Garden produce

mink35

Xbigman - there was a thread on here a while ago about making your own beetroot crisps (amongst other veggies). I'm sure someone will know how to make them for you to try.


PS Got 14 little Pomodorino seedlings now! Yay!

fazer6

I've got quite a few other things planned for this year but I've never done potatoes before. The selfsufficientish website says supermarket spuds are fine so I guess that's more MSE than buying some. Although there's a gardening magazine with some free brocoli seeds and a thing for some free potatoes too, if it wasn't over £3 for the magazine I'd buy it.

I'll do the tyre trick but I've got a question. For two people how many plants do I reasonably need to grow a decent crop?

andham2000

I run the selfsufficinetish website and I wrote that about potatoes. Last year I did grow a load of potaotes from normal shop bought ones. The only difference with seed potaotes is that they are grown at high altitiudes where there are less aphids ect. This means that the chance of disease is greatly reduced.

We grew about ten plants last year and had enough potatoes for a about 2 months and there are two of us.

Another trick for cheap seeds is to but things with seeds in them like squashes for example.

fazer6

Hey your ears must have been burning then eh? Superb website btw. Lots of food for thought :rotfl: I am definatly going to try your ciderish recipie and look out for nuts at the end of the year.

I am quite tempted by the idea of squashes because they keep for ages and are superb at bulking out stews, they also hold together in my slow cooker quire well. I'm guess that if I get something with a northern country of origin then they should grow quite well in England.

How much room would I need for each plant, do they need lots of root space? And how many squashes do you get from each plant? I would probably do the tyre thing again as that's the cheapest large container I can think of.

andham2000

Oh the ciderish recipe cut out the sugar! far too sweet when I made it!

Squashes do tend to trail all over the place you can tie them up like with beans and peas as they are esentily creepers. I think mine spread out over about 20 ft, they will attach them selves to other plants and choak them if oyu are not careful. As for how many you get, it depends on how healty the plants are. Anything from none to a continual crop over a couple of months.

mink35

andham2000 wrote:

Squashes do tend to trail all over the place you can tie them up like with beans and peas as they are esentily creepers.

When you say tie them up, wouldn't pea net be too weak? Would I have to use something a little sturdier if I wanted to grow them?

Also (questions, questions!!!) could one plant be grown in a large tub away from main crops to stop the choking!

debbym

How do I find out about allotments in my area? Before I get inundated with "try the council" would that be District/Parish/County....

mink35

debbym wrote:

How do I find out about allotments in my area? Before I get inundated with "try the council" would that be District/Parish/County....

Do you have local council offices? We have one in each 'area' of our town where we can pay council tax etc so they may be able to help.

tru

I've got 5 propagators in the kitchen, I've just checked them, the sweetcorn and tomatoes are starting to grow. Oh the excitement :rolleyes:

mink35

troo wrote:

I've got 5 propagators in the kitchen, I've just checked them, the sweetcorn and tomatoes are starting to grow. Oh the excitement :rolleyes:

LMAO Troo! :rotfl:

I've grown tomatoes before but never from seed and I'm so excited watching them come up! Are we mad?