The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

PipneyJane

-taff wrote: »

Reporting back on the straw bale experiment - it did work, the tomatoes grew big and strong after a shoddy start and produced omatoes much later than any other tomatoes outside.

However, I'd say they'd be better planted with a leafy green or brassica of some type due to the amount of nitrogen they must have been producing as they rotted.
One bale has filled my compost bin almost to the top [it was half full from normal taking down the garden for winter stuff] along with some cardboard and it did rot quite well judt by itself so I'm looking forward to the compost next year.

Remind me, please, -taff, what did the straw bale experiment involve? I don't remember. Many thanks.

Unrecordings, how do you get your green tomatoes to ripen? I was under the impression that, by now, they are only good for chutney and you couldn't store them in the fridge to ripen later.

- Pip

-taff

I bought a couple of straw bales from a farmer friend to try gorwing in. You're supposed to take off the bit in the middle to a depth of about 4 inches or so and speinkle on an activaor to start it rotting to provide the nutrients and warmth for seedlings.


In practice, I didn't sprinkle anything on it, just scooped out the middle [ which was difficult and actually quite hard work for me] then left it to be rained on for a few weeks before I put some tomato seedlings in that I'd grown in the lean to. They were about 6 inches or so when I put them in the middle. They were grown in a normal compost and then I also topped up the compost around them in the scooped out middle of the bale.


They grew very slowly to start with because I hadn't started the bale with an activator but they grew better as the straw rotted and produced tomatoes much later than the other outdoor tomatoes.


I would only do it again if I had no soil to grow in, and I would put brassicas of some kind in it because of all the nitrogen it produces as it rots.
The bale then went in to my compost bin, and it had rotted quite well in the middlw by the tie I put it in there [ a few days ago] no doubt helped by the insane amounts of rain we've had.


P.S. I've left my unripe toms on the side in the lean to to ripen to see if they will. My ex MIL used to put them in a paper bag in drawer. We forgot about them one year and found them at the end f december. They were ripe...very very ripe....and squashy..:)

MysteryMe

Got this email just now. T & M offering free postage on seeds



"With no minimum spend, enjoy FREE delivery on our entire range of flowers, fruit and vegetable seeds.

Hurry, offer ends midnight, 10th November 2019. Your FREE delivery will be applied in your shopping basket. Please note, offer is for delivery to the UK only and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotional vouchers. Please note, this offer is only available on single packs of seed and does not include collections, kits or lawn seed."

Primrose

Cut open a Crown Prince winter squash today and am saving all the seeds for drying and roasting as snacks. There were so many it seemed a shame to waste them. Has anybody tried this and if so what method did you use?

MysteryMe

Ordered a pack of Terenza cherry toms and a pack of Ailsa Craig from T&M with free postage.

Finally got around to cutting off the strawberry runners. I have potted up 10 "plants" Some have quite developed root systems as they were in soil that had fallen onto the hard standing where the strawberry tubs were. Even if only a couple of them take it's still free plants.

unrecordings

Mr Sutton keeps tempting me with new things, but I'm not buying anything until next year. Got plenty to keep me busy and a good stock of the usual suspects. I do love the joy of 'free plants', it can get obsessive though - for the last few years I was looking at ferns that were popping up and going 'worth £10 next year' - it was aquilegia before that. Last couple of years was oak seedlings, 20 of which I've arranged to donate to the local woods once I've repotted them

MysteryMe

I've got an oak seedling on the go too, found it in one of my containers so have pulled it up and repotted. It was fascinating seeing the root and stem coming from the acorn.

I've also got a hardy Echivera which has had multiple stems of beautiful pale pink flowers. Like Sempervivum they have young plants coming off them so I have been potting them up, they look so exotic but grow so easily. I have given one as a thank you gift. The image was taken in June and the main plant has increased in size and the baby plants at least 4 times the size.

Another exotic I've increased through division is Aechmea Recuvata

I'm going to do the same with some of my black and red stemmed bamboo in the spring.



I think you're right, free plants is addictive!

Suffolk_lass

Our new greenhouse is due to be delivered today. It is for us to erect (saving several hundred pounds) - we (that is DH, DS, his friend and my cousin) removed the tree stump that would have been in the middle and DH has measured it all out - it seems much bigger with bamboos on the grass. Still a way to go as we need to dig the trench for the base, level it with sand and cement, build the single course breeze block base and then build it, but it is coming today anyway.

Our existing one is badly twisted by the gales and only still up because the roof panes are perspex so I knew I would not die if one fell on my head while pottering! - It is only 6x4 - the new one is 10 x 8! Very excited!

carinjo

Just a quick question: after reading some posts here and and a search in general, i am still a bit clueless on how to use fleece. Do you just drape it across your seedlings? Do you tuck it it close along each row? I have 2, 1m rows of broadbeans that are handhigh at moment and some leftover fleece from previous allotment holder.

unrecordings

MysteryMe wrote: »

Another exotic I've increased through division is Aechmea Recuvata

I'm going to do the same with some of my black and red stemmed bamboo in the spring.

I'd planned on sorting out a lot of alpines over the summer, made up a bucket of gritty compost, then didn't get any further with it because all the nice pots needed cleaning first (amongst other things). I also did bamboo, but did it wrong so they got hoiked out of the pot eventually