Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Little_Vics

I HAVE TOMATOES!!!

(but I'm about to go away for 10 days so they might not be there when I get back)

RedLass

mrbadexample wrote: »

The nasturtiums are doing their job of attracting blackfly:



I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not. They are supposedly keeping the blackfly away from my veg. Thing is, I'm sure I never had blackfly before! Am I just attracting the blackfly in? :think:

The nasturtiums right by my cucumber plant are the same, although there are slightly less fly than yours. I am working on the theory that it's a good thing - they can't have flown from miles around can they? So they must've been nearby already. Much better to be eating my nasturtium than my cucmber! Pretty borage flowers are now opening, and it's attracting quite a lot of attention from flying things.

Most of my nasturtium have started producing seed so I have been collecting this for next year. The flowers are so beautiful, and every plant has had a different colour and shape of flower.

Things are feeling good in the garden at the moment. The tomatoes that I thought had all but died have sprung up in lots and lots of fruit, but at the moment they're all still very green. A quick look at my carrots in the ground tells me they are much stronger than those in pots in plain MPC. They have more foliage and they are almost all larger than those in the pots even though they were plant weeks later. Beetroot is doing well, I think. I am finding it tricky to see what is going on without dismantling the netting, which is a bit of a faff to do every time. Onion seem to be doing well too but I don't know when to tell they're ready? Peppers are also doing well, the largest is about 4cm long.

Yesterday I did some tidying up and pulled up the last of my ravaged swede plants, they're never going to recover properly - one less watering can full of water to drag through the house! And they were just one more thing for the slugs to hide under. Beer traps are working well but obviously not 100%... I just figure it's damage limitation. Incidentally, the slugs seem to prefer Abbot Ale to John Smith. I think most of the guys in the local pub would agree on that too!

We've now picked two cucumbers, both a long way from straight, but well formed on the inside and you can't tell they were bendy once they've been sliced

Yesterday arvo I harvested a lettuce, some carrots, spring onions (these seem to have grown suddenly), a skinny beetroot which I probably should've left for longer, and a small red onion.



I sliced the red onion onto my OH salad last night. He said it had a bit of a bite :eek: :rotfl:

Today I have harvested my first runner beans, about 8 of them. Really pleased because this is one of the things I really, really wanted to grow an there are lots more tiny beans coming through.

Thank you for all your good advice as we've gone along... it's been so helpful, and spurred me on to get over the things that didn't work so that I could concentrate on what showed promise.

Leif

mrbadexample wrote: »

The nasturtiums are doing their job of attracting blackfly:





I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not. They are supposedly keeping the blackfly away from my veg. Thing is, I'm sure I never had blackfly before! Am I just attracting the blackfly in? :think:

I would also wonder if they are attracting the blackfly, and then allowing them to breed, since they feed off the plant. Surely what you want is some flying blackfly hoovers aka hover flies. Plant something to attract hover flies, and you should be sorted. I think sweet pea attracts them. That said, some online sources do say Nasturiums are good. ????? Does it work?

lemonjelly

mrbadexample wrote: »

Get the top half in water, and it'll root. Might be salvageable.

Sadly unslavageable...:(

Not to worry. It was the smallest plat & was struggling anyways...

annie123

aliasojo wrote: »

I have loads (seriously loads) of tom flowers and teeny tiny toms growing on some of my plants but they do seem very 'static'.

I'm wondering if I cut off several branches and removed some flower stalks, would that then help the growth of the toms that are trying to grow?

My concern is that the plants are too big and have too many trusses and we just wont have the time/ decent enough weather left, to let it all grow naturally.

Thoughts please?

It takes roughly 2 months from flower to picking, so it depends on what sort of autumn we have or how much green tomato chutney you wan't to make.

annie123

Yes, I have insomnia again:( shame it's dark outside.

Came in yesterday to find prostrate rhubarb:eek: one extreme to the other here with clay soil, so emergency watering done.

The odd tom is now getting affected by blight so cut them off but the top few leaves left on the plants seem ok and a few more turning red.
I've been unable to find any paper bags even the local greengrocer uses plastic ones now, I could try newspaper but I dont buy them, so I'm going to try muslin,lets air in but should trap the gasses.

Tried putting milk on the courgette leaves to stop mildew spreading using a kitchen sponge but that was very messy, I need a spray bottle. The round courgettes produce way more and quicker than the regular ones, 1 plant will be enough next year! I found another small courgette plant hiding at the base of the raspberries so that's 7 in total

Something is stripping the leaves off one of my redcurrants :mad: I'm assuming sawfly, but couldn't find anything except snails, and they've never done that before.

Pre-war_babe_33

I just cannot understand why my tomatoes were so early. Six of my ten plants have now finished and I have started emptying out their pots but too hot out there to do any more today. There are still fruit ripening on the other four plants from the second flowering though.

In previous years I was picking tomatoes well into October but they started fruiting much later than they did this year. I am not complaining though as I have more than enough to keep me going for a while yet.

Keeping a close eye on the blackberries now as they are ripening so fast and I need to get them before they go squishy. They are a bit difficult to get at though because they seem to have got tangled up with a honeysuckle - goodness knows where that came from!

djohn2002uk

At last I have a half orange tom and another one with about 10% yellow.
This could be the start of something big. :cool:

Badrick

djohn2002uk wrote: »

At last I have a half orange tom and another one with about 10% yellow.
This could be the start of something big. :cool:

I had one which looked to be ripening, turned out to be botrytis, I'm looking doomed to shop bought tomatoes this year

djohn2002uk

Nothing good to say. Just wanted to be first on the new page.:rotfl: