Help MBE grow his dinner 2011

mrbadexample

I've been hopping up and down itching to dig up my spuds. Duke of York, just flowering. So today I thought I'd have a little exploratory dig:



:j

I was going to cover it back up again to get a bit bigger, but [STRIKE]hunger[/STRIKE] greed got the better of me and I had a rummage round the other side:



Just enough for dinner. Battery for scale purposes only - I didn't dig that up.

Incidentally, I also pulled out the seed tuber. Can I safely assume the plant no longer needs it?

mrbadexample

Red bits are flowers, right John?



:whistle:

mrbadexample

Thinking about it, I'm not sure I want flowers so low down on my competition bean:



Should I nip out these side shoots?

lemonjelly

My beans bain't flowering yet. Indeed peas aside, nothing is.

Like I've said though, I didn't get into it until mid-late april this year.:o

Personally I'm not sure I'd nip em off, after all, that flower will turn into a bean you'll be able to eat!:D

djohn2002uk

Sorry, been bowling again, and tomorrow night. Yes they are flowers, and the one the other side of the cane. I always leave one side shoot to go up the cane and nip out any others. The plant will support 2 runners easily. But if you are going to try and grow some monsters I would nip all side shoots off one plant and let it put all its effort into one runner and even maybe getting rid of some of the beans off that plant too.

mrbadexample

djohn2002uk wrote: »

Yes they are flowers, and the one the other side of the cane.

I was wondering if I left a runner, but pinched off any flowers so it doesn't produce any beans, just leaves, would that help the plant make a big one on the other runner? Does that make sense?

djohn2002uk

mrbadexample wrote: »

I was wondering if I left a runner, but pinched off any flowers so it doesn't produce any beans, just leaves, would that help the plant make a big one on the other runner? Does that make sense?

No. The plant uses up energy to grow any extra runners and you want all its energy put into one runner and a selection of the best looking beans.

mrbadexample

Away this weekend again so I've had a good look over everything. Just as well, as aphids were beginning to colonise my chillies and pepper :mad:



This Lemon Drop (probably my 2nd / 3rd best) has suffered some damage. I didn't have any problems with aphids last year, so wasn't looking this year.

mrbadexample

My greenhouse tomatoes are now in their final spot and tied:



The lucky six are Conchita, Dasher, Elegance (all grafted), Red Cluster Pear, Galina, Amish Paste.

The Red Cluster Pear is looking great:

mrbadexample

Finally, I was delighted to find this toad hiding under my rhubarb:



Ok, back Sunday. Lemon, you haven't let me down yet so you're still in charge. Think everything should be ok for water until I get back.