veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

janibrown

Wish we could have some rain not had any for ages, spent 2 hours watering already 2day and need to water again 2nite grrrrr
dug up some lovely potato today really nice pink skin am having foe tea 2nite with pirri pirri chicken and a home grown salad with croutons, roasted cubed pots, bacon lardons aand balsamic dressing YUM YUM

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone.

Finding it very difficult to get out in the garden never mind get on here. With the two little uns and being back at work I have NO spare time - what was I thinking planting all this stuff!! Just been out to water it but no doubt it will chuck it down now I have done. Looking a bit black over Bill's mothers......

Most things in garden going great guns. Had lots of strawberrys and yummy peas and carrots. Got loads of chillis, peppers and even a courgette this morning!!

Only thing is though I need some advice. Firstly - I have a few potatoes that I put in at different times. The ones in the trugs ahve gone funny. They DID look similar to this until a few weeks ago:


Now they look like this:


What is wrong with them? I had thought they were ready so I emptied one trug out and the spuds were TINY so deffo not ready. I must have done something wrong but not sure what.

Plus my tomatoes all look like this:


What have I done? They have been on the same shelf as the peppers that are doing fine so I can't fathom it. Both the plum and the gardeners delight look like this.

Help!

heynonnynonny

Shelvis my tumbling tomato looks exactly like that, so will be interested to see what others say on it.
My gardeners delight ones aren't as bad though, I got them with bordeaux mixture and it seems to have helped.

misskool

shelvis: potatoes need a lot of water when they are forming, did you water them every day? The tomatoes look like they aren't getting enough water. Soak them in a saucer of water until it's soggy and then leave it to recover in the shade for a day or 2.

wssla00

I had one like that Shelvis and I threw it away I feel bad but it creeped me out! But I think it was to do with the stem breaking in the wind so I think it was that that stopped the water getting to the leaves?

[Deleted User]

I watered them almost every day both the spuds and the tomatoes. It has been really windy and the toms have been knocked over a few times. In fact I had to throw one away because it snapped clean in half

Thing is some toms have formed on it though.

I have watered them all and I am going to buy some big saucers for the tomato pots tomorrow to try and help stop all the water draining out when i water them. Can I save the spuds though?? And the ones I have that are still upright I need to water more then??

I am such a newb!

Mrs_Veg_Plot

betony wrote: »

Hi Mrs V P :wave: Lettuce will not germinate well in higher temperatures. It's best to sow them in shade at this time of year (well THIS year anyway :rotfl:) and make sure they aren't allowed to dry out at any time.

Good luck with your garden - make the most of this weather :beer:

Thanks betony, will start some more off in the kitchen tomorrow :T

Currently harvesting salad leaves, spinach and broad beans. I also think some of the beetroot are ready, might just leave them a bit longer before investigating further, I can see the tops of some of them which look OK to have as baby beetroot.

I have also followed the advice earlier on this forum and put a ripe bananna in the greenhoust to try to encourage some of the green tomatoes to ripen (hope no one else notices or they will think I have lost the plot)

Looking forward to transplanting sprout and bean plants into the veg plot this weekend, feeling very proud of my efforts so far and really enjoying feeding home grown produce to the family :A.

Happy gardening this weekend everyone :T

misskool

shelvis wrote: »

I watered them almost every day both the spuds and the tomatoes. It has been really windy and the toms have been knocked over a few times. In fact I had to throw one away because it snapped clean in half

Thing is some toms have formed on it though.

I have watered them all and I am going to buy some big saucers for the tomato pots tomorrow to try and help stop all the water draining out when i water them. Can I save the spuds though?? And the ones I have that are still upright I need to water more then??

I am such a newb!

When you let compost dry out, and then try to water it again the compost won't retain any water. So you need to soak it through again to re-wet it. It also helps if you put a layer of mulch on top to avoid it drying out so much.

You can also remove some leaves so it doesn't transpire so much and use a lot of water. Also diligently remove the sideshoots as they will continously attempt to flower and set fruit but the small pot can't support it.

just looking at the picture, the bottom ones that are yellow and brown can be removed as the plant won't use it anymore.

kimmee

As you know I'm no expert but I follow the advice given on GW re watering tomatoes: water them daily into the saucer, not the pot so the roots will get the moisture then when you feed them, feed pot not the saucer as apparantly the roots that take the nourishment are much closer to the surface. I always do this and mine are fine (Gardeners Delight and Mini Bels), setting lots of fruit though they were being battered by the wind last week so I moved them into a more sheltered spot.

Hope that helps

wssla00

Hello well..... FINALLY! The rain has stopped! Woohoo! So I got out today to plant on some pots of rocket so that should soon fill up the gap I have in my flower bed. Saw some new seedlings poking their heads up, so that's good and just generally pottered about.

I should be expecting my greenhouse in the next couple of weeks! Can't wait for it! Other than that everything in the garden is pottering about quite nicely!

When it gets to september I will start getting ready for next year, and try and make the garden all neat and tidy ready for spring!

Anyway have a good Sunday all