Early tomatoes

Nice one John.

Simliar story here,



Basil & Mizuna is up, sure i'll remember what the rest are when they come up.

Penny's peck of pickled penis peppers have not come up though:( Think i'd better do another sowing.

Trouble is, the hot water tank is so well insulated its not like an airing cuboard, pretty much the same temp as the rest of the house. Do you think they'll be too hot if I start them off on the Woodburner?

Got a load of Broad Beans and a Few Champion of England Peas on the go, in hanging baskets in the greenhouse, to keep the mouses away from them.

 

why are your spuds in egg boxes jwk? x

 

black toms

Anyone tried the black tomatoes?

I tried them 2 years ago and again last year, really nice "on the sweet side" but worth ago,

I grew the little cherry tome in a hanging metal collender (one of those things the boss has for rinsing veg ect)
I hung it outside my shed door,, it looked different and worked.

They're a good buy the cherry toms, just right size for the side salad.

 

Thats odd Zig.....i havent known them to, not sprout.......try lots of light and heat

 

I will when I find the packet Penny, i've put it somewhere stupid:DOH:Its not in the box with the others.

 

Ahh, did a bit of detective work, planted them at the same time as the Basil, found the Basil seed packet & there were the chilli seeds. Got a few more on the go, the compost was too wet, looks like the first lot rotted.

 

i've got alot of veg on the go thanks to my polytunnel.
they are: lettuce buttercrunch, mixed leaved salard, mizuna, lettuce mint crisp, beetroot red ace, radish short top forcing, crunchy salard leaves, herby salard leaves, carrot flyaway, carrot sugarsnax and carrot parmex. here are some pics of my polytunnel and vegpatch. ( i did not design veg patch so all criticisms welcome).

 

My competitive streak has forced me to sow some Red Alert seeds today, which I think take about a week longer to maturity than those Siberians and I don't have any extra advantage in using grow lights now.

 

No critism, it looks blinking smart

My thoughts, FWIW, are:

I don't have raised beds in my greenhouses (in fact I have "lowered beds") because raised beds (or pots stood on a hard floor for that matter, or even growbags) start the plants off nearer the roof and for things like Tomatoes that reduces the "cropping height".

I started with pots-on-soil-floor, then plants-in-soil and then plants-in-excavated-lowered-beds and I probably get an extra couple of trusses now.l Saves all that hassle of "layering" the things which is a right royal PITA !

If I did it again I would build a 2' wall into the soil (i.e. foundational 2 feet lower than normal), put the greenhouse on that wall, and then build a ramp down to the greenhouse outside its door - i.e. have a massively tall door - to have more cropping height. It would keep it warmer in Winter too making use of the soil's stored temperature. Totally irrelevant to a plastic house though ... sorry, I'm off at a tangent again!

Point number 2: I think the path between your outdoor raised beds is pretty wide? If so that consumes quite a bit of the available "acreage". I think the path between raised beds should be the length between knee-and-ankle - so you can kneel comfortably in the path without having to curl your feet up / sideways! and the beds should be 4' wide, but no more, so you can reach to just beyond the middle from either side.

Oh, and I think railway sleepers (which you also do not have !!) are the wrong material for the "edging" as they, themselves, are 10" wide if laid flat which, for two sides, is nearly 2' of the space wasted :( and even if laid on-end that's 8" just for the framework

Right ... I'll get my coat then !!