The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

Suffolk_lass

My green tomatoes were left on top of the bug zapper which is on the kitchen window sill while we were away for five days (returned last night) and some are turning red

Did you know that bananas are gassed in ethylene to move them from their dormant transport state and encourage them to start going yellow (and the customs process means they have to arrive where there is approved banana weighing equipment)

euronorris

Just back from our holiday yesterday. Lots of fun, but lots of rain lol.


Returned to see the garden still standing. The brussel sprouts are still going (they haven't been devoured by caterpillars....yet). Harvested over a kilo of ripe tomatoes (and a few not quite ripe by accident - it's very difficult to tell when the skins have gone completely black from sunlight exposure! lol). Still plenty on the vine, though will likely have to pick and ripen indoors now. I 'crushed' and froze 1.6kg worth before our holiday, and still have a batch of tomato soup in the freezer too lol


Hope you're all keeping well. I need to catch up on the thread now.

unrecordings

Quick question: I've a small potager style bed that I started last year and this year I added extra nasturtiums. I'm wondering how readily they self seed. There are a load of corms floating around (is that corms or seeds for nasturtiums ?) but I'm not sure whether to collect them & sow in the spring or just push them in

Primrose

I've grown nasturtiums in the past and find they can self seed quite readily but how many of them germi ate the next year if you just push them deeply i to the soil may depend of the severity of the winter weather. . I find the seeds tend not to overwinter safely in long periods of frost.

I,d collect a few of the seeds, dry them and sow in spring so you work on a belt and braces concept.

unrecordings

Primrose wrote: »

I've grown nasturtiums in the past and find they can self seed quite readily but how many of them germi ate the next year if you just push them deeply i to the soil may depend of the severity of the winter weather. . I find the seeds tend not to overwinter safely in long periods of frost.

I,d collect a few of the seeds, dry them and sow in spring so you work on a belt and braces concept.

The bed is up near the house and quite sheltered, and I've still some seeds in the packet from this year's sowing so I'll push 'em in and see what happens...

PipneyJane

Is it too late to attempt to grow broad beans for overwintering? What other crops can you kick-off now and overwinter?

The thought just occurred to me that we could utilise the currently empty raised bed, which would definitely discourage the neighbourhood cats from using it as a toilet.

- PIp

unrecordings

PipneyJane wrote: »

Is it too late to attempt to grow broad beans for overwintering? What other crops can you kick-off now and overwinter?

I just googled it 'cos I'm bored:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=617
https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/how-to-grow-autumn-sown-broad-beans/

Both sites are good sources of information in general. It's got me thinking about the runner beans I have abandoned in the workshop - they're about 1m probably untangled, so maybe I might trim them to say 30cm & pop them in the greenhouse..? (is there an emoji for Australian lilt ?)

Further googling required...

unrecordings

unrecordings wrote: »

It's got me thinking about the runner beans I have abandoned in the workshop - they're about 1m probably untangled, so maybe I might trim them to say 30cm & pop them in the greenhouse..?

Okay forget that. Trying to overwinter runners is generally deemed to be pointless as you should repot the tuber in spring, with the beans getting poorer as the tuber gets older (season on season). Easier just to use fresh beans - though this could be a way to defeat mice, if you have that problem (?)

Primrose

I tried this in one occasion. It wasn,t really designed to try and regrow them. i'd read that it apparently helped to fix nitrogen in the soil if yiu left the roots in so I simply snipped the stems off at soil level and left them like that.

What happened? Nothing. The stems simply rotted and gradually dissolved over the winter months. Nothing regrew the following spring. This certainly wouldn't work in the open as beans are vulnerably to cold weather and the roots wouldn't survive through frosts. Even in a greenhouse or poly tunnel the winter temperatures would be too low.

unrecordings

The consensus seemed to be - yes they're grown as a perennial in South America, but in this climate if it worked with even a modicum of success then everyone would be doing it