Help MBE grow his dinner 2011

Sambucus_Nigra

Fay - when did you plant them and put them into their final positions? Are they in pots or in the ground? How often are you feeding them and what with?

When you took the side shoots off - are you SURE they were side shoots?

*I'd compost the rotting turnips; I don't don't compost something that is an actual disease but just rot...as LE says, everything rots, that's what compost is made of

mrbadexample

Oi! Sam! How come I'm not getting any gherkins? Good looking plants, with plenty of flowers, but no gherkins. Do I have a pollination problem? I can't see much in the way of flowers unless I move the foliage away. Can I got some back to allow insects better access to the flowers?

Sambucus_Nigra

mrbadexample wrote: »

Oi! Sam! How come I'm not getting any gherkins? Good looking plants, with plenty of flowers, but no gherkins. Do I have a pollination problem? I can't see much in the way of flowers unless I move the foliage away. Can I got some back to allow insects better access to the flowers?

Probably because it's not as warm as it should be. I chop back the foliage on mine...but at the moment it's just not hot enough for them.

If you really want to be sure - hand pollinate them. Take the male flower and remove all the flower bits leaving the pollenny bits - and stick them gently into the female flowers. Do this every day and your cukes should start bulking up nicely.

Don't forget - you were a little late with your gherkins, weren't you?

mrbadexample

I didn't think I was especially late with the gherkins. Tomatoes, yes.

I could try putting them in the greenhouse, but there's not much room amongst the chillies, and I'm not sure I could persuade them to let go of the trellis now.

They're right next to my cucumber, which is doing very nicely - I've had four.

Fay

Hi everyone, a few more pics of the troubled tom's. I'm in a rush for work but will try to answer questions as best as I can remember! The tom's were sown inside in jiffy pellets in March/April (I think). They're either in grow bags (6 gardeners delight) or pots-some are morrisons buckets and others in too small pots-but can I repot them now or is it too late?
The trusses-some are low down on the plants and dispersed throughout the plants including up to the roof of the greenhouse- I need to do some work with them at the weekend I know. I feed them twice a week with a well diluted solution (suggested to do it every day on beechgrove garden but I wasn't sure).
Anyway, a few more pics but I didn't want to blatantly flout MBE's rules with too many in a post

Overview of the green house-gardeners delights in growbags to the right and along the back with the cherry tom's to the left. Some peppers and chillis in there too.



When I took the pics there do seem to be more trusses than I thought, but most are still in the flower stage-doesn't this seem quite late???



Some are like this-a few tom's and flowers together???



The cherry tom's are a very very poor show and were sooo expensive compared to the GD, £3 for 6 seeds :eek:

Lotus-eater

Wow, what a jungle. Are you sure you've sideshooted properly?
Because that would explain the large amount of what looks like sideshoots (from a small photo) and the reason why you have so many trusses still in flower.

What is your spacing between plants?

Sambucus_Nigra

A well diluted solution of what?

I'd say that they are getting too much nitrogen and not enough potassium.....

When you say you have more trusses than you thought - how many have you actually got? Have a count over the weekend and let us know.

ETA:
And yes, a veritable jungle....I suspect many of the sideshoots have not been taken out which the plant then puts energy into supporting.

For Vine toms, each plant should have one main stem, leaves and trusses coming off the main stem and all sideshoots removed.

Sambucus_Nigra

mrbadexample wrote: »

I didn't think I was especially late with the gherkins. Tomatoes, yes.

I could try putting them in the greenhouse, but there's not much room amongst the chillies, and I'm not sure I could persuade them to let go of the trellis now.

They're right next to my cucumber, which is doing very nicely - I've had four.

My outside cukes have been better than my inside ones; so far this year....but it's the weather, lack of heat and not enough sun [IMHO] that is holding cukes back.

Although saying that, I DO have a couple of melons; lovely and furry and one is now starting to look stripey. [cue 'call the doctor' gags].

Fay

Hmm, I thought I had sideshooted properly but will check again. the cherry ones are a bush variety so obviously haven't done those. I also know i need to take off the growing tip now as most are at the top of the greenhouse and have nowhere else to go. Does anyone have a pic of their tomatoe plants they could post so I should see how mine should be looking by now, i.e. sideshooted properly? Thanks guysOh and Sambucus I can't recall what the tomatoe feed is called, I shall have a look at the weekend and repost-I got it from wyevale and it has a red top ha ha

djohn2002uk

In the second and third pics I can see loads of side shoots of at least a foot long and more. They have got trusses on too so are weeks old and the plants are being asked to support far too many. The red top indicates it could be Tomorite in which case every other watering with Tomorite is OK but most feed for Tomatoes is OK at twice a week or every other day.