The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

zafiro1984

Yet more tomatoes but I haven't time to do anything with them until tomorrow. I'm finding it hard at the moment to do everything that's needed. The housework is suffering as well as the plot, so tomorrow I'll have to make time in the afternoon to try and catch up a bit. I started at 6am today and tea was put on the table at 8.30 tonight, far too late and i did want to watch 'Strictly' but it had nearly finished. Good job I've never needed much sleep. I mustn't moan - just get myself better organised.

Suffolk_lass

I love the idea of over-wintering a chilli plant! one of mine is in a pot (the rest are in window-boxes). I will discuss with DH as it is quite a large pot and there is only one suitable windowsill...

zafiro1984 - I have just chopped all my tomatoes up and they are on the hob in a little salt now, with bottling jars in the oven to sterilise. I just cut out marks on the skin and the stalk-root and chopped them up. I will blend them when they are cooked before decanting them using my jam funnel. I watched a youtube channel of an old Italian Nonna here is the link and without the industrial quantities it works for me, and takes up around a quarter of the space they do in the freezer. It's the second batch I've done and the first batch were fantastic.

zafiro1984

Just looked at the link, it's a good idea, I'll keep it in mind for the next batch, but this morning I peeled them, squashed them and cooked them with a couple of chilies, a couple of garlic cloves and black pepper. Turned it into quite acceptable soup for lunch and low calorie into the bargain. There's more in the fridge for tomorrow and I'll freeze the rest in individual portions.

Today I took the runner beans down but as it was quite late the tidying up will have to be tomorrow, Turned the bed over, I'm thinking of piling on fresh manure tomorrow and covering it with black plastic (the sort that lets the water through) for the winter. the worms should have it in a good state early next year and no weeds!!!

The squash are now going quite a lovely golden colour. I'm going to leave them a few more days especially if the weather is fine.

I dug up a few Carolus potatoes today. This is the third year I have grown them. I can certainly recommend them, they are blight resistant and make the most fabulous roast potatoes (and chips) - crispy on the outside and fluffy inside. However, they are no good for mash as they fall apart.

I must remember to try and pick more blackberries/brambles. I keep saying to myself 'I'll do it tomorrow' but one day there will be none left. The turkeys have eaten all the ones along their side of the fence and are now working their way through the fallen crab apples. Autumn is definitely on its way.

Primrose

Suffolk_lass wrote: »

I love the idea of over-wintering a chilli plant! one of mine is in a pot (the rest are in window-boxes). I will discuss with DH as it is quite a large pot and there is only one suitable windowsill...

zafiro1984 - I have just chopped all my tomatoes up and they are on the hob in a little salt now, with bottling jars in the oven to sterilise. I just cut out marks on the skin and the stalk-root and chopped them up. I will blend them when they are cooked before decanting them using my jam funnel. I watched a youtube channel of an old Italian Nonna here is the link and without the industrial quantities it works for me, and takes up around a quarter of the space they do in the freezer. It's the second batch I've done and the first batch were fantastic.

Suffolk lass I've overwintered chillies in the past. Once they've finished fruit ai prune them really hard back, including some of the roots, add a little fresh compost to the pot and keep on a window sill. The small shoots on the main stalk quickly sprout again and you get an earlier crop the following year. The only problem I find is vulnerability to an attack of whitefly which can severely weaken the plant.

Zafiro Thanks for the You Tube link I watched with fascination and horror at the sheer quantities involved, but reduced to an ordinary domestic scale this is doable. However I have my magic stick blender which when used in even my biggest cooking pan would eliminate the need for all this bulk equipment. I still have some ripe tomatoes to come. I have frozen all our sauces everything to date but may have a trial run with preserving jars to see how it works. Do you think ordinary jam jars with their sealable lids would work? We reuse them without issue for marmalade and jam preserving.

euronorris

If you don't have time to do anything with tomatoes immediately (and you know you will be making a sauce, or similar), then you can just pop them in the freezer whilst you wait. When you take them out, run under a hot tap and the skins will fall off really easy.


I tidied up the garden a little bit yesterday. Nothing major. Mainly just topping the tomatoes, as that is all I had time for. The two 'clones' were still producing lots of new flowers, but there realistically isn't enough time for them to grow to full size AND ripen . Especially the black ones, which take forever!


Also had some signs of blight on the three stripey tomato plants, so have cut off the bad parts in an effort to delay it.


Harvested quite a few tomatoes as well, on both Sat and Sun morning. Harvested a few beans. Not many left on the plant, and it has suffered so badly from blackfly. I've battled it all season, but it's a losing fight!

zafiro1984

I was wondering - would be a good idea before the winter sets in and we spend less time on the plot to assess what has been worth growing, and what not to grow, bearing in mind we live in different parts of the country and have different growing conditions.

I live in the south, soil is greensand ie sandy and very acid generally 5-5.5ph.
Recommend:- Carolus potatoes - great for roast
sweetcorn a variety called 'Incredible', tall plants 2-3 cobs per plant
Courgette:- Defender loads of courgettes and still going strong, no mildew.
Earlier in the year mangetout 'Shirez', good flavour, good crop and being purple I could spot each and every one before they got too big.

Wouldn't grow again:- Sweet pepper variety 'sweetonia' i think it was my mistake as the plants grew well and produced loads of peppers but the size of each one was very, very small - each no bigger than a plum. Last year I grew 'Snackbite' they were about 3-4 times bigger very sweet, but still smaller than the ones in the shops - suited my needs well.

I'd be interested to know what others think as it may well influence my choice of varieties for next year.

unrecordings

zafiro1984 wrote: »

I was wondering - would be a good idea before the winter sets in and we spend less time on the plot to assess what has been worth growing, and what not to grow, bearing in mind we live in different parts of the country and have different growing conditions.

Going to be a week or so before I can say, I'm still catching up, but I think last year I started clearing properly in early November (give or take a week to allow for chemo cycles)

Hoping to get out this afternoon, just back from the hospital and awaiting go/no go bloodtest results for (hopefully) this weeks chemo

Primrose

Apart from Tumbling Tom bush variety tomatoes for patio pots which mature early, I,ve limited my upright tomato varieties to Ferline (blight resistant) ( large salad tomatoes and Prima Bella (from Victoriana nurseries) which are an excellent flavoured cherry tomato.

My good old reliable Cobra climbing beans have performed copiously again despite having to resort them as first batch germinated very poorly. Musselburgh leeks looking good (little sign of rust this year) and Giant Fordhook Swiss Chard splendidly vigorous and has completely avoided any attack from slugs, butterflies or any other pest.

My soil here is very light, free draining and needs a lot of humus/compost added to retain moisture. My single butternut squash plant produced just one large fruit, by which time it had taken over a third of the vegetable plot so won't grow that again. My two Defender courgettes now looking very sick with mildew .

Redcurrants so prolific I confess i,ve ended up leaving many of them in the two bushes for the birds as freezer still amply packed with last year's crop!
I,ve had more mixed lettuces from the Living Leaves salad punnets bought from Sainsbury's, plus own sowings than we've been able to eat.

My two mini cucumber plants, grown in a border have cropped so prolifically that neighbours now run a mile from them!

All in all, a productive year. The garden has more than earned its keep!

silverwhistle

Primrose wrote: »

Suffolk lass I've overwintered chillies in the past.

So have I, in a pot on my south facing Hampshire patio. It wasn't intentional , so thanks for the advice. I might try deliberately this year. :-)



On the subject of toms, I used to live in Italy (in a flat), but every local hardware shop would have on sale the equipment and jars for making tomato passata.



I still have little idea what I'm going to do with my new allotment so the different comments on varieties is interesting. I've sent away for a few seed catalogues to read in front of the fire, although some of the smaller ones are online only these days.

unrecordings

Managed to spend another three hours out there and finished cleaning the dirty plant pots that had stacked up - with a cheapo bristle brush attached to a cordless drill - which is a very good way of getting pots nearly clean. Then down to the greenhouses for a bit of a tidy & harvest some more that are ready. I really cut back the foliage on my tomatoes to allow the remaining fruit more light. Of course after all that tidying I've now got more pots to clean...