Growing your own veg

[JohnGalway]

I see the Desiree main crop pushing up this evening. No sign yet of the Pink Fir Apple, they didn't sprout like the others so we'll see.

 

[Old McDonald]

I never cared for Desiree, and in fact the only red potato I like is Rooster - Irish bred. https://www.europotato.org/display_description.php?variety_name=Rooster

I still manage to keep enough growing to have a few each year. Sometimes they revert to white, but the colour often comes back.

 

[JohnGalway]

I like Desiree. Roosters are very common here . Next year, when I'm more prepared.......... yeah right....... I'm going to get 5 or so samples of different varieties, should be interesting.

 

[KMA]

Got 4 earlies and 3 maincrop in this year
5 Express, 5 Lady Crystle, 5 Nicola, 5 Kestrel
10 Orla, 10 Cara, 8 Setanta (ran out of tubs)

reckon given an average crop that should do us for the year

 

[KMA]

Just in from the morning round
air temp 23.5/6.1/11.1
soil planter 11, raised bed bed 17
rain 0.5
1. Spuds from left to right
Kestrel, Nicola, Express, Lady Crystle. Mint, Thyme and Marjoram seem to have been on steroids
2. Runner beans and courgettes are growing nicely, courgettes have outgrown their cloches, Iv'e cut the bottom off a couple of small bottles (with the nipple tops) and upended one each to put the food (tomorite) near the roots
3. The bought in seedlings I planted out the other day seem to have settled in and started growing.
really need to finish weeding/top dressing and shift the garlic to a more permanent location.

 

[KMA]

Swedes and lettuce I put in the propagator on Monday night are up through already I'm going to start keeping a note of how quickly the props bring things on, put in some more beetroot (Kestrel) and leeks (Musselburgh) in propagators last night.Only have one remaining viable windowsill that hasn't got a propagator on it (yet). Also not finding any real benefit from the heated propagator over the cheaper unheated ones and the cheaper way to buy them locally seems to be to get the separate lid and gravel tray from Homebase.

Itching to get the carrots and parsnips in but they'll have to wait and go straight into bed 2 as I'm not keen on the idea of transplanting either of them, Parsnips in particular seem to be temperamental little feckers that take the least excuse to turn into hydra

Raised bed is consistently higher at 18C compared to 12C, reckon it's most likely down to 1. bacterial activity as the hay bales break down, 2. larger body of soil retaining heat better

Just enough rain to damp the road first thing.

 

[Chasingmytail]

nice day today. Slugs were out in full force last night. Managed to stab a few. Ordered Nemaslug. Going to attract more parasitoid wasps. I have planted flowers in lots of places to bring in more wasps and other insects. Perhaps I should dig a mini pond?

Weeds taking hold already quite depressing so many nettles. Got to pull up mails tail. Horrible problems with silverweed which crawls along everywhere.

Keep seedlings away from the slugs seems to be stress of the day. Start cutting up some containers for yeast traps.

 

[KMA]

Yup, finding a lot more slug activity since the weather broke, have just made another 6 beer trap holders to deploy, just need some cans to put in them. Good job I've still got a stack of tubes I can cut to length. Nettles and ground-elder seem to be growing as I watch fortunately not near my veg so I'll be getting the glyphos out soon.

The 3 new soil thermometers just arrived so I'll be able to put 1 in each bed and read them without disturbing them, got them all in next to the other thermometer so I can get an idea if they're all accurate.

 

[renewablejohn]

Field mice my problem at the moment digging under the edge of my IBC pens. Dont know what there after as I have not transplanted the beans or peas yet. Will dig the next ones in a bit deeper.

 

[Old McDonald]

@Chasingmytail If that is a mistype and you meant mares then I once read that it accumulates any gold in the ground and has allegedly been used as a primitive method of prospecting to see if there is gold underground. I do not know if that is just a myth.

Apparently you keep it all as you pull it up and later in the year burn it on a hard surface so that you can winnow out the gold from the ashes. Never tried it because I cannot see that you could obtain much gold from a few barrowloads of mares tail.

 

[KMA]

Pity ground elder is no use for anything

Soil in the planters is steady at around the 12C
Raised bed is continuing to warm, all 4 of the thermometers I've got in there are reading around in the 19-21 range has to be down to the bales breaking down. Really need to understand what's going on as I'll have used the last of the hay in bed 2 and I'm planning on using some of last year's poorer haylage bales in the bed 3 and I'm pretty sure I'll start getting some secondary fermentation as soon as I take the wrap off.

 

[New Puritan]

@KMA - the Romans brought ground elder with them as a salad crop. It isn't all that nice though.

 

[KMA]

Wish they'd stayed in Rome eating dormice and garum shower of b@stards and they had the nerve to call everyone else barbarians!!

May have a bit of a problem with the raised bed, soil temp has crept up to 27, pre-cooked veg anyone? I've tried to thin the soil cover in places to some heat out, gonna give it a good watering later.

 

[KMA]

First buds on the golden pearl tomatoes, they've all shot up a lot in the last couple of days so have put in the bigger canes and increase the feeds to twice a week.

Raised bed is kicking out 27C in the middle where the courgettes are in spite of my using some short lengths of old tubing to create vents, and 23 at the edge.

First of the beetroot (Kestrel) sown on Wednesday has germinated at least a week earlier than I expected.

So much to learn and think about. While the temperature caused by the bales breaking down is not unexpected I wasn't prepared for the level of heat generated, on the other hand if I can get an idea in more detail it's something I can use to advantage next winter and early spring. Maybe turn a raised bed into some kind of organically heated cold frame?

 

[KMA]

1st bud on the courgette I thought the cats had killed wasn't expecting it yet, but never tried to grow courgettes before. Thinking of keeping a garden diary to help plan planting in future.

 

[Old Boar]

The victorians were masters at creating hot beds and producing early crops. There is a lot of info on the web about how to do this. I have never tried it, but if you do, I would be interested in the results.

 

[KMA]

Thanks @Old Boar, centre of the bed where the courgettes are is still at a steady 27/28C, it will be interesting to see how long that continues. I really wasn't expecting things to get that warm, according to what I've just googled so far a straw/manure mix should last for 2 months but this is just hay so who knows.

Definitely going to give it a try, on having a quick google it seems I've already done it all bar the glazed lid which it seems I was already sort of working towards anyway . Next winter will be the best opportunity to have a proper go at least I'll have toasty hands when working on the soil

 

[Osca]

This is what has always put me off of straw bale house construction. If something goes a bit wrong and water penetrates the walls, wetting the straw, I think you could have a housefire, it heats so much as it rots.

 

[KMA]

Phone call from son, he's putting in more raised beds so hanging onto the manky old hay bales from the bottom of the stack so I'm going to try using some dodgy haylage bales (there's around 100 to use up). It'll be interesting to see how the thermal reaction compares.

Place bales, water liberally and stand well back

 

[Netherfield]

Sharpes are the most forward now, almost see a difference every day