veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

lolly5648

I have had my french beans out for about 10 days and they are doing well, so are my tomatoes which are about 14" high but have no flowers yet. Still keeping my courgettes and cucumber inside, mainly because I don't have any room to plant them and it will cost a fortune to buy planters. Don't know what to do

mutley74

i lost all my leeks yesterday. they showed no sign of recovering from the cold spell last week. Decided to pull them out and start again! RIP baby Leeks!

ausmummy

lolly5648 wrote: »

I have had my french beans out for about 10 days and they are doing well, so are my tomatoes which are about 14" high but have no flowers yet. Still keeping my courgettes and cucumber inside, mainly because I don't have any room to plant them and it will cost a fortune to buy planters. Don't know what to do

Have you got any old furniture? eg. frame off old drawers put up against a wall. Anything really that can hold enough soil and you can varnish or spray to make weather proof. If the finished product doesn't look all that good you could always put pots in front. I've sprayed some large square bins that were being thrown out at work to use for my chilli and pepper plant pots.

Oh, just remember to put in drainage

stilernin

lolly5648 wrote: »

I have had my french beans out for about 10 days and they are doing well, so are my tomatoes which are about 14" high but have no flowers yet. Still keeping my courgettes and cucumber inside, mainly because I don't have any room to plant them and it will cost a fortune to buy planters. Don't know what to do

You could try the 'push the compost to each end of a growbag and cut it in half' trick. Roll the edges of the plastic down and voila, you have two stand up sacks of compost big enough for a courgette or a few beans. Could be the cheapest way to go this year.

For smaller stuff, lettuces, spring onions etc check out your green grocer. I got some terrific plastic boxes that mushrooms were delivered in. (Not the blue open ones, but black plastic approx 8" deep). I use them for loads of stuff.

lunar

I have planted out 2 of my pumpkin plants today, they have gone in the flower beds so they will have lots of space to ramble! ill see how they go for a few days before putting out any more. I am tempted to put plastic carrier bags over them tonight, am I just being silly?

Lots of flowers on my various tomato plants, hopefuly i will be seeing some small tomatoes soon.

Some of my strawberries are starting to change colour at the tips! Rasberry canes have loads of flowers on, does anyone know how you tell if they have pollinated?

I also had a quick check of my onions and garlic. some lovely bulbs seem to be forming under ground. I just cant wait to start cooking with all this lovely food!

antonia1

Hiya,

My tomatoes are doing well, as are my cucumbers and french beans. Courgettes are a bit mixed - two are doing excellently, but one has started to get yellow patches. Just gonna wait and see. Pepper plants are growing, but quite slowly, again just gonna wait and see. Need to sow more lettuce as the few I have grown look really tasty, so they won't last me very long. No flowers or anything on the strawberry plants, but they look so healthy I'm not worried. Carrots seem to have (miraculously) survived a squirrel attack, and parsnips have started to show. Cabbage and cauliflowers are doing well in the seed trays, so will try planting them out over the weekend.

I have a question about my chilli plants tho. I have four indoor plants and they all have flowers. What do I do about pollinating them? Will they take care of themselves?

soullessfire

I think something is wrong with some of my plants. First sunny day in a week so I'm hoping it's just too much cold damp soil.

Butternut Squash is going slighly yellow as are sone corn and some basil. really hoping that's just being too wet and cold over the last week. SOme of my cabbages are drooping badly as is parsley and about half of my lettuce just looks really frazzled. Not sure whether it's the hot weather for those since the soil still feels damp when I put my finger in.

lunar

antonia1 wrote: »

Hiya,



I have a question about my chilli plants tho. I have four indoor plants and they all have flowers. What do I do about pollinating them? Will they take care of themselves?

I think you have to pollinate the chillies if they are indoors, you can use a soft paintbrush and just dab it over all the flowers. Does anyone know about tomatoes, I was wondering if they need any help with pollination?

janibrown

Tomato plants should be ok if they are outside, if they are in greenhouse I leave the door open in the day and they are ok if you are worried just do it with a small paint brush, My Uncle has grown toms for over 30yrs in a greenhouse and has never had to pollinate them himself
Hope this is usefull
Janice

soullessfire

Yeah if you're growing anything indoors there's not going to be as many insects about to do the job for you, so buy a few little childrens model paintbrushes (the really fine ones) and just gently dab about the flowers. Make sure you have a seperate paintbrush for each variety/species so you're not cross pollinating.

I grew a lovely crop of chillies last year on a windowsill and had to resort to the painbrushes so it definately works ok