Anyone sown anything so far ?

Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

Vagetarian wrote:I wish I had someone to grow more food.

I've got fruit forming on all 8 of my tomato plants, half a dozen ripe Golden Sweet (like Sungold) so far. I think that at this rate I'll have to allow 2 or 3 suckers per plant (they're all indeterminate) to reach the top of the 6ft canes, along with the main stem.
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those toms look very healthy .... they are a lot taller than my plants
Vagetarian

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Vagetarian »

Thanks, they're too big really, it's a bit of a pain carrying them in and out every day.

I blame the high dose of BFB. They had nitrogen toxicity symptoms throughout the first month or 2. But the overproduction of leaves seem to be an advantage at that stage.
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

I popped into the local garden centre earlier looking for 2 musa basjoo .... they never had any in stock yet, so I had to buy something instead ....

so, I bought a tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum) .... grows to 8 feet in a year and tastes like spinach ... large leaves are cooked like spinach, and new leaves are used in salads

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bought an Orach red .... these leaves are eaten raw in salads ... grows 1,2 meters tall ...

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and bought a Sorrel bloody dock ... grows 2 foot tall and is eaten raw in salads or can be cooked:
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all 3 are in 9cm pots and they have a special ... £5 for 3 ... all new to me so we will will eating salads with new flavours this year
GREVILLE

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by GREVILLE »

Chinese cabbage and rocket to be sown next week.
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

cucamelons is something that many are speaking highly of on veg forums .... (Doll’s house-sized ‘watermelons’ that taste of pure cucumber with a tinge of lime)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/thing-you ... cucamelons

http://homegrown-revolution.co.uk/savou ... ucamelons/

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I checked my local garden centre yesterday, but they don't have any in stock yet
Vagetarian

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Vagetarian »

Interesting stuff Dim. I've never heard of any of these.
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

Vagetarian wrote:Interesting stuff Dim. I've never heard of any of these.
it's a good garden centre with a huge range of plants and accesories ... (less than a mile away from me) .... I popped in again today, and ended up buying cucamelons seeds (james Wong's Homegrown revolution Cucamelon seeds for £1.85) .... not many seeds in the pack (I think there were approx 10) .... I will see how they fare and have placed them in a pot with compost and covered the top with clingfilm

One of the girls who works there said that they had cucamelons in trays a week ago, and they sold out on the 1st day ... I bought a few more things for my veg garden today (Greek oregano, greek basil and dwarf french beans)

I dont have much more space now for anything new unless I extend my veg patch, so I will wait a while and replace what gets eaten ... this is the 1st year that I am growing veg and herbs for myself (and not at my client's gardens)
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

Here's another interesting one:
Cocktail Kiwi Plant

quote:
Originating from Siberia. Hardy down to -35°C and growing up to 2m in one season, this delightful, grapevine-like plant produces up to 400 miniature fuzz-free kiwis every year! (This is a self-fertile variety.)

Eat them fresh from the vine or cut them in half and dry in a low oven to make sticky wine gum-like sweets but without any E numbers!

James says - 'Super sweet mini kiwis that come with a fuzz-free edible skin.'
Culture: Plant: Can grow up to 2m. Can yield up to 20kg fruit when mature. Harvest: September-November.


http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vege ... 239390.htm

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Vagetarian

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Vagetarian »

Those are also called Kiwiberries and I've bought them in supermarket under that name, they were very nice and I've wanted to grow a plant myself ever since. It doesn't seem to say specifically but the one you linked must be Actinidia arguta 'Issai', because I think it's the only self fertile cultivar. Got to get myself one, one day..
Vagetarian

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Vagetarian »

I think I've just discovered the start of sclerotinia on my tomatoes. :ahhh!:

The experimental coir grown seedlings were weakest and worst affected but one of my bigger tomatoes is infected too, it does happen to be the fussiest variety I've grown so hopefully the 7 healthiest will be OK. It's weird because the conservatory isn't really the best place for a fungal disease, it should be too dry. icon_scratch

I'm going to bin the worst plants and treat the others with Trichoderma, I will brew it overnight with some molasses and pray that it out competes the sclerotinia. That should be your cup of tea Dim... see what I did there? :lol:
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

Vagetarian wrote:
I will brew it overnight with some molasses and pray that it out competes the sclerotinia. That should be your cup of tea Dim... see what I did there? :lol:
Hmmm ... it will make those tomatoes much sweeter with the molasses :D

my toms are planted outdoors ... they seem happy so far, and the stems are really thick ... leaf colour is dark green and some are already in flower .. this warmer weather should speed things up

something is munching on my spinach and beetroot leaves ... it's not slugs or snails as I use loads of snailbait ... seems like half the leaves (top half are cleanly sliced away) ... could be some kind of beetle at night ...

I don't want to use provado or anything else, otherwise my wife wont eat any of the veg .. took her a while to convince that it's safe, and if I do not use snail bait, there wont be any veg left

as for the cocktail kiwi and cucamelon, the seeds are cheap and can be bought online here: (check out the other seeds in the James Wong series) ... there are some interesting seeds ... my local garden centre stocks the full range

http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vege ... 2147483647
Vagetarian

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Vagetarian »

Interesting stuff, it's actually all of these obscure and exotic fruit plants that got me into tropical gardening in the first place. There's a few different ones here http://www.readytogrow.co.uk/seeds/c_fruits2.htm

I wholly recommend the "inca berries" although I've never heard them go by that name before (proper name is Physalis peruviana). I grew a plant from supermarket Physalis fruit seeds and it was a monster with a good yield. The taste is kind of half way between an orange and a black cherry, a little too sharp for some but I certainly liked them.

If you grow the tiny kiwi from seed you will need both male and female plants.
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

Vagetarian wrote:Interesting stuff, it's actually all of these obscure and exotic fruit plants that got me into tropical gardening in the first place. There's a few different ones here http://www.readytogrow.co.uk/seeds/c_fruits2.htm

I wholly recommend the "inca berries" although I've never heard them go by that name before (proper name is Physalis peruviana). I grew a plant from supermarket Physalis fruit seeds and it was a monster with a good yield. The taste is kind of half way between an orange and a black cherry, a little too sharp for some but I certainly liked them.

If you grow the tiny kiwi from seed you will need both male and female plants.
I've grown the inca berries in south africa (they are known as cape gooseberries) .... I was not too fond of them though, but suppose if you add then to a fruit salad they may be ok
Mo

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Mo »

Planted sweet potatoes in my poly tunnel today - hoping for some success as my boss grows them well under cover every year - I see a bit of competition coming on!

Any tips gratefully accepted???
Dim

Re: Anyone sown anything so far ?

Post by Dim »

Mo wrote:Planted sweet potatoes in my poly tunnel today - hoping for some success as my boss grows them well under cover every year - I see a bit of competition coming on!

Any tips gratefully accepted???
I planted one of the sutton's grafted sweet potatoes in a client's garden a month or so ago .... I only planted one (just to see how it fares this year, and it was pretty expensive (compared to normal sweet potato plug plants)

it has not done much as is still the same size with the same amount of leaves on the plant

but saying that, it needs a bit of heat and hopefully the weather will warm up soon

if you are growing in your polytunnel, you will most probably have better luck .... here is the pdf for the one I planted:

http://suttons.s3.amazonaws.com/sut/Gro ... _Guide.pdf

here is more info on sweet potatoes:

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/how-to-g ... t-potatoes

and here is the variety that I will try in my own garden (purple sweet potato .... the 'new' superfood :roll: : .... some guys say this variety grows well with very little problems

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink ... ancer.html
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