veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

Aless

Helen

I strip the bottom leaves if they go weak and yellow. I think the purpose is to stop the plant wasting energy when it could spend it producing fruits. Once the flowers and that get going we often strip a lot of the leaves.

Chimera

Put two tom plants my oh's dad gave me in their final containers. Potted on two other toms old boy up the road gave me
bought grow bags for the top of kennel
potted on some chard
potted up two raspberry plants, hopping to put in ground later in year
Planted salad seedling in wine crate neighbour gave me
potted on some sprouting broccoli seedlings
earthed up spuds

Now drinking a g&t and thinking about my winter..

Still need topsoil for raised beds, and to pick up some mulch from farm shop...

izzwizz_2

helen_roberts wrote: »

Hello everyone.

My tomato plants have got little tiny tomatoes on them!!:T:T

But i do have another question about my tomato plants.... lots of the bottom sets of leaves are looking quite tatty should i leave them or remove them?
...
I hope someone can help me with my red pepper plants, its been about 11 weeks now and they are still little plants 4 - 5 inches high, i just cant believe that they are going to do anything especially as i sowed them the same day as my whopping tomato plants. Is this normal? Are they slow growers?

hi Helen, Time to start feeding your tomatoes once a week with tomato food I have only removed the leaves with little brown spots (that could be tomato blight starting) or that look diseased. Otherwise leave them until you need to remove them.

Regards pepper plants, mine seemed to do nothing for ages, but the hot peppers have just started to shoot up this week. Yours sound fine - they're probably busy growing roots as someone else mentioned earlier this week. I did shade the pots with some basil in pots after hearing Bob Flowerdew say peppers don't like hot roots, don't know if that helped but they look happy! :j

helen_roberts_2

I meant to ask about watering as well.

Ive all my plants in morrisons buckets which are then sat on top of smaller pots so that any extra water drains into and collects into the smaller pots. Is it ok to reuse any water that has ran through and collected the next day into the same plant or should I be throwing this away?

stilernin

helen_roberts wrote: »

I meant to ask about watering as well.

Ive all my plants in morrisons buckets which are then sat on top of smaller pots so that any extra water drains into and collects into the smaller pots. Is it ok to reuse any water that has ran through and collected the next day into the same plant or should I be throwing this away?

Are the buckets actually in or above the pots that collect the drain off? I used to have cheap washing up bowls to put all my tomato pots in and only water into the bowls rather than into the pots. Water is taken up by the dry soil and used by the lower roots. Once a week, I would feed into the top of the pots. If you water into the top you are washing the nutrients through the soil and tomatoes actually are happier if the stems are not in wet compost. (You get used to warmth if you are from South America).

So, the short answer to your question is yes, reuse the water, it will have traces of nutrients, but ideally by having the pots sitting in the lower pot.

helen_roberts_2

I thought it was bad to have your plants stood in water? I had them on big saucers but was worried that they were sat in water so I put big pot in small pot so that didn't happen. I'm new to this, spending too much time worrying about water. Help me please

Beccatje

helen_roberts wrote: »

I thought it was bad to have your plants stood in water? I had them on big saucers but was worried that they were sat in water so I put big pot in small pot so that didn't happen. I'm new to this, spending too much time worrying about water. Help me please

You don't want them sitting in water all the time. If the roots are constantly wet, they will rot. But you can water from below if you want. Add as much water as the soil will soak up in about an hour or so. Then remove the rest.
And yes, there is nothing wrong with re-using water. As Stilernin said, it will contain nutrients that got washed out, and besides, plants aren't really fussy about the flavor of their water. As long as it's not got poison in it. ;-)

Youthworkers_Wife

After a typical bank holiday of heavy rain and high winds (why can't we ever have a nice one?), I've just gone outside and noticed that some of my baby courgettes have been blown apart and are now in a very sorry state. I guess it will teach me not to plant them out until they are stronger. They were living in the spare bedroom until a couple of weeks ago - but we had visitors so they had to move! I guess that next time I'll have to just tell the visitors to walk round them ...

Regards

Youthworker's Wife

lunar

I really need to get some of my plants outside now, The pumpkins and squashes have taken over. I am just worried about killing them, the wind has been so bad this weekend, and of course the weather is horrible again today. I tool my tomato/chilli/pepper hanging basket out the greenhouse about a week ago and it seems to be OK.

I am unsure about what to do with my cucumbers, I have lost the seed packet and dont know what type they are. They have yellow flowers on which look like very, very small cucumbers. they also have what looks like normal flower buds forming. Does anyone have a clue what type this might be and if i need to remove any flowers? I will try and get some pictures this week!

bizliz27

I planted out my french beans yesterday - I had to cover them in bubble wrap in case they got damaged in this wind and rain It's supposed to be JUNE!!! :mad: I'm convinced its not actually June and I have in actual fact, I slept too long this bank holiday!! haha :rotfl: