Tedious gardening post

[vyvyanx]

Our plan to grow vegetables this year has had a certain measure of success so far, though we've learned a lot already about what not to do next time. All the seeds we originally planted in our outside plot seem to have perished; all that grew seemed to be weeds. However, in the greenhouse, the tomato seeds we planted all came up, and I potted them out once they got too big for their tray. Last weekend, O and I dug over the plot again, and planted out all thirty tomato plants, which are now quite big, and some of which are starting to flower. Our garlic in the greenhouse initially seemed to do well, with all the cloves putting up green shoots, but have made no further progress; most of the shoots seem to have died now. Perhaps the soil was too rich, or I watered them too much and they rotted in the earth. I'm not sure. We also bought a little chili plant from a stand outside a house on our road for 50p, and it's flourishing. We also got two small red pepper plants, a courgette and an aubergine plant, which are still in the greenhouse; all these have been repotted and have grown a lot. The courgette is growing yellow flowers and small fruits; the aubergine has grown one large flower so far. However, aphids seem to have formed colonies on some of the greenhouse plants. We wondered about spraying them with a dilute washing-up liquid mixture, as recommended online (to suffocate the aphids since they breathe through their skin) but then I saw a large ladybird on one of the plants, which I reckoned must be eating the aphids, since they seemed no more numerous than a few days earlier. So for the moment I'll leave the ladybirds to it, since the aphids don't seem to be harming the plants in any obvious way.

Comments

[1ngi.livejournal.com]

I strongly suspect the slugs of putting paid to your outdoor plot. Bastards. You can get organic slug pellets these days - you can also get natural spray for aphids too - who will be doing a lot of damage if their numbers increase. They sap the strength of the plant, thus reducing yield and introduce viruses.

Dig a bit of the garlic up and look at the cloves - might give you the reason. Soil unlikely to be the reason.

[katsmeat.livejournal.com]

I've also started growing vegetables. Although completely ignorant, it seems to be working out so far.

Confiriming your experience, the one and only lesson seems to be the key importance of sowing the seeds in pots and bring them on indoors before transplanting. The sweetcorn I planted in the ground is about 10cm tall. The second cohort was planted in pots about a week later and were planted out after about a month - they're now around 30cm.

This seems to be confirmed by the pumpkins. As I ran out of small pots, I put one seed in a very large one. It had an extra two weeks in the pot before outgrowing it and is now about twice the size of the others - I'm guessing because it was able to develop a much better root system.

[twigletzone.livejournal.com]

Get planting as early in the year as you can is my tip. Things that are sown outdoors get a head start before the pests get too active, and things that are sown indoors have a chance to get established before they have to face the big wide world.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I'm in a similar situation - my tomatoes seem to be growing well and should start producing soon, likewise the courgettes and peppers. The squash got zapped by the recent hot weather though and are probably done for. Beans are flowering though.

My garlic initially shot up and looked great but has now withered and I'm at a loss to know what to do for the best with it.

Potatoes, radishes and carrots all have good leafy growth but (on experimental uprootings) no actual tubers - suspect the soil was too rich for them. Next time I'll add some sand, if I can find a way to get it back from the garden centre without crippling myself.

Keep an eye on the ladybirds - don't know about Cambridge but London is infested with Harlequin (Asian) ladybirds which are an invasive species and will kill the native ones. There's a good website on them, and how to tell them apart from native species, here: http://www.harlequin-survey.org/