The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

unrecordings

Pablosmummy wrote: »

My brussels..well I have no idea. There's tiny sprouts forming, however the leaves are all pretty much just sticks at this point. I pick the caterpillars of daily, they are covered with netting so I think it is just old ones i've missed appearing as they get bigger but I have no idea if the sprouts will actually come to anything. My psb seems to have stopped growing so I think that's a gonna.

I gave up growing sprouts for sprouts, the best I got were a few marble sized specimens. However I do still grow them for the leaves, especially the tender top growth which I think are especially tasty (if you like the taste of proper sprouts).
Other stuff (PSB etc) I just tend to leave & harvest until the leaves get too yellow/too tough, then get rid

PipneyJane

This may seem like “stupid question time”, but what do you do with your root vegetables, once you’ve harvested them? Do you wash them before storing (and, if so, how/with what?)?

We’ve just harvested the first of 3 tyre stacks of potatoes and I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. There’s at least 5kg. With this batch, I soaked them in a bucket of water for 10 minutes and then washed them roughly in the sink to remove the majority of the soil. They’re currently on the draining rack drying off. (A few tiddlers got thoroughly scrubbed and are in the oven, roasting, to accompany dinner.).

As well as the potatoes, we also have a raised bed of carrots to harvest over the next few weeks. I don’t want to waste any of our crop, but all my knowledge is about the growing stage, not the storing stage. Please advise.

Many thanks,

Pip

Primrose

I think hessian sacks or thick paper sacks are the best way of stieing potatoes , preferably in a cool place away from daylight.

The books recommend storing carrots in dry sand but old compost works equally well. If you don't have a suitable crate one of the really big thick plastic heavy duty bags like the Orange Sainsbury,s bags filled with compost would,probably . I wouldn't wash the carrots first though - just cut off the green tops and have a layer of compost, a layer of carrots then repeat

If if only have a small amount of carrots they usually keep for a couple of weeks in the salad tray of your fridge. Some people leave them in the ground and just heap earth up over them but if you do this they can risk being damaged by frost.

unrecordings

As primrose points out, the 'correct' way is to store in sand (it's called a clamp), but for most this is probably a bit OTT. I try to harvest in dryer weather if I can and for potatoes let them dry for a couple of days then brush rhe earth off them before leaving to dry out (out of sunlight, as they'll still go green), then keep them somewhere cool/dark/dry. Carrots, I just pull them & brush them with a cheap (unused) paintbrush. I also keep the good foliage for ramen and/or a secondary veg - using just the tips. They go in the fridge

Suffolk_lass

Pip, this might sound daft but why are you digging them all up and not just enough for the day or week? We tend to dig enough big carrots and leave them in the ground until we want to use them and potatoes, we chop of the surface vegetation and leave them in until the frost.

- then out they come, dry and brush and store in either a paper flour sack (16kg double thickness jobs) or a hessian sack. Butternut Squashes we chop off before they get gargantuan and then store under cover but outdoors until they go butter coloured then into a hessian sack.

euronorris

I'm afraid I don't have any help to offer on storage. I'm too much of a novice myself.


Had a busy weekend here. Was solo parenting DD as DH went off for a long weekend fishing with his Dad. DD and I spent a lot of time in the garden together. I trimmed some more overhanging vegetation from neighbours garden, weeded some side beds, and actually managed to mow the lawn whilst on my own with DD. I figured she wouldn't come anywhere near the mower as it is noisy and she hates loud noise, and even if she did, it isn't like the blade part is open and I could just release the handle and it would stop. As I suspected, she stood as far away as she could, with her hands over her ears to block out the noise, bless her. So, that's another job done (for now).


My tomato transplants (from where I pruned the main plants in May), have gone wild and grown like crazy! Absolutely mental! I was going to let them go a bit wild, but they were focused on one side and toppling their pots over. So I had to remove all their existing supports, and reconfigure them to try and get them to stand up a bit straighter, and distribute them a bit more evenly (rather than all on side). Then hacked off some of the leaves as their was little to no airflow in their, and I could see first signs of what I think is blight! These transplants are now bigger and more productive than their parents! lol


Still lots of new flowers on them, so they are getting quite a bit of attention from bees. DD and I watched one in particular going from flower to flower, even saw some pollen dust as it went to one particular flower. Pretty cool!


Have a great week all! x

PipneyJane

Thanks everyone for your advice. Next time, I'll just brush the earth off the potatoes and lay them out to dry somewhere dark. I'll then try storing them in the coldest place in the house (aka the downstairs loo).

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

Pip, this might sound daft but why are you digging them all up and not just enough for the day or week? We tend to dig enough big carrots and leave them in the ground until we want to use them and potatoes, we chop of the surface vegetation and leave them in until the frost.

- then out they come, dry and brush and store in either a paper flour sack (16kg double thickness jobs) or a hessian sack. Butternut Squashes we chop off before they get gargantuan and then store under cover but outdoors until they go butter coloured then into a hessian sack.

Good points. If I get a choice - enthusiastic husband might need reining back - I will leave the carrots in the ground until needed.

My DH put a 10kg flour sack in the recycling at the weekend - I will rescue it tonight.

- Pip

unrecordings

I did it.
I made it outside.
First proper venture in the garden since mid July, I'm going to hurt tomorrow, but it needs to be done (the chemo requires the steroids, which causes water retention, which causes foot drop, which gives me vertigo, which means I'm less mobile which makes the water retention worse, which makes me heavier, blah blah blah...

...anyway, got the workshop tidy, propped up the three or four peas I managed to sow a few months ago, tidied up the courgettes & tomatoes (the former on their last legs, like me, so I gave them a chance). Got the makings of some good ramen for tea - peas, nasturtium leaves, some mini kale, sprout tops, a carrot, chard, beetroot, lovage, sorrel & a micro courgette. All that in odd shoes because one foot wasn't cooperating.

LOTS of blackberries to pick, and I noticed a couple of damsons ripening (I thought there were none) - phew

Suffolk_lass

PipneyJane wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your advice. Next time, I'll just brush the earth off the potatoes and lay them out to dry somewhere dark. I'll then try storing them in the coldest place in the house (aka the downstairs loo).

- Pip

:rotfl::rotfl: - Pip, most people put Pot Pourri in their downstairs loo girl :beer:

euronorris

Slugss! Eurgh! Giant ones after rain overnight. Have evicted from sunflower, beans and rhubarb! lol


Still waiting on more toms to ripen. Lots in the first stages. Interestingly, I've found that the newer ones on the stripey tomato plant are ripening faster than the first tomatoes did. Does anyone else find the same? That once they start, newer ones move along more quickly.


Have been saving seed from tomatoes as well. Got about 17 seeds from a stripey tomato after fermentation. Only got 1 from one of my black tomatoes! It was smaller in size, but still! Am waiting on some larger size ones to ripen so that I can harvest seeds from them and see if I get a better amount.