veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

meg72

janibrown wrote: »

Do strawberries only send out runners on the 1st year ?
Please xxx

No your plants will continue to reproduce until they are finished usually about 3-4 years. So keep potting up to replace old plants.

izzwizz_2

Mrs_Veg_Plot wrote: »

Hi kathilicos my aubergines are the same. The plants look really healthy and there have been lots of flowere for weeks now but nothing else seems to be happening.

same here too

izzwizz_2

katholicos wrote: »

Picked some massive courgettes today and a couple of gherkins and about 1 lb mangetout and 5 small cauliflowers and a handful of green tomatoes. I've decided to make mixed veg pickle with them so currently have them all covered with salt and they will stay that way for 24 hours and then they will be thoroughly rinsed, put in sterilised jars and then have vinegar poured over them. Can hardly wait to taste the end result.

Hi hun, please don't do this with green tomatoes - they're poisonous (people can make green tomato chutney with them because boiling for a long time breaks down the toxins). The rest sounds lovely though.

lovelife_3

Goodness this summer is really not happening, at least for us in the North East !! Everything takes forever to come to fruition !! lots of green tomatoes, can't wait for them. Been out this morning and pulled off all the lower leaves. I harvested my first bag of potatoes last week! i had to laugh, there were about 20 small ones, enough for one meal, the compost will have cost me more, my fault though as only the top 12 inches of the bag was wet so i had not watered them enough duh! One quick question, i have noticed that one of my purple sprouting broccolis has got formed a head bit already, i was under the impression i wouldn't get anything until early spring next year, does this mean that it has bolted? Any help greatly appreciated.

katholicos

izzwizz wrote: »

Hi hun, please don't do this with green tomatoes - they're poisonous (people can make green tomato chutney with them because boiling for a long time breaks down the toxins). The rest sounds lovely though.

Thanks so much for letting me know. I came across a pickled veg recipe online using them but wasn't 100% convinced as i tasted one and then spat it out because it was so bitter.

izzwizz_2

katholicos wrote: »

Thanks so much for letting me know. I came across a pickled veg recipe online using them but wasn't 100% convinced as i tasted one and then spat it out because it was so bitter.

No problem, I'm glad you didn't swallow

zarazara

Had our first courgette of the season yesterday. Also our first french beans.

pinkpig08

My lettuces are about ready for picking, radishes are coming on nicely, think I've killed the carrots though! DH says they were too wet. I've put the strawberry runners in the compost and they've rooted, but when do I cut the runner off?

antonia1

Hiya,

Haven't posted in a while, been dead busy cooking and eating all my courgettes and cucumbers! Also had a major melt down about three weeks ago when the neighbour's dog got into the garden and dug up all my lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage and one pepper plant! I have gotten over it now (just!) and I'm sure the wine and flowers they bought helped!

Other than that disaster, the cucumbers and courgettes have been growing well, until about a week ago when they've started to go yellow. I have been feeding them, so I think I may have over watered them! The remaining pepper plants are doing better than expected, and tomatoes are finally turning red! I think the carrots and parsnips are nearly ready for harvesting too. Had a few strawberries, and they are delicious.

Now just have to decide what (if anything) to plant for the autumn or over winter!

PS My chilli plants were awesome! They had so many chillis that I have to whizz some in a blender and freeze for later use!

ANY_CHANCE

ictquizzer wrote: »

I planted several containers of onions (sets) in March. When I checked them today, one of the containers seems to have lots of flies crawling about the onions. I've looked online and I see onion fly mentioned several times, however I don't see any sign of maggots or rot, and I dug one out to check (though scared to cut it open due to what I may find!).

They look rather like greenflies (some of them anyway) to me, but an online search didn't help find out if this was possible. I also thought fruitflies may be a possibility?? Can anyone help, I'm not sure whether to simply throw them out, cut it open (ewwwww what may i find?!?) or just leave it and hope for the best. Don't know if it makes a difference, but there always seems to be spiders webs on this particular container, does that give any clues?

Thanks for any help, I'm fearing the worst in meantime...

update - peeled back an outer leaf of the one I'd dug up and could only just see it - a wee white thing crawling round. That's them binned!

Thats a shame about your onions,
I wonder if i had the same bug in my potato? it was white small and crawling ..ewww