Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

katholicos

mrbadexample wrote: »

Can be.



Haven't disposed of anything really worth having yet. I've managed to keep the good stuff, at least until now.

A little naughtiness never hurt anyone, unless it hurts anyone else

@Pink poppy' i plant strawbs rather densely. Have grown them in troughs, raised beds, small containers, they always do well for me no matter where i grow them.

The only thing i would be aware of is that they may well send out runners like a crazy thing. You can either snip them off or root the runners into a bit of earth/compost, allow them to establish and then snip the runner...hey presto, new strawberry plants for free.

Fay

Hi guys, back to work this week so all I have managed to fit in is a few hours of weeding after work but hoping to get out today and tomorrow and do some more potting on, sowing of more salad (have been having to buy this again this week and its so expensive!), more green beans and might have to do cucumbers again as there is nothing doing with them

Anyway, I need a bit of help from the tomato experts! I have some early ones this year from the real seed company and boy are they early. They've grown brilliantly and about 5 have flowers on them but I don't know what to do...is it to early for them to go into an unheated greenhouse? If so I think I will have to put them in flower buckets and keep in the house for another few weeks. Here's a few pics for you.
Early galina tomatoe:


And the flowers on it:


Other tomatoes and chillis:


And on some good news also-my wenks hot yellow seems to be slowly growing:


They're still rather small and in comparison to my other chillis they're tiny. Here is my biggest wenks next to an orange bell pepper for instance:


On the veg patch I've noticed the carrots have started to germinate, some peas and mange tout are up and the broad beans are growing lovely too. No sign of life from the potatoes yet-in the ground or bags. Happy gardening guys

katholicos

With regard to T & M, i must say, i am quite unhappy with the service i have received from them this past few months particularly. Often there are month(s) between ordering/them taking my money, and the dispatch of goods. Their customer service used to be quite reasonable, but IMO it has markedly deteriated of late. Often i either receive no response at all to my enquiries, or an altogetheer unsatisfactory response.

My latest gripe with them is that they sent me multiple packets (not seed) of the wrong product and sent only part of my order when i had waited for ages for the order and expected to receive what i had paid for, in full. They emailed me back that they had NOT made a mistake. To me, that's as good as calling me a liar. Sadly i can't currently upload photos to my ipad, or i would have sent them a photo of a fuming me pointing at a box full of the wrong product they sent me.

It's enough to make me want to spit. But spitting is disgusting, so i shan't.

My custom obviously isn't good enough for them.

Fay

lilyjune wrote: »

All this talk of pests is scaring me a little. My broad beans have tiny little black spots. I can't seem to rub them off so not sure if it's something buggy or just broad beans??..

Hmm, I haven't noticed this on my broad beans but shall have a look. Someone else with more experience will be along and help you out. Maybe try doing a quick google search?

lilyjune wrote: »

I'm struggling to find time to do things at the moment, potted on some marigolds, 8 out of probably about 80. 5 of my 9 tomatoes have been potted on, having done some more reading, I'm not sure I buried them enough, will try harder for the next ones but will they still be ok?
My 4 pepper seeds have finally germinated :j, they're very very slow growing though, only true leaves coming on one so far, is this normal? No sign of the chillis, it..

I'm sure your tomatoes will be fine, and they will need potting on again at some point so you could just bury them deeper then. I usually put mine in so the leaves are just above the compost, so as deep as I can-its also how I pot on my chillis and peppers.
Peppers are slow growing, as are chillis which is why its good to start them both early. I started mine in february so yours should catch up but maybe get them going earlier next year if you can.
I am growing three lots of chillis-early jalapenos, albertos locoto and wenks hot yellows. The first two were fine, germinated in a good time, grew nicely and are now stout little plants...but the wenks, oh dear. As you can see from my post this morning they're very small for me. But MBE is growing them and they're doing great, so some times it can be hit and miss with them.
Enjoy your weekend in the garden :j

mrbadexample

lilyjune wrote: »

Wow, this thread has been really busy.

You're not kidding. I've just spent 1 night away from the PC so I've now got a hangover and loads of posts to catch up with.

lilyjune wrote: »

mbe, your parents garden is amazing, so so beautiful, I do love flowers and would like more myself but I think that's probably something for a few years time.

Thanks. Now you know why I don't really think of myself as the gardener in the family! My dad could push a pencil into the ground and it'd grow. :rotfl: It is a lot of work though.

lilyjune wrote: »

All this talk of pests is scaring me a little. My broad beans have tiny little black spots. I can't seem to rub them off so not sure if it's something buggy or just broad beans??

Try not to worry too much. It's easy to imagine problems that aren't there. I spent one year fretting terribly about curly tomato leaves, but still got a great crop. Keep an eye on them though.

mrbadexample

pink_poppy wrote: »

The parent plant has been nibbled on the leaves ~ I can't see anything obvious so I'll dig that up & plant it in it's own pot away from the planter, don't want to transfer anything to the babies.

If it's been nibbled, it's not a disease, so you won't be transferring anything.

pink_poppy wrote: »

Any personal recommendations on potatoes

Picasso. Fabulous spuds, especially if you like them baked, but good for all sorts.

mrbadexample

Fay wrote: »

Anyway, I need a bit of help from the tomato experts! I have some early ones this year from the real seed company and boy are they early. They've grown brilliantly and about 5 have flowers on them but I don't know what to do...is it to early for them to go into an unheated greenhouse?

Bit early yet I'd say. You want the temperature to be at least 10°C overnight. Do you have a greenhouse thermometer? If not, get one. Cheap as chips from eBay, and very useful.

Those Galina tomatoes are ace. Really tasty - I can heartily recommend them. Don't pinch them out after 3/5 trusses have formed either, as some of the advice says. I think I got 7 off them last year. Mine are slowly recovering from their beheading.

mrbadexample

katholicos wrote: »

It's enough to make me want to spit. But spitting is disgusting, so i shan't.

Spit: — vb , spits , spitting , spitted
4. ( tr ) to impale on or transfix with or as if with a spit

So spit away kath, spit away.

lolly5648

My broad beans have been started indoors and now need to be planted. How long should I harden them off before planting them out?

pink_poppy

Thanks for the strawberry information, katholicos :T

The old strawberry plant I have has indeed gone mad with runners ~ I've dug out 7 so far!! :j I've planted them all in my hexaganol planter (see pic below) so hopefully they'll settle in.



I still haven't tackled the parent plant ~ it's jumbled in amongst grass, moss, weeds etc so should be fun trying to extricate it!! It looks as though there might be another couple of runners near it as well, hard to tell at the moment I found the old label & it's a 'cambridge favourite' apparently, if that means anything to anyone, & it does say it has a vigorous spreading habit.

mbe, thanks for the Picasso recommendation I'm going to have a look around a few garden places in the next week so will keep an eye out for them.

I'm so glad I found this thread