Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Fay

mrbadexample wrote: »

Mine's a nice big healthy seedling. In fact, it's one of my biggest, healthiest-looking seedlings:



Sorry about that - it's not the chilli. The rest of yours look mighty fine though - I'm sure it'll catch up.

:( I wonder what's gone wrong for me with these? Lovely looking plants you have going there MBE

mrbadexample

Fay wrote: »

:( I wonder what's gone wrong for me with these? Lovely looking plants you have going there MBE

Thanks. The chillies and peppers seem to be loving my home made compost. The tomatoes perhaps a little less so. :undecided

alixandrea

Hi all, most of my seedlings seem to be going OK, but I'm having problems with my cabbages and broccolis. They seem to be fine as seedlings but as soon as they get their first set of true leaves they keel over on me. They're getting enough water, sitting on a south facing windowsill inside the house... I would have thought I was doing everything right, but something's definitely going wrong...

Everything else is going OK, I keep getting terribly excited every time a seedling pops its head above the compost.

Alixandrea

mrbadexample

alixandrea wrote: »

Hi all, most of my seedlings seem to be going OK, but I'm having problems with my cabbages and broccolis. They seem to be fine as seedlings but as soon as they get their first set of true leaves they keel over on me. They're getting enough water, sitting on a south facing windowsill inside the house... I would have thought I was doing everything right, but something's definitely going wrong...

Everything else is going OK, I keep getting terribly excited every time a seedling pops its head above the compost.

Alixandrea

Might be too wet or too warm? I sowed some in modules, but planted them out earlier this week. It's gone cold again, so I hope they'll be ok.

alixandrea

mrbadexample wrote: »

Might be too wet or too warm? I sowed some in modules, but planted them out earlier this week. It's gone cold again, so I hope they'll be ok.

Hmm, maybe too warm then. Should they be outside rather than in? Should I bring them in at night still?

Alixandrea

mrbadexample

I think if they've been kept in the warm then you would need to harden them off before putting them out. Mine were kept in an unheated greenhouse so hopefully they'll cope.

pink_poppy

mrbadexample wrote: »

Sorry, too late! You have already joined!

Oh well, if you insist!! :rotfl:

mrbadexample wrote: »

Can't grow anything eh? That sounds like a challenge to me! Even if you're on the 14th floor of a block of flats there will be something you can grow. So, come on, what are we working with?

I really need to wind-proof the side bit of my garden in preparation for growing things there. It's quite exposed & a bit of a wind tunnel, so I have plans to fix some heavy-duty trellis on top of the wall (this was supposed to get done last year ), replace the screening (it's falling to bits) & possibly put another gate or some kind of structure at the other end to make it more enclosed?? It's West-facing & a weird triangular shape.

I was originally going to replace the red gravel with paving slabs or concrete & grow stuff in pots/troughs etc., but having seen on here what can be done with the smallest strip of soil, I'm wondering if I should leave some space on the fence side for planting things in the ground (& growing up the fence) & have pots on the house side?? I do need to leave space to have a table & chairs though because this area is the sunniest & most private bit of my garden.

mrbadexample

How much sun do you get down there?

What's round the corner - I can see grass - is it yours?

You have some pots: you can grow carrots. And radishes. Spring onions & normal onions. Herbs. Possibly a few beetroot, turnips, parsnips. I've grown all those in pots / tubs. Tomatoes in grow bags wherever it's sunniest - against the fence or the wall?

You should certainly be able to grow something. It can be expensive to fill lots of containers with compost to grow in, but even if you start off small, you can grow a little and slowly build up.

So, what do you like to eat?

Oh, and have a look here.

Angelfeathers

s_glover wrote: »

As a general rule when should I pot on my plants?

I've got several types of pepper plants and some aubergine as well as marigolds. I think I read somewhere that you should wait until theyhave their first set of true leaves, is this correct? The peppers and aubergines have been plnated about 5 weeks, about 3 weeks since they germinated but they still only have the one set of leaves so shall I wait a bit longer to do these?

In my (admittedly limite) experience, things like peppers and aubergines are quite slow to get started so you need to wait longer than with other things before planting them on.

I sowed mine on 19 Feb so almost 6 weeks ago and potted them on today. To be honest, I would have waited another couple of weeks if I hadn't had other things in the same tray that I needed to move on and I just wanted to empty the tray!

Angelfeathers

alixandrea wrote: »

Hi all, most of my seedlings seem to be going OK, but I'm having problems with my cabbages and broccolis. They seem to be fine as seedlings but as soon as they get their first set of true leaves they keel over on me. They're getting enough water, sitting on a south facing windowsill inside the house... I would have thought I was doing everything right, but something's definitely going wrong...

Everything else is going OK, I keep getting terribly excited every time a seedling pops its head above the compost.

Alixandrea

I'd go with MBE on this one and suggest they might be getting too warm? Perhaps move them to a non-south-facing windowsill, if you have one? (Please note, this is very much a guess!)