God I love growing our own

[JamezF]

Rain, what rain? None here yet. Ground absolutely parched.

Yeah, the Met Office forecast was for rain this afternoon, but we've had about fifteen raindrops. It's been desperately humid, too. Just sitting down making up a few frames outdoors this morning I was sweating like mad.

James

 

[E&MBees]

Started harvesting my Charlotte potatoes this weekend. Very nice. Salad bowl lettuce and sugar snap peas doing well also. Cucumbers and tomatoes are lagging behind, as are the French beans.

 

[pargyle]

You know what a cheapskate I am and my love of recycling.. so I'd run our of biggish pots and I still have 20 or so tomato plants in small pots... so there I was with 15 empty Invertbee Jerry cans and I had a drill and Stanley knife moment... the cane goes through a second hole in the bottom of the can, drain holes about an inch up from the bottom and enough space cut out around the top to plant the tomatoes but I've left the strong bits of polythene around the top so it does not flex. I love it when a plan comes together... such a rare occasion for me. Cost...nothing for a change !

A few still to go but rain stopped play ... not that I am complaining...its the kalahari del Fareham at present !

PS: I found that a couple of small cable ties around the cane - one above and one below the screw cap - so the cane stays in place when I pick them up ... I've potted a few tomato plants in them this afternoon - they really work well - I can pick them up by gripping them either side of the hole (it's fairly rigid polythene) and it doesn't flex.

Definitely one of my better recycling ideas ...

So ... still got about another 10 tomato plants that need bigger pots but I've run out of pots and I'm rapidly running out of space ...

 

[pargyle]

My Sagitta have become triffids ... I've never had potatoes I've grown in bags with so much top growth on them - just totally unebelievable ... they are just starting to flower. If the crop of spuds is anything like the top growth it will be a bumper year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My Sagitta have become triffids

Same here

 

[enrico]

Never tried Sagita in pots so interested to see what they come out like. Always used the pots for the Charlotte.

 

[enrico]

If I don't get rain soon the ground is going to eat my shallots!

 

[JamezF]

If I don't get rain soon the ground is going to eat my shallots!View attachment 36682

Looking very similar here We are however forecast to have five hours of heavy rain starting in the small hours of tomorrow morning. Just when I'm due to be driving my wife and daughter to Bristol airport As none of the rain forecast in the last six weeks or more has actually materialised in any meaningful way I shan't be betting on it though. And of course if it does happen the ground is now as hard as concrete so almost all of it will run off.

James

 

[Amari]

Yeah, the Met Office forecast was for rain this afternoon, but we've had about fifteen raindrops. It's been desperately humid, too. Just sitting down making up a few frames outdoors this morning I was sweating like mad.

James

Hardly any rain overnight despite BBC forecasting 80 - 90% chance over several consecutive hours. We left several containers out expecting a deluge but the water collected scarcely covered the bottoms.

 

[Goran]

I don't remember when I noticed smell of potato flowers in the field. Now with this new variety it surprised me, it has light nice smell like some decorative plant.. Even so, the bees don't attend its flowers..

 

[JamezF]

I don't remember when I noticed smell of potato flowers in the field. Now with this new variety it surprised me, it has light nice smell like some decorative plant.. Even so, the bees don't attend its flowers..

Potatoes and tomatoes are part of the same family of plants (Solanaceae), as you're probably aware. I don't know much about potato flowers, but as far as I know tomatoes produce very little (if any) nectar and can self-pollinate, though the process works better if some species of bee (possibly bumble bees) visit the flowers. In some varieties I think the flowers are actually fused closed over the top of the anthers so there's little access to the pollen either. I wonder if potatoes are similar and therefore of little or no interest to honey bees? My recollection is that the flowers are of a very similar form, though potatoes seem to have a wider variety of colours.

James

 

[JamezF]

Looking very similar here We are however forecast to have five hours of heavy rain starting in the small hours of tomorrow morning.

And now the time approaches, they're starting to back away from the original forecast...

James

 

[Garry R]

Looking very similar here We are however forecast to have five hours of heavy rain starting in the small hours of tomorrow morning. Just when I'm due to be driving my wife and daughter to Bristol airport As none of the rain forecast in the last six weeks or more has actually materialised in any meaningful way I shan't be betting on it though. And of course if it does happen the ground is now as hard as concrete so almost all of it will run off.

James

Going to Bristol Airport - you'll be on the A38 and passing within 2 miles of where I am at Lower Weare turn off I'm in Chapel Allerton. And yes - it was pouring about 6am but going over a bit now but a nice splash nonetheless.

 

[Garry R]

Same here

Pink fir apple spuds are triffids and triffic too! Always grow a few.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pink fir apple spuds are triffids and triffic too! Always grow a few.

So do we. Stan likes them.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My recollection is that the flowers are of a very similar form, though potatoes seem to have a wider variety of colours.

I remember as a kid seeing 'tomatoes' growing on my grandfather's maincrop potatoes after the flowers had set and gone over.

 

[JamezF]

I remember as a kid seeing 'tomatoes' growing on my grandfather's maincrop potatoes after the flowers had set and gone over.

They really do look like small tomatoes I'm told they're toxic though.

James

 

[JamezF]

Going to Bristol Airport - you'll be on the A38 and passing within 2 miles of where I am at Lower Weare turn off I'm in Chapel Allerton. And yes - it was pouring about 6am but going over a bit now but a nice splash nonetheless.

Made the entire round trip in the rain. Driving back along the A38 between the airport and the M5 was particularly unpleasant. Lots of flooded sections of road barely visible in the darkness and a fair few thoughtless or even completely idiotic drivers about. At least the trip to pick them up on their return will be during daylight.

James

 

[enrico]

Made the entire round trip in the rain. Driving back along the A38 between the airport and the M5 was particularly unpleasant. Lots of flooded sections of road barely visible in the darkness and a fair few thoughtless or even completely idiotic drivers about. At least the trip to pick them up on their return will be during daylight.

James

I feel for you James but ...... WE HAVE HAD SOME RAIN.......hooray! We are opening the garden for a coach load from Surrey under NGS . Desperately needed the rain to perk things up

 

[JamezF]

I feel for you James but ...... WE HAVE HAD SOME RAIN.......hooray! We are opening the garden for a coach load from Surrey under NGS . Desperately needed the rain to perk things up

Indeed so. Some of my potatoes were beginning to look rather droopy and they've all picked up again this morning. The puddles on the drive have all but disappeared already, but we're forecast more showers for later today. We'll see...

It's rare that I drive more than ten miles or so at a time, mid-50s workshy cause of all this nation's troubles that I am. This morning is quite possibly the first time since I took my son up to Lancaster for the start of term in January. Sod's law that the first time it rained in more than six weeks was exactly when I was doing a stupid o'clock airport run Someone must hate me though. The forecast for tomorrow afternoon is rain and thunder. Early doors tomorrow I am off up to Lancaster again to bring my son home, so if the forecast is correct I shall probably end up driving through it on the way home

James