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Calling SMB veg growers

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Some advice needed (again, I know) and it may be a daft question but how do you know when your potatoes are ready for harvesting?
I've got two beds planted at different times and the plants are now about 2 feet high and looking strong and healthy.
I am dying to dig in and see what is there but I am conscious that it may be too early?
I was thinking if you harvest some early then you might get some nice new potatoes but I don't want to start digging them up if I am just going to start damaging plants for no end result.
Is there some sort of way of knowing when you have actual potatoes under the soil?
 

Stivy said:
Some advice needed (again, I know) and it may be a daft question but how do you know when your potatoes are ready for harvesting?
I've got two beds planted at different times and the plants are now about 2 feet high and looking strong and healthy.
I am dying to dig in and see what is there but I am conscious that it may be too early?
I was thinking if you harvest some early then you might get some nice new potatoes but I don't want to start digging them up if I am just going to start damaging plants for no end result.
Is there some sort of way of knowing when you have actual potatoes under the soil?
Click to expand...
Wait till the tops die off. Usually 8 weeks for first earlies.
 
Stivy said:
Some advice needed (again, I know) and it may be a daft question but how do you know when your potatoes are ready for harvesting?
I've got two beds planted at different times and the plants are now about 2 feet high and looking strong and healthy.
I am dying to dig in and see what is there but I am conscious that it may be too early?
I was thinking if you harvest some early then you might get some nice new potatoes but I don't want to start digging them up if I am just going to start damaging plants for no end result.
Is there some sort of way of knowing when you have actual potatoes under the soil?
Click to expand...
Basically what @Hair Flick has just said although there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a rummage in the soul and grabbing a couple to see how far in you are, I grow in tubs and mine usually leave an impression on the side of the tubs so I have some idea of where I’m at although I wait u til they flower and start dieing off before I harvest them, I reckon another couple weeks and my 1st,2nd earlies will be ready.


My carrots are absolutely flying I’m gonna have a bumper crop, only problem is I didn’t thin them out properly so I’m pretty sure they have grown into eachother, I done this a couple of years ago and although nice they weren’t t as big as they coulda been and looked a bit freaky, just laziness on my end basically and only having use of one arm making things a little more difficult. My whole garden is looking well though tbh, had a week or so of rain now which everything is loving. 90% of my garden is full of onions this year too like.

Just as I type that the heaven have opened again, been torrential during the night and early this morning.
 
Stivy said:
Some advice needed (again, I know) and it may be a daft question but how do you know when your potatoes are ready for harvesting?
I've got two beds planted at different times and the plants are now about 2 feet high and looking strong and healthy.
I am dying to dig in and see what is there but I am conscious that it may be too early?
I was thinking if you harvest some early then you might get some nice new potatoes but I don't want to start digging them up if I am just going to start damaging plants for no end result.
Is there some sort of way of knowing when you have actual potatoes under the soil?
Click to expand...

You wait until after the plant has flowered, and the tops start dying back, for the best crop.
 
Greenfly are literally everywhere. Can't walk in the garden without coming back in with them on me. They're just sat on surfacts, buckets, the floor. Everywhere!

No idea how I'm supposed to get them off the underside of leaves etc. They're eating my raspberries to bits.
 
Few images of what I have growing dnd the progress, my tomatoes are fruiting already, weather has been fantastic down here though for weeks tbf.

Turnips and carrots

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Spinach and lettuce

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Tomatoes crimson plumb, started from seed



Didn’t realise was 3 image limit 🤦‍♂️
I have a few more images of potatoes and onions but can’t post them atm….

Will post them in a bit 💪
am I only able to post 3 images per thread,?surely that’s not right?, I posted another message with 3 mor images and keep getting the ‘you can only post 3 images’message, bit shit tbh.

I might make one big image out of them and just link it, I’ve made a few posts now which tbh is a fart on using my phone and I then had to delete em so I’ve spat my dummie out for tonight :lol:
I have built a new herb area and some raised potatoe beds using tubs and euro pallets I wanted to show off :lol:
****

I made a post at 4pm and then another at 10pm which it added to the end of the 4pm post and will probably add this one onto it too.. I’ll assume that’s why I’m getting the image limit notification. Tf is all that about ? :lol:
 
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Stivy said:
Planted some sweet corn last week end and the seedlings are pushing through already. Hoping to maybe plant them out in a weeks time. Anyone done sweetcorn? Do they need anything special?
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My sweetcorn was set off around march/april and is about a foot high. When it’s about ready, you have a fight with mice and rats to who gets there first. Look at ways of preventing them
 
Philoo said:
My sweetcorn was set off around march/april and is about a foot high. When it’s about ready, you have a fight with mice and rats to who gets there first. Look at ways of preventing them
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I have some sweetcorn that I’ve still not planted out yet, first time I’ll try growing it. My dogs always in the garden so hopefully he’ll scare off any rats etc although tbf he’s fking hopeless, I’ll have to rely on the neighbours cats, there about a dozen of them so should be ok. I still haven’t prepped the bed either, waiting for the rain to stop, it’s been a bit miserable the last week or so.
 
Few more pics I wanted to post the other day.

I built some raised beds using euro pellets and 30litre tubs for my potatoes, they are working ok and are easier to msnsge(water etc), if anyone wants to copy/make some gimme a shout and I can send some better images.

These pots only have a few weeks, can see a few tiny flowers appearing

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Onion beds, I have another two to the right. Probably sown about 1200 in total throughout the garden

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New herb garden I built using old pots we paid far to much money for , I’m still hardening the herbs off , hopefully plant them out next week…
To left are my peas and blueberry bush that we thought we’d try this year.




I’m definitely all pictured out now, suns blazing this morning so I think I’ll go and do a bit weeding, they’ve shot through with all the rain we’ve had!
 
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A few of my fruit trees leaves are curling, especially the ones with a lot of fruit,so I think its time for a feed.

Any advice from the SMB regarding a good fruit feed?

I have went for this one for ease as it says pears, peaches and blueberries (I'm dubious one can do all three given the differing ph requirements of them all but maybe it's more about the nutrients?). But the is the majority of my fruit for this year.

I'm aware it seems expensive for how much you get regardless of the concentration.

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Anyone recommend anything more economical? Or better?
 
Wild Card said:
A few of my fruit trees leaves are curling, especially the ones with a lot of fruit,so I think its time for a feed.

Any advice from the SMB regarding a good fruit feed?

I have went for this one for ease as it says pears, peaches and blueberries (I'm dubious one can do all three given the differing ph requirements of them all but maybe it's more about the nutrients?). But the is the majority of my fruit for this year.

I'm aware it seems expensive for how much you get regardless of the concentration.

You must be logged on to see external links

Anyone recommend anything more economical? Or better?
Click to expand...
I was looking at general fertiliser this week and to buy it all seems a lot more expensive than it used to be. I think I'll make some comfrey tea. Another thing I've done in the past is nip down the beach and collected a load of seaweed. Not sure if it's even legal to do this mind so if you get nicked I didn't recommend it, and it's not instant.
 
Hansel said:
I was looking at general fertiliser this week and to buy it all seems a lot more expensive than it used to be. I think I'll make some comfrey tea. Another thing I've done in the past is nip down the beach and collected a load of seaweed. Not sure if it's even legal to do this mind so if you get nicked I didn't recommend it, and it's not instant.
Click to expand...

Makes sense I guess most of the fertilizers seem to be seaweed based. No idea either if you can take it.
 
Wild Card said:
Any advice from the SMB regarding a good fruit feed?
Click to expand...

Tomato feed or seaweed based feed. You can take seaweed from the shore but it'll need to be washed and left for a while (added to compost heap) you can't do it commercially though.

You can make your own with comfrey or nettles, I have comfrey at the allotment that I use for all my berries.
 
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