Saying a belated Hi.

Despite registering in Dec 2011 for reasons unknown, I neglected to heed instructions on "How to upload a question about "What causes leeks to bolt" , and have gone on my old merry merry way but necessity prompted me to look in the folder where I store passwords and noted that I had in fact joined this forum back then. Hence me now introducing myself from the uncertain climate of the North east of England. Nearer eighty than seventy and somewhat long in the teeth I constantly look for short cuts when tending to my allotment of over 300 Sq yards as the work load is quite something & cash limited. With this in mind and - as ever - always searching for ways to cut costs and maximize resources I just wondered (when last week I purchased some Grow More) if - crushing it to powder then dissolving it water which can be fed directly to the roots of plants- might not make it go further than simply broadcasting it over the ground? Maybe I will resort to the appropriate forum and submit the question mentioned above as well as the same question regarding Beetroot - seeing last year- many specimans of the said veg had to be thrown away due to the bolting. Looking forward to learning a lot from reading the threads and submitting questions too. Cheers [Dave] "Acorn"

 

Hi Dave and welcome to GC. You'll get lots of help here and some fun on the way too.

 

Hello and welcome, you will like it here

 

Welcome to GC

 

Hello and welcome to Gardeners Corner

 

Hi Acorn and welcome back. I like Darlington, my sister lived there for a few years and we often visited.
Regarding your beetroot there could be a couple of reasons in my experience.
Living up North I always try to delay sowing seed for about 4 weeks after the instructions on the packet, in my experience sowing seed too early can cause beetroot to bolt.
Another reason is insufficient or irregular watering, because you use an allotment there is a good chance that this could be the reason.
I am sure that someone will be along with more advice.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Acorn!

 

Many thanks for the numerous welcomes, in relation to the advice about irregular or over watering of beetroot, just this week I received a free booklet from the publishers of "Which" mag and in the piece about Beetroot it stated that overwatering tends to pruduce too much leaf growth & the element of me using an allotment really has not bearing on over or under watering as I am incredibly privileged in that it is directly at the bottom of my garden, may send a pic some day to show just how lucky I am with it's proximity. If anything the fault may just be too much watering so it's a case of trial & error or advice on frequency and how much. Been at this game for years BUT still short on expertise. Please look at and identify the blue poppy, I think it came from Canada; apparently my wife says she heard it said on a gardening program that this variety is very difficult to grow from seed which in my experience may well be the case because last year I saved as much seed as possible and tried to germinate them in the greenhouse but [not a sausage] no luck. Do any members have this variety and have you had any luck growing them. I saw Monte Don recently [a gardening expert in the UK] showing how to take cutting from various plants and with one he actually slices some leaves laterally and placed them in pots saying they would sprout into plants. Is there perhaps some other way to create multiple plants from the one shown other than by the seeds, though I have my doubts seeing it naturally produces plenty of pods full of seeds. Cheers Dave.