veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

misskool

shandypants5 wrote: »

I potted my courgettes into huge containers yesterday, but now I am reading that its to early to leave them outside!

The tubs are too big to bring back indoors, do you think I will get away with insulating them with fleece and bubblewrap?

Depending on where they are, what the temperatures in your garden are like you *MAY* be able to get away with it.

Any idea what your nighttime temps are at the moment? Is it a sheltered area your garden? Can you pop a little greenhouse/tent over it? If you sit it on some paving stones, you can keep the heat in the soil a bit warmer overnight.

A lot of my plants are in an unheated greenhouse because there is no more space (we're doing up the house as well so even less space than normal) and they are ok but it's not ideal for them.

shandypants5

they are in a south facing really sheltered part of the patio. its like an oven during the day.
They are in black tubs too so they absorb a lot of heat.
I think I will make a bubblewrap mini greenhouse to go over them, just to be safe.

lynzpower

Shandy- careful with the black tubs, being black SO much water seems to get evaporated from them as well and the compost can dry out/ blow away etc.

FFR I will be mixing in some sharp sand to weight down the compost and to hold water.

heynonnynonny

Has anyone experience with sweetcorn? Got a 9cm pot with 4 young plants in, the roots are trailing out of the bottom of the pot. Got 30cm pots....could I put all 4 in one of these? Keep reading conflicting advice about how ar the roots get down, one source said 3", one said the pot should be at least 18" deep?

All 6 of my courgettes have germinated and looking pretty strong and are in one of those wilko 4 tier things so am pretty pleased with them!

freakyogre

misskool wrote: »

I use the compost from growbags into pots as i think they are too shallow for planting. Courgettes are big hungry plants so will need lots of watering and regular feeding when they get going.

As for the weather, I keep telling everyone to get a min/max thermometer because you can tell for yourself when it's ok for the plants to go out, it's still surprisingly cold as my temps (SE) are still 3/4C in my greenhouse overnight. That's still too cold except for the hardiest plants.

I've decided to do the courgettes in the growbag, but have repotted them today and will keep them inside for now as it's still really cold at night (for me anyway!)

lynzpower wrote: »

Hi freaky

I dont know if you can see this on my home page but in the middle of the sequare raised "thing" in the middle of the roof there is this round pot that is sort of balanced on the square? Im putting the courgette in there.

Yes they will do really well in growbags, better than pots. TBH, you will have to use probably more compost in pots than gropwbags IYSWIM as youll have to keep changing the compost as you "pot up".

im not sure about outside yet. I might stick mine out today to "harden off" - then back in before it goes dark. im in london and it was supposed to be 2 degrees yesterday night . I definitely think this is WAY too cold for courgette as courge is mainly water - see what happens to a courge if it is too cold in your fridge. Freezes then defrost into sludge. Im sure the plants are not ready for it yet. to be fair your are WAY too small yet. ( imo non-expert opinion lols)


RHS says we are well early!!

I think I can see the picture you mean! I went to Asda last night and got one of the buckets, but thought they were bigger and after seeing some pictures of courgettes growing, have decided to do them in the growbag as think the bucket will be too small. I'll keep that for the peppers (and hope they will be ok in it!) I've already drilled some holes in it, so it's useless for anything else water related

I repotted the courgettes today and am hoping they'll be ok as the roots were really tangled I suppose i'll just have to wait and see how they get on.

From this...



To this...



One more question if you don't mind I have some 'baby leaf salad' which was in the same type pot as the courgettes. It was growing really well, but I don't know how big it's supposed to get before it can eaten? It looks a bit like cress at the moment, but a bit bigger?! I've moved it to a bigger pot/tray today and just hope I haven't killed it completely as it's not sitting upright anymore. Not the end of the world if I have but still annoying.

Thank you so much for everyones help

GarnetLady

misskool - Hmm I'll have to try that, and I know just who I'll be thinking of!

kimmee - That's great. I hope I'll be eating some of what I grow and that I don't kill it all instead!

heynonnynonny - I managed to [STRIKE]drag[/STRIKE], I mean DH and I went to Focus earlier. Actually managed to come out without buying anything plant related. I did rescue a heather from B&Q though, it was only 25p! Yes it is an obsession. :rotfl:

morg-monster - What a bargain! We've just started getting birds into the garden, 2 goldfinches are our regulars at the minute.

seraphina - Your toms look fab. I've got mine in the black buckets, but I wasn't going to put them in growbags as well, do you find that better?

The weather here yesterday and today has been quite wild. My tomatoes and strawberries are still inside and seem to be doing fine. I do however seem to have a small swarm of midgie type little flies hanging about them, killed about 10 at the kitchen window so far. (I don't usually kill anything, even spiders which I *hate* are chucked outside, but these things are a step too far!)

I got tomato feed from poundland and I'm sure I've just seen the same one in Morrisons for £2.49.

I'll stop rambling now!

lynzpower

freakyogre wrote: »

I've decided to do the courgettes in the growbag, but have repotted them today and will keep them inside for now as it's still really cold at night (for me anyway!)



I think I can see the picture you mean! I went to Asda last night and got one of the buckets, but thought they were bigger and after seeing some pictures of courgettes growing, have decided to do them in the growbag as think the bucket will be too small. I'll keep that for the peppers (and hope they will be ok in it!) I've already drilled some holes in it, so it's useless for anything else water related

I repotted the courgettes today and am hoping they'll be ok as the roots were really tangled I suppose i'll just have to wait and see how they get on.

From this...



To this...



One more question if you don't mind I have some 'baby leaf salad' which was in the same type pot as the courgettes. It was growing really well, but I don't know how big it's supposed to get before it can eaten? It looks a bit like cress at the moment, but a bit bigger?! I've moved it to a bigger pot/tray today and just hope I haven't killed it completely as it's not sitting upright anymore. Not the end of the world if I have but still annoying.

Thank you so much for everyones help

Hun for leaf lettuce it should look like the bags of salad you buy in a shop.
At the "cress size" that is what one would call "microleaves" you can snip these now if you want and add to sandwich etc.

Salad -It never needs and wont benefit from re-potting, you might really have karked your salad this time. However, its quick to grow so if you get a new tray on the go now, then you will have a harvest in 3 weeks or so.

I would always sow it in a shallow tray - it doesnt have deep roots. I have some at the mo in a large plastic tray you get value mushrooms in with some holes pierced in.

I would also say youll need bigger pots for your courges they will have outgrown those in a few days. The most they have the more they will grow.

xx

lynzpower

heynonnynonny wrote: »

Has anyone experience with sweetcorn? Got a 9cm pot with 4 young plants in, the roots are trailing out of the bottom of the pot. Got 30cm pots....could I put all 4 in one of these? Keep reading conflicting advice about how ar the roots get down, one source said 3", one said the pot should be at least 18" deep?

All 6 of my courgettes have germinated and looking pretty strong and are in one of those wilko 4 tier things so am pretty pleased with them!

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/vegging-out/growing-sweetcorn-pots_18939.html

this looks good
I need to get some sweetcorn I think I am going to dothem now- not too late am I?

Also next steps are to buy more seeds, sugar snap, mange tout, baby corn.

better get up there lovely weather today, it is clear not a cloud in the sky :j

seraphina

GarnetLady wrote: »

seraphina - Your toms look fab. I've got mine in the black buckets, but I wasn't going to put them in growbags as well, do you find that better?

Have no idea if it will work better, have never grown anything much before:rotfl: I read somewhere that grobags are a bit too shallow, and for best results you can cut the bottom out of the pots and stick them on top of the grobags. I'm also hoping it will give me a bit more of a moisture resevoir - I've got a few weekends away planned and I don't want to come back to poorly toms.

heynonnynonny

Sweetcorn in a tractor tyre, bet that looks lovely.

Still loving the thread, wish I could give more advice than I take, hopefully soon will be able to do so!!

Reading the posts on courgettes is making me wonder.....I might get some of those cheap plastic 'trugs' to plant each one in...I originally bought 36cm pots one per plant but hearing that they are big and needy plants I might do this instead.

I put the sweetcorn 5 to a 30cm pot....BUT even for tiny plants the roots are very long indeed and I think they are going to need a huge trug too.

Lynz - I got 5 healthy little sweetcorn plants 99p from Focus, must be worth a go. I've spent all my money on plants this month not very MSE!!