veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

kimmee

Is anyone in the same position as me? - loads of male flowers on my courgettes and it has been flowering for a few weeks but no female flowers and obviously no baby courgettes. What have I done wrong and will they ever produce?! I know (now) that cucumbers tend to produce male flowers first and then female flowers which mine have done (think I'm getting my second baby cuc :j) so are courgette plants the same?

Thanks for any advice

dippynina

I am a complete novice gardner but have been wanting to grow my own veg for years. So decided this was the year. My OH made planters and I am growing pumpkins, courgettes, peas, green beans, chilli, carrots, onions, potatoes, spring onions, beetroot, lettuce and tomatoes. I am really chuffed as they are all coming on really well! (ok, apart from the tomatoes!)
I have read with interest about male/female flowers on the courgettes/pumpkins. I have no clue about this. How can I tell the difference and what exactly am I supposed to do?!? I also have many flowers on my chilli plant - do I just leave it?

Any advice much appreciated. Thanks

mrbadexample

dippynina wrote: »

I also have many flowers on my chilli plant - do I just leave it?

If it's outside, then the flowers should get pollinated by insects. If pollinators can't get to it (i.e. it's inside) then you will have to do it by hand - using a finger / small paintbrush, just transfer the pollen from one flower to another. Be gentle, or you risk knocking the flowers off.

And this might help with the courgettes.

Wobbledoos

well i've lost count how many days it's taken me to read all the posts!

introducing myself! i have a fairly small garden, but have managed to make the most of almost every inch of space...

live in the NW, and it's currently chucking it down!

i have tomatoes, courgettes, brocolli, garlic, onions, beans, potatoes, pak choi, lettuces, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apples, rhubarb, carrots, cucumbers, peppers... i think that's it....

anyway having loved looking at the photos thought i'd share mine!

(there are nearly 40!!)

http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w226/thebigww/Garden%202010/ i hope that works, i'm rubbish at linking!

or...



















looking forward to getting to know you all - have bookmarked gawd knows how many seed links from this thread!

katholicos

jaxx46 wrote: »

Hi All,
Quick question about swede, is anyone growing them? Planted some seeds about 8 weeks ago, nothing doing after 4 weeks so put tray to one side and forgot all about them. Went to empty and clean tray to reuse this morning and have twelve seedlings! The problem is now have nowhere to put them in the ground. Would I be able to grow them in Mr M's buckets 1 per bucket? At least then they could go on patio. Any suggestions welcome.

Jaxx, i'm growing swede and turnip, but i am harvesting them when they are golf ball size. I planted some in one of my raised beds thinking it would do better there but in actual fact the ones i planted in a garden trough turned out much better. The ones in the raised bed were all foliage above ground and very little going on in terms of actual vegetable. The ones in the trough don't have any where near as much foliage above ground but below soil level some are bigger than the ones in the raised bed...and i planted the trough ones later!

I have absolutely no idea why this is as this is my first year of veg growing.

If you were wanting to grow small swede, or rather, harvest them when they are small then i would say you could get 5 or 6 or so in a morrisons bucket. If you wanted to grow them large, then probably just the one per bucket.

wssla00

mrbadexample wrote: »

Are you in a position to be able to post a picture please?

Will do as soon as it stops raining.... lol

Wobbledoos

oh and here's last night's/today's pictures:



we decided yesterday to empty the tub with the new potatoes in - the above is about half the crop - i am TOO impatient!!

and below is what the courgette looked like this morning, however it's closed up again - there is a little-finger-sized courgette at the bottom, woo hoo!! (as i too have no clue re this male/female pollination malarkey!) (so have bookmarked MBE's link!)

katholicos

Wobbledoos wrote: »

well i've lost count how many days it's taken me to read all the posts!

introducing myself! i have a fairly small garden, but have managed to make the most of almost every inch of space...

live in the NW, and it's currently chucking it down!

i have tomatoes, courgettes, brocolli, garlic, onions, beans, potatoes, pak choi, lettuces, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apples, rhubarb, carrots, cucumbers, peppers... i think that's it....

anyway having loved looking at the photos thought i'd share mine!

(there are nearly 40!!)

http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w226/thebigww/Garden%202010/ i hope that works, i'm rubbish at linking!

looking forward to getting to know you all - have bookmarked gawd knows how many seed links from this thread!

Welcome to the gardening part of MSE, Wobbledoos, and particularly to this thread.

I am very impressed with your growing. Wow! I really like looking at photos of peoples veg growing and I notice from your photobucket album that you have chickens.....oooh, how wonderful...and your water feature is very lovely

mrbadexample

I'm particularly taken by your "waste of space" carrots. Are they especially difficult to grow?

Wobbledoos

mrbadexample wrote: »

I'm particularly taken by your "waste of space" carrots. Are they especially difficult to grow?

tremendously so...

all you need is

- one tub bought specially for them at a highly inflated price cos i was "on one" on a buying spree (i think some of my purchases still sit unused )

- [STRIKE]one packet of[/STRIKE] two packets of seeds - one chanteney, one i can't remember what...

- one newly erected "greenhouse" that hubby ranted at me buying but i "neeeeeeeeeeded" it...

- one ton of "snugs" as my almost-3-yr old calls them (snails or slugs)

- and a huge dose of "omg-i-can't-wait-to-grow-my-own-carrots-properly this-year" type enthusiasm...



i should mention... in previous years i've sown carrot seeds into little peat pot thingys (they expand like magic in water!), and then transplanted to the ground..... have had the oddest shaped results, but lovely & delicious anyway... this year i figured with the "greenhouse" i could do it right... :sighs:

hence i've now sown a whole patch of the b*ggers instead! which is probably too late in the year... ho hum... :cool: