veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

Old_Meanie

Yes Duckegg you can still try beetroot (good for clearing ground for next year) if you sow straight away. Still time to sow autumn carrotts (Autumn King a good variety), turnips (suttons speedyveg turnips good). Also some varieties of curly kale might be OK, late varieties of spinich, lettuce All the Year Round, spring onions year round variety and I think radishes. You can order spring flowering broccoli plants and cabbage plants on ebay and sow summer cabbage seeds for planting out for next year. All these can be just sown into the ground as the soil is still warm and should be moist now (I live just outside London and the drought killed a lot of my plants). Good luck with your new garden and enjoy. I would leave greenhouse until next year and sow early seeds in Feb March give yourself time to read up on greenhouse growing.

wssla00

kittie wrote: »

I have just received yet another order of nets and hoops after my leeks were decimated by the northward bound leek moth. My new allotment will be a sea of netting next year

Me too! It's a never ending war. I had some on my aubergine plant so they could move next door to my peppers and have a munch!!! So cheeky! All my leeks had Leek Moth too- and I'm in Scotland

I am going to use these for seedlings until they get big enough for my bigger netting concoctions!

wssla00

elsien wrote: »

A quick chilli question, if anyone can help.
I bought a chilli plant in the sale - didn't way what sort, and it's growing plenty of green chillis, but there's no heat to them at all. How long should I leave them before I pick them - is it the bigger they get the hotter they are, or should I be doing something else?

Have you tried one Elsien? Does it taste like a not hot chili? Sometimes if the seed has been saved it can cross pollinate to other chili plants even sweet ones and create strange hibrids. It could also be a sweet pepper plant as some of them are in the shape of chili peppers?

wssla00

Hi all

Well, using the only sun today, I have successfully harvested the last of the beans, cut off the tops and left the roots in the ground as they are nitrogen fixers, sowed some onion and garlic, sowed loads of salad and winter giant spinach, sowed loads more herbs and potted on some calendulas called indian prince.

Next week I have loads of bulbs to plant for spring, but I am seriously feeling like the summer is over *sigh* but very glad it's been productive.

In a funny way, I'm also glad I haven't yet got my allotment as it allows me to make mistakes, try out things and just generally potter at home to make sure they will work when I do finally get one!

Have a good day all

elsien

wssla00 wrote: »

Have you tried one Elsien? Does it taste like a not hot chili? Sometimes if the seed has been saved it can cross pollinate to other chili plants even sweet ones and create strange hibrids. It could also be a sweet pepper plant as some of them are in the shape of chili peppers?

It says chilli pepper on the tag that came with it, but when I tried it it just wasn't hot. I didn't grow it from seed, it came from a local nursery, so I presumed it was what they said it was.

Principia_2

elsien wrote: »

A quick chilli question, if anyone can help.
I bought a chilli plant in the sale - didn't way what sort, and it's growing plenty of green chillis, but there's no heat to them at all. How long should I leave them before I pick them - is it the bigger they get the hotter they are, or should I be doing something else?

We're growing cayenne chillis which start green then turn red. OH tried one while green and said it had no heat at all. He had a red one last week and loved it - medium hot he said *rolleyes*.

About a quarter of our chillis are turning and they are all sorts of different lengths - some just 3-4 cms and some more like 8-9cms (but they all seem to have stopped growing now)- one whole plant is still stubbornly green.

Could it be your chillis still have to change colour?

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Can any one tell me how to check if my sweet corn is ready. Thr bits hanging out of the end of the cobs has just started to go brown.
Thanks

loucroft

Mrs_Veg_Plot wrote: »

Can any one tell me how to check if my sweet corn is ready. Thr bits hanging out of the end of the cobs has just started to go brown.
Thanks

HIya

When the 'tassles' start to change colour and the cob is blunt at the end and seems full. Apparently, according to some, the best time to pick is when its slightly colder - on a morning before the plant has had any more sunshine

Hope they taste yummy

L

elsien

Principia wrote: »

Could it be your chillis still have to change colour?

Just checked the label again and it says jalapeno. If I want them red apparently I have to put them under glass, so I presumed they were ok to eat green as well. Perhaps I'm just being impatient - I'll let them grow more before I try the next one.

mutley74

I wonder when my tomatoes will start to ripen. I was suprised when i went to a friend's house, he has loads of tomatoe plants except in smaller pots than me, but with lots more fruits growing than me...!?
oh well i have 2 courgettes still left, and another good crop of runner beans coming through!