The even newer good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2021!

leftatthetrafficlights

Happy solstice!! ❄🎄🍾 

Still using cabbages, sprouts and leeks from the garden, the broad beans we put in pots in the greenhouse several weeks ago are doing well so hopefully we'll get some early beans next year 🙌 

Looking forward to spending the weekend raking the leaves in the garden to start off my annual leaf mould and sitting down to plan my veggie growing for 2022!! 

droopsnoot

I suspect all my pepper plants have now died. The ones outside look awful, the ones in the greenhouse are very similar, and even the ones in the house are starting to go the same way - the leaves curl up and then drop off, leaving just a stalk behind. Two plants still have peppers on them - one has a fairly small one, the other has four very small ones.

Oh well, I still have plenty of seeds left, I can just plant again but for the four or five peppers I've had from them, I may not bother.

LessImpecunious

droopsnoot said:

I suspect all my pepper plants have now died. The ones outside look awful, the ones in the greenhouse are very similar, and even the ones in the house are starting to go the same way - the leaves curl up and then drop off, leaving just a stalk behind. Two plants still have peppers on them - one has a fairly small one, the other has four very small ones.

Oh well, I still have plenty of seeds left, I can just plant again but for the four or five peppers I've had from them, I may not bother.

Steff Hafferty (No Dig expert) recently posted a video on how to overwinter chilli plants indoors - might well work with peppers...https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=664020678096546

greenbee

I tried overwintering my chillies, but gave up, as I seemed to be running a breeding programme for greenfly and whitefly... I got plenty of peppers this year, but most ended up ripening indoors, after I'd composted the plants.

carinjo

@leftatthetrafficlights my broadbeans are being munched, which i only realised today, thought they were just slow going until i saw a neigbours. Not sure if it worth covering up, since no idea how much actually been eaten as opposed just not sprouted yet. 
Probably too late now to have another go with putting some seeds in pots at home. 
On the plus side, was great harvesting some leeks, cavolo nero and rainbow chard.

LessImpecunious

greenbee said:

I tried overwintering my chillies, but gave up, as I seemed to be running a breeding programme for greenfly and whitefly... I got plenty of peppers this year, but most ended up ripening indoors, after I'd composted the plants.

The point about Steff's method is that she cuts all the tops/leaves off the plants, so there's noting for the greenfly to live on...

droopsnoot

Cheers, I'll maybe look at doing that. Although I don't need to cut the leaves off the plants - they've all either fallen off, or are in the process of falling off. I suspect it would be easier to bin them all and plant more seeds in spring. These are seeds from a supermarket pepper, so maybe the resulting plants aren't very hardy. Or maybe the article I read that suggested they would be OK outside over winter was from a different country.

LessImpecunious

droopsnoot said:

Cheers, I'll maybe look at doing that. Although I don't need to cut the leaves off the plants - they've all either fallen off, or are in the process of falling off. I suspect it would be easier to bin them all and plant more seeds in spring. These are seeds from a supermarket pepper, so maybe the resulting plants aren't very hardy. Or maybe the article I read that suggested they would be OK outside over winter was from a different country.

Yes, think it's unlikely any peppers would overwinter outside in the UK...I'm going to try with mine anyhow, which still have leaves and small peppers and grew from volunteer seeds in my homemade compost (so originally supermarket peppers), and came up very late in pots or seed trays where I'd sown other things - just to see if I can get a reasonable crop next year; they've been in the house for at least 6 weeks or so now, and are beginning to show signs of greenfly, so will chop back soon if they start to look any worse...

Dizzy_Ditzy

Hi folks! 

New thread for 2022 here - 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6322840/the-even-bigger-and-better-and-hopefully-not-lower-bits-of-growing-your-own-in-2022#latest

I will close this thread down in the new year 🙂