God I love growing our own

[JamezF]

I planned to clear all the sweet pepper and chile plants from the polytunnel today, but whereas they'd normally have lost their leaves and started to die back by now most of them looked very healthy and I couldn't bring myself to pull them up. Some were even flowering! For now I've just pruned all but the Peppadew chiles back to give the garlic more light and we'll see if they survive the winter. I've left the Peppadew plants as they are for now. They have loads of fruit and some are just about starting to turn red so I decided there wasn't much to be lost by keeping them a bit longer. From the plants I did prune I collected about half a dozen sweet peppers.

It's a crazy world out there. As well as the peppers flowering, I saw dandelions, (creeping) buttercups, calendula and strawberries in flower. In fact the strawberries even had some (green) fruit. The Autumn raspberries actually had a few ripe fruit on. There were live Large White caterpillars on the perennial kale. I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, sweatshirt and sleeveless jacket and in the polytunnel I had to take the sweatshirt off because I was too warm even with the doors wide open at one end.

James

 

[pargyle]

I planned to clear all the sweet pepper and chile plants from the polytunnel today, but whereas they'd normally have lost their leaves and started to die back by now most of them looked very healthy and I couldn't bring myself to pull them up. Some were even flowering! For now I've just pruned all but the Peppadew chiles back to give the garlic more light and we'll see if they survive the winter. I've left the Peppadew plants as they are for now. They have loads of fruit and some are just about starting to turn red so I decided there wasn't much to be lost by keeping them a bit longer. From the plants I did prune I collected about half a dozen sweet peppers.

It's a crazy world out there. As well as the peppers flowering, I saw dandelions, (creeping) buttercups, calendula and strawberries in flower. In fact the strawberries even had some (green) fruit. The Autumn raspberries actually had a few ripe fruit on. There were live Large White caterpillars on the perennial kale. I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt, sweatshirt and sleeveless jacket and in the polytunnel I had to take the sweatshirt off because I was too warm even with the doors wide open at one end.

James

My Chillies in the greenhouse are still ripening (albeit slowly) and the plants look very healthy ... I rather doubt they will over winter without heat - it seems a pity to lose them but I can't heat the greenhouse indefinitely (I have a couple of paraffin heaters) and my suggestion that they should take up residence on the window cills indoors went down like a lead balloon ! I wondered if a bubblewrap tent over them might assist keep them alive ...

 

[JamezF]

Definitely worth a try with the bubblewrap, I reckon. I have some peppers in pots and I might move into Frankenstein's greenhouse to see if they'll survive the winter in there. I could probably get away with bringing a few indoors and putting leaving them in a bay window over the winter. I managed it with tomato plants last year For the ones in the ground in the polytunnel however I might try draping some fleece over them -- anything that traps a little warmth and keeps frost at bay has to be worth a go.

Mentioning tomato plants reminds me that the the cuttings I took from my father-in-law's Orange Paruche plants in September are doing very well. Perhaps too well. They've been in the greenhouse since I potted them up and are now getting on for 20cm tall. They'll really need to be somewhere frost-free if they're to survive the winter, but the ones I had in the house last year became exceptionally "leggy", I suspect down to being sufficiently warm to grow but not really getting enough light. What's perhaps required is a conservatory, but I don't have one of those. I could live with failure in this instance because I know he has found some seed for next year now, but it would be nice to have a success nonetheless. I suspect the fix when they do get too leggy is to prune the plant back to just above the first set of leaves early in the Spring and allow one of the shoots that (hopefully) forms in the leaf axils to become the new main stem. Then bury the existing stem when planting them out.

Also in the greenhouse are some alpine strawberries that I have grown from seed. We picked some of the last of the fruit, allowed them to dry out in the kitchen window and then I just pushed them into the top of pots full of compost. They took quite a while to germinate, but seem to be doing pretty well now. It would be quite nice if I could prick out the seedlings and replant them, but I suspect it's a little late for that now. I might have to try it before they really get going next year.

James

 

[fian]

Fill some airtight bags with salt water (100 grams of salt per 1 liter of water). Place the brine bags on the soil as close to the plants as possible and cover them with dry straw.
If they are in a pot, surround the outside of the pot with the bags, securing them with zip ties to prevent them from falling.

 

[E&MBees]

Picked the last of the tomatoes today and tidied up the greenhouse. Also harvested the crab apples ready to make jelly with. Left some for the blackbirds to eat as I’ve got more than enough.

 

[JamezF]

I've spent most of this evening sorting out my plant and seed orders for next year. It's been tough going Last year I couldn't get a couple of things I wanted that were only available from small suppliers because some of their seed is produced in Europe. Since Brexit they have decided that it's not cost-effective for them to jump through the necessary hoops to import those any more. This year there were four or five such items. Had I known the supply was quite so precarious I'd have been much more diligent about my seed-saving.

I think the only things I need to deal with now are strawberries, raspberries and potatoes. I don't have anywhere to put the strawberries yet and the vendor I'd normally buy soft fruit from appears to have a broken SSL certificate on their website so I'm not going near them. Potatoes I'll sort out later in the week when I've decided how many I want.

James

 

[JamezF]

Picked the last of the tomatoes today and tidied up the greenhouse. Also harvested the crab apples ready to make jelly with. Left some for the blackbirds to eat as I’ve got more than enough.

That's a good haul for the tail end of November. Sadly we've had to start buying tomatoes now. The horror!

James

 

[Rob H]

I regularly go to Chichester and walk past the old Shippams factory which used to produce some great fish and meat pastes. One of the earliest suppliers I believe.

The smell from there used to be absolutely hideous at times, always surprised me how something that tasted so good could smell so bad.

 

[JamezF]

I was planning to order seed potatoes earlier this week, but the supplier I was intending to use was offering 15% discount today, so I opted to wait. Went to the website this morning and they've sold out of one of the varieties I wanted As has almost everyone else I could think of. Fortunately I've found some now, but their checkout didn't work the first time through either.

The variety I was after is International Kidney, which is the same as Jersey Royals, my wife's particular favourite. They've not been available at all for the last two years, as a result of a massive crop failure I'm led to understand. I guess recovery is not yet complete. It's a bit of a shock to me that the supply of some varieties of potato is so precarious that one crop failure can almost cause them to disappear entirely. As they're first (or second, depending on who you listen to) earlies and therefore unlikely to suffer from blight assuming the weather is relatively "normal", I'm tempted to keep some back in the future to use as my own seed potatoes for subsequent years.

James

 

[alancooper]

What? No own-grown honey sarnies yet? Not even with crisps?

 

[JamezF]

This afternoon I replaced the covering on one of the polytunnel doors. It has developed a few holes over the last month or so and when I carried it down to the workshop the polythene pretty much shattered into loads of pieces.

It was quite pleasant working outside in the sunshine, but today could well mark the end of shorts season. -1°C forecast for this evening and quite cold tomorrow too. "Normal" November weather appears to be arriving as we approach December.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

"Normal" November weather appears to be arriving as we approach December.

to be honest, this has been the norm for quite a few years now, I can't remember the last time we had freezing weather to welcome the first migration of woodcock at the late October full moon

 

[JamezF]

to be honest, this has been the norm for quite a few years now, I can't remember the last time we had freezing weather to welcome the first migration of woodcock at the late October full moon

It certainly seems to be less and less common over the last few years. I always seem to use the word "normal" in quotes when referring to our weather these days as I have absolutely no idea what it is any more.

James

 

[Midget Gem]

Any ideas how to get rid of a rat infestation in the greenhouse? There are several holes I could put my fist down (although I don't want to get dragged away!). I've tried putting down blocks of poison (red solid stuff from the farm supplies) but they just keep taking it and show no sign of depleting. I planted some onion seeds in trays last weekend which I put on mesh shelving and have just gone in to find them dug up and covered in droppings. It's quite disheartening.

 

[JamezF]

Any ideas how to get rid of a rat infestation in the greenhouse? There are several holes I could put my fist down (although I don't want to get dragged away!). I've tried putting down blocks of poison (red solid stuff from the farm supplies) but they just keep taking it and show no sign of depleting. I planted some onion seeds in trays last weekend which I put on mesh shelving and have just gone in to find them dug up and covered in droppings. It's quite disheartening.

Try changing the type of poison? I don't know if it's still the case but there used to be some that rats could become resistant to. I'm sure there are ones that they can't become resistant to available now.

Alternatively, a live trap, a sack and a lump of wood, I guess

James

 

[enrico]

A squirrel trap with loads of goodies in but don't get your scent on it anywhere and put a solid board on the floor. When you catch one shoot it with an air rifle and leave all the smells in the trap.
The other less humane way is to mix the rat poison with dry plaster of Paris solution.

 

[Garry R]

Proper butter then ? .... Lakeland used to sell Scotch hands, I have a set but they seem to have discontinued them. Ebay can help ... but cheaper if you search Butter Paddles in Amazon.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/17591985...hLD4EjAiphyaZSL1G1F2GqMQ==|tkp:Bk9SR-Leo-f3Yg

I have just made sandwiches with butter with salt crystals (on offer in Lidl), tuna in brine, mixed with a Lidl beetroot coleslaw, a squirt (that's an imperial not metric squirt) of mayonnaise a bit of ground pepper. It was made with Lidl's seeded sliced brown bloomer (sliced like a big doorstop - crusts on) and it was great. Did not need parsley garnish as was not going for the deluxe version!! (I am a Lidl fan as you may have gathered).

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I've tried putting down blocks of poison (red solid stuff from the farm supplies) but they just keep taking it and show no sign of depleting

The colour doesn't matter (It's all down to the manufacturer's taste, nothing more) but the only stuff now available to the great unwashed depends on buildup in the target's body so you have to keep feeding it until they take no more.
There are a few different compositions of poison that are available and they sometimes build up a resistance to certain ones, so it's a good idea to take a note of which actual poison is contained in the blocks and find a different one next time.
Some rats are more bait shy/aware than others. some will even let others take the bait and wait a day or two to see whether they die or not before also tucking in, even some of the more potent 'instant' baits (that only need one dose to kill) now take a good few days to take effect just to fool the bait wary ones into taking some.

 

[JamezF]

I am a Lidl fan

Yeah, I've heard you blow hot and cold

James

 

[Gilberdyke John]

The colour doesn't matter (It's all down to the manufacturer's taste, nothing more) but the only stuff now available to the great unwashed depends on buildup in the target's body so you have to keep feeding it until they take no more.
There are a few different compositions of poison that are available and they sometimes build up a resistance to certain ones, so it's a good idea to take a note of which actual poison is contained in the blocks and find a different one next time.
Some rats are more bait shy/aware than others. some will even let others take the bait and wait a day or two to see whether they die or not before also tucking in, even some of the more potent 'instant' baits (that only need one dose to kill) now take a good few days to take effect just to fool the bait wary ones into taking some.

The guy in Pontypool has a method with instant results