The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: sabrina on May 30, 2015, 09:20:40 am
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Even the veg in the pollytunnel are slow and I feel its a waste of time this year. I planted out some cabbage plants last weekend. Thursday we had a day of hail and wind so they look as if they have had it. All my flowers in pots still inside. Even the apple trees are just starting to blossom now. At this rate veg will be costly through the winter. If I keep my pepper plants in the house will I still get peppers well into the autumn. have veg planted in big tubs but still in the tunnel so might just leave them there. The only plants doing well are the mixed lettuce. I have them in hanging baskets in the tunnel. Saw the idea on facebook and it works a treat. Might try this with strawberries next year to get some early fruit.
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Wish the grass in the fields would grow a bit faster :-[
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Same in my greenhouse nothing growing ????, tomatoes look well sad !
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Wish the grass in the fields would grow a bit faster :-[
me too! My hay guy was saying it's very slow too but luckily last year was so good, he still has plenty. So darn cold and we have snow forecast Monday morning.
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Mine seem to be OK - everything in the greenhouse is now hardened off and outside in raised beds or under glass. Tomatoes are now in their grow bags - 5 for £8 from B & Q so two of them are against the fence with peas and beans in them
My next problem is pigeons and white butterflies. :rant:
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We're forecast very strong gusty winds tomorrow, all after noon, so I'm glad I haven't put much outside yet. What's out there should be ok, especially if I tie the broad beans up.
Everything else is in the tunnel and all is doing fine. Only the cucumbers (4' tall :o) are still in the house in 4" pots, and will go up into the tunnel after this wind. I think/hope the worst of the cold will be over in a few days.
Maybe because I never expect much from my plants before the end of May, I'm not bothered by the stage they're at now. Tomatoes are about 40cm tall, nice dark green, still in the greenhouse in pots, just waiting for manure, seaweed meal and comfrey to be dug into their planting holes, then they'll be out. Same for the squashes, which are looking wonderful - the courgettes went out into the tunnel soil yesterday and look as if they've been there for weeks. Climbing beans have nice sturdy leaves, but haven't started to run yet, so the ideal time to get them into the soil - I usually leave them too long and end up spending ages untangling the stems ::)
The only things which are totally pathetic are the sweetcorn and leeks. My leek seedlings are maybe 3" tall and have a lot of growing to do if they're going to be worth planting out in early July. I'm not too bothered with the sweetcorn, as it was a packet which came free with a magazine, but I'm just giving it a go.
I hope everyone else's plants catch up in time to get a good crop. :fc: for better growing weather. :garden:
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Had so little rain until yesterday and I am absolutely hopeless at watering, so was really grateful for the torrential rain yesterday. My vegs were obviously waiting for it too, as everything has grown since yesterday! My beans are pretty poorly looking but one has just started to run so it's just a matter of time before we are all thinking "what on earth was I worried about?" ;D Only just put straw under my strawberries and ate my first fruit. Been barrowing loads of compost into my new raised fruit beds and am absolutely knackered! And somebody here has just reminded me I haven't even sown any squashes....off to try that now!
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Not sure where you all are but even in Hampshire things seem slow. Night temperatures have not got anywhere decent yet.
Beans have been out for a few weeks, but still look a lot like they did when I put them in. Sweet corns have been out for weeks and look alive, and perhaps 1cm taller! Brassicas and carrots ok but slow, can't get any parsnips to germinate outside. Only things looking very good are spuds, strawberries and onions.
Grass is slow too. I'm hoping it will all kick off soon and we'll wonder why we worried, as said in earlier post!
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The only things in the garden that are growing well (other than the weeds) is the potatoes that I didn't actually plant but that come up every year.
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and the grass that i can't get cut down because the ride on mower gear belt packed in! :rant: :rant: :rant:
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A 15metre row of carrots... and not one germinated in 6 weeks. I;ve just rotorvated that up and rsown with a second row of parsnips (firs row came up 3 weeks ago)
Also put in a second row of 800 peas, a new row of carrots, a second row of spring onions..
Reserve runners/ dwarf and climbing beans germinating in greenhouse.. the first lot all look crappy in the field. A third lot of brassica seeds just germinated 120 modules to complement the 2 lots of 80 that are doing OK in the veggie plot.
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I am having similar problems in South Devon - things not germinating, and those that do are all small and not getting going at all and the pigeons keep eating the peas as they come up! Will try again and hope the warmer weather might allow them to grow faster than the pigeons can eat them!
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I always sow my peas under chicken wire... if you pin it each side through a hole a few hole-rows up and thread the stick to a bottom hole... then it forms a tunnel shape.. protects from birds and mice. Once the peas are properly growing you re pin on one side as a support fence. I've been using the same rolls of chcken wire for 4 years now and they look good for a long time yet.
I;ve got a set of dwarf beans under another roll.. waiting for them to germinate too.
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Same in my greenhouse nothing growing ????, tomatoes look well sad !
Me too no idea what's gone wrong my peas have done ok and so have my courgettes and runners. The grass in the garden is getting out of hand no sooner I cut it it grows huge again. The fields are not as good as they could be but they're ok.
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The last couple of days of warmth seem to have done the trick. The peas are through now, the beetroot have started to look healthy and the beans are showing some sign of life. :excited:
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I think we've had colder than average nights this spring. I went to a friends house today, all her stuff is doing way better than mine, but she has a very sheltered sunny garden with raised beds, her soil must have warmed up much quicker.
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The green shoots of SUMMER have started 10 day germinating seeds have taken 21 days to show .
Our outside geraniums have finally started to break into bloom and produce copious greenery this time last year we were looking like the Chelsea flower show .
I put 12 broad beans in a bed at the begining of November last year . They have been slow to grow but did have inch long beans on them . Yesterday I had to buy some bamboo canes to stake & tie up each two to three foot tall plant . The strong winds over the last two days created havoc and flattened the lot .
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Summer seems to be very late arriving this year and not much rain during spring. Not a great combination for growing.
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The weeds are looking fantastic here! I planted my first veg beginning of May and only seeing the tops of the carrots now. Agree now its windy with a sharp wind with very little rainwater. Should I be giving them a good drink?
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I would. I water my veg unless it's raining.
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I harvested my overwintered garlic 10 or so days ago .The big over wintered Sturton onions are starting to ripen some are a good three inches across.
Cut and come again salads stuff that was sown thre weks ago has only just really broken ground.
A few carrots sown nearly a n=month ago are now 10 mm tall
broad beans sown in early Nov last year are finally starting to pod up nicely ..should be eating a few fresh ones in two or three days time .
The glasshouse started peas have hardly made any progress in the garden since we planted them out nearly a month ago .
The slugs have had a major slugfest on the french climbing beans despite two packs of slug pellets being used , I have now resorted to a Nematode control again .... it seems to be working well .
Things are starting to buck up in the glasshouse. We've two cucumber plants with about 20 one inch long cuc's between them (for making sweet pickled dill & cuc ) eight tomato plants , tomatoes starting to form . Capsicums in flower , some are also set . we also have an aubergine plant that has the tiniest of eggs starting to form
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We start as many things as possible in modules inthe greenhouse. It gives them a good start. Beetroot fennel beans ppeas salads etc. This year my oh bought parsnips in modules every one is growing well for the first time ever
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We start as many things as possible in modules inthe greenhouse. It gives them a good start. Beetroot fennel beans ppeas salads etc. This year my oh bought parsnips in modules every one is growing well for the first time ever
Are they the ball rooted parsnips or the standard long ones.. i tried putting the parsnips in 75 mm deep modules and everyone I transplanted into seasoned well fed deep soil came to be like a swede shaped ball about 3 inches across when I went to harvest them ..
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Onions, spuds, peas all doing really well..spuds have flowers. Beans were slow, cold, chewed by slugs etc and resown.. the second batch are doing better but a way to go. B Beans sown direct this year are a good height and flowering well but no pods yet.
Oe greenhouse bed is fine ./ loads lettuce and courgettes and the aubergines are growing strong but the pther bed has been a disaster - I suspect a dud bag of compost ..everything stunted to the point that I dug t all out and swapped for fresh compost, washed the plant roots and replanted.. about half recovered but have been badly set back to the point that I resowed toms and peppers so it's goign to be very late before any harvest off them this season.
First carrot sowing failed outside but first parsnips strong and happy.. second ones through now and carrots at last as wella s sping onions. second pea sowng up for a follow-on. Firs brassica sowing slow but getting there, second one mostly eaten by crows and hares.. third lot of seedlings ready to plant out any time i catch up with weeding.
Watering is a major issue for a 1/4 acre. I tried sprinklers the first year and ran the borehole dry, wrecked the pressure vessel lining and learned an expensive lesson. So to water safely I ave to load up the sprayer tank on the quadbike, take off the nozzle and dose each plant. Its impractical to do them all - so they only get watered if desperate and in rotation - a couple of 90L tanks is my limit in a day - it's tedious. Carting water from the stream would be even more hassle.
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PG somewhere on the site there is a thread about hydraulic water pumps that can pump a height 6 times head of water at about 1/6 th of the supply going into the pump.
As they work by water flow alone would such a device be of any use to you?
A series of them running 24 /7 from the stream could be good to fill a series & eventually to a final high header tank . Then use low flow low pressure sprinklers or drippers or soaker hoses run from the final header tank system
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I've considered pumping but the brutal fact is that the bigger stream is 200+yds away with a smaller ditch/stream 100+yds away... pipe alone gets expensive at any bore that avoids drops from resistance plus the cost of burying it or a reel system to coil it up.
Local farmer delivered a 1000L eurotank one year which was just enough to give every plant a decent drink via watering can over a few days. Spraying would need at least 2 such tankfulls
It'd be more practical to stick 2 eurocontainers on my trailer with perhaps a PTO pump if one could find one cheap enough.. they can fill a eurocontainer in a couple of minutes (actually would take longer since the stream is small)....
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..just stuck 90 brassica seedlings in .. that's my third and likely final brassica planting this year..now off to water them all in.
First planting doing quite well, second still recovering from bird nibbles.
It's very noticebale that the top 2 inches of soil and bone dry but below that it actually nice and moist and it's reflected in the types and ages of plantings and their root systems. All spuds now in glorious flower.
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I was getting worried that my were not growing but they sounds about the same as what you have all described which is good. Just need to battle the blackfly/whitefly which seems to be everywhere at the moment.
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Still cool nights here in the Marches. Strawberries finally beginning to colour up, after sitting there for a month. Runner and French beans barely moving and potatoes also sulking. Onions doing quite well, however. I may have to invest in cloches for next Spring.
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I had to replant my French beans, the first lot got blown to bits by the wind and eaten by the slugs n snails. I have planted tons of veg this year so it'll be a late crop I think. The strawberries are doing well, apart from the snails and slugs :rant: My blackcurrant bush I have had to net away from the birds, the fruits are fat and juicy and all ripening. so hopefully not a bad year after all. :relief:
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I don't think I'm going to get a strawberry crop this year. They are all in full bloom but it's so blooming wet and cold there are no bees out. I just keep seeing dead soggy bees around :(
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I ate my first two strawberries from the garden today. Best strawberries ever. :D
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None of our Cambridge favorite strawberries have produced any fruit yet .
However the small AlpineI've considered pumping but the brutal fact is that the bigger stream is 200+yds away with a smaller ditch/stream 100+yds away... pipe alone gets expensive at any bore that avoids drops from resistance plus the cost of burying it or a reel system to coil it up.
Local farmer delivered a 1000L eurotank one year which was just enough to give every plant a decent drink via watering can over a few days. Spraying would need at least 2 such tankfulls
It'd be more practical to stick 2 eurocontainers on my trailer with perhaps a PTO pump if one could find one cheap enough.. they can fill a eurocontainer in a couple of minutes (actually would take longer since the stream is small)....
If you have a small portable genny could you use one of the small ( £40 or so ) float switched sump pumps and take water from the small stream.
You'd be surprised at the amount of water available in a small stream that's only 2 inches deep .
I used to run a nuclear / chemical decontamination unit for NATO as well as the Brit armed forces . It was usually set up out in the middle of nowhere .
Many a time I'd just dig a three foot long ,foot deep trench a foot wide to make a sump in the shallow stream bed and set my screened intake hose in it . Getting 1500 litres of water every 20 minutes for the decontamination showers was never a problem .
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I've more or less given up with strawberries.. OH treats the place like a wildlife refuge with queues od pheasants, small birdies and squireels waiting with the chickens for several meals per day and helping themselves to my strawberry tubs too..... I'd have to grow them on hanging baskets or high posts to have a decent crop....or grow so many even the wildlife get fed up with them :)
Did get our first picking of gooseberries yesterday, blackcurrants still a couple of weeks from ripening....birdies more or less leave those alone.. but the reds and whites and blueberries are a battle. The cost of caging my patch would be silly but I do get a few handfulls each year. Perhaps i should just grow them by the acre???
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A friend had a wall of strawberries on the south facing wall of his small wooden barn .
He'd run five 20 foot runs of 6" guttering with stopped ends on the correct brackets,and planted the strawberries in peat& grow bag mix which he was drip feeding most days with some hydroponic liquid in a header tank from inside the barn .
He had marvelous crops and didn't suffer from slugs snail or any of the pests you mentioned.
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The south wall of my barns are shaded by tall trees.
I had considered troughs attached to the top of fence posts but was lazy about getting it organised..plus it means more water carting.