surely its time to plant the veg !!!!!

feefeelalabelle

thanks for your replies xxx
the camera has disappeared :eek: will hunt in the morning

but ive had a look.....i have one tiny tiny white head on a cauliflower :j
but i have a sneaky feeling it needs taking out. i bought..." Vegetable plants Plugs (100) ready now for planting now" off ebay back at the end of july and planted them all but im sure all of the stuff should have been ready before winter. the broccoli went to seed, as i say 1 tiny white head on a cabbage, i think the others are cabbage but they dont seem very big, and the other i think is kale. Really stuck as to weather i should yank them all up

at the same time i sowedsome carrots which started to get nice green tops but didnt grow anymore, pulled one today and its soooooo tiny what am i doing wrong. xx

[Deleted User]

feelfeel, do you have goodness in your soil? I use bfb at the very least, also compost, dried manure and comfrey as appropriate. For brassicas off ebay I raked in bfb and dried manure prior to planting. I got 8 broccoli plants from ebay in july and they are strong and big, ready to produce very soon. Also did you rotate?

mardatha

I have found I can't go before April at the earliest. Its a long wait and you lot always upset me by starting months before !!
I will start salady stuff on south facing windows earlier though.

valk_scot

mardatha wrote: »

I have found I can't go before April at the earliest. Its a long wait and you lot always upset me by starting months before !!
I will start salady stuff on south facing windows earlier though.

I'm with you on that, but that's not surprising given where we both live. Every year folk come on here saying their seedlings are ready to put out in Feburary/March and then a month later bavk they come asking why they've all died? Even in the sounth, I don't think it's worth starting most things off till the end of Feburary, if not later. And for us Scots late April is about right!

valk_scot

feefeelalabelle wrote: »

thanks for your replies xxx
the camera has disappeared :eek: will hunt in the morning

but ive had a look.....i have one tiny tiny white head on a cauliflower :j
but i have a sneaky feeling it needs taking out. i bought..." Vegetable plants Plugs (100) ready now for planting now" off ebay back at the end of july and planted them all but im sure all of the stuff should have been ready before winter. the broccoli went to seed, as i say 1 tiny white head on a cabbage, i think the others are cabbage but they dont seem very big, and the other i think is kale. Really stuck as to weather i should yank them all up

at the same time i sowedsome carrots which started to get nice green tops but didnt grow anymore, pulled one today and its soooooo tiny what am i doing wrong. xx

Probably the wrong time of year to plant out for your area, or you've overcrowded them, or your soil isn't up to it, or it's been too cold or too dry or too wet. Also most plants don't put on much if any growth over the winter, with a few exceptions like kale and leeks. Carrots certainly won't!

I think you need a good gardening book that gives you sowing/planting out/harvesting times. The veg growing guide from the Expert series is cheap but very cheerful and extremely useful for newbie veg growers.


And as a general note, sowing and planting times in most gardening books are for the south of England. For each 100 miles north you go, add on one week to the sowing times. Here near Edinburgh I add on 4-5 weeks to the earliest book sowing times...then I look out the window at the frosts and give it another week just to be safe.

TrulyMadly

I'm putting out my shallot sets tomorrow!

oldtractor

I am going to satisfy my urge to sow by sowing some peas on the window sill to cut when they are about 4 inches high and use in a stir fry. A packet of cheapo marrowfat pea suffices.

ALIBOBSY

I reckon you are looking at shallots/onions and garlic (if not autumn planted) at the mo. But thinking of planting some herbs, early salad leaves and perpetual spinach to start on the window sills (the spinach can go into the GH once establish as its quite hardy).
Also considering an experiment with a small number of early toms-then taking cuttings from those-cuttings establish much quicker than seeds so may get some earlier toms-GH or window sill only.

Always plant a few chillis and peppers as well as aubergines quite early to give them a headstart, but you need window sill room and GH protection for a good while yet and my main sowings will all be much closer to easter.

Ali x

forgotmyname

Got me toilet roll tubes ready, Going to pop 20 peas in and see how they go. Then 2 weeks later pop another 20 or so in.

500 - 800 peas in a pack i think i can afford to waste a few. Who knows what this winter will bring. Maybe this is all we
we are going to get, Or maybe the snow is waiting for may..

twiglet98

forgotmyname wrote: »

Got me toilet roll tubes ready, Going to pop 20 peas in and see how they go. Then 2 weeks later pop another 20 or so in.

500 - 800 peas in a pack i think i can afford to waste a few. Who knows what this winter will bring. Maybe this is all we
we are going to get, Or maybe the snow is waiting for may..

How exactly do you do this? I used loo roll tubes a couple of years ago, filled with multipurpose compost (or maybe seed compost), poked bean and sweetcorn seeds into them, watered them and the cardboard tubes soaked up the water, unravelled and collapsed. Should they have been supported in cell trays or little pots? I've used most of last year's stash of tubes as firelighters instead.