Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

annie123

mrbadexample wrote: »

Think I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's trying to gain 40 years of experience in 4 years - to do that you have to ask a lot of questions.

Has it really been 4 years! doesn't feel that long.
Even though I was brought up with gardening, and got my first own garden at 19 (30 years ago:eek:) I still ask questions.
There is always something new to find out, a different way of growing things, (I'm trying a very small patch of square foot garden this year for salad crops for example) new veg/plants to grow, new garden aspect/soil/location etc.

Life would be so boring if we knew everything wouldn't it?

lolly5648

I sowed some outdoor cucumber seed in a seed tray indoors and they have germinated very quickly, I thought they would take at least two weeks. They have grown very leggy and I think they are too spindly to go outside yet, is there anything I can do to slow them down?

annie123

lolly5648 wrote: »

I sowed some outdoor cucumber seed in a seed tray indoors and they have germinated very quickly, I thought they would take at least two weeks. They have grown very leggy and I think they are too spindly to go outside yet, is there anything I can do to slow them down?

Too cold at night for them to be outside yet.
How tall are they?
how many sets of leaves do they have?
greenhouse or ridge ones?

lolly5648

annie123 wrote: »

Too cold at night for them to be outside yet.
How tall are they?
how many sets of leaves do they have?
greenhouse or ridge ones?

Thank you for your reply.

They are Marketmore outdoor ones. They only have the original two sets of leaves are about 12 cms from the top of the soil. Could I repot them and put them in a blowaway greenhouse as I think the house is too warm. Or just start again?

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

Has it really been 4 years! doesn't feel that long.

Greenhouse went up at the end of May / beginning of June 2008, and I first dug up a bit of lawn on 21/7/2008, according to The great pumpkin challenge thread.

I lost the pumpkin challenge. But since then I've won the swede (2009), walking stick kale (2010) & runner bean (2011). Carrots is my fifth competition.

It's taken a bit of time to get from complete novice to a gardener. I am a gardener now. I never thought I would be, but I am. This morning that was confirmed by this little fella:



who was hopping around my rhubarb. It's the first robin I've seen since I've lived here (9 years). I've wanted one for ages. Proper gardens have robins. Proper gardens have gardeners. I'm the only one doing any work round here, ergo that must be ME! :j

Just need to persuade him to stay now. Any tips?

aliasojo

Oh I can join in here, we have loads of robins in our garden. They sit on the fence right outside our living room window.

We put out loads of seeds and meal worms etc so I suspect something in that lot pleases them.

annie123

lolly5648
That's a bit leggy but with only the seed leaves they won't need re potting the roots will be small and will drown with a larger amount of wet compost around them.
It sounds as though they have been short on light.
Personally I'd move them to the sunniest spot away from radiators etc and wait for them to get their first true leaves, then re port deeper almost upto the seed leaves, but make sure you don't have a dip in the soil going to the stem or water will puddle there and it will rot. Try to make a small hill so that water drains away from them, the same as you'd plant them outside but on a small scale. Water from the bottom, the pot should feel light when you pick it up, not heavy.
Then I'd harden them off for a few days in the greenhouse but bring them back indoors at night before leaving them out there all the time prior to planting outside which will depend on your last frost date for your area.

Leggy seedlings at this stage shouldn't affect your crop.;)

annie123

I agree robins do make a garden. You need to feed him, infact you need a bird table, just realised that's something you dont have MBE.And a bird bath too maybe.
They love mealworms........hubby buys live ones sometimes as a veggie I just can't bring myself to do that so I buy dried ones from wilkinsons. Bread crumbs and seeds too.
My son has one that comes down every time he goes outside and waits on the fence post for him to put out his hand with seeds, it will fly down and take it fom him. Will he do it if I try, no, not a chance.

lilyjune

Thanks Angelfeathers, MBE and Annie for all those answers, very relieved about not needing to have the aubergines, peppers and chillis in the dark as I saw that mentioned somewhere else. No sign of life from them though..

How long should I wait before I start again? I guess they've been in for 9/10 days now. And if I do start again, can I use the same compost? :think:

Annie I have planted 6 broad beans, 3 green beans, 2 soy beans, 2 mange tout and 2 peas. Nothing happening with the peas but everything else seems to be coming along nicely, esp the green beans and mange tout. Should I not have sown these yet? I have nowhere to put things outside yet but hopefully by the end of next week I will. My only option would be to pot them into something bigger and keep them inside or I could put things outside during the day and bring them in for night?

MBE, I knew that about the blueberries liking rainwater, I just completely forgot it when I got my little one in the post and gave him a little drink of tap water Please say it won't kill him?

On the constant looking at the pots, I'm totally obsessed with mine, everytime I'm anywhere near them I have to have a look to see if anything else has happened... I don't have time in my day to spend it gazing at little pots of compost!!!:rotfl:

VegGrower

Good morning! I hope nobody minds if I join in, I used this forum last year for some advice, but I've recently moved to a place with a bigger garden so am very excited to be growing veg properly this year!

My other half is practically vegetarian so I'm hoping to grow all our veg for the year. If it isn't in the garden he can't have it!

So far I've sown tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, butternut squash, courgettes, cucumber, salad, lettuce, peppers, chillis, leeks, peas, Kale and pak choi, and have some Brussels sprout seeds on order. I've also ordered some manifold seeds after reading this thread!

I was a bit late planting so no movement yet, will post pics when things start happening!

VG