It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

Winchelsea

Ginnyknit When I was in Manchester the other week my friends took me to the Northern Quarter - first time for years. Ended up having afternoon tea in "the Tea Cup" (or the "Tea Pot"?). Very nice too! Not cheap, but a nice treat.

Am now dealing with the high post rate on here by just reading the latest page each day. Have had to be firm with myself, as could spend all day reading things instead of doing things!

On which note, I must pay a couple of bills online, then go to the C*-*p to buy some food with my divi vouchers (not to let the moths out of my purse!) - then go and feed and cuddle DD's cat - she and family are away camping.

All the best to everyone!

Hippeechiq

Hi everyone. Been absent for a while due to RL demands.

I hope you're all well, as I've not had time to read back through the posts.

I was wondering - given that so many of you now grow your own - if anyone could offer suggestions as to what's wrong with my tomatoes please.

This is my first year of attempting to grow anything at all, and all had appeared to be going well(ish) until about a month ago when I noticed most of the leaves on my Shirley tomato plants were "mottled" for want of a better word.

Having done research, the closest thing I could find that resembled the leaf problem was called Tobacco/Mosaic virus, which requires all plants to be destroyed. Not being prepared to do that, I've just plodded along as I have around 100 tomatoes between the 4 plants and thought I might as well see what happens.

All mature tomatoes so far (with the exception of 2 that have turned out like the top right hand tomato) look like the tomato on the top left. I've washed and tasted one, and it appears to be fine, but I'm very disappointed by their appearance and would like to know what the cause is, and if the problem can be redeemed for the remaining unripe tomatoes?

I also have 4 cherry tomato plants (2 Cherry Red, 1 Scarlet & 1 Yellow) all of which were full of flower, but many haven't set so they haven't fulfilled their promise. The fruit I have had so far has been lovely and unblemished.....until the weekend, when I discovered the yellow cherry tomatoes have suddenly started developing tiny red spots, as shown in the picture. They kind of look like the plant was down wind of someone spraying with red paint. It's just the fruit, not the leaves, although the leaves aren't looking particularly happy either.

I find the whole "should I/shouldn't I water" thing a bit of a dilemma even if they are dry, given that the weather has been unseasonally cool and wet, as if they're too wet when it's cool, it causes the (polyurethane) greenhouse to become dripping with condensation (even with the door open) which I understand can also cause it's own problems.



If anyone at all could shed any light or offer advice as to cause & treatment I'd be very grateful, and my apologies for the long post

Frugal_Dreamer

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Hi everyone. Been absent for a while due to RL demands.

I hope you're all well, as I've not had time to read back through the posts.

I was wondering - given that so many of you now grow your own - if anyone could offer suggestions as to what's wrong with my tomatoes please.

This is my first year of attempting to grow anything at all, and all had appeared to be going well(ish) until about a month ago when I noticed most of the leaves on my Shirley tomato plants were "mottled" for want of a better word.

Having done research, the closest thing I could find that resembled the leaf problem was called Tobacco/Mosaic virus, which requires all plants to be destroyed. Not being prepared to do that, I've just plodded along as I have around 100 tomatoes between the 4 plants and thought I might as well see what happens.

All mature tomatoes so far (with the exception of 2 that have turned out like the top right hand tomato) look like the tomato on the top left. I've washed and tasted one, and it appears to be fine, but I'm very disappointed by their appearance and would like to know what the cause is, and if the problem can be redeemed for the remaining unripe tomatoes?

I also have 4 cherry tomato plants (2 Cherry Red, 1 Scarlet & 1 Yellow) all of which were full of flower, but many haven't set so they haven't fulfilled their promise. The fruit I have had so far has been lovely and unblemished.....until the weekend, when I discovered the yellow cherry tomatoes have suddenly started developing tiny red spots, as shown in the picture. They kind of look like the plant was down wind of someone spraying with red paint. It's just the fruit, not the leaves, although the leaves aren't looking particularly happy either.

I find the whole "should I/shouldn't I water" thing a bit of a dilemma even if they are dry, given that the weather has been unseasonally cool and wet, as if they're too wet when it's cool, it causes the (polyurethane) greenhouse to become dripping with condensation (even with the door open) which I understand can also cause it's own problems.



If anyone at all could shed any light or offer advice as to cause & treatment I'd be very grateful, and my apologies for the long post

They look pretty normal to me...proper food not the uniform bland stuff in supermarkets. The marks on the skin of the big ones are due to fluctuating water supply to the fruits, i.e. the soil dried out and was then watered again.

lizzyb1812

Condensation or not you should be watering regularly if your toms are in growbags or pots - irregular watering is the cause of the splits/stretch marks in the skins of the big ones. Can't help re the yellow ones.

Seakay

JenniO wrote: »

Maryb - sloes should be picked just after the first frost if you can wait till then.

Alternative is to pick them when ripe(no greenishness to berry and squidgy between thumb and forefinger) and then put them in the freezer overnight before processing them.

So glad all worked out well with Noreen - sounds as though her care home is one of the good ones that can actually improve life for the residents.

Agree taht splitting etc of tomatoes due to irregular watering, but if flavour is fine don't worry because it's really hard to avoid some years.
Wouldn't worry about pigmenting on yellow tomatoes, could be anything eg the plant is a sport rather than an F1 hybred and is revealing some of it's red tomato genes. Supermarket tomatoes only achieve that uniform perfection by making farmers throw tons of edible food away

scottishminnie

toottifrootti wrote: »

that s seems ridiculous - i would be looking to change your boiler maintenance insurance - i am with Hydro Elec and they dont charge for the service - they come every yer without fail and its 16.90 a month - ok a bit more than yours but still less than having to shell out for the service?
I would def be hunting for quotes.
with regard to the genny - my brother has lots of power cuts and their genny can only run the heating and the hot water - he says as long as they are warm they are fine. might be worth re-considering or even 2 smaller ones - like a small suitcase type genny for the freezer alone?
good luck honey
toots x

Unfortunately Hydro Electric don't cover oil boilers. When we got it I dropped into their shop in Dunblane because I'd bought things there before and they said they only covered mainstream fuel (gas and electric). I can't remember hoe they put it but they seemed to think oil was backward, they asked if it was a proper house or just a mobile home! Have checked their website and it's still just gas and electric.

I'll have a word with hubby about the genny and maybe getting smaller ones. I'm not too bothered about light but we really need to be able to power the boiler and keep the freezers going. We had a total of 5 power cuts last winter, all lasting more than 24 hours which was just horrendous so we wanted to avoid it. Neither of us expected quotes upwards of £5k for one though - one quoted was £10,500 + vat. I told the man I didn't want to power the whole of Glasgow!

scottishminnie

SDG31000 wrote: »

On a more OS note, I now have Noreen's sewing basket and button pot. Now I just have to learn to make something to use them. My knitting needs to improve to cardigan level I think.
Now I'm going to go and bake some chocolate and orange bread and make some pizza dough for dinner.
I hope everyone has a good day xxx

I'm glad it had a happy conclusion SDG and you have some things to remember Noreen by. I've seen a few button pictures which I think are quite nice. I have my late grandmothers button tin so I'm thinking of making something with them.

something like these:

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/sweetdimple/product/personalised-christmas-button-heart

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/digtheearth/product/button-heart-in-red-print

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/hellogeronimo/product/love-framed-art

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/hellogeronimo/product/butterfly-framed-art

in fact I'm thinking if you have lots of buttons you could start a little business - the prices are horrific but I do like the idea. I think Ikea has the kind of frames you need and the only other thing I would need is glue - would be a nice winter project.

SDG31000

:eek: £265 for a few buttons arranged in the shape of a butterfly!!!

Even I can do that and I'm as good at craft stuff as I am at gardening.
Thank you for the inspiration scottishminnie. I think I'll have a go and try to make something for Noreen out of her buttons and she can hang it in her room. There are lots of shirt buttons in the pot and they will work well for that.

My baking plans didn't work out as well as I expected. I haven't used any bread flour in a while and one bag of it was infested with creepy crawlies. So the whole lot has gone in the bin. The next bag will be stored in the freezer.
(Just to say that I can and would make my own bread if DH wasn't capable of eating a 2lb loaf with a whole pot of jam before it has a chance to cool down)

smileyt_2

Evening all! Where is everyone? It's very quiet in here today.

The decluttering continues apace chez smileyt. I have so far thrown out 3 black bags of rubbish and done the equivalent amount of recycling, plus I have a cardboard box overflowing with stuff to give to the charity shop. I haven't even started on the upstairs yet :eek:. I have made more space in the kitchen, though, which I will use to store tinned food and cartons of soya milk. I feel as if I have to get the house sorted now so that I can free up my energy to do other things for the last remaining weeks of summer/first few weeks of autumn while the weather is still mild. Then I can hibernate with knitting/cross-stitch until next spring ....

Put lots of grains into my kilner jars and rearranged my food cupboards in the kitchen so now I can see what I have. I might eat better now that I know what's in the cupboards and can see it!

It's hard to be OS if you have too much clutter, I think.

westcoastscot

Thankyou for the input about dutch ovens and cooking on my stove - I think i'll have to get hold of one and try it, although I agree Mardatha it will be difficult to get it in/out of the stove - think I'll need some sort of shovel for that???? Going to keep an eye out for a chip-pan style basket to bake potatoes in.

WCS