On 14/2/05 9:37, in article ,
"Dave Poole" wrote:

As you know, I'm not a veg grower either Sacha, but I do remember
seeing this recommended by Percy Thrower on the original Gardener's
World many years ago.

It's a shame that so many of those old tips and tricks have long since gone.
Because people stopped growing their food on a large scale after the war, so
much of this sort of knowledge seems to have passed by many new growers.

...They would cut bunches of grapes with a 'T' piece of stem at
the top and carefully place the 'T' in a special kind of vase filled with a
solution of water and sugar, with the grapes dangling outside.

Yes this is still a successful method of you have a glut of grapes and
a well ventilated house. We used to have a massive 'Muscat of
Alexandria' that gave wonderful crops. They would deteriorate if left
hanging on the vine, but remained in very good condition for quite a
long time if placed in bottles of sugar solution.

And for those of us who had hail today - it's arrived here - Old Tom used
to say that if it hailed you'd have three days frost afterwards.

Yes we had a few minutes of hail here leaving a bit of ice lying for a
short while. That frost didn't arrive last night though and I'm
pretty certain that we've seen the last of winter here on the coast.

We didn't have frost here but we've still got some wind and it's very cold.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)