Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Little_Vics

Leif wrote: »

Ooooh, course you can. Gardening is relaxing, if something fails, find out why, do better next time. I've had failures this years, oh well, that's life. But keep your eyes open, watch what the plants do and learn from them. They want to grow.

Mine don't. There were suicidal attempts by my toms last year.

I think I'll bring the aubergine inside. I overwinter a pepper plant (got fruit in snowy Feb!) so it's worth a go.

Leif

Little_Vics wrote: »

Mine don't. There were suicidal attempts by my toms last year.

I think I'll bring the aubergine inside. I overwinter a pepper plant (got fruit in snowy Feb!) so it's worth a go.

Yes but this year was the summer from hell, damned awful, everyone has suffered, except my jammy neighbour. The tomato I gave him is 10 times the size of my plants, his tatties are excellent, his lettuces huge, I dunno, I give in.

Lotus-eater

RedLass wrote: »

Some of the beetroot appears to be of good size, as far as I can tell anyway, so I ought to pull them soon. I don't really know if I like beetroot to be honest, certainly I can't stand the pickled kind but that's unfair on the beet I think and I've never tried it any other way. I have spotted a couple of recipes in River Cottage Veg book that use it in different ways, so I may try those.

No need for any special recipes, just boil them till they get tender, about half an hour, then eat.
You wash them and twist the tops off the prevent bleeding, then skin them when they are cooked.

I guarantee you are going to be amazed at the taste.

RedLass

Lotus-eater wrote: »

No need for any special recipes, just boil them till they get tender, about half an hour, then eat.
You wash them and twist the tops off the prevent bleeding, then skin them when they are cooked.

I guarantee you are going to be amazed at the taste.

Ok, I will definitely try that first, thanks

How long will they keep once I have lifted them?

I am scared, as with most of what I have grown, that if I leave it too long they will not be "small and tender", at their peak, but if I harvest more than I can eat in one day, it's all going to turn bad within 24 hours (think over dramatic, self-combusting style veg-suicide). This whole experience is an education for me in the vegetable life-cycle, not just the growing part!

mrbadexample

RedLass wrote: »

I am scared, as with most of what I have grown, that if I leave it too long they will not be "small and tender", at their peak, but if I harvest more than I can eat in one day, it's all going to turn bad within 24 hours

Something I've learned is to get your stuff eaten. The longer you leave it in the ground the more chance that something else will have a nibble. I need to lift mine - they're about tennis-ball sized at the moment & they'll bolt if I'm not careful.

Dippypud

There ya go...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/15/nigel-slater-beetroot-indian-lentil

kitcat80

Leif wrote: »

I take it you are in the UK? And you noticed the gales, months and months of rain, gloomy skies, almost no sun? Most of my plants were either destroyed or severely damaged.

Yes I'm in UK but had rather assumed that I'd done something wrong or that it was down to ineptness on my part! I hadn't realised potatoes were affected badly by it. Newbie logic I guess... In which case I'll try again next year and see how it goes.:cool:

aliasojo

19 tomato plants, all blighted.

I've binned the worst ones and hacked back the ones that just have it starting in the hope the toms will get another few days to grow/ripen but I expect I'm wasting my time.

I'm not surprised, I've been getting (full) blight warning emails every other day for ages now, I guess it was only a matter of time.

As they were in raised beds, heaven knows how I'm going to get rid of the soil, there's loads of it.

mrbadexample

aliasojo wrote: »

As they were in raised beds, heaven knows how I'm going to get rid of the soil, there's loads of it.

Do you need to?

djohn2002uk

aliasojo wrote: »

As they were in raised beds, heaven knows how I'm going to get rid of the soil, there's loads of it.

Here you go:-
Any healthy tomatoes you can salvage can be eaten. However, the USDA doesn’t recommend canning tomatoes from late blight infected plants. There is a concern that the fungus may change the acidity of the tomatoes and therefore affect canning quality. Late Blight is an obligate parasite and thus needs living tissue to survive. Once the infected plant material is dead the fungus will die and will not carry over to the next year. The removal of living tissue is the key to preventing carry over. The remaining infected and dead plants (both potato and tomato) and infected fruit should be destroyed by burying or sealing in garbage bags and taken to a landfill. Do NOT compost diseased plants or fruit. Composting is not recommended because many compost piles are not tended properly and are therefore not “cooked” to the proper temperature to kill the pathogens. Next year, if there are any surviving pathogens in the compost or on partially decomposed plants, they may be spread to living plants if the compost is used in the garden. ALL potato tubers should be dug and carefully washed and graded. If you leave any tubers behind in the ground and if they have a late blight lesion on them, it is possible they could survive the winter in the ground and give rise to a new infection next year. After you have examined your potatoes, discard any damaged ones as was done with the diseased plants.
If you are storing your potatoes for the winter be sure to examine them every couple of weeks. It could be possible that a small lesion or two may have been missed during washing and grading and could give rise to an infection in storage destroying much of your winter supply, just like in the 1840’s!
You are now ready for next year’s garden. Don’t plant any of the saved tubers from your late blight potatoes from this year. You certainly don’t want to infect your plants before you get started. Buy and plant certified seed to reduce your risk of planting infected tubers. You can plant your tomatoes and potatoes in the same spot you did last year and you shouldn’t have any late blight problems as long as you cleaned up plant debris well. However, it is certainly good practice to rotate the crops in your garden as much as possible. Don’t plant the potatoes in the same spot in your garden year after year. Also, do not rotate with related crops. For example, tomatoes should not be planted where your potatoes were last year.