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Calling SMB veg growers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 5265
  • Start date Start date
Georgewhitt said:
Indoor crops(GH) done really well. Cues, Toms, Chilli,Aubergine, all good.
Outdoor, corn done well, Courgettes, Salad Leaves all ok but had better. Leeks look alright, if a bit small. Still time though. Onions crap. May get to use them whole in casseroles and the like, but really small. Beet started brilliantly but stalled, and really not good tbh. Putting it down to the weather, but any advice more than welcome. Stiill eating garlic I harvested in spring, so I will definitely do that again this winter.

Pretty mixed bag really. Onions and beet the main disappointment.
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Do you grow your aubergines from seed? I've got a couple of plants from a garden centre where one give the fruit and a couple from seed. I've never had much from seed.

I'm amazed some of it survived me going on holiday. There is a young local lad known to one of my neighbours who was starting a gardening business and he cuts my grass for £19 every couple of weeks. He is a lovely lad, it has helped him get started and saves me a couple of hours on the weekend. We went away on holiday and I had a hose running up to the veg patch. We were on a hosepipe ban with micro-irrigation excluded, so I spent a fair amount on all the stuff to set that up, and already had a sophisticated home made solution which measures soil moisture and would turn on traditional sprinklers for just the amount it needs. Got it all working, I was quite pleased with the results and off we went.

4 days into our holiday the neighbour let him in to do our grass. I'd told him, when we are away don't touch the hose, mow around it. He forgot and disconnected everything. He did very neatly coil up the hose and left the place very tidy, but a week and a half of no water to the greenhouse really didn't help the plants that were just starting to fruit. The aubergines had wilted and fallen over, but have picked up now, though there was only the one fruit and not much sign of more.
 

phil said:
Runner beans have been brilliant, but french beans have been rubbish. Cucumbers have been good but nearly finished now and have been picking tomatoes for over a month. Salad potatoes were good, and never grow mains because of blight. Biggest disappointment has been the onions, usually get them the same size as grapefruits but this year more like tennis balls. Mind i have noticed that the onions in the shops have all been a bit pathetic this year.
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Not just me with the onions then. You're making mefeel a bit better. Maybe it wasn't my fault after all🤣
DaveH said:
Do you grow your aubergines from seed? I've got a couple of plants from a garden centre where one give the fruit and a couple from seed. I've never had much from seed.

I'm amazed some of it survived me going on holiday. There is a young local lad known to one of my neighbours who was starting a gardening business and he cuts my grass for £19 every couple of weeks. He is a lovely lad, it has helped him get started and saves me a couple of hours on the weekend. We went away on holiday and I had a hose running up to the veg patch. We were on a hosepipe ban with micro-irrigation excluded, so I spent a fair amount on all the stuff to set that up, and already had a sophisticated home made solution which measures soil moisture and would turn on traditional sprinklers for just the amount it needs. Got it all working, I was quite pleased with the results and off we went.

4 days into our holiday the neighbour let him in to do our grass. I'd told him, when we are away don't touch the hose, mow around it. He forgot and disconnected everything. He did very neatly coil up the hose and left the place very tidy, but a week and a half of no water to the greenhouse really didn't help the plants that were just starting to fruit. The aubergines had wilted and fallen over, but have picked up now, though there was only the one fruit and not much sign of more.
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Got 2 plants with 5 and 6 fruit on.
Both from seed. Really pleased with them.
Was told to nip the tops off to encourage side shoots and more fruit. First time I've done it, and it seems to have worked. Both plants in pots are no more than 18" tall.👍
 
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Georgewhitt said:
Not just me with the onions then. You're making mefeel a bit better. Maybe it wasn't my fault after all🤣

Got 2 plants with 5 and 6 fruit on.
Both from seed. Really pleased with them.
Was told to nip the tops off to encourage side shoots and more fruit. First time I've done it, and it seems to have worked. Both plants in pots are no more than 18" tall.👍
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When do you nip the top off them?
 
DaveH said:
When do you nip the top off them?
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When the first couple of fruit have set.
Got loads on each plant and 11 have set properly and matured. Taken off all the ones that would take to long. Still getting new flowers now.
Read it somewhere, and thought I'd try because never had more than 1 or 2 decent fruit in the past.
Feed every other day with Tomorite or equivalent.
 
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Georgewhitt said:
When the first couple of fruit have set.
Got loads on each plant and 11 have set properly and matured. Taken off all the ones that would take to long. Still getting new flowers now.
Read it somewhere, and thought I'd try because never had more than 1 or 2 decent fruit in the past.
Feed every other day with Tomorite or equivalent.
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Cheers, I'll give that a try next year.

By set, does that mean appeared?

I'm trying melons in the greenhouse for the first time this year and nowt appeared on them yet. With September around the corner, I'm not hopeful
 
DaveH said:
Cheers, I'll give that a try next year.

By set, does that mean appeared?

I'm trying melons in the greenhouse for the first time this year and nowt appeared on them yet. With September around the corner, I'm not hopeful
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Yeah. As soon as the flower drops and leaves a small fruit behind it marra. Give it a few days to get set(not fall off), and it'll be ok.
Never grown melons. Can't help marra.
 
I had a go at using kitchen compost for my tomatoes this year rather than spending money on grow bags. They've done really well, better in fact than the plants grown in the one left over grow bag I had from last year. I took the advice of another poster to mix in a handful of chicken manure ( @Georgewhitt if I remember rightly). Its a bit coarser than bought compost and dries out a little quicker but I won't go back to buying compost unless I have to.
I've tried a couple of aubergine plants from seed. They've got three fruit on each and loads more flowers. When I did them once before they were rubbish so hoping to get at least something.

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waddy999 said:
Not veg but I planted a few herbs a while back.
Dill.
Mint.
Chives.
Garlic.
Basil.
Lemon Thyme.
Coriander.
Marjorams.
They’re all flourishing. 😊
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The smell of this is unreal. I want my house to smell like it all the time :lol:


Forgot to add, the cucumbers were a huge disappointment, I may have left them too long but the were stubby(ish) green and yellow, some tasted bitter. I’m not growing them again
 
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safcforever said:
The smell of this is unreal. I want my house to smell like it all the time :lol:


Forgot to add, the cucumbers were a huge disappointment, I may have left them too long but the were stubby(ish) green and yellow, some tasted bitter. I’m not growing them again
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Sorry if you already know mate, but one reason could be cucumbers will taste bitter if the female flowers are polinated by the males. Have to remove the male flowers before they open. There are some all female varieties. Worth persevering with cos fresh cues are so sweet.
Hansel said:
I had a go at using kitchen compost for my tomatoes this year rather than spending money on grow bags. They've done really well, better in fact than the plants grown in the one left over grow bag I had from last year. I took the advice of another poster to mix in a handful of chicken manure ( @Georgewhitt if I remember rightly). Its a bit coarser than bought compost and dries out a little quicker but I won't go back to buying compost unless I have to.
I've tried a couple of aubergine plants from seed. They've got three fruit on each and loads more flowers. When I did them once before they were rubbish so hoping to get at least something.

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Click to expand...
Glad it worked marra.👍
Try putting some vermiculite or course grit on top of the compost in the pot. Slows down the drying out a bit.
 
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Georgewhitt said:
Sorry if you already know mate, but one reason could be cucumbers will taste bitter if the female flowers are polinated by the males. Have to remove the male flowers before they open. There are some all female varieties. Worth persevering with cos fresh cues are so sweet.

Glad it worked marra.👍
Try putting some vermiculite or course grit on top of the compost in the pot. Slows down the drying out a bit.
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Ahhh ffs.
Sounds like too much work. I’ll just by them
 
Georgewhitt said:
All female varieties are nee bother marra. Won't get any male flowers on 'em. Just pick the cues when they are ready.😁
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I might be overthinking this. When frowning weed, the females are what we need.
A friend of mine had 2 females growing and a neighbour grew a male (without knowing) and it impregnated my mates 2 plants for 3 doors away :lol:

Would this be the same?
 
safcforever said:
The smell of this is unreal. I want my house to smell like it all the time :lol:


Forgot to add, the cucumbers were a huge disappointment, I may have left them too long but the were stubby(ish) green and yellow, some tasted bitter. I’m not growing them again
Click to expand...

Try Thai basil. It’s an even more enchanting fragrance.
 
safcforever said:
I might be overthinking this. When frowning weed, the females are what we need.
A friend of mine had 2 females growing and a neighbour grew a male (without knowing) and it impregnated my mates 2 plants for 3 doors away :lol:

Would this be the same?
Click to expand...
Don't know owt about weed marra, but with cues you get male and female flowers on the same plant. Need to remove the male ones, or it ruins the fruit.
But you can buy all female varieties where you get no male flowers in it, therefor removing the problem.
 
Georgewhitt said:
Don't know owt about weed marra, but with cues you get male and female flowers on the same plant. Need to remove the male ones, or it ruins the fruit.
But you can buy all female varieties where you get no male flowers in it, therefor removing the problem.
Click to expand...
Daft question, but how do you know which is a male or female flower on the cucumber plants?
 
Georgewhitt said:
Don't know owt about weed marra, but with cues you get male and female flowers on the same plant. Need to remove the male ones, or it ruins the fruit.
But you can buy all female varieties where you get no male flowers in it, therefor removing the problem.
Click to expand...
That sounds a bit easier. They’re low on my to fo list for next year still
 
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