veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

ausmummy

Just wanted to say my carrot roots have finally started to turn orange :T.

satnav10

jollyanna wrote: »

Cold Tea and tea bags - I'm wondering if it is harmful/beneficial to use cold tea and used tea bags in the veg garden ? I remember when I was young my Grandad used to empty his teapot on the roses but not on the veg. We get through lots of pots of tea a day in our house and I'm frequently chucking half a pint down the sink before making the next pot.

My grandfather suggested i use tea leaf around my carrots - so i have been saving old teabags from the pot, and sprinkling these around them. Its my first year growing so dont know what it really does - i think he mentioned something about deterring carrot fly?

savingmummy

Hello all been really busy since moving into our new house and thought i would pop by..

Salad leaves are fab already had 4 meals out fo them and now have 4 troughs of assorted that are going really strong and will last us through summer, they seem to be getting bushier after every harvest

My tomato plant (i sowed in early April) is in a bigger pot and is not doing very much, i`m not sure what it should be doing at this stage?! It is approx 5" and looking healthy.

My herbs - chives are fully grown but seem to have lost their black flower head buds, basil and oregano are not doing well really not progressed from early seedlings.

I want to get a strawberry plant but everywhere i go they dont look very healthy.

mutley74

set out 2 beer slug traps this time! But no slugs caught! Must be fussy drinkers or t-total ones! But i see the shiny strips on the remains of my courgette leaves..so someone has been eating them during the night.

Now i a tempted to use slug pellets. Whats the best way to use them for vegetables on the main ground? The instructions just say keep away from vegetables, but it is not clear do the pellets attract or deter slugs?

izzwizz_2

Slug pellets attract slugs and are poisonous and are best avoided when growing veg. You could try half a citrus fruit or melon (with the pulp removed) turned upside down (they'll hide beneath it during the day so it makes them easy to find). Otherwise the best thing is to go out with a torch around 10 o'clock at night and look for them (then get your own back in whatever way you feel is appropriate). It works especially well if you've just had a light shower of rain.

mutley74

izzwizz wrote: »

Slug pellets attract slugs and are poisonous and are best avoided when growing veg. You could try half a citrus fruit or melon (with the pulp removed) turned upside down (they'll hide beneath it during the day so it makes them easy to find). Otherwise the best thing is to go out with a torch around 10 o'clock at night and look for them (then get your own back in whatever way you feel is appropriate). It works especially well if you've just had a light shower of rain.

could i not place the pellets say abou 0.5m away from the veg?

weird thing is on the thread someone said slugs bury under the soil during the day..but when i tried forking around the veg i dont come across any of the b*ggers. but guess its a 10pm job with a torch!

oldskoolretro

heya, could anyone help me, i am a newbie at growing my own veg, i just wanted to know whether onions are meant to be supported, i have spring onions and red onions and they have like long green shoots growing but i didnt know whether these needed canes or anything as they are just kinda lying around?


Thanks :O)

Aless

izzwizz wrote: »

Slug pellets attract slugs and are poisonous and are best avoided when growing veg. You could try half a citrus fruit or melon (with the pulp removed) turned upside down (they'll hide beneath it during the day so it makes them easy to find). Otherwise the best thing is to go out with a torch around 10 o'clock at night and look for them (then get your own back in whatever way you feel is appropriate). It works especially well if you've just had a light shower of rain.

After devastation to some of my plants and the problems with slug pellets I went on evening slug patrol with my OH on Sunday night. We also went out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night. It is unbelievable how many we found (I think the rain on Tuesday upped the numbers a bit) - about 300 slugs and snails and our garden is not big. I now think this is the only effective way of really catching them as I have never caught so many before. Also a smash with a brick is a quicker death than slug pellets.

I hope I now only have to have a quick look every week to check new slugs have not arrived.

alliwantistosave

Hi all

I know I have not been around much but my salad leaves are going great guns
I have had the best radishes and need to plant more as the taste is sensational and nothing like the ones you buy in the shops.
But one small question I finally have a pepper plant that is growing but something seems to be living in the leaves and slowly munching it's way through can't see anything living in it now so I hope whatever it was has gone. Any idea's of what it could have been?
Also one of my sweetcorn plants has a fluffy thing coming out of the top of it. I am hoping that this is normal as I have never planted sweetcorn before.

How is everyone else getting on ??

I hope you are enjoying your salad as much as me

soullessfire

Beginning to have gardening woes lol The basil is being eaten alive with greenfly, I keep squishing them and spraying with washing liquid and water but they're persistant.

Spinach has had some leaf boring things (eating between the front and back of the leaf). Squished those tonight and cut out the affected leaves.

Bottom leaves of my squash and tomato are going a bit funny, squash leaves are yellow speckled around the edges and the tomato leaves are turning brown at the edges.

Finally the flippin dog has decided that my onions and garlic leaves are some delicious form of grass and he's been nibbling on those. Luckily I didn't see him at it or he'd have got a squirt from the hose.