Grow your own dinner 2014

suzeesu2000

Oh dear

We are moving into emergency housing in a couple of weeks and they have a brand new decked garden - no earth at all. We will only be there for a short while so, to reduce the stress to the plants, i have donated what i have grown so far to a childrens garden club.

The courgettes were in flower, the tomatoes haD "Twinned" - one seed made plants with a double stem! The dwarf French beans were just ready to start eating. Nothing was in the ground so I have given it all away. Can always grow again.

The plum tree, bless her heart, is coming with us - she has now got 21 plums on and this is only her first year!!

The potatoes will be harvested before we go. Also have various herb pots too which we can take.

Shall still be coming here to pick up hints etc - brilliant place for a novice like me.

Little_Vics

I'm going away on Friday for a week and am leaving my lovely neighbour in charge of watering the cold frame. Should be 'interesting' when I get back.

CAFCGirl

annie123 wrote: »

Some chilis are very small plants anyway and can grow very slowly, others will romp away now it's warmer. What types and when did you sow them? and the sweet peppers won't grow well if pot bound I've found in the past, so I keep them moving up in size 'till they're in a 10" pot.

Tomatoes should be bigger than that now but again it depends when you sowed them and what size pots they're in. They need moving up in pot size quite quickly when the're young. What size pot are they in?

Chillies are jalapeno. They're in an 8cm w x 6 deep pot, and there's 4 in there. Shall I move them each to their own pot and see what happens?

The sweet peppers are in peat pots that are around 5cm wide. Someone else mentionned peat pots being a bit hit and miss so i might peel them off and try to disturb them as little as possible and rehome them.

The tomatoes were sown back in March (really should write this stuff down!), 2 of them grew quite well so they're in a larger pot already (12cm wide) and the seedlings are in 4cm wide pots and there's two to a pot and they're minibel variety.

djohn2002uk

annie123 wrote: »

JOHN my parsnip germination is lower this year, I have 3 cones with nothing. Should I try moving some of the others that have 3 in a cone or sow more seed?

If it were me I'd put another 3 seeds in each one.If it's old seed put 4 or 5 in. I tried transplanting a few last year and they grew but were rubbish. There's still time. Is the lower germination because you are using last years seed. Parsnips are notorious for bad germination from old seed. It's recomended that you use fresh seed every year.

annie123

Thank you John, I bought them last year but the packet said best before sept 2014 so thought they'd be OK. Think I can run to a new packet each year. I'll pop more in then.
The ground is nice and warm now, well it was 'till the thunder and lightening storm hit an hour ago now it's wet and chilly with the wind that went with it, but yes they should pop up quickly.

Happygreen

I always leave 2 plants from which I collect seeds for the next year. What I don't need the wild birds can eat over the winter. Works a treat with parsnips for me so far, germination has been good (I believe this will not work from F1 hybrid plants).

annie123

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Chillies are jalapeno. They're in an 8cm w x 6 deep pot, and there's 4 in there. Shall I move them each to their own pot and see what happens?
Yes, each need their own pot and I'd make it a good size one too if possible, have a look at the pics here to see the size they should end up in ;https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=jalapeno+plants&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uBB-U8bUBZOM7AaStYGIBg&ved=0CE8QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=887

The sweet peppers are in peat pots that are around 5cm wide. Someone else mentionned peat pots being a bit hit and miss so i might peel them off and try to disturb them as little as possible and rehome them.

Bigger pots needed again, do you have any 10/15cm pots they could go in? if not then put them in big pots. They won't grow if their roots are restricted.

The tomatoes were sown back in March (really should write this stuff down!), 2 of them grew quite well so they're in a larger pot already (12cm wide) and the seedlings are in 4cm wide pots and there's two to a pot and they're minibel variety.

Get the toms into bigger pots, 12cm isn't big enough for good size plants and move the others up. I can end up repotting toms every 2 weeks as they grow sometimes, you don't want pot bound plants as they won't grow. Mini bell are very slow to get going, and mine are still tiny this year. They have around 3 sets of leaves and are in 10cm pots as their roots haven't reached the pot yet. I've given them till the end of June to buck their ideas up or they're going to the compost bin.

All you need is bigger pots for everything really then you'll get bigger plants.
My toms end up in 12" pots or flower buckets, sweet peppers 10"-12" pots depending on what I have free and chilis are fine in 6" pots.
In autumn bring some of the chilis in and have a go at over wintering them. They flower from April onwards then so you get earlier chillis. The oldest one I had was 4 years, but it didn't make it through this winter but the other 3 did

annie123

suzeesu2000 wrote: »

We are moving into emergency housing in a couple of weeks and they have a brand new decked garden - no earth at all. We will only be there for a short while so, to reduce the stress to the plants, i have donated what i have grown so far to a childrens garden club.

That was a kind thing to do, and yes you can always start again. That's the good thing about gardening, most of the year there's something that can be sown.

Dizzy_Ditzy

I've been away for two weeks and was terrified of what state my garden would be in when I got home

I needn't have worried too much, I've lost a couple of plants but think I'd have lost them anyway, whether I'd been here or not.

Inspired by all things Greek, I ordered some banana plants while I was away :j

Typically, they arrived here before I did lol.

My dwarf cherry tree is infested with blackfly :mad:

My potatoes are starting to flower, as are my tomatoes. I've got raspberries coming through and loads of really baby apples on my tree.

I seem to have lost all my cucumbers though. Am I too late to start again with them or do I need to buy some plug plants?

sparrer

Not only are my 8 tubs of potatoes almost ready to harvest but I must remember to be more thorough when digging up and clearing the soil from last year's crop - they're also growing in a two tubs of petunias and a trough of heathers!