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[herbidacious Profile]

Oh Suffs. I am so sorry. So much work and effort goes into growing them as well as the anticipation of lovely homegrown tomatoes. I was devastated when this happened to me a few years back.

[Suffs Profile]

Cheers folks ... I'm disappointed of course, but that's gardening ... it's like farming ... I remember when I was a child, we lost the whole herd of pigs on the farm due to an outbreak of swine fever spread due to faulty injections, just before compensation was introduced .... it nearly bankrupted us ... it would have done had it not been for a very understanding bank manager and a loan from granny ... I thought then, how do people bear it ... but you have to get back on the horse ... at least it's only tomatoes for our consumption, not our living ... I was brought up to be phlegmatic and stoic

[herbidacious Profile]

That does put it in perspective. I often think how different if it would be if I had to grow to feed myself (what with all the thigns that can and do go wrong. I suppose one might have a different approach though then.)

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

I'm holding my breath that my tomatoes don't succumb as I there were a few wilted leaves on one of my plants ...

[Sloe-Gin Profile]

I am sowing my seed potatoes for Christmas this afternoon. I have too many, so some have gone to people in the village. I have Pentland Javelin and Nicola. Fingers crossed.
I bought potato sacks, which will stay outside till the toms are done with.

[herbidacious Profile]

I had to throw out two tomato plants I kept some of the unripe tomatoes as some of the ripe ones were ok. But I think there was no doubt about it being blight. I think another two have it too. I hope more ripen before blight gets a grip. One of the other possible victims is supposed to be resistant.

I really must chuck out those mildewy courgette plants this weekend. The courgette glut concept is beginning to feel like a myth after this happening two years running. (Next year: back to mildew resistant ones.)

I have utterly neglected my potatoes and not earthed them up (in bags) for ages.

Beans are iffy but I had a nice bowl of French ones last night. The borlotti don't seem to be doing much at all. (But they are the ones with the mosaic virus.) I don't suppose the sweetcorn will do that well without any sunshine. None to speak of forecast for the next 5 days.

Plums are beginning to ripen...

I find myself prematurely looking ahead to next year, and how I will try to do things better, already.

I have kale and beetroot seedlings in the greenhouse. Will have a go at autumn planting of broad beans this year. Anything else I can start? Sometimes I think my favourite bit is sowing and germinating, and it will be fun to have a greenhouse to do it in. (Assuming I can? Will need some fleece when it gets colder?)

[Sloe-Gin Profile]

Herbi, potatoes for Christmas? Your local garden centre should have the chitted spuds in now. Autumn sowings of garlic? Sweet peas?

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I was thinking garlic or onions

[herbidacious Profile]

All good ideas. Thanks.

Sweet peas in particular will be worth a go. I think this year's benefited from a February start but before Christmas is worth a go.

Slugs and snails always get the foliage on my potatoes. Probably because I grow them in bags? I don't have room to do them in the ground.

I grew garlic this year, but I am not very good at it, it seems. They are/were in pots. Not sure where I am going wrong. I have two raised beds but I don't want to put things in them that will prevent me starting off summer veg so whatever goes in them over winter would have to be harvested by Juneish.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

On a smaller scale I put my 2 amaryllis in the attic to finish off, it’s warm and bright and they like it there

Usually I stop watering them when the leaves start to yellow, but this year they have just gone on looking like a bit of tropical rain forest and now one of them is trying to flower

[Sloe-Gin Profile]

I sowed some Violet de Provence globe artichokes in March and we have our first ones. Wonder when they'll be big enough to eat?
It's too wet to take a pic. Will do tomorrow

[Sloe-Gin Profile]

On doing some research, it seems i must cut the chokes off this year.

[Sloe-Gin Profile]

violet de provence.jpg (256.5 KiB) Viewed 3274 times

My baby chokes.

[ZeroCook Profile]

.

Very pretty artichoke plant, Sloe They're usually eaten at very latest just before the bracts (the leaves that surround the centre 'choke' part) open - when all but the central bracts have opened out but are also picked before that for a very tender mostly edible middle part/heart with a less thistley 'choke'.

Hand pollinating tomatoes ...

Earlier in the year found a very old packet of Punta Banda tomato seeds like these from a seed conservation group that I thought needed using or tossing. I didn't hold out much hope but surprisingly the seeds germinated - very quickly, too.

Fast forward and the the plants had come on apace and flowered a few weeks ago, but not a very good pollination rate - only about three fruit setting per cluster of six or so flowers. More clusters have set, but still not at a great rate. Could be the variety or the weather conditions, so I did a search and found this:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible ... matoes.htm

An electric toothbrush - who knew! We have a spare one so have been vibrating the flowers the last couple of days. Will see if it make any difference.

Speaking of which, did hand pollination help the tomatillos set, KC2?

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

I'm holding my breath that my tomatoes don't succumb as I there were a few wilted leaves on one of my plants ...

Posted the above on 9th August and so far my tomato plants are still standing even though one of them has had dark patches on the stem for several days now .. I thought blight brought them down almost overnight What's the betting that now I have committed my thoughts to writing them down, that I will wake up tomorrow and find they have succumbed (nervous smiley)

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Speaking of which, did hand pollination help the tomatillos set, KC2?

Thx for asking, ZC, in the end I didn't do any as I observed the plants very carefully and there were lots of little insects - unidentifiable to me, I'm afraid - that seemed to be enjoying the yellow flowers ...

I've so far harvested just under 200g, beyond the first half dozen we cooked with a few weeks ago, and there are more on the way. They don't seem to be ripening all at once, but then perhaps that is what happens! I don't know! Perhaps they suddenly all ripen having done it quite gradually for a few months ...

I've also got 5 James Grieve apples that are looking lovely. The 6th got knocked off when we were trimming the ivy behind it, but we ate it and even though it was quite a bit smaller than the others are already, it was really fab and not too sour.

I remember from my childhood that the James Grieves were always quite large apples, unlike some of the others that we grew.

Some of the herbs, on the other hand, are not looking so happy.

[halfateabag Profile]

When my toms were in flower I would 'rattle' the flower bracts daily when I watered them. It has made a huge difference to the crop this year. Also, because of slugs, when they just start to change colour, I pick them and leave them on the kitchen window ledge in the sun and they ripen much more quickly. Todays task is prepping and freezing a lot that need to be dealt with.

My lovely neighbour invited me over to look at her asparagus peas. They are so pretty. Had never heard of them before.

Nice looking chokes Sloe

[scullion Profile]

asparagus peas are much prettier than they taste - i grew them once...

[Suffs Profile]

I'm holding my breath that my tomatoes don't succumb as I there were a few wilted leaves on one of my plants ...

Posted the above on 9th August and so far my tomato plants are still standing even though one of them has had dark patches on the stem for several days now .. I thought blight brought them down almost overnight What's the betting that now I have committed my thoughts to writing them down, that I will wake up tomorrow and find they have succumbed (nervous smiley)

There are mainly two sorts of blight affecting tomatoes ... Early and Late ... but it's a bit of a misnomer as Early can strike late, if you get me.

Early is not as immediately devastating as Late ... the plants sometimes last long enough to get the tomatoes to the stage where you can remove them and ripen them off the vine.

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Thanks for that Suffs My toms are still surviving, however a friend, who lives in Iver, so not too far away, popped in today and said her tomatoes got it bad enough, that they had to be removed to a place of safety ...