The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

wishuponastar · 17 July 2019 at 11:37PM

I was growing some bolted onions to flower so I could harvest seeds for next year.

I had two (had being the word). The were beside each other but today I noticed that one had been completely eaten off, with only a few remnants of the flower on the soil beside it.

Now I have one only and I'm worried how to pollinate it? Can I self pollinate it somehow or can I use leek flowers as I have two of those in full flower?

As last year I only grew one bolted onion to flower and it didn't get pollinated so I ended up with empty pods where the seeds were supposed to be.

wishuponastar · 17 July 2019 at 11:41PM

zafiro1984 wrote: »

The onions are magnificent, a couple of months to go before pulling them up but the problem will be;- I think they will be too large to store well and I'll have to slice and freeze them -serves me right for watering and feeding them.

Sounds like you are having great success with your onions, good job. I'm just trying to grow some seeds ready for next year but not having much success.

unrecordings · 18 July 2019 at 8:58AM

After the chair incident at the weekend I got the remainder of the onions, garlic & shallots out (the latter helped by getting a really good close up look at them while I was wallowing around on the ground). I'm still figuring out how much failed, I only found two bulbs of garlic, but the onions are really good - they're sitting in the conservatory drying, much to the annoyance of the cat. In other news I got my first tomato yesterday - okay it was 3/4 blossom end rot, but that last quarter didn't get wasted

euronorris · 18 July 2019 at 8:59AM

My courgette plants are not healthy!

One of them looks worse than the other. The older leaves have pale brown splotches on them and are drying and curling up. I don't know what's wrong with them, or how to treat them, but the flowers on the bottom of that one are aborting before they open. On the other, the leaf issue is less, but there was a courgette growing (which had definitely been pollinated as I did it), but it just seems to have stopped growing. Not rotting or anything, just stopped. Again, I don't know why.

Sooo frustrating. Courgettes seem to be one of the easiest things for everyone else to grow, and ours are struggling like crazy! Any suggestions? I noticed white powdery patches on the leaves previously. Mildew? Could it be that has got worse?

The sweet pepper plants I grew from seed aren't looking too healthy now either. They have some leaves that are turning pale, with little brown spots on them. Is that blight? Can you get blight on peppers? I don't know. I'm such a novice! lol

Lots of tomatoes setting now. And some that flowered, and dried up about 4 weeks ago, have suddenly started to swell!! So that's good at least!

Suffolk_lass · 18 July 2019 at 12:42PM

euronorris following unrecordings top tip about blossom end rot being due to poor pollination I have watched a couple of you-tube clips this week and have pruned about a third of the leaves - all those crossing with the neighbouring plant, any yellowing or laying on the ground or covering the whole plant. Mine are too crowded so I need to give them some air - I am no expert but I am getting the fruits now (6 more today).

Also all the first flowers are normally male and don't swell, just on a stem, so maybe that is it. Don't worry about the greying on the leaves, it is normal here and doesn't seem to stop them.

Suffolk_lass · 18 July 2019 at 12:46PM

First hanful of carrots pulled as they are too close to a courgette. Looking good and wonky!

euronorris · 18 July 2019 at 1:47PM

This is what the leaves look like on the courgette:

zafiro1984 · 18 July 2019 at 11:28PM

euronorris Yes you can get blight on peppers as I think they are in the same family as tomatoes. I'm not sure what the symptoms are. I've never has blight on peppers but I have on tomatoes and potatoes.
Courgettes - the white patches you have is probably mildew, I'd try giving them a good feed and see what happens.

Suffolk Lass - interesting what you said about tomatoes. I always cut off the leaves below the first truss of tomatoes once they have set..I also cut off any yellowing or curled leaves as well. It seems brutal but I've never had blossom end rot. I only grow blight resistant varieties. I'd rather be sure of getting a crop rather than waste a year due to blight.

I found some very small shriveled seed potatoes - well yes, I knew they were there but kept forgetting to throw them away. So today I thought I'd give them a chance, I've stuck each in a pot to see if they will grow and if they do I'll transplant them undercover to see if I can get new potatoes for Christmas. It's a case of try and see.

I pulled up some mangetout plants a couple of days ago and today I was sorting thorough them only to find I had missed loads and loads of pods which were now curled but full of peas. I was curious and shelled them to have with tea. They were more like the old fashioned marrowfat peas than sweet juicy ones but boiled with a pinch of sugar solved that problem - waste not want not.

Is anyone starting yet to think about what to grow for the Autumn and Winter months?

unrecordings · 19 July 2019 at 8:10AM

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Is anyone starting yet to think about what to grow for the Autumn and Winter months?

Funnily enough I had the tin out yesterday, putting back the stuff that's definitely missed the boat this year. I've recently bought a bunch of oriental varieties from Nickys Nursery that I'm keen to try, and I might go for some onion sets of some kind, but maybe just a single variety rather than the bumper multi offers that I've previously been tempted by. In my position it's hard to plan too far ahead, but to use that popular Audrey Hepburn quote, 'to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow'

Suffolk_lass · 19 July 2019 at 9:30AM

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Courgettes - the white patches you have is probably mildew, I'd try giving them a good feed and see what happens.

Suffolk Lass - interesting what you said about tomatoes. I always cut off the leaves below the first truss of tomatoes once they have set..I also cut off any yellowing or curled leaves as well. It seems brutal but I've never had blossom end rot. I only grow blight resistant varieties. I'd rather be sure of getting a crop rather than waste a year due to blight.

Is anyone starting yet to think about what to grow for the Autumn and Winter months?

I was talking about courgettes in response to euronorris, but I think the same applies to tomatoes.

I have had to throw some of the potatoes I harvested a couple of weeks ago due to signs of blight. I hate that. We are away for a quick trip so hoping the forecast rain is here not where we are going.

I have leeks in for winter and will continue with kale and broccoli if the pigeons and cabbage white butterflies don't beat me to it. I'm going for some microgreens too but nothing in the greenhouse as we will be taking it down

The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

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