The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: oor wullie on March 19, 2018, 08:58:33 pm
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I've never been a great gardener but having acquired a big polytunnel I now understand the attraction of reading seed catalogues.
I am going to order some seeds from Real Seeds but there are a few things that they don't have so I will have to order from somewhere else as well. Where do people recommend for seeds and for strawberry plants?
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I usually get stuff from Real seeds, but, as you say, they sometimes don't have everything you want. I get anything else from D T Brown, no particular reason except that I have good results, like their website and have always had good service from them.
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I've commented before.. I'm mean with this stuff.. lidl seed prices or ebay for moderate quantities..and check how many seeds per pkt for the money.
I'm also mean when it comes to using them ..no more than 2 brassica seeds per cell, only one sweetcorn per cell etc. Its only things like spring onion, radish, carrot, parsnip that i sow direct.
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I use Tamar Seeds as they are organic. The other interesting one is The Seed Cooperative. They produce organic seeds for a lot of other companies.
A really useful book is The Poly tunnel Book by Joyce Russel.enjoy!
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On another forum I have just come across this website https://www.greenplantswap.co.uk (https://www.greenplantswap.co.uk). I mention it as I love the idea that we can swop those seeds/plants that we don't use.. Also I would like more people near Liskeard (my motivation for posting this :))
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Thanks for the advice. I've ordered from some of the sites mentioned and noted the others as ones to look at next year.
I think my wife has the polytunnel book out from the library just now too.
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My seeds come from DT Browns too. Generally good service, prices and availability.
With a new polytunnel to play with, try VERY hard to resist the temptation to plant lots and lots of everything and grow what you like to eat! Just because you have a polytunnel, does not mean that you can eat all of the courgettes that 10 plants will produce!! Ask me how I know.... :innocent:
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Mayse
That is why your friends and neighbours have door handles, to leave bags of veg on them lol
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This polytunnel was 7.5m x 30m, I have halved the hoop spacing so it is now "only" 13m long.
I am trying hard to stick to the ethos of doing a few things well rather than lots of things badly as with so much space it is tempting to grow all kinds of things that I don't actually like.
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That is still a nice size tunnel.
Resist the temptation to buy Asparagus Peas at all costs. I have no idea what the point of those awful things is.....
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Ha. We should maybe start a new topic "what not to grow".
I am sure that lots of people grow broad beans because they are easy to grow despite not liking them.
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Ooh no, broad beans are delicious, swede on the other hand ...
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My apologies, I did not mean to throw the thread off in the wrong direction!
Having done a few years of growing virtually everything available in the seed catalogue, we now concentrate our veggie-growing efforts on things which taste noticeably better when home-grown or eaten really fresh, like salad crops, herbs, tomatoes and winter veg. Personally I don't bother with potatoes and onions etc as space/time is limited and they are readily available in the shops fairly cheaply anyway and taste virtually the same. With the exception of a few new potatoes - which are fantastic when home grown!
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I think it is a relevant point [member=175813]Maysie[/member],
I had a different issue the first year I did veg. I tried to take on a 1/4 acre veg garden from scratch, planting it all up but found, come summer with the weeds raging (not so bad in a polytunnel maybe) I just couldn't keep up and had to abandon most of it as a lost cause! If I could do it over I would start on a small section then expand the garden over a period of time
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Hi Clarebelle
I completely agree.
My Dad has all day every day to potter around growing veg and that is pretty well all he does nowadays. For me however, I need to prioritise my time and when I am faffing around with my veggie patch, I want it to be an enjoyable experince, not a massive chore which I would end up resenting if there was too much to do.
I realise that once again I am sending this thread off topic, so apologies, but the best thing that I ever did was install 7 raised beds to divide up my veggie patch. Mentally, if I only weeded/dug/manured/whatever one veggie bed in a day, I had not 'broken myself' with work, but still felt like I had achieved something and reached a conclusion, whereas if I had weeded/dug/whatever 1/7th of the veggie patch and then stopped for the day, I would have felt like I had achieved very little and still had a mountain to climb so would not be having any fun at all.
I am now very selective about what I grow, but still generally grow far too much still!
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I had to dig a terrace across a slope to site the polytunnel so the side that is dug into the hill is down to concrete like subsoil that hasn't even grown weeds despite being left exposed for the last 3 years. That will get raised beds eventually but not this year. The result is that I will be forced to restrict growing to under half of the tunnel this year - undoubtedly a good thing if it helps keep things manageable.
Maysie I can totally see how raised beds can make a big job seem more manageable and contained.
Interestingly, in the North and North East potatoes are seen as something well worth growing, particularly by the older generation. It is mostly because traditional types are much more dry and floury than those sold in supermarkets and can be hard to find. I know men (and it is nearly always men for some reason) that grow potatoes and nothing else!
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I think the older potato growing obsessives are the from the same school as those who grow the giant veg for shows.
I grew all of my 'designer' spuds and Jerusalem artichokes in loads of huge 40 litre tubs last year and installed an automated dripper hose watering system too.
Shame they nearly all got scab from the compost I bought to fill the pots......... ::)
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The bacteria causing scab is found in most soils - it’s usually the growing conditions which cause it to become a problem. Scab is reduced by irrigation and getting spuds up early also reduces damage.
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I've never had scab affect spuds as much as it does here.. and I'm in wales so water isn't an issue and I often have to lift early to avoid blight starting (weather again). It's got to the point where I;m not going to grow spuds.. the cost of seed spuds, physical effort of planting, earthing up and digging out and then throwing 1/3rd of the crop away for the cheap price i can buy a sack of spuds... not worth it.
As above I've also reduced the size of my veggie patch..getting older and it hurts more to crawl around weeding. We have no passing trade options here so my x/s was given away to friends and neighbours.. let them buy their own and save my back.
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I have never had a problem with scab on spuds before, but last year (as mentioned above) it was awful. It was the first year I had grown spuds in tubs, all in 100% bought-in bagged compost.
I wont do that again.
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I've never been a great gardener but having acquired a big polytunnel I now understand the attraction of reading seed catalogues.
I am going to order some seeds from Real Seeds but there are a few things that they don't have so I will have to order from somewhere else as well. Where do people recommend for seeds and for strawberry plants?
Buy some strawberries you find you really like NOTE WELL some supermarket strawbs are irradiated and thus sterile . Peel off the seed skin & mush it up in a glass of clean cold water ... leave it on a window cill stirring it gently every four days , the seeds will sink to the bottom . Pour off just over half of the liquid mush each time then top up with clean water again . By day 12 you should have a lot of seeds in fairly clear water . Pour the water off & gently put the seeds on some triple folded kitchen towel . dry them overnight in the airing cupboard , Then sow them in damp peat the next day . cover with 1/8 inch of fine soil.
Cling film the tray , lift the film & check every day to see germination then take the film off & put the tray in a warm room but out of the sun . keep it moist but not too damp .
Those plants will be ready to flower in June ..... if you plant them out till they are about five inches tall , lift the plants then put the bare rooted plants in a polybag in the fridge for a week then re plant them in the final site .
To get good roots don't harvest any fruit in the first year clip the flowers off so the plant forces down a lot of roots . Next year you should have a harvestable crop .
Buying four month old potted runners is another way to go & the quickest way to get fruiting plants .
You should then make your own runners each year , burn the old plants & plant out in ground that hasn't had strawberries in it in the last four years ... done to starve out any strawberry root fly maggots which will decimate any plants left in the same place or infected ground .
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The bacteria causing scab is found in most soils - it’s usually the growing conditions which cause it to become a problem. Scab is reduced by irrigation and getting spuds up early also reduces damage.
Dry scab or also called common scab
Most severe in light soils in dry conditions . Dig in plenty of compost & do not lime before planting , try growing scab resistant varieties .
Powdery scab a darker colour than common scab & it becomes powdery when rubbed .
Severe in heavy wet soils , practice a five crop rotation system .
Add compost to the proposed site the previous winter . Plant without liming , try growing Estima or Pentland Crown which have a bit of resistance to it .
If you do have a soil test done it may indicate that the soil needs liming ,grow brassica on the limed ground in the next season .
Spuds & Animal dung based manures that have been three or more years of undergoing composting .
Use it once every five to seven years in late autumn , at the rate of one big barrow load per square yard , double dug in ,
Put your spuds on it in the spring , practice a five year crop rotation plan .
The spuds umbrella of leaves will choke off most weeds that grow through , pull out the really tall ones . The ridging also helps keep weeds down , run your rows North to South so they get even sunlight on each row side .