Plans for planting

[Skinfaxi]

Has anyone used soil blockers? I was wondering about them as an alternative to using the flimsy plastic module seed trays.

Hello
I have only used big peat block machines on farm.
From my work with them they work really well BUT. You need to mix the correct ratio of water to your medium. You need to work with care. You also need to place them on flat trays as the blocks will break. Water with light spray.
They work similar to coco peat jiffy plugs. But i am sure if you mix some leaf mould or other high organic matter in you block mix it will help bind better.
It also saves you the time to rewash cell trays.

 

[Skinfaxi]

To the above comments about peat blocks. I used to have make thousands of blocks in a day session. Put them in stackable trays on pallets and then clingwrap the whole pallet or tray and stash someplace coolish. Then you can make a big batch and use as needed soonish. If you use peat base then it may not dry out or you will be sad

 

[JamezF]

I am envious James mines only half that size. Do you heat it?

No, it's not heated. It does have a concrete slab floor, which may help retain heat overnight if the daytime has been sunny, but I've never tested whether that's actually the case or not.

James

 

[JamezF]

Tomatoes, peppers and chillies and aubergines growing strongly in pots under growlights ready for greenhouse when frost's gone. Peas all out. Broad beans in flower. First early potatoes in pots in greenhouse. Not growing Mellon's this year. Saved our own sweet potatoes from last year and have four that should make ok plants.
Cherry plumb in full flower, always gives us loads of fruit. Quince trees just coming into leaf. Our sechuan pepper has survived the winter. Gave us more peppers than we can use last year and got some nice seedlings coming through.( Vicious thorns!) All onions and garlic growing.
Still eating squash. Just finished last of last year's sweet potatoes and main crop potatoes, loads of onions and garlic still left. Eating fresh cabbage, water cress.
Going to be a good year I hope!

Sounds excellent. My tomatoes, peppers and chiles aren't quite that advanced, but if I can set up some sort of solar-powered grow light system then I might well do that in the future. Sadly I don't have any first early potatoes this year as my wife really likes Jersey Royals and I wasn't able to get any of the seed potatoes (International Kidney) from which they're grown. I read somewhere that there was a poor crop last year which has restricted availability (sounds possible -- a local farmer was telling me a few days back that he'd been offered £20,000/tonne for some variety of potato that had failed badly last year when he had a few acres that were still ok).

Sounds like sweet potatoes do well for you. I've considered growing them in the past as we eat a fair few, but I've heard that they can be a bit unreliable and need quite a bit of space so I've shied away from trying them.

Our quince is just coming into leaf, too. It has suffered for a few years from the leaves turning brown and falling off in the middle of the summer though. I think I might have to resort to spraying with Bordeaux Mixture this year to try to control the problem.

We're down to our last few butternut squashes and our last few garlic bulbs, too. I think I harvested about four dozen garlic bulbs last year and we have only eleven left, so I'm not sure they'll last until the next harvest.

Interesting that you have water cress. We have it growing wild here, but I vaguely recall reading that there's some issue with eggs of some pest or other (snail? slug?) that aren't good for humans to consume and I've never been able to remember enough of the details to be able to check it properly otherwise we'd certainly eat that.

James

 

[enrico]

Sounds excellent. My tomatoes, peppers and chiles aren't quite that advanced, but if I can set up some sort of solar-powered grow light system then I might well do that in the future. Sadly I don't have any first early potatoes this year as my wife really likes Jersey Royals and I wasn't able to get any of the seed potatoes (International Kidney) from which they're grown. I read somewhere that there was a poor crop last year which has restricted availability (sounds possible -- a local farmer was telling me a few days back that he'd been offered £20,000/tonne for some variety of potato that had failed badly last year when he had a few acres that were still ok).

Sounds like sweet potatoes do well for you. I've considered growing them in the past as we eat a fair few, but I've heard that they can be a bit unreliable and need quite a bit of space so I've shied away from trying them.

Our quince is just coming into leaf, too. It has suffered for a few years from the leaves turning brown and falling off in the middle of the summer though. I think I might have to resort to spraying with Bordeaux Mixture this year to try to control the problem.

We're down to our last few butternut squashes and our last few garlic bulbs, too. I think I harvested about four dozen garlic bulbs last year and we have only eleven left, so I'm not sure they'll last until the next harvest.

Interesting that you have water cress. We have it growing wild here, but I vaguely recall reading that there's some issue with eggs of some pest or other (snail? slug?) that aren't good for humans to consume and I've never been able to remember enough of the details to be able to check it properly otherwise we'd certainly eat that.

James

We have eaten water cress for years, still alive! Buy some shop stuff, put in water to route, plant in greenhouse in soil, grows really easily, doesn't need to grow in water, loads of myths as water cress sellers have it taped! It roots and grows and tastes much better fresh!

 

[enrico]

Don't want to bore anyone but here's a few photos if anyone is interested.
Includes our veg garden, orchard, field, entertaining area!
As you will see I spend most of my time in the garden! The bees are at the far end of the field!

 

[JamezF]

We have eaten water cress for years, still alive! Buy some shop stuff, put in water to route, plant in greenhouse in soil, grows really easily, doesn't need to grow in water, loads of myths as water cress sellers have it taped! It roots and grows and tastes much better fresh!

I have tried for ages to remember what the problem was and I've never been able to do so, but having just sat down for a few minutes after lunch I suddenly had an idea it was something to do with liver flukes. And so it turns out

Food For Free - Watercress and Liver Fluke

Looks like it's easily avoided though, so I shall investigate further.

James

 

[enrico]

I have tried for ages to remember what the problem was and I've never been able to do so, but having just sat down for a few minutes after lunch I suddenly had an idea it was something to do with liver flukes. And so it turns out

Food For Free - Watercress and Liver Fluke

Looks like it's easily avoided though, so I shall investigate further.

James

Ours isnt water grown. It grows perfectly well in soil.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I vaguely recall reading that there's some issue with eggs of some pest or other

Liver fluke apparently, especially if picked in sheep grazing areas.
Was brought up on the stuff though. Never did us any harm Used to grow in the brook behind my grandparent's house (that actually ran into a culvert under the garden of my stepfather's next door) so my grandfather had a ready supply and when that source got a bit tired we would go up to the source of the river Loughor where loads of it grew for the first few fields the river ran through.
There was also a lot growing in a shallow pool opposite Llandyfan church not far from one of my apiaries, where water from the sacred well used to drain from the baptismal pool in the church grounds. The water from there becomes the stream that runs through Garn Cottage a few miles away, right next to another apiary.
Nothing like a fresh watercress sandwich, two slices of my grandmother's home baked bread crammed full of watercress, salt, white pepper and a dash of vinegar.

 

[E&MBees]

Don't want to bore anyone but here's a few photos if anyone is interested.
Includes our veg garden, orchard, field, entertaining area!
As you will see I spend most of my time in the garden! The bees are at the far end of the field!
View attachment 30857View attachment 30858View attachment 30860View attachment 30861View attachment 30863View attachment 30864View attachment 30867

Beautiful garden!

 

[Nannysbees]

Don't want to bore anyone but here's a few photos if anyone is interested.
Includes our veg garden, orchard, field, entertaining area!
As you will see I spend most of my time in the garden! The bees are at the far end of the field!
View attachment 30857View attachment 30858View attachment 30860View attachment 30861View attachment 30863View attachment 30864View attachment 30867

You live on a gorgeous plot, I love the layout of your garden

 

[enrico]

You live on a gorgeous plot, I love the layout of your garden

Thanks, the veg beds are all 1.5 metres wide with raised edges so we can attach hoops for various netting. The field is now planted with specimen trees but was just a field when we bought it. We have a withy pit at the end, where all the willows would be thrown to soak over winter for using in basket making. It fills with four feet of water in winter and then dried out every summer.
E

 

[Nannysbees]

Thanks, the veg beds are all 1.5 metres wide with raised edges so we can attach hoops for various netting. The field is now planted with specimen trees but was just a field when we bought it. We have a withy pit at the end, where all the willows would be thrown to soak over winter for using in basket making. It fills with four feet of water in winter and then dried out every summer.
E

That's sounds idyllic keep posting pictures

 

[pargyle]

Don't want to bore anyone but here's a few photos if anyone is interested.
Includes our veg garden, orchard, field, entertaining area!
As you will see I spend most of my time in the garden! The bees are at the far end of the field!
View attachment 30857View attachment 30858View attachment 30860View attachment 30861View attachment 30863View attachment 30864View attachment 30867

And it looks as though you spend all your time in the garden ... beautiful .... very envious.

 

[pargyle]

Liver fluke apparently, especially if picked in sheep grazing areas.
Was brought up on the stuff though. Never did us any harm Used to grow in the brook behind my grandparent's house (that actually ran into a culvert under the garden of my stepfather's next door) so my grandfather had a ready supply and when that source got a bit tired we would go up to the source of the river Loughor where loads of it grew for the first few fields the river ran through.
There was also a lot growing in a shallow pool opposite Llandyfan church not far from one of my apiaries, where water from the sacred well used to drain from the baptismal pool in the church grounds. The water from there becomes the stream that runs through Garn Cottage a few miles away, right next to another apiary.
Nothing like a fresh watercress sandwich, two slices of my grandmother's home baked bread crammed full of watercress, salt, white pepper and a dash of vinegar.

You have to be really careful these days picking wild grown watercress ... there are lots of potential riskss unless it is grown very close to the water source and in water you could safely drink. Liver Fluke is the least of the problems. I'm not a great fan of the stuff but I grow it in the greenhouse in a double tray of waterlogged sterile soil with a good layer of horticultural grit on top. Top tray has holes in it and the bottom tray it sits in contains the water.

I start it off from some shop bought watercress ... it roots in no time and the cut stems of a bunch will produce more of the stuff than you can comfortably eat. I drain the water off every couple of days and replace it with fresh so that it does not stagnate ... seems to grow better in the water logged medium than it does in just soil ... I've tried both. Ideally I would like a recirculating water system but ... works as it is.

Sweet potatoes ... there's a thread on here from a couple of years ago ... I grown them in 40 litre tubs ... they are thugs if you don't contain them. Starting them off early indoors is the key if you are making your own slips ... they really do need a long growing season and a long hot summer gives a decent yield .... but they are erratic ... I've had some plants with really good size tubers and others with loads of carrot sized ones !

I think with what has happened in the world over the last couple of years there is going to be a significant hike in the cost of decent fruit and veg so anyone would be well advised to try and grow anything edible that they possibly can - even if it's only a few tubs on the patio,

 

[Erichalfbee]

That's sounds idyllic keep posting pictures

No don’t. I’m green with envy.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sweet potatoes ... there's a thread on here from a couple of years ago ... I grown them in 40 litre tubs ... they are thugs if you don't contain them. Starting them off early indoors is the key if you are making your own slips ... they really do need a long growing season and a long hot summer gives a decent yield .... but they are erratic ... I've had some plants with really good size tubers and others with loads of carrot sized ones !

I tried for three years.
Results are what you say. The odd decent one but the rest rubbish.
I love squashes so I’m trying all different sorts.
Squash, sweet potato, sweet pepper, potato in a creamy curry …. I could eat every day.

 

[pargyle]

I tried for three years.
Results are what you say. The odd decent one but the rest rubbish.
I love squashes so I’m trying all different sorts.
Squash, sweet potato, sweet pepper, potato in a creamy curry …. I could eat every day.

I love a good vegetable curry .... squash curries particularly well ... with some peppers, chickpeas and potato for some body. Food of the Gods - mopped up with some proper naan bread - sadly, I have not been able to master the art of making good Naans .... shown by someone who makes them for a living but they just never turn out right for me.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I love a good vegetable curry

trouble is they go through you like a porsche on avgas

 

[enrico]

A tip for growing potatoes in tubs. Don't tip them all out at once, shove your hand in like a lucky dip and gently break off enough potatoes for a meal. The other will continue to grow. We use this method on new potatoes and they keep us going for weeks