2015 Growing Season..

If you have enough plants dig one up (assuming you can't determine from a furtil?). Mrs K is always complaining that we start harvesting our spuds too late, as she likes the small ones best - but that does require that you have plenty of plants so that you can afford the first few to be low-yielders

 

Planted out runners (White Lady / Enorma), Climbing French beans (Cobra / Blue Lake), Not-Climbing French beans from the seed parcel (Thank you everyone !) - Refilled the slug beer traps with free well past its sell by date beer from the local pub (apart from the bottle of Fullers Special Reserve 2006, which was far too good for the slugs so I had it with my dinner).

Potted on the second batch of Toms & consigned the leftovers to the compost along with a few pepper plants which had been destroyed by whitefly when I wasnt looking. Still need to find a home for 20 or so peppers & chillies (hopefully whitefly free).

Rained pretty much all day on Monday & I had had enough after three hours so the rest of the things that are taking over the house (Gherkins, Cucamelons, sunflowers etc) will have to wait for next weekend.

 

@OxfordNick, which gherkins would you recommend?

 

i would love to try and grow gherkins where can you find them?

 

Im growing Gherkin Adam F1, I got the seed from JustSeed.com (they have an EBay shop too) but it seems to be out of stock now. Dont seem to be any problems getting them to germinate or grow, Im treating them just like Greenhouse Cucumbers, so go for a variety thats Parthenocarpic (seedless) & remove any male flowers that may appear.

I must get around to putting them out in the greenhouse - they have flowers & little Gherkins on..

 

Planted out Loli's Celeriac, Sweet Corn and Pumpkin Plants Put a load of ash round the Pumpkin to keep the snails off.

 

Here's some pics:



They were all planted at the same time but the ones on the left have never really done well. Not sure why?! :s

 

Still early days yet Nick but looking good...are they all the same variety? my Charlottes are a bit stunted but the International Kidney are romping away.I think I maybe to blame there,we did have quite a dry spell and I don't think I watered enough but this rain we've got now will send them up

 

Can you come round and plant mine out pls?

 

Did you leave a trench open for the short ones? I did that one year, thinking I would plant them "next day". Got around to it a week later, thought nothing of it ... they took ages to come up. I reckon the trench either got dry, or cold, and that was "trapped in" when I filled the trench back in a week later, and slowed them down.

 

They're all Arran Pilots, very odd. Some are barely a couple of inches out.

No, all planted at the same time on the same day. Maybe one side had more clay in. Even stranger is that the ones growing well are nearer the fence so less light...

 

My Arran Pilot have been in flower for a few days now, will probably try lifting a few this weekend. I'm hoping all the rain we've had recently will bring them on nicely.

I've noticed a difference in size with mine as well. Like yours, it seems to go in rows. When I thought about it, I remembered that as I plant them out I tend to plant the biggest tubers first, saving the smaller ones for the last row, so I can 'double up' on the last few if necessary so there are none left over.
The bigger plants correspond with the rows of larger tubers, the smaller tubers producing shorter, weaker growth at first. Makes sense doesn't it?

Clay soil takes longer to warm up in spring, so possibly a result of being in slightly colder soil? Also, less light will often result in taller plants, and closer to the fence would be more sheltered, so again, slightly warmer.

 

This makes sense to me. All of mine, Home Guard early and Arran Pilot are coming on well but all are in a sheltered position. Home Guard are all in flower and Arran are mostly just starting to bud.

I wouldn't worry about yours, from the pics they all look healthy and you will get potatoes in succession instead of a glut.

 

That's exactly what I did, never thought of that! Thank You.

But better/more/quicker potatoes?

 

Lettuce Leafed Basil grown with the help of grow lights. This variety has outperformed all my other Basil varieties. Time for potting on.