Plans for planting

[Newbeeneil]

I put the shopping away this afternoon. SWMBO asked where I'd put the kale, after much searching it was found in the bread bin!

 

[JamezF]

who wants to eat kale anyway - it's sheep fodder

Or deer fodder, it would appear. The sheep around here must be extra special. I'm reasonably sure they get stubble turnips.

James

 

[JamezF]

This year I intend to grow normal (non-curly) kale. At least partly so we can deep fry some of it to have as "crispy seaweed" with chinese food.

James

 

[Moobee]

They are a pain in the neck with us!!

I’d definitely eat them but OH not keen on the whole killing, gutting and plucking thing!

 

[Moobee]

They poo everywhere our stupid dog eats it then it's a vets bill as its toxic for dogs!!

Urgh! Our dog prefers seagull poo as it’s fishy. Her breath is hideous

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’d definitely eat them but OH not keen on the whole killing, gutting and plucking thing!

You just take the breast

 

[Moobee]

You just take the breast

Well that would make it a whole lot easier!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

You just take the breast

an adept would not even need a knife., you just need to get yout thumbs into nthe crop, tear open the skin and peel it back from the breast, take hold of the breast and rip it off.
even with a knife it's only a quick few cuts and voila. I've done forty or more in one go before now and it takes very little time and, as the feathers stay on the skin, not much cleaning up afterwards.

 

[enrico]

I grow loads of chilies indoors. I have grown chilies for about 15 years, and have combated just about every kind of pest,

I dont like to use anything "chemical" on my plants.

Despite spider mites having a feerce reputation, I have never found them to be too problematic. If left untreated the mites replicate quickly and will eventually overwhelm chilly/pepper plants reducing them to a mess. I have tried various ways to rid plants of spider mites over the years. The most effective way I have found to combat SM is simply to spray the plants down with water.

My plants are all in pots, so I just take the plant outside, then hose it down with the hose nozzle attachment in the highest power spray setting. Make sure you get the underside of the leaves too. All spider mites hate damp, so its not just the action of spraying them off, the dampening of their environment helps too. So I will normally spray infected plants outside once per day, then just dampen the plant 1 or 2 times more throughout the day.

There is more than one kind of spider mite. There is one type this treatment will clear up in a single hit. But unfortunately there are some more stubborn ones that will require ongoing treatment. Most will be wiped out in about a week if you treat 2/3 times a day. But there is a relay stubborn kind (its the relay small ones) that this treatment will not completely kill, and you will have to keep treating every 5/7 days to control them.

The key too spider mite prevention is early treatment. The more established they are on the plant, the harder it will be to remove them. So inspecting plants regularly is critical.

My worse enemy for years was the western flower thrip and their associated plant viruses. I thought I had finaly cracked the thrip problem, then last year I had a new kind of thrip show up that were identified as Chilly thrips. So Chilly thrips are the bane of my chillys now and I am just hoping they dont show up again this year.

Never had any problem with chillis at all. Hope you get on top of it!

 

[JamezF]

Very busy day today, kicking off early doors with the builder coming over to replace the roof tile that went AWOL during the storms. He left with a box full of swede, cabbage, parsnips, sprouts and leeks so I think we both ended up happy.

I intended to sow some early cabbage, calabrese ("summer broccoli") and celery today but discovered that I'd used all of the module trays that had big holes in the bottoms of the cells so I had to modify a load more.

I've sort of struggled with calabrese in the past because it all seems to be ready at the same time and much as we all like it there's still only so much you can eat at once. This year I'm going to try sowing a small number of seeds, but every two or three weeks to see how that goes. I have no idea what the stimulus is for the plant to decide it's going to flower so it still might not work, but there's only one way to find out.

Plenty of the seeds I've sown over the last couple of weeks are germinating now. Some of the broad beans (one of the few things I don't sow in modules) are very close to having seed leaves emerge.

Then there are peas, beetroot, spinach and radish.

And the onions seem to be doing pretty well too after starting off in the propagator. Clearly they want more light as they all seem to be developing a slight lean to the south.

I must take a photo of the garlic in the polytunnel tomorrow. Most of the plants seem to be 6" to 8" tall already! Hopefully that means we'll have a good harvest later in the year.

James

 

[Nannysbees]

Very busy day today, kicking off early doors with the builder coming over to replace the roof tile that went AWOL during the storms. He left with a box full of swede, cabbage, parsnips, sprouts and leeks so I think we both ended up happy.

I intended to sow some early cabbage, calabrese ("summer broccoli") and celery today but discovered that I'd used all of the module trays that had big holes in the bottoms of the cells so I had to modify a load more.

I've sort of struggled with calabrese in the past because it all seems to be ready at the same time and much as we all like it there's still only so much you can eat at once. This year I'm going to try sowing a small number of seeds, but every two or three weeks to see how that goes. I have no idea what the stimulus is for the plant to decide it's going to flower so it still might not work, but there's only one way to find out.

Plenty of the seeds I've sown over the last couple of weeks are germinating now. Some of the broad beans (one of the few things I don't sow in modules) are very close to having seed leaves emerge.

Then there are peas, beetroot, spinach and radish.

And the onions seem to be doing pretty well too after starting off in the propagator. Clearly they want more light as they all seem to be developing a slight lean to the south.

I must take a photo of the garlic in the polytunnel tomorrow. Most of the plants seem to be 6" to 8" tall already! Hopefully that means we'll have a good harvest later in the year.

James

Wow they look so healthy. Started sowing some of my flowers today. Cosmos, marigolds and mimulus

 

[JamezF]

Not done any flowers yet though I have some pot marigolds (calendula), nasturiums and cornflowers to go in the veggie plot in the fullness of time.

James

 

[Moobee]

an adept would not even need a knife., you just need to get yout thumbs into nthe crop, tear open the skin and peel it back from the breast, take hold of the breast and rip it off.
even with a knife it's only a quick few cuts and voila. I've done forty or more in one go before now and it takes very little time and, as the feathers stay on the skin, not much cleaning up afterwards.

Does it help if the pigeon is already dead??

 

[Nannysbees]

Not done any flowers yet though I have some pot marigolds (calendula), nasturiums and cornflowers to go in the veggie plot in the fullness of time.

James

Nasturtiums and calendula on my list as well

 

[E&MBees]

Feeling very frustrated as I haven’t started sowing yet. Heavy frost last night and my greenhouse is unheated. Need to wait a few more weeks.

 

[JamezF]

We had a frost last night too. Might be one tonight as well, by the looks of it. The sky looks beautifully clear. Had I not been picking my daughter up from going out for dinner with friends I'd probably have been out playing with a telescope or two. Some plants can stand a little cold though. Anything that won't is still in the propagator. I don't know if it's an accurate observation but to me it seems that some plants will tolerate short periods below freezing as long as they don't actually get ice forming on their leaves. It may also help that the greenhouse where I propagate my plants has a solid concrete floor, so if the daytime is sunny perhaps the floor stores enough heat that it takes the edge off the colder temperatures at night.

Last year was quite stressful because by late March I had loads of plants in the greenhouse and when I checked on them the morning after one of the many very cold nights we had late in Spring they'll all have collapsed as if they were dying. After a few hours in the sunshine they were back to normal which was a relief, but not good for the heart

James

 

[pargyle]

Feeling very frustrated as I haven’t started sowing yet. Heavy frost last night and my greenhouse is unheated. Need to wait a few more weeks.

Yes ... even down here on the Costa del Fareham my unheated greenhouse is too cold to pemit germination and I've only limited space indoors to start seeds off ... well, limited by 'er indoors that is !

Broad beans and onion sets are going in this week though - they don't seem to mind lower temperatures and hopefully, by the time they are of a size to get frostbitten the frosts will be long gone down here.

 

[Nannysbees]

We had a frost last night too. Might be one tonight as well, by the looks of it. The sky looks beautifully clear. Had I not been picking my daughter up from going out for dinner with friends I'd probably have been out playing with a telescope or two. Some plants can stand a little cold though. Anything that won't is still in the propagator. I don't know if it's an accurate observation but to me it seems that some plants will tolerate short periods below freezing as long as they don't actually get ice forming on their leaves. It may also help that the greenhouse where I propagate my plants has a solid concrete floor, so if the daytime is sunny perhaps the floor stores enough heat that it takes the edge off the colder temperatures at night.

Last year was quite stressful because by late March I had loads of plants in the greenhouse and when I checked on them the morning after one of the many very cold nights we had late in Spring they'll all have collapsed as if they were dying. After a few hours in the sunshine they were back to normal which was a relief, but not good for the heart

James

I've just bought a paraffin heater for the greenhouse just to take the chill out of the cold nights, I paid for it from my honey money

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’m not keen on it myself but Stan likes it. Does anybody grow sweetcorn?
Look what I found.

 

[JamezF]

I've tried quite a few times to grow sweetcorn, but until last year I had very little success. I think the difference this time was that I planted in quite a dense block spanning two beds, so I had an area about 3m x 2.5m filled with plants. They did so much better and I think we ended up with more than forty cobs despite them having a difficult start because of the cold. I laid fleece over them when I planted them out but they didn't do well with the fleece directly on the leaves. If it's cold this year I'll put the fleece over hoops. The cobs were quite pale when I picked them and stripped off the leaves, but turned bright yellow within half an hour to an hour.

The multi-coloured ones look very impressive, but as far as I recall they're not supposed to be that great to eat unless you want to make popcorn from them.

James