growing own veggies in bags and pots (Merged)

Turbo_Gran

Try fertilizing the flowers on your pepper plants with a very soft little brush
(maybe from a makeup kit) or with a whisp of cotton wool,just gently stroke the little yellow stamens inside the flower and then using the same brush do the next flower,sounds tricky but it isn't. I did this with some plants that I grew in my tiny little front porch from seed collected from s'market peppers and had some really great results.

permag

You can use the growbag method for potatoes. It also works with adding old car tyres as the potato plants grow, and filling them with soil. To save on potting compost you can start with compost and then mix it with a mix of grass cuttings and shredded paper - makes it go further or leaves you some over for seeding your beans and tomatoes. For your clay soil - cover it with cardboard - brown is best (overlap so no gaps) or lots of old clothes (overlapped again) or thick layers of newspaper, then add layers of old leaves or shreddings at least 4 inches (chop or compress so not full of air, you can run the mower over old prunings if you don't have a shredder), then grass cuttings at least 3 or 4 inches, then a few inches of soil. If planting straight up to a house wall, do not obscure the damp proof course (thicker line of mortar which should be 2 bricks above ground level. Leave at least a foot clear beside this. You can sow seeds outside from after last frost outside, but beans and tomatoes are best started inside. When you plant the beans out sink some little pots with beer in to keep the slugs from eating the beans.
You can always save seed from what you eat to sow, but it will revert to type year by year. Fussy cooks can buy named varieties of potatoes, if you know you want something specific. I always plant potatoes from the kitchen, just make sure they have no blemishes or cut these off first. . Already sprouted or not seems to make no difference. Seeds from cherry tomatoes have always grown well for me.

ruth_helen

This is the first time I have looked at this site,so hi to all. Can anyone tell me how to grow garlic,I picked some wild garlic last year in a wood on the isle of wight,they were fine when I got them home so potted them up but they just died.Can I just use any old garlic clove I buy from supermarket????

JaneF_3

I grew cherry tomatoes in with the flowers in my hanging baskets last year. It worked really well and I will be doing it again this year.

Pink.

Hi ruth helen,

Welcome to the Old Style board. These older threads should help you:

Grow your early garlic…

Growing garlic

Pink

JaneAire

this is indeed a great forum.

I have two questions, is it too late to plant potaotes? and, if I do plant an old supermarket one that has sprouted, will I avoid the disease problem because I buy organic potatoesso there wont be any chemical sprays?

Ta for any thoughts.

Strepsy

JaneAire wrote:

this is indeed a great forum.

I have two questions, is it too late to plant potaotes? and, if I do plant an old supermarket one that has sprouted, will I avoid the disease problem because I buy organic potatoesso there wont be any chemical sprays?

Ta for any thoughts.

It will soon be too late to plant potatoes from what I hear so I would get them in asap. I still have a few to put in buckets so will do them this weekend. I would have thought using an organic potato would leave you at more risk from diseases as they won't have been treated against any? but you will avoid chemical contamination I guess.

kitaj

I'm not much of a gardner but I grow some stuff in small quantities. I do agree though that unless you grow high value crops it can work out more expensive than nipping to the market. We eat loads of tomatoes so I grow bush tomatoes (that don't need staking) and also yellow tomatoes for interest. I grow wild strawberries in pots (they produce runners so that you can grow naother pot or two the next year (or sell them) and have a few raspberry canes (given to me from someone's allotment) - both expensive even in season.
The best thing though is the salad leaves. esp. rocket, which costs a fortune to buy but grows like weeds in pots and if you sow them in weekly intervals it keeps going all summer, enough for all the family for 6 months for the price of one bag in Sainsbury's. Also we make our own compost with all the left overs in the kitchen - grow bags and compost are pretty expensive...
Good idea about new potatoes for Christmas in a bucket - I always thought potatoes were a complete waste of time and energy as they are so cheap if you buy a big bag and require so much digging if you grow them; but if you can get stuff out of season it's well worth it.

katyk_2

tootles wrote:

We grow a couple of spuds in a large old black bucket, it has holes in the bottom, put in some soil or compost and plant your spud, cover, then as the spud cones through just keep adding more soil/compost, you need to harvest when the plant starts to flower and the growth begins to wilt off, just tip up the bucket on the garden and collect your spuds. You can use shop bought spuds, but ONLY in a container and do not use the soil that comes out of the container to grown anything else, shop bought spuds have been sprayed with chemicals against disease and you will contaminate your garden soil.

Hi Tootles (and everyone else who has mentioned the 'contamination' of soil)

I am now in a bit of a tizz having discovered this site AFTER :mad: :mad: having planted tatties in the garden that were shop bought and had sprouted. They are through the soil and about 3" high so how much damage have I done and how do I sort it? Help! I presume I am now too late to dig them back up and put them in some sort of old container. To what extent may I have contaminated the soil and for how long? Any advice welcomed.

My other query is regarding all the extra soil that people seem to keep adding after they come through the soil. Why, please?

As you may have guessed I am a novice at all this

Thanks.

susank

Your shop bought ones should be fine - I have grown them years ago and they were ok - This year I am doing them in buckets but have got seed from someone who works with potatoes and have got a potato of each kind to try - will be an experiment - love new pots.