard to pak choi - yes - you can do both.  We have some in a packet of mixed Oriental seeds (which we like best) so have just picked as and when needed, although we have a small patch in the greenhouse we have been eating a lot of salad!  I know it likes cooler temperatures and is now beginning to bolt, but not a lot else about it - so I looked up on Youtube and found this short film which is really interesting and something that I'll do in the future (although I think this is in a polytunnel) but could easily be under a cloche in winter!

 

[patsylabrador]

Thank you! I'm going to try that with a couple today. I might as well. 

[Valkyrie]

Well nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Let us know how it goes - because I'll probably do that later in the year. 

 

[soapdragon]

With the foliage and flowers having died down I went to unearth my Pink Fir Apple potatoes this afternoon....what a disappointment  Only a very few and still really small. They were pot grown as our soil is so bad and, to get enough for supper, I had to excavate two out of our three big tubs. We kept them well watered with a regular organic veg feed so I've no idea why they were so sp*****. Ah well, it will save me bothering next year.

And my beautiful orchid..nursed lovingly for 18 months after it's last flowers finished, finally threw up 5 flower spikes but, just as the flowers started to open, it all went floppy (including the leaves) and the beautiful white blooms have shrivelled. It's kept in the same spot all year round and has previously seemed healthy. Watered once a week and fed once a week from when the buds start to form so, again, I'm feeling despondent. OH, on the other hand, is smug about his chilli plant which is going full pelt 

[Valkyrie]

Don't be discouraged Soapy - we have very little topsoil, so we had our spuds on top of the soil and then put a deep layer of compost over the top.  We've had a super crop - and I haven't watered the spuds at all.  Mainly because the weather was so rubbish that they were watered a little too much in the early days.  We are just uplifting the Charlottes and they've been fantastic.  Red Duke of York were first earlies and pretty hit and miss, but flavour was yum - they probably could have stayed a bit longer.  As were the Casablanca - heavier crop.  We were warned about wireworm in spuds on previously grown pasture - but they have tended to be around the edges and not as bad as we thought.  I've been putting beans in their place - and next the leeks with the remaining second earlies.  Still have a couple of rows of Charlotte to do.  We also found it much easier to pull the stems rather than dig - spuds aren't speared by the fork either.  Win win in my opinion.  I do have one compost bag that I used for some spud - can't remember which one, but I didn't want to put it in the veg patch - seems to be growing well enough.  I think it had some sort of mould or canker, so we'll see if it worked later.

[mullethunter]

My Pink Fir Apples have incredible foliage,  but last time I had a peep (probably 6 weeks ago) there were NO potatoes. I don’t have many Jazzy (which have turned out to be excellent again) left now so I’ll be looking to the Fir Apples soon - I’ll let you know how I fare

[Luvachicken]

Anyone any idea how to keep sweet pea flowers make long stems ?

Mine started off with stems over 30cm long.

I pick them often, water them and give them seaweed food every now and then, but each time the stems get shorter and shorter. Sometimes they are too short to bother with.

This happens most years.

What am I doing wrong ?

[Valkyrie]

I don't think you are doing anything wrong.  Might be weather or it might be in it's genes.  There are varieties that are marked as "long stems" for cutting.  

[Cat tails]

Mine are too long and went all floppy all over the place. It’s my first time growing sweet peas and I forgot the amazing smell!

[Luvachicken]

1 hour ago, Cat tails said:

It’s my first time growing sweet peas and I forgot the amazing smell!

That's the reason I grow them.

I did almost give up on my sweet peas this year and nearly pulled them all up.

I planted the seeds in October and planted the plants out into big pots half filled with new compost and half with manure in April.

They did quite well and I was expecting to pick the flowers in May. Sadly, the poor plants were very deformed, lots of long stems with dry flower buds and leaves coming out in the wrong places. Any that did flower had their petals and stamens back to front. Apparently too much good stuff can stunt their growth.

I think they have now used up all the manure and have finally started to perform properly. I won't be growing them like that again. They can have seaweed and be done with.

I love those metal spirals you have Cat tails 😊

[Cat tails]

10 minutes ago, Luvachicken said:

I love those metal spirals you have Cat tails 😊

They are tomato sticks! But I use them for all sorts.

i just planted mine in April I think. And then planted them out in new compost. Pricked out the tops when Monty told me too! 😉

[mullethunter]

I had one lot where the leaves went all curled and dry - really odd - I wondered if the compost I grew them in had weed killer in which was apparently a thing this year.

In the last I’ve had short stems on them like you Luvachicken - no idea why - but this year the ones that have made it past the sparrow assault are finally producing a reasonable number of flowers and have long stems🤷‍♀️

[soapdragon]

I've never had any success with sweet peas......even though I choose seeds that are supposed to be excellent croppers they are always sp*****. I've changed compost, position, pots, support and nothing seems to work. I am very good with weeds though.................................... 

 

Ha, just re read my post and is has blanked out such an innocent word! Perhaps I should have typed spbottom 

Edited July 22, 2019 by soapdragon

[The Dogmother]

I haven't had any luck with sweet peas the last couple of years,  and I notice that a neigbour has similar problems; small and spindly.

[Valkyrie]

I wonder if the weather last year had some detrimental effect?  I'm afraid my sweet peas are going to be sacrificial plants in the remaining pile of mushroom compost.  Most of my beans have done the curling up and distorted stem thing.  I lost all the broad beans.  Now I have dotted a couple of bean plants along the beds that I'm not sure about, as we had several deliveries of compost and they aren't all bad.

[mullethunter]

Well. I had an experimental pull up of a Pink Fir Apple root today... 😳 This is one root and literally just pulled up so I expect there are a load more still in the soil. Had some for potato salad - good texture and flavour but not as good as Jazzy (although so different that comparison isn’t really fair). Ridiculous shapes though - was glad I was only scrubbing them!

(The pot is about 6” deep)

Edited July 26, 2019 by mullethunter
Text

[Beantree]

All our potatoes and onions are out fortunately, because we've had so much rain overnight I could see them rotting in the ground.

We tried the suggestion of taking tomato plant shoots from the early plants we bought and potting them to get more plants. It takes time so we had to take the first shoots that appeared, but all 8 are now climbing curly sticks and are 3' tall with the first trusses fruiting. Means we will get tomatoes all season and the second lot are free!

[soapdragon]

MH, I have Pink Fir Apple envy! Ours were nowhere near as prolific; perhaps it's the Cornish soil? Our were just in potting compost and fed with organic veg feed. Or maybe we just couldn't contain ourselves and pulled them too early? I still have one pot left unharvested and so will leave that for another week or so in the hope of more prolific spuds!

On a brigher note my fete bargain 50p runner beans now have beans on all 6 plants and I am hopeful of a reasonable harvest. The Lidl fig tree (or Lidl twig as it was when we bought it) has gone bonkers and I think we'll have to repot it into a much bigger, forever pot. A neighbour has one in her garden and it's really taking over. Looks lovely but her advice was to pot it so as to contain the roots!

[Valkyrie]

Nice - including the funny shapes!  Finished the last of the Charlottes so OH is washing and sorting those to be kept and those that must be eaten.  We've had wireworms in some, but not that bad.  Not much slug damage either.  The main crops are beginning to die down now so I'll be unearthing the early mains next.

Meanwhile we definitely have contamination by the aminopyralid weedkiller.  Really upset and angry by it so Dow got a s  h  ***ty letter of complaint - because they are shrugging their shoulders and gave Charles Dowding the link to complain to which is:

www.manurematters.co.uk

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by Valkyrie

[mullethunter]

Should I be pulling my onions now? Tops are still alive but heavy rain forecast on Tues

[Valkyrie]

We are but we have loads to dry.  I'd uproot them by holding the bulb and easing out from underneath to save damaging the stems - which I only found out recently after yanking a few, but since then I've been doing it properly.  Here's a link to a video - Liz at Byther Farm is a mine of information.  The following video you'll see at about 3 minutes in how to do theonions.

 

[Valkyrie]

Mully - this is what Charles Dowding says andfull linky here also for other info:

https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/august-2019-new-sowings-planting-tips-seed-saving-pest-protection-onions-tomatoes-pyralids/

 

Quote

 

Onions

This is harvest time, if you have not already. Once you see a few plant stems fall over, best pull all onions and bend the necks at 90 degrees to help develop a thin neck, and better drying of the bulb.

An issue may be some onions boiling, and they want pulling and using soon, before the flowering stem becomes too hard, inside the onion.