Veg to plant in January and things to do.

soupdragon10

My garden is currently a quagmire (we have good Cornish clay which I hope to improve steadily over the next few years).

I have a small polytunnel in addition to my greenhouse, and was wondering if this would provide some protection from blight for tomato plants grown in the same garden as potatoes?

Hope to get my raised bed sorted out this year and get down to some serious growing.

[Deleted User]

I love getting the dates from you Sally, keep them coming please

jsh99

Hoping to get the forcer onto my rhubarb this weekend - it's just starting to show dark red knobles at the crown.

wssla00

Ooh! Me too! I will definitely get the forcer on this week (By forcer i mean old big plastic pot with no holes)!

Got loads of things needing to be planting in the next few days (prob the weekend) including some new bare root trees and some fruit bushes.

Soup dragon- it might provide some protection from blight, but more importantly they should ripen and grow more quickly than outside so may have a fighting chance before the blight comes.

Looking forward to this year for growing!

jaxx46

Right it's cold & blowing a hooley, but the sun is out so I'm off out to get the bean trench started.

Primrose

soupdragon10 wrote: »

I have a small polytunnel in addition to my greenhouse, and was wondering if this would provide some protection from blight for tomato plants grown in the same garden as potatoes?

.

It might give a little more protection but remember that blight spores are carried in the air and as summer progresses you will almost certainly have to keep doors open in your polytunnel to reduce the temperature in there and provide some ventilation so sooner or later your tomatoes will still get exposed to the disease. Spraying with Dilthane is a good protector if you can swallow your organic principles. (After 2 years of losing entire tomato crops to blight I decided that that I'd rather get a decent crop of tomatoes than have a zero crop of organic ones, but this is my only exception to non-organic crops and I wash them all well before eating).

I find that the low tumbling varieties of tomato such as Tumbling Red & Tumbling Yellow tend to start maturing & ripening ahead of the tall varieties, so growing a few of them might be added insurance in that you might get a crop before the blight season really starts to trigger.

PudseyDB

Sally_A wrote: »

Basil can be sown all year, so get some going on your windowsill. A glut of leaves can be frozen, but it is always good to have fresh basil, when one pot is ripe for harvest, start the next pot off so you have a continuous supply.

Ooooooh I have a bunny that adores basil. I've never grown it (OH buys them in pots from the supermarket) Any tips???

tripod2000

Primrose wrote: »

I find that the low tumbling varieties of tomato such as Tumbling Red & Tumbling Yellow tend to start maturing & ripening ahead of the tall varieties, so growing a few of them might be added insurance in that you might get a crop before the blight season really starts to trigger.

I had Koralik tomatoes last year and think I was one of the only people to have tomatoes in the allotment.

They're a bush type but I see no reason they couldn't be cordoned. Blight does effect areas of damage i.e. split tomatoes. However the blight does not appear to spread through the plant. The fruit are cherry tomatoes that are incredibly sweet and maybe 12 good plants gave me a massive glut that went into my own baked beans. Sweeter than heinz and with no added sugar or sweeteners. I really recommend them if you're never going to beat the blight with other breeds.

Sally_A

@PudseyDB - just start a few seeds off in pots in the window sill, they take about 10 - 14 days to germinate at the moment. If you cover the pots with a see through lid, remove this as soon as they germinate or they will damp off (keel over from too much moisture on the stem).

I'd go for the cheaper green basil if it's just for the rabbit, Sweet Genovese it might be labelled as.

cootambear

PudseyDB wrote: »

Ooooooh I have a bunny that adores basil. I've never grown it (OH buys them in pots from the supermarket) Any tips???

Add thyme to the feed, the meat will taste luverly