God I love growing our own

[mbc]

Had a good crop or sweatcorn this year and marrows /courgettes butternut squash in the poly tunnel are doing well I still need to dig potatoes but think they will have to stay in the ground now I,ve fracture my spine.Not the best of years for the garden or me.

Gwella'n fuan Philip

 

[Moobee]

I am just sorting out tomato seeds for next year. Planning to grow Orange Parouche, Green Zebra, Noir de Crimee and Apero..Would welcome advice on a couple of medium size red tomatoes with lots of flavour. All will be grown in an unheated greenhouse. Anyone tried Y Ddraig Gogh?

Red Alert - bush tomato, early variety, lovely flavour.

 

[enrico]

How good are the LED equivalents?

I use LED in the spring to get things going early. Works a treat!. Stops plants getting all leggy

 

[Amari]

(Mind you, you can get an early crop from some Autumn varieties if you leave a few feet of last years canes in place so it's not as reliable as the above).

This month's Gardening Which suggests leaving the autumn-fruiting raspberry canes uncut rather than the customary cut to ground level. They will fruit in early next summer, after which you cut them down and they'll regrow to provide an autumn crop the same year.
Have any others tried this? - my variety is Polka.
This method seems to be flogging the canes very hard but I'll try it as I don't have any summer-fruiting canes - they all got raspberry die-back and had to be removed.

 

[Skinfaxi]

How good are the LED equivalents?

Expensive not used them in work but many use them. I think they are about £700 to £1000 up for one.
The good thing with hps or metal halide is give of some heat aswell.
So you can heat your living space with them as a plus in winter. Plus they are a cost fraction of LED.

 

[Skinfaxi]

I use LED in the spring to get things going early. Works a treat!. Stops plants getting all leggy

Yes. Good plan

 

[MJNT]

You did!

Thanks yes you did I was just wanting confirmation of what I saw ……(that I interpreted it correctly) the big new strong growth needs tying in as they are for next years summer raspberries is that correct? Whereas the weaker canes are those of autumn Fruiting ones from this year have I got this right? Sorry but I am worried I will cut down the wrong ones!

 

[pargyle]

This month's Gardening Which suggests leaving the autumn-fruiting raspberry canes uncut rather than the customary cut to ground level. They will fruit in early next summer, after which you cut them down and they'll regrow to provide an autumn crop the same year.
Have any others tried this? - my variety is Polka.
This method seems to be flogging the canes very hard but I'll try it as I don't have any summer-fruiting canes - they all got raspberry die-back and had to be removed.

Yes . I've cut autumn ones to half the full cane and you do get an early crop ... it tends to be not as good a crop as that on the new growth in the autumn and I've found that it inhibits the growth and ultimate crop on the new growth in autumn. It stands ti reason really you are asking a lot of the plant ... forming new growth and fruiting at the same time. I love the taste of autumn fruiting raspberries and what I do is just leave a few canes cut down to half size in the autumn and accept the expense of the treat their fruit provides early in the year. I will only do this with a few well established plants and I make sure that those plants get a really good feed in the autumn and another when they start throwing up new growth. Its a bit esoteric as summer fruiting ones will fruit around the same time so its only for the taste that I do it.

 

[enrico]

This is a tenth of this year's crop!!

 

[JamezF]

This is a tenth of this year's crop!!

They look like either nasturtium seeds or chick peas, but as the photo is a bit out of focus I'm not sure

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

but as the photo is a bit out of focus I'm not sure

Tap on it and it miraculously becomes sharp. This happens if you use the wrong attach media icon

 

[JamezF]

Tap on it and it miraculously becomes sharp. This happens if you use the wrong attach media icon

I tried tapping on my monitor but it just went funny colours.

James

 

[enrico]

I tried tapping on my monitor but it just went funny colours.

James

Sorry, yes it is a carp photo. Those are my nuts
Wallnuts!!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

 

[pargyle]

Thanks yes you did I was just wanting confirmation of what I saw ……(that I interpreted it correctly) the big new strong growth needs tying in as they are for next years summer raspberries is that correct? Whereas the weaker canes are those of autumn Fruiting ones from this year have I got this right? Sorry but I am worried I will cut down the wrong ones!

No ...You should trim the thin spindly canes down to the ground whether they are summer or autumn fruiting. The big new strong growth should be next years summer fruiting canes.. if they are anything like mine they will still be a bit green and bendy and there will be no sign of fruit being formed on them. The autumn fruiting canes will start to look dry and brown, mine still have a few flower buds on them and even a couple of raspberries (they won't make it to ripeness I fear). Those are the ones that you need to cut back to ground level. If you are still not sure (and apart from getting someone to show you I don't think we can add much more) then pick out the best strongest canes out of all of them and tie them in and cut the rest back to about 18" high.

The autumn fruiting ones will put up a small crop early next year and you will see shoots starting at ground level very early on. The summer fruiting won't throw up canes until later in spring. Once the autumn one have fruited in spring and there are are canes growing alongside cut the autumn canes from this year back to the ground.

Next year get some red and blue insulating tape and clearly mark the summer and autumn canes so you know which is which next autumn.

 

[JamezF]

Sorry, yes it is a carp photo. Those are my nuts
Wallnuts!!!

Ahhh! Our walnuts (not many; it's quite a young tree) mostly "disappeared" a couple of weeks back. There was one left on the tree that I'd been keeping my eye on. This morning it had gone

James

 

[MJNT]

No ...You should trim the thin spindly canes down to the ground whether they are summer or autumn fruiting. The big new strong growth should be next years summer fruiting canes.. if they are anything like mine they will still be a bit green and bendy and there will be no sign of fruit being formed on them. The autumn fruiting canes will start to look dry and brown, mine still have a few flower buds on them and even a couple of raspberries (they won't make it to ripeness I fear). Those are the ones that you need to cut back to ground level. If you are still not sure (and apart from getting someone to show you I don't think we can add much more) then pick out the best strongest canes out of all of them and tie them in and cut the rest back to about 18" high.

The autumn fruiting ones will put up a small crop early next year and you will see shoots starting at ground level very early on. The summer fruiting won't throw up canes until later in spring. Once the autumn one have fruited in spring and there are are canes growing alongside cut the autumn canes from this year back to the ground.

Next year get some red and blue insulating tape and clearly mark the summer and autumn canes so you know which is which next autumn.

Thanks for that … I’ll get secateurs at them today

 

[cwinte]

Autumn raspberries: mine taste very poor. I think they are Autumn Bliss but I find the flavour thin and almost unpleasant. So I'm thinking of removing them all to make more space for other fruits.
Any thoughts?

 

[cwinte]

Globe Artichokes seem to inhibit plants around them???
Anyone any evidence on this? I've had a bit of a web search and not found much yet, a few suggestions of good companions which included Nasturtiums and Marigolds - these are both often in the area around mine...
However what I have seen over several years and 2 locations is that seedlings to west/SW (specific but consistent) are very stunted, hardly progress and tend to discolour towards yellow/reds wheel and the effect tails off from 3 foot so the same plantings 4 or 5 foot away seem OK. I even tried changing and replenishing the soil one winter as I thought some wood ash or similar contamination might be the cause.
So this has been the same over 3 seasons and 2 beds.
The inhibited plants include rocket, radish, lettuces over several re-seedings and the effects are not shade or water related I think.
??? Any ideas?

 

[JamezF]

Globe Artichokes seem to inhibit plants around them???
Anyone any evidence on this? I've had a bit of a web search and not found much yet, a few suggestions of good companions which included Nasturtiums and Marigolds - these are both often in the area around mine...

Globe artichhokes can become big, hungry plants. I'd guess that's as much of an inhibitor to other plants nearby as anything else. We have one next to the veggie plot beds that gets to about eight feet tall though (about five feet away from the nearest bed) and it doesn't appear to cause any problems.

There's a fair bit of misunderstanding about companion planting and it pays to go back to the science to find out exactly why certain companions are recommended. For example it's often recommended that pot marigolds should be planted with tomatoes because the roots produce a chemical that deters root knot nematode (I think that's the one), ignoring the fact that root knot nematode really isn't a problem in small plantings of tomatoes, nor a significant problem at all in the UK climate, as far as I recall. I still plant them, though in a separate, more contained area because they set seed everywhere, and we use the petals in salads. I also have a small area of nasturtiums that we also take petals from for salads, but they also act as a sacrificial plant for Small and Large White Butterfly caterpillars.

James