veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

treepotato1

alliwantistosave wrote: »

I got some funky carrot seeds off a seller on ebay so hopefully my carrots will be purple, red and white just to make them a little more intresting

Isn't it the case that carrots were actually originally purple before they were genetically modified to be orange? Must have been the Dutch did that...

Mrs_Flittersnoop

Hi all, this is a great thread for us newby sowers! I have a question re the toilet roll inners that some of you mention sowing seeds in. Do you cut the loo rolls in half or use the whole length? And do you fill the tubes with compost or stand them upright in lines in a seed tray full of compost before filling the tubes and planting seeds? I have been diligently saving all our loo roll inners and want to plant beans in them later on but as I had never heard of this method of sowing before I was a tad confused.

Sorry if this seems really dumb, but I have looked in my books and no one else has mentioned it! Thanks
Mrs F x

treepotato1

Mrs_Flittersnoop wrote: »

Sorry if this seems really dumb, but I have looked in my books and no one else has mentioned it! Thanks
Mrs F x

No such thing as a dumb question! However, I haven't a cloo.......

blushingbride_3

i'm gonna grow my potatoes in tubs, like this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionthing64/2409393139/

looks nice & colourful & they are £3 in asda at the moment! guess where i'm off to at lunch

alliwantistosave

treepotato1 wrote: »

Isn't it the case that carrots were actually originally purple before they were genetically modified to be orange? Must have been the Dutch did that...

Yep that is correct which is why I wanted to go back to the natural colour.
I am also going to try and grow some blue sweetcorn (fingers crossed)

treepotato1

blushingbride wrote: »

Cucumbers - some good ones but slugs got to them

Oh dear.....I hate killing any creature and, although my garden is Slug Central , I never used bait last year so I think I may not be going to be the most successful veggie grower. I can't stand to think about how they die...it's awful! I know they look weird but they probably think we're darned ugly too!

Hrmmm.....maybe they don't like peppers.

Mrs_Monkey_Boy

blushingbride wrote: »

i'm gonna grow my potatoes in tubs, like this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionthing64/2409393139/

looks nice & colourful & they are £3 in asda at the moment! guess where i'm off to at lunch

Hi

Am hoping to join you all - have never grown anything before but my DD is 3 and we'd like to grow some things together.

Potatoes seems like an excellent place to start as we get through loads
Love the idea of the tubs - sorry for the silly question - but do you plant them with seed potatoes? How many would you put in an what happens then?? Do you have to do much with them?

Told you I was a novice!!

Thankyou

blushingbride_3

as far as i know you do the following:

Ensure tub has drainage holes, & put crockery/gravel to aid drainage

Put a little compost & seed potatoes with chits upwards

Cover in minimal compost

As the plant grows add more compost to almost cover the whole plant

Continue this unitl you reach the top of tub

Harvest when plant flowers

Make sure you water regularly.

I'd say in a tub like the picture 2 seed potatoes

Anyone know more than me please add

stardrops42

blushingbride wrote: »

i'm gonna grow my potatoes in tubs, like this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionthing64/2409393139/

looks nice & colourful & they are £3 in asda at the moment! guess where i'm off to at lunch

Thanks for that! I love those tubs, off to asda me thinks:beer:

Hippychick

Ikea are now selling planting bags, a little more expensive than the blue bags but look a lot more cheery.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20167287