Help MBE grow his dinner 2011

emiff6

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

I grow my beans [and bearing in mind I grow over 100 different French Bean varieties] and onions together and have never found this to be true. It is quoted on every companion planting chart but I get both fantastic onions and fantastic beans and all grown in the same bed.

My leeks were always skinny when I grew them next to the runner beans. Gave up growing them for a year or two, then had another go with them on the other side of my (small) garden, and they did much better. Perhaps it wasn't the beans, then, but location, location, location....

Why do you grow so many varieties? You surely can't eat THAT many beans a year?

mrbadexample

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Midlands

Great! Can I pop round and have a look?

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

No, it doesn't die if you grow it hard. It dies when you are too soft and then it gets a waft of chilly wind and falls over. My tomatoes and peppers have been in an unheated greenhouse for at least 6 weeks; but they are ALL hardened off properly and were fleeced for the first few weeks so that the frost didn't get them.

Can you explain exactly how you've hardened them off please...

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

If you leave the seedlings in a heated state they grow soft whippy stems and can't cope. Then you are stuck with them all indoors for ages.

...because that's essentially what I've got.

mrbadexample

emiff6 wrote: »

The sunflowers flourish, the spuds and beans don't.

Thank you. Your posts this evening have been very helpful, and I've now found this guide to companion planting which should be very useful to me.

I think I might want to withdraw from the sunflower competition! I'm not sure I have anywhere that I can grow them without them messing something else up. :undecided

emiff6

mrbadexample wrote: »

Thank you. Your posts this evening have been very helpful, and I've now found this which should be useful to me.

Oh, this list is going to be really useful. Now I know why I had rubbish carrots last year, I'll put them with the leeks this time, not the parsnips.

mrbadexample

Sambucus, I'm assuming you have a massive greenhouse, judging by the amount you are growing? If so, it is presumably kitted out with staging etc?

Because my little 6'x6' greenhouse doesn't have any staging, so anything in there goes on the floor (concrete slabs). I would imagine that this is potentially a problem? I could use some staging at the beginning of the season, although once I get my tomatoes in I won't have the space for it. Do you think that would help?

mrbadexample

That companion planting guide is excellent. I think I need some hyssop. And lovage.

Sambucus_Nigra

Questions questions.....

mrbadexample wrote: »

Can you explain exactly how you've hardened them off please...
...because that's essentially what I've got.

Hardening off....outside in the day and back in at night for a good week. Preferably 2. Blow on them every now and then - it helps to thicken the stems up. Then they can be put outside - for the first 2 weeks, pop fleece over them at night but after that they should be fine.

mrbadexample wrote: »

Sambucus, I'm assuming you have a massive greenhouse, judging by the amount you are growing? If so, it is presumably kitted out with staging etc?

Because my little 6'x6' greenhouse doesn't have any staging, so anything in there goes on the floor (concrete slabs). I would imagine that this is potentially a problem? I could use some staging at the beginning of the season, although once I get my tomatoes in I won't have the space for it. Do you think that would help?

i have a 6x8 greenhouse but I grow in schools so alot goes there eventually; and I have a lottie and a set of shelves outside the greenhouse that is my 'holding area'. So, all non-tender stuff goes into the holding area and then out into the final position as soon as it is a few inches tall.

I have staging as the greenhouse is on concrete...but I grow my toms on the floor underneath [in large pots sat on trays] and the tom vines are threaded through the staging and up twine towards the roof; so I just lose the last 6 inches at the back, and I grow peppers all summer on the staging itself. I pick the best few plants of each type and keep them; the rest go to schools or boot fairs

In answer to emiff; I do grow hundreds of beans, but I leave them all on the plant to dry and use them all winter long. I am also working with a few chums to increase the varieties of beans in the UK that are growing for drying...I never eat my french beans green [I grow a few runners for that]; and end up with trays and trays of dry beans all over the house come autumn. It's great!

mrbadexample

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Questions questions.....

Only way to learn. Your help is very much appreciated, thanks. :T

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Hardening off....outside in the day and back in at night for a good week. Preferably 2. Blow on them every now and then - it helps to thicken the stems up. Then they can be put outside - for the first 2 weeks, pop fleece over them at night but after that they should be fine.

When you say outside, I assume you mean in the greenhouse?

So, would you say that these chilli seedlings can be safely put in the greenhouse during the day?



I worry about everything! What if it's too cold? What if we have another bright day and it gets too hot? I'm already too far behind with these, so really can't afford to lose them. Same with the tomatoes. I might try half of them and see what happens.

djohn2002uk

mrbadexample wrote: »

Good day today - acquired a few pallets, so should be able to construct a second compost bin at the weekend. It is something that's concerning me - almost everything I've read bangs on about adding organic matter to the soil, and it's something I've done very little of. Once I've got the second bin built, I can take the fresh compost from the top of the old bin, and start using what's at the bottom.

I realise that not everything likes to be manured when planted. I want to get some on the plots (I already have some in a bean trench) - is there anything in the list of things I'm growing that would not like some compost at this time?

There is a difference between compost and manure. Compost does little to "feed" plants, it does a bit but does more in the way of improving the soil and retaining moisture, That's why Runners like it so much because they hate drying out. If it were like manure and acted as a feed it would be no good in a bean trench because runners do not like being fed before they have beans growing or they will produce loads more runners from low down. You could put loads of old newspapers in the trench with the compost which will also hold moisture before rotting.

nodwah

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Questions questions.....





IIn answer to emiff; I do grow hundreds of beans, but I leave them all on the plant to dry and use them all winter long. I am also working with a few chums to increase the varieties of beans in the UK that are growing for drying...I never eat my french beans green [I grow a few runners for that]; and end up with trays and trays of dry beans all over the house come autumn. It's great!

I've never done that - how do you store and cook the beans.

Do they need to be soaked and boiled?

I admit I'm a bit nervous of it :eek: sorry!