veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

frazzbo

satnav10 wrote: »

Can anyone give me any advise on growing red peppers? i bought a small plant from Focus a few weeks ago, but dont really know what to do with it. I have been keeping it inside most of the time, but i am starting to put it out in the daytime to get some 'fresh air'. I have a load of what look like green buds (they are tiny). Are these the eventual pepper? The stems dont seem sturdy enough to hold bell peppers on (even thought i am supporting them with sticks).

Any help / advise appreciated. Thanks!

Hi satnav! We're growing peppers for the second year. I really wasn't hopeful last year at all because like you, I thought it was too small to take the weight of anything. It soon got stonger though (had to wait a while, probably mid-July) and I got actual peppers from it - I was so excited! They grew to a reasonable size, but they don't get as fat as they do in the shops.

Last year we had green ones, and this year we're trying both red and yellow.

Hold tight, you will get them eventually!

Soubrette

katholicos wrote: »

I have 2 of these as well, only mine were from B&Q. They have teeny weeny little 'green buds' on them which i presume will grow on to be peppers eventually. My stems don;t look sturdy and both plants are pretty small.

If they are anything like chilli peppers (and from memory from the year I grew bell peppers they are) then the little green bud will turn into a flower - this has to be pollinated and then you'll get a pepper from it, after the flower has wilted.

Sou

heynonnynonny

I have a chilli and a yellow pepper plant, both are tiny and both have flowers coming on them - no idea how the yellow pepper in particular will support big peppers it's only about 20cm high.

elsien

izzwizz wrote: »

LOL @elsien sorry but don't know how to make your courgettes flower (you're not feeding them with a high Nitrogen feed?)
.

I'm feeding with doff organic feed (which doesn't list the ingredients, just says it's for all plants) then when my wormery gets going I plan to use my worm wee!
Don't know if the doff is high nitrogen or not - is that what I need?
On a positive note, I had my first new potatos for tea today after a spot of firkling.

elsien

dizzybee wrote: »

Any advice please due to all the rain we have had all my leafs on my veg have gone and i,m left with just steams.shall i just throw them and start again or can they be saved?
not having much look.

How do you mean, all gone - eaten by insects/ slugs maybe? What veg are we talking about?

soul619

my spinach keeps going to seed, any advice?

misskool

Soubrette wrote: »

Does anyone know anything about pumpkins? I sowed a few hooligan seeds (they are very small pumpkins) just for fun and gave most of them away - I kept two and am rather foolishly growing them in (very big) pots.

They are growing well and I can see one of them has developed a nice female flower. Poking around on google I think I have to pollinate it with a male flower - but the male flowers are much less well developed than this female flower.

Does this mean it will die an old maid, unfertilised and alone

and more to the point - no little pumpkin for me :mad:

Sou

If you have anything else of the cucurbit family nearby they cross pollinate like mad so they will be fertilised.

annie123

soul619 wrote: »

my spinach keeps going to seed, any advice?

grow it in the shade, I always do from may till sept along with lettuce

kimmee

wssla00 wrote: »

Forgot to say- Lunar! Your garlic is amazing. Do you plant the whole bulb or just the cloves?

You break the bulb apart and plant each clove. I pulled my first one up today, planted in November so got loads of really cold weather but it hasn't split and was really small

soullessfire

Yeah I think my spinach is going the same way, will pinch them out and move into the shade and hope for the best.