Damned Snails - Again

With the nice weather we had for a few days last week all the plants in the garden are doing great, and there was a distinct lack of slugs and snails too, which helped tremendously.

This nice weather didn't last too long, however, and we were soon back to the torential downpours we have had all summer long so far, which has led to the resurgence of huge snails in the garden.

One of the mange tout has been mange touted by the snails, and they have also had a good go at the borlotti as well.

The Romanesque Caulis have started to get small holes in their leaves so I had a look on the underside to find a few pale green caterpillars busily munching away - not sure if these are cabbage white larvae as last year when I found them on my Purple Sprouting Broccoli they were deep green and much larger.

Whatever they were they are now squashed - I will have to look at getting some kind of netting up to protect the brassicas.

While I was closely inspecting the plants I noticed that one or two have actually started to form a curd (I think that's the right name for it) already.  Hopefully good signs for a good harvest in winter?

Down at the allotment not much has happened since my last post at weekend due to the horrible weather.



Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern



Will and I managed to move the timber pile from the roadway to a couple of holding piles just off my plot, and I also managed to get both pumpkin plants from home planted up directly into the manure pile.  I am hoping that the heat and texture of the manure will keep the slugs and snails off the plants until they have had time to grow large enough to withstand a few nibbles.



Pumpkin - Mammoth



I checked on them after a couple of days and they looked OK, but that was a couple of days back now so I hope they are still as healthy when I check tonight or tomorrow, weather permitting.

In the blow away everything is really more than ready to be planted out so it is really important to get both beds manured and dug over so these plants can be transplanted before they get too root bound in their modules.

One good thing - the peas in the blow away have started to flower - the ones in the front have been mainly either been eaten by snails or dug up by cats scratching, so these are now my only hope of a harvest this season.

Windowsill Update - Part 5

It's been two weeks since the last update, and the windowsill is looking distinctly bare nowadays.

I planted both the borlitti and mange tout into my garden last weekend as they were getting a bt out of control - the borlotti was over four feet tall and the mange tout was ranging all over the windowsill in search of something to climb up.

I think I should really have moved them earlier as a couple of the borlotti stems got bent while untangling ready to transplant, but they seem to have come through OK and are thriving outdoors,

I have got the borlotti growing up the trellis in my original narrow beds, and the mange tout are growing up canes in the 4' x 4' bed.

Of the plants left on the windowsill, the two 'Sweet Baby' tomatoes are now both over 6" high, both chilli 'Anaheim' are about 4" tall and showing plenty of leaf.

My two experiments, however, are not doing as well.

Of the 17 radish plants in a single tray that I separated most have withered and died.  There are six whose leaves have simply dried out completely and are nothing but a stem with crispy bits attached.

A further six have some greenery left, but aren't looking happy at all, and the remaining five aren't looking too bad at all, but still have some crispy leaves attached to them.  Three of the five were actually transplanted, so I'm not sure if it was the act of transplanting that disturbed the roots and caused the problem or not.

Either way, I'm not confident that any will survive much longer.

The spinach I planted in the tiny root cells that my veg plugs from Aldi came in is also having problems. 

I have had to water them, even though they were sat in a water retaining gel, which has caused some kind of algae bloom in the gel itself, the gel has dried up to about half its original volume and is completely filled with an amazing root system from the spinach.

Some of the spinach seedlings haven't rooted themselved properly and are lying on the surface, and many of the ones that are standing up straight are up to three inched tall, but have already started to bolt and set seed, probably as they are under stress in the mini-cloche.

I am going to plant these out either tonight or over the weekend to see if any can be salvaged, although I am not going to be holding my breath over them.  I think I will have to cut open the mini cells to plant them so I have some chance of not destroying the roots completely.

I think I will be underplanting my kale and Romanescue caulis which although they are growing well, don't need the full space as yet.

So, what have I learned from the windowsill this season?

Some successes with the tomato and chilli, I have strong plants which are nearly ready for planting on, even though they may be a little late in the season to do much.

Another success was the home-made light reflector that stopped the plants from leaning alarmingly towards the window - definitely using that again next year.

Lessons have been learnt with the beans and mange tout - next year I will plant them singly into pots and plant them out much earlier to avoid damaging the plants when doing so.

More lessons with the radish and spinach.  Neither seem to be happy on the windowsill, and radish certainly don't like having their roots disturbed.

Re-using the mini cells from the Aldi plug plants seemed like a good idea at the time,  but it has not gone quite to plan so I won't use them again.  The mini-cloches will probably be used but with seeds planted straight into compost in the base, without the cells or gel.

I may grow spinach on the windowsill again, but into larger pots with a couple of seeds in each to avoid the problems caused by the mini cells.

End of week catch up

In the past week since I last posted things have been moving on quite a bit, both at the allotment and at home, and I have had a major catastrophe too.

On Sunday afternoon I was relaxing in my hot tub after a few hard hours at the allotment when one of our cats knocked my mobile phone into the water.

Needless to say it was a complete write off, so I haven't been able to post up any more pictures since, which has kind of put me off writing anything.

So - what has been going on this week at home?

I have harvested a few more rhubarb stems which were stewed down with some sugar and a bit of water - very nice, but it really needed a bit more sugar.  All right - a lot more, to be honest.

The first few raspberries of the year have been eaten too - they didn't need any extra sweetener as they were gorgeous by themselves.  There is another handful ready too, looking forwards to picking those tomorrow.

I have also harvested a few Rainbow Chard leaves and steamed them with some cabbage given to me by a very generous allotment neighbour.  Not sure if I prefer them to spinach right now, but I will have plenty more opportunities to decide as the chard has really started to fill out and develop into really big plants.  I'm glad I decided to give them plenty of room when I planted them out six weeks ago!

The lettuce tub by the front door has also been raided quite a lot this week, but as they are starting to show signs of bolting we will be eating them as fast as we can before they turn bitter.

I have also picked up a young melon plant and stuck it into my largest pot - you never know, we might actually get some sun over the next few weeks to allow fruit to develop.  I am thinking of building up a frame for it to climb up - apparently this will encourage it to set more fruit along the length of the vine rather than just at the end as it would if I let it crawl along the floor.

The borlotti and mange tout on the windowsill desperately need planting out - the borlotti is now nearly four foot tall and looking for something to climb up, the mange tout has flopped over and is rapidly spreading along the windowsill.  I have a space picked out in the front garden in front of the trellis for them, so hopefully they will be able to handle the shock of being outdoors for the first time

The two tomato seedilngs in one pot have been separated into their own pots and are coming on well.  The chillis have now got four leaves each, and are slowly getting stronger.

The spinach grown in the gel is doing remarkably well, the only problem I forsee is trying to get the plants out of their cells without losing half of the root system which is now well established within the gel itself.  I am going to plant these inbetween the leeks in the raised bed - they should be picked and eaten long before I need to get at the leeks.

Not too sure about the radish at the moment - the majority of the first leaves have withered and died, but only a couple of the plants have well developed true leaves as yet.  It may be that I am going to lose a lot of these plants.  The plan is to plant them out below the brassicas in the bed in front of the trellis once they have all got good true leaves showing.

In the blow away it is like looking through a jungle, the plants are doing so well.

I am considering bringing some of the trays out and leaving them on some greenhouse staging just to give a bit of room to the others left behind.

I am very pleased with the pumpkins - both are getting quite big now, so I will have to look at potting them up into bigger containers as they really don't like being cramped.

One disappointment so far has been the onions.  They have been pricked out into individual modules for some time now, but there is virtually no signs of growth from any of them as yet.

With the weather having been so bad this week I haven't had much time to get down to the allotment, but I have had 8 tonnes of cow manure delivered in anticipation of some nice weather that will allow me to rotivate part of the plot and get it all mixed in.

I have spent an hour tonight moving the first of it off the path where it was dumped - 11 barrows-full and I have hardly dinted the pile!  I reckon there is about another 150-200 barrows-full to go, so at my curent speed it will take me 10-15 more hours!  I just hope that I will speed up as I get more used to the work.

Windowsill Update - Part 4

It's been a few days since I last posted an update about the plants I have growing on my windowsill.

I am pleased to say that after my first poor impressions, the home-made light reflector is working well and I no longer have plants stretching towards the window in search of light, they are all now growing relatively straight.

Rampant Borlotti

The borlotti beans are still growing well, and have now reached the dizzy height of 36 inches! 

They are starting to intertwine so I need to get a bed prepared and get them planted out at the allotmant as soon as I can.

Oregon Sugar Pod

The mange tout are also still growing well, although nowhere near as good as the borlotti, and have shoots up to 13 inches long.  These have now stopped growing upwards but have started to creep in search of something to climb up for support.  Again, these will need planting out soon.

Radish

The radish that I thinned out and transplanted look to be doing well (on the right in the picture), as do the seedlings left behind.

Several are starting to get their first true leaves and the base of the stem is turning the pinky radish colour you expect to see.

This is the most successful plant in terms of germination, with a count of 17 out of 18.

The seeds were sown on the 25th of June, so these plants are now 18 days old.  I was hoping to be able to pick them after 3 weeks, but I shall have to be more patient I guess.

Chilli 'Anaheim'

The two chillis are being slow to grow, but the seedlings are looking strong. 

Still no sign of the third, nor of the pumpkin I planted as insurance against the one in the blow away not germinating (which is actually doing great).

Tomato 'Sweet Baby'

Also going strong are the two seedlings of tomato 'Sweet Baby'.

Both now have true leaves, but I am going to wait until they both have a second set before pricking them out into separate pots to grow on.

I think I will leave these inside along with the chillis to get the best chance of a crop from them this year.

Spinach 'Matador'

My experiment with re-using the module and water retaining gel that the Aldi plug plants came in is looking good - of the 30 spinach 'Matador' seeds sown into 15 cells I now have 25 seedlings, and each cell has at least one plant.


With there being so little compost in each plug I have found that it dries out incredibly quickly, so I have had to resort to gentle watering which I was going to try and avoid to see if the gel would be sufficient.

Roots in the gel

Having said that, the cells where the roots have managed to get into the gel are doing really well.

Some of the plants have pushed themselved up and out of the compost causing them to flop about and lie on the top rather than rooting in well. 

Overall I am pleased with the results of my experiment so far.

Windowsill Update Part 3

Before I get pulled away to spend all my spare time preparing the new allotment I thought I would go round the plants on the windowsill and report on their progress.

I made myself a light reflector from some cardboard covered with tin foil.  The idea of this was to reflect the light coming through the window and try to stop the plants bending towards the sunlight outside.



Light Reflector

It has only been in place for one day so far, but my first impression is that there isn't much difference.

All the radish and spinach were still leaning quite markedly towards the window, but the tomato and both sets of beans are pretty straight. The spinach was right at the end of the reflector, which may have been a factor.

I will try it for a bit longer, and have moved the spinach to a more central location.

Now for a quick spin around the windowsill.

Everything was planted on Monday 25th of June so is 13 days old today.  The only exception is the spinach which was planted on Saturday 30th June and so is 8 days in.

Radish French Breakfast

The radish 'French Breakfast' are doing well, and are about three inches tall.  17 out of 18 seeds germinated.

I think I will have to transplant them as soon as the second set of leaves appear as quite a few seem to be very shallow rooted and are flopping about all over the place.

As I sowed two seeds at each station they will definitely need separating if I want decent bulbs to form.



Borlotti



The borlotti are the star of the windowsill.  100% germination. 

Their height ranges between 9 and 18 inches with lovely big, well defined leaves.

Once I get some room in the blow away I will have to get these hardened off ready for planting on the allotment.

Mange Tout 'Oregon Sugar Snap'

The mange tout are also doing well, with lots of leaf and plenty of tendrils starting to look for support to climb.

They are all around 9 inches tall and I had 100% germination.

Another candidate for hardening off and planting out as soon as possible.





Tomato 'Sweet Baby'

 


The tomato is finally starting to show the first set of true leaves, but at only just under 2 inches tall is going to be on the windowsill for some time to come.

2 out of 4 seeds have germinated, so quite a poor showing so far.

Chilli 'Anaheim'

 Finally some movement from the chillis!

I noticed one sedling showing through in one pot yesterday, and a second has shown today in a different pot.

Nothing from the third as yet, so that makes a disappointing 2 out of 6 germination rate so far.

Considering that the spinach has only been in for eight days I am quite pleased with the results.

The plants are an inch tall already, and look nice and healthy.

This was an experiment where I planted them in modules that I have sat in a water retaining gel to see how they would do without further watering.

Spinach 'Matador'

I did drip a little water on them yesterday as the compost they were sitting in was bone dry, but looking at the gel this morning I can see that the roots have already started to come down into it, in some cases very strongly.

I am now a bit concenrned that I may damage these root systems when I plant the seedlings on, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

I planted two spinach into each of 15 modules and have got a total of 20 germinations, with only three modules yet to show.  Not too bad for an experiment.

The one big disappointment on the windowill is the single pumpkin 'Mammoth' which has not yet shown at all.

The seed I planted outside in a pot in the blow away germinated after 12 days so I expected this one to be faster indoors.

I had a careful root around to check on the seed, and it is just starting to sprout so it may well catch up - time will tell.

Windowsill Update Part 2

After posting yesterday morning about the fourth borlotti not looking too healthy, this morning it is three inches tall and looking good - it just shows how much I have to learn here.

http://vegpatchkid.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/windowsill-update.html

Also, one of the spinach Matador that I sowed on Saturday has germinated after only three days - amazing!

Not sure if this is down to the gel that came with the 'mini-cloche' or not - I will have to plant some more in normal planters with just compost as a comparison.


I have several more of the modules that the ALDI plugs came in so I will try one of those on its own.

Still no movement from either the chillis or pumpkin, but the radish are now nearly three inches high, but none of them look like they are even attempting to form a second set of leaves yet.

The sugar snap peas are doing well, one looks almost ready to pot on as it is six inches tall already but I will wait until weekend.

I will have to do some more research on Google.

As I am running out of growing space here at home I am going to take a couple of pots into work and try to germinate a couple more courgettes as a backup in case something happens to my original seedlings.

Windowsill Update

As I am hoping to get the keys to the allotment on Saturday which is only five days time, it is time for an update on how the seeds I planted on the windowsill seven days ago are faring.


Borlotti doing well



Three of the four borlotti that I planted are doing well and about four inches tall.  The fourth has just started to show but is a sickly yellow colour so might not do as well as the others.



The first true leaves are well established with signs of the next pair already evident.  These will soon need potting on into individual pots with some support from a cane before I can get them into a prepared bed on the allotment, hopefully by next Monday or Tuesday, weather depending.



Mange Tout



The Oregon Sugar Pod mange tout are also showing lots of growth. 

Despite germinating before the borlotti they are only three inches tall but are more developed and already have set their second, or even third set of true leaves.  These will also need to be potted on fairly soon, but probably after the borlotti.

 

The French Breakfast radish are romping away and are now nearly two inches tall.  I planted two seeds in each of nine stations and as you can see from the picture all bar one has come up.  Once the second set of leaves arrives I will be trying to transplant the weaker seedling to ensure that each has plenty of space for the root bulb to develop.  I have read that radish don't like to be moved - this should be a nice experiment to compare those that are moved to those left undisturbed.



Radish French Breakfast



Of the other seeds planted at the same time only the tomato, Sweet Baby have germinated as yet, and only two out of the four seeds planted.  At less than an inch high these will not need their own individual pots for a long time.  No movement at all from the chillis or pumpkin.  The pumpkin took 12 days to show when I germinated one outside, so I was expecting this one to come up faster.  Still, it does have five more days to go so I shouldn't be so impatient.



Sweet Baby tomato



The only other planter on the windowsill is my experiment with water retaining gel where I planted some spinach Matador into the modules in which I got the veg plug plants from Aldi.




Spinach Experiment



These were only sown on Saturday, so nothing is moving as yet.

One thing I have noticed with all the plants on the windowsill is that they are all bending towards the light instead of growing upwards.  At the moment I am combatting this by giving the post a quarter turn every morning, but I think I will try to make a simple light box for them.

This is done by covering a piece of cardboard with silver foil and standing it behind the plants to reflect whatever light comes in so that the seedlings will no longer have to bend towards it.  Hopefully it will work and I won't have to keep turning the trays and pots.

Windowsill Goodies

Even though I have run out of room in the blow away, and the table in the front garden is completely covered with seedlings just waiting to be taken down to the allotment when I finally manage to get in there (8 days and counting!) I just had to pot up some more seeds tonight.

I am going to put them on the bedroom windowsill in the boxroom, right next to the computer so I will be able to take good care of them.

I sowed 9 radish 'French Breakfast' - I grew these last year but only managed to get a couple of them before they were munched by the pests, so I am hoping that by growing indoors I might be able to have a few more.  Sowed a couple of seeds per station.

There are three pots of Chilli 'Anaheim'.  We love chillis and already have some strong plants growing in the blow away, but I fancied trying a new variety.  Only put a single seed into each pot as I want to see how the Square Foot Gardening method of sowing works out - it is recommended to sow one or two per station.

Windowsill Goodies

There is a single pot of tomato 'Sweet Baby'.  I think this is a bush-type, and most of the others I already have growing are cordon, so I wanted a change.  About 4 seeds in this pot.

I have also got a pack of Borlotti and one of SugarSnaps - going to get them going tonight too.  I realise that they may be too late for this season, really, but hey - it's only a few seeds.

Finally, I couldn't resist potting up another pumpkin - 'Mammoth', just in case the one I potted in the blow away doesn't come up - no movement as yet.

Talking of the seeds in the blow away, I had another peek at the ones planted eight days ago.

Still no movement from either pumpkin, got a few peas showing now, quite a few carrots are starting to germinate and I even have a couple of spring onions coming through, but not a thing from the Basil.

I have never been able to get Basil to germinate, either inside or out - I really don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Time to check Google, I guess.