A Couple of Questions...

Can anybody advise me on the following:

My peas are more leaf than flower/fruit, how can I encourage more fruit next year?

Some of the leaves on my courgettes have what look like little patches of mould growing on them. Is this the mildew I've heard of? I cut the affected leaves off to be on the safe side. Is there anything else I can do? The only thing I've read so far is that it happens at this time of year and to look out for it!

I can't believe I went for so long with dried herbs and frozen veg, the flavours my meals have now are unbelievable! And they try to tell us that food loses nothing in freezing... :rolleyes:

 

Not an expert on veggies but if your peas are growing more leaf than flower - I would try a potach rich feed, like tomotoe food.

 

Hi Hannah, mine are cropping resonable but also a bit leggy. I use old farmyard with a bit of fertiliser and I wondered if I had been a bit heavy handed somewhere. I also use tomato food on beetroot amongst other things.

 

It sounds like there is too much nitrogen in your soil, that would encourage more leafy growth. The way i do it is to add heaps of FYM the first year and plant potatoes as they like lots of nitrogen. I grow peas the second year which fixes the available nitrogen into the soil and makes it ideal for growing brassicas like cabages the third year and onions and carrots the fourth year. Then start again with loads of FYM on year five. Long term i know but i have found that after you start this gardening lark the years fly by.

Hope that is a help

Cloudy

 

Hi Cloudy, thanks for the advice. I'm growing mine in containers due to a distinct lack of grass, and put half soil and half compost in the pots, and didn't feed them anything. One day I'll have a house in the country with a huge vegetable patch, meantime, any suggestions for container-grown veg?

 

Hi Hannah,

Mixed salad leaves do OK in containers, I've also got a couple of runner beans doing well in the same tub, baby carrots might do well too. Also have Sungold in 11" pots going good in the garden
Rob

 

Sorry, I didn't make myself very clear did I?! I meant, suggestions for how to get decent crops in tubs. I've given everything a feed of potash stuff which seems to have done something - I've got what look like buds on my butternut squash which I wasn't expecting for another month yet, and my courgettes have picked up. My peas seem to be having another round as well, they looked like they were drying up despite being well watered, and now they're flowering all over again and some new shoots have popped out of nowhere. I know how many I planted and they all came up, so where these came from... unless they're like strawberries and have runners? My mixed salad leaves are going mad, I can't pick them and eat them quick enough! :D My one runner bean out of the six I planted (so much for my great idea of an edible "hedge") is standing proud at about 4" tall, I may have some beans by November I suppose! Herbs are still looking good, apart from the basil which nothing will protect from the slugs. I think I'll have to grow a different variety next year, and use this one as slug bait to keep it off everything else! :D