2015 Growing Season

Longest Runner Bean now up to 19" long and no sign of bulging seeds or stringiness yet, but I'm saving this one for the show rather than eating it just in case I don't get any better bigguns in time.

And I still haven't got a single bean from my White Lady or Polestar runners, glad I planted around 60 Jescots. Besides eating hot, I also eat cold with Pesto Sauce in salads.

 

Nice one Scrungee

 

More aubergines, a few cherry toms & the third Courgette of the year :

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Some runners (firestorm) coming outside but infested with blackfly.. No sign of french beans yet.

 

They seem to be a bit of a problem this year, never had them on my runners before.

 

Having a good crop of French Beans(Cobra) so thought I'd chance my arm at sowing a few more,I've left it a bit late but uou never know we could get an Indian summer...They'll be climbing up my Sweetcorn as I've run out of supports...

 

Saturday morning cleaning house. Knock on door. My dear neighbor bearing gifts. A huge bag of fresh green beans, 5 zucchini, 2 peppers, 6 tomatoes, and one eggplant.

 

Another small harvest -

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Some runners, a couple of aubergines, a couple of giant Belgium toms, and a couple of courgettes including the first of the climbing courgette tromboncino.

Quite impressed with the Tromboncino - Ive got a couple of plants growing up inside the sweetpea wigwams -

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been no trouble (which is more than I can say about the sweetpeas !) & each plant has 6 or 7 mildly rude shaped fruit. And Rude Fruit are always good !


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Marrows are coming on ......



I hope this one will overtake it, but there's a few more later contenders for the biggest marrow class

 

Marrow's still getting bigger .......



(that's my size 10.5 boot for an idea of size)

 

That is mad!! Brilliant - but mad

 

This is an advantage spin-off from growing big marrows, the young ones that are removed to let bigguns grow bigger. I cut them off when about 12 - 15" long whilst they are still tender and sweet (more so than 'normal' courgettes at standard picking size) and, after removing centre pith (which our hens love), there's about 50x the amount of flesh on them as a 6" long courgette and I might remove up to 6 from each marrow plant (and I've got 9 plants).

When I've selected a few likely contenders for the Heaviest Marrow class, I'll then let various ones grow to bigger and riper sizes for storing and use over Winter/Spring. Marrow & Onion Curry is an extremely cheap meal.

 

My 19" bean stopped at 19.5", but another has just got over 20", really wanted 24"+ for the village show.



The first big marrow appears to have stopped short of 40lbs, but at it's current rate of growth my (previously) 2nd largest should reach 40lbs on Saturday and 50lbs early next week, and if that stops I've got another potential biggun coming on that should be over 30lbs by Saturday. They get checked every day and the measurements entered into a spreadsheet on my phone and I always dread the day when I find there's been no further growth.

Runner beans and marrows are featuring heavily in our menu planning ATM. Still waiting for the right moment to ask my daughter how many marrows she wants to take back to uni next month.

The Mexican White sweetcorn is now over 7 feet tall and I'm torn between wanting it to get really high and being desperate for signs of cobs so I'll get some ripened seeds to save for next year before the frosts come, but reckon it should easily get to 10 feet tall.

 

EDIT: They've put on some extra growth since I checked this morning

First big marrow has almost stopped growing, got my bathroom scales (I'm made to have my own ones for weighing veg, apples for pressing, etc.) under it yesterday and it was 35lbs 8ozs, only 1oz off my spreadsheet estimated weight based on length and girth EDIT: Now 36lbs 8ozs



What was previously 2nd biggest should be over 40lbs by end of today/tomorrow morning, a bit later than expected but weather was so awful on Friday that not much grew that day EDIT: Now 40lbs 8ozs



My hopes are now on this one, heading fast for 40lbs (EDIT: Now approx. 37lbs), has got length as well as girth, plus it's still light green and soft meaning it's still got a bit of growing to do

 

Thats fantastic @Scrungee ! Do you do anything special or is it just the seeds that you buy?