God I love growing our own

[jenkinsbrynmair]

a fresh cob straight off the stem and cooked within minutes then slathered with proper butter - now, that's a treat

Won't argue with you there, although it means a quick trip to the bathroom straight after eating....
to wash hands and beard.

 

[Moobee]

My raspberries are crap too......and I'm in Sussex!

Ours didn’t pick up until I gave them a good soak.

 

[Robinredcar]

I've just had possibly my final pick of the peas. The plants are starting to go over now and there's a bit of mildew showing as is often the case. I got enough for a meal though, I reckon.

I also picked the some pods that had already dried. The intention is to save these to sow next year. I'll do a test germination early in the winter and if they don't look good then I'll buy more, but hopefully these will do the business.

James

Looking good! The reckon home saved seed is much more viable than bought in as long as its not from f1 or further.

 

[enrico]

Mine seemed to sulk for quite a while after being planted out and then really took off. I have squashes growing around their feet and that part of the veggie plot looks like a jungle now.

James

Mirrors my garden! creepy

 

[JamezF]

Looking good! The reckon home saved seed is much more viable than bought in as long as its not from f1 or further.

I'm trying to move away from F1 varieties as much as possible specifically so I can save seed, though in some cases it's just not practical anyhow -- I read that for sweetcorn for instance you ideally need to have several hundred plants to maintain sufficient genetic diversity. Even the few dozen plants that are desirable for getting seed from brassicas would take up a lot of space (and for a long time).

Tomatoes are tricky though. Larger varieties aren't bad and I've found a few non-F1 varieties that I'm happy with, but the really nice cherry tomatoes all seem to be F1. Last year I tried rooting some side shoots from some of my plants to keep through the winter, which worked well but I didn't get the timing right and they got too big (and started to flower) before winter even arrived. This year I'm growing an F1 cherry tomato called Apero and I'll have another go but leave it a little later. My father-in-law likes an F1 variety called Orange Paruche which has somewhat unpredictable availability so I'll try with that as well. Has to be worth the effort given that F1 tomato seeds seem to cost about 50p each!

James

 

[enrico]

Our cherry tomatoes are ' sweet aperitif ' a heritage variety that is a good cropper and sweet. we have stuck with Shirley as they are reliable for larger tomatoes although we did try black russian but they are so difficult to tell when they are ripe because of the colour. Italian plum...San marzano... Which are good cookers and ideal for sauces.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My plum tomatoes are Polish Linguisa; seed saved from last year. They are doing very well. I’ve never had better cherry tomatoes than Sungold. I grew Aromatico from supermarket tomatoes which I presume were F1 and they have been good too.

 

[JamezF]

I'd not heard of Sweet Aperitif, so I'll look out for that and perhaps try it next year. I've tried quite a few different varieties of larger tomatoes. This year I have one Costoluto Fiorentino plant (seed that was left over from a couple of years ago, I think) and I'm trying Amish Paste. One year I grew Brandywine tomatoes. They were huge. I think some of the fruits were 1lb each!

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

we have stuck with Shirley as they are reliable for larger tomatoes

been the market gardener's 'go to' variety for decades, lovely tomato. My stepfather gave up greenhouse gardening after his greenhouse ended up in auntie Gwennie's garden back during the 1987 hurricane, when we bought him a new one years later for his retirement consolation gift (he was an engine driver and gutted Railtrack retired him on health grounds before he managed his 50 years service) first thing he did was ask me to get on 'that interweb thingy' to see if Shirley was still available. It had always been his tomato even though he liked to experiment and try different things in the gardfen, I suppose it came from living only a few doors away from a nurseries/market garden where all the neighbours pitched in every spring to get them spring ready. In fact a few people still comment on my method of having my tomato plants growing up strings suspended from a wire tensioned at head height instead of using canes.

 

[JamezF]

a few people still comment on my method of having my tomato plants growing up strings suspended from a wire tensioned at head height instead of using canes.

That's how I do mine:

I used to anchor the strings in the ground, but last year just made the hole for the plant and looped the string in first. This year I've actually got some that aren't fixed at the bottom at all -- wind the plant around the dangling string when it gets tall enough and friction does the rest.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I used to anchor the strings in the ground, but last year just made the hole for the plant and looped the string in first. This year I've actually got some that aren't fixed at the bottom at all -- wind the plant around the dangling string when it gets tall enough and friction does the rest.

yes, I just put a half hearted hitch at the bottom to start them off, but no real need. originally the commercial growers (especially those in long season areas would have loads of spare string up top, once the plants had grown to the top and the bottom trusses picked, they would undo the string and move the string to the next 'station whilst laying the bottom few feet of vine on the floor so that each plant would then be suspended over the root of its neighbour (or even two plants along), the vein in contact with the soil would grow more roots and maintain its vigour and would have another few feet to grow and develop more trusses

 

[JamezF]

yes, I just put a half hearted hitch at the bottom to start them off, but no real need. originally the commercial growers (especially those in long season areas would have loads of spare string up top, once the plants had grown to the top and the bottom trusses picked, they would undo the string and move the string to the next 'station whilst laying the bottom few feet of vine on the floor so that each plant would then be suspended over the root of its neighbour (or even two plants along), the vein in contact with the soil would grow more roots and maintain its vigour and would have another few feet to grow and develop more trusses

I'd wondered about the possibility of doing that myself, as the plants usually reach the top of the polytunnel by the end of the season -- perhaps about 10' tall. If I could also get them into growth a bit earlier in the season there's possibly another couple of trusses to be had (and easier picking) by lowering them down.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'd wondered about the possibility of doing that myself, as the plants usually reach the top of the polytunnel by the end of the season -- perhaps about 10' tall. If I could also get them into growth a bit earlier in the season there's possibly another couple of trusses to be had (and easier picking) by lowering them down.

James

well, there you have it - nothing new! it used to be the norm for commercial growers, once they reached the horizontal wire, they would be lowered and would grow again from the next spot or two along

 

[cwinte]

Feeling a bit jealous. Did all my prep this year and then had a major building repair project March to June plus trips away so hardly any seeds got planted - partly as they would not get care when needed. Bought some expensive Courgette seeds and two different sowings in greenhouse produced a total 0 plants. Too dry for loads of things here in Kent for months now, just trying to keep young fruit trees from dying.
Bright side: our 13year old Mulberry tree made its first tiny fruits so looking forward to more in future... Pears and quince look OK but not much else this year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Feeling a bit jealous. Did all my prep this year and then had a major building repair project

you're not the only one - builders been here since April, they're messy buggers and nothing is sacrosanct so the garden was left fallow (fantastic specimens of weeds now) and the greenhouse was only a half hearted attempt to retain some normality

 

[Robinredcar]

I'm trying to move away from F1 varieties as much as possible specifically so I can save seed, though in some cases it's just not practical anyhow -- I read that for sweetcorn for instance you ideally need to have several hundred plants to maintain sufficient genetic diversity. Even the few dozen plants that are desirable for getting seed from brassicas would take up a lot of space (and for a long time).

Tomatoes are tricky though. Larger varieties aren't bad and I've found a few non-F1 varieties that I'm happy with, but the really nice cherry tomatoes all seem to be F1. Last year I tried rooting some side shoots from some of my plants to keep through the winter, which worked well but I didn't get the timing right and they got too big (and started to flower) before winter even arrived. This year I'm growing an F1 cherry tomato called Apero and I'll have another go but leave it a little later. My father-in-law likes an F1 variety called Orange Paruche which has somewhat unpredictable availability so I'll try with that as well. Has to be worth the effort given that F1 tomato seeds seem to cost about 50p each!

James

Glad to hear, iam also but very slowly. Trying to save broad beans this year.
I bought alot of organic open mated seeds and some heirloom varieties to try and save but I went abit mad on seeds so I'll probably not bother saving to much haha.
There's a great guy on YouTube Charles Dowding, he has some fantastic books also. I recently watched a vid of his about saving seeds and I was quite surprised how little you need for some crops such as beetroot and the legums.
I know what you mean about tomatoes though, I've never tried to save any seed as my kids favourites are pretty much all f1 like sungold :-(. Good luck with it though its nearly as fascinating a subject as honey bees !

 

[Jimmy]

Wasn't Hivemaker very active on home grown veg, IIRC setting up a hydroponics system for his tomatoes?
I thought my garden was far less ambitious than others described above but then started making what I thought was going to be a short list. I'm lucky to have a large garden and several years of effort has resulted in 4 rows of asparagus now yielding well every spring, some raspberries (variety Polka) desperately in need of rain, sweetcorn loving the recent heat, a few rows of beetroot for roasted veg, borlotti beans destined for drying and then winter stews, some aphid ridden dwarf french beans, parsnips coping surprisingly well with the heat, an abundance of rainbow chard, a couple of strawberry beds, courgettes and butternut squash, outdoor tomatoes and blueberries in containers and about 20+ top fruit trees.

 

[Bryang]

Some photos of my produce this year, and some of natures bounty So far this year I have "picked" 30Ib + of wimberries , and her indoors has "shelled" 17 Lb of peas.. The photo of the multi veg, top left, cues, next to them are peas ,bottom right are runner beans, and the rest are courgettes picked from 2 plants.

 

[Swarm]

Lovely crop of wimberries.
We've done well with blackcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries this year, a noticeable drop in blackbird numbers.

 

[Erichalfbee]

yes, I just put a half hearted hitch at the bottom to start them off, but no real need. originally the commercial growers (especially those in long season areas would have loads of spare string up top, once the plants had grown to the top and the bottom trusses picked, they would undo the string and move the string to the next 'station whilst laying the bottom few feet of vine on the floor so that each plant would then be suspended over the root of its neighbour (or even two plants along), the vein in contact with the soil would grow more roots and maintain its vigour and would have another few feet to grow and develop more trusses

I'd love to have a go at this but I can't see any of the fruit ripening. We pick our tomatoes into September and after that there isn't enough sunshine