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Plants to plant now
I've never been any good at the over-wintering thing. Even last year's
broad beans that I planted in November failed, and they seem to be the most famous over-winter crop. Other than broad beans and peas, what else can I plant now (either under glass or straight out in the ground)? Any advice - flowers, veg or herbs that can be started off in the next week or so - would be appreciated. |
#2
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Plants to plant now
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#3
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Plants to plant now
Mark McIntyre wrote:
You can plant out Broccoli, cabbage, caulis, most other brassicas if you get in quick. Yeah, I sent off for some brassica plugs, but they haven't turned up (probably stuck in the post) - I'm more interested in things I can plant from seed. You can sow onions and garlic from sets or bulbs any time up till mid Nov. Again, I sent for garlic and onion sets - the garlic turned up and was planted, but no sign of the onions yet. We didn't have much success from the overwintered alliums last year - got to spring and they all got white rot. :- Possibly you could sow root some veg from seed (parsnips maybe? turnips or swedes?). Hmm, I thought it was too late for them. I have a row of late carrots, + beetroot and some chinese leaf that I put in a month or so back, but the sowing instructions I think finished in August so I figured I was already pushing my luck. I tried turnips (or swede, can't remember) and bok choi, with no success, think they were a duff batch of seed. Not a single seedling (unless something munched them before I noticed) Its a bit late for winter potatoes unfortunately. Chickens keep digging them up anyhow. :-) I did put a bunch of green chitted potatoes that were from this summer's crop and had spent a couple of weeks in the fridge out in an old strawberry planter last weekend, with an upturned hanging basket over them to keep the birds off. not sure if they will survive the weather or not. I may drag it into the greenhouse (if I can without doing my back in!) once the tomatoes are out. I have a load of brassicas already planted out, and I'm planting my Did you plant your brassicas from seed? I had my best ever brassica year this year (caulis came up lovely, for the first time ever, cabbages are still going and are excellent, calabrese was so-so, but still going in places, and the sprouts look like they'll be ok. Oh, and the purple sprouting broccoli is looking hugely healthy for the spring!) but they were all from seedings, not seed. pound a strip for the calabrese and sprouting, 20p for 'we are selling this off cheap cos it's dying' a strip from B+Q for the rest. Bought a load of the 20p strips in the summer and potted them up for the school fair and I've seen the results on other people's plots and they're all doing really well. I've figured my problem with growing from seed in trays is the compost I use not being good enough for seedlings, so I've invested in some John Innes (1+2, iirc) for the new season. Previously I've been using peat free multi-purpose, which I'll save for large pots and potting up in future, I think. onions and garlic this weekend. This will all be a spring crop, and then I'll plant something else in the space for a late summer crop. We're quite good with sprint/summer planting (sweetcorn, beans, potatoes, courgettes, pumpkins, etc), but I just can't get my head around pre-planning for spring. I think my enthusiasm drops off with the weather. Although it's great weeding/digging weather atm! |
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#5
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Plants to plant now
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#6
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Plants to plant now
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
Whether that's successful depends on the variety and the weather. Last winter I was successful with Aquadulce Claudia and Bunyards Exhibitition, and failed with The Sutton. Ah, that may have been the issue. I think one of mine was The Sutton, too. iirc, they worked ok (nto spectacular, but 'ok') from a spring sowing. I think I have aquadulce and "something I picked up from a field I was walking through that had left some stuff lying around after harvesting" for this year. :-) Garlic, onions. *nod* Problem with alliums is that I have limited space I can plant them in due to the diseased crops we had last year. I've filled the 1st allotment's empty potato patch with garlic (elephant, lautrec and solent white, iirc), and if the onions ever turn up I'll replace the pumpkin patch with onions, but there is currently nowhere else I can safely plant them without risk of infection. |
#7
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Plants to plant now
wrote ... Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote: Whether that's successful depends on the variety and the weather. Last winter I was successful with Aquadulce Claudia and Bunyards Exhibitition, and failed with The Sutton. Ah, that may have been the issue. I think one of mine was The Sutton, too. iirc, they worked ok (nto spectacular, but 'ok') from a spring sowing. I think I have aquadulce and "something I picked up from a field I was walking through that had left some stuff lying around after harvesting" for this year. :-) Garlic, onions. *nod* Problem with alliums is that I have limited space I can plant them in due to the diseased crops we had last year. I've filled the 1st allotment's empty potato patch with garlic (elephant, lautrec and solent white, iirc), and if the onions ever turn up I'll replace the pumpkin patch with onions, but there is currently nowhere else I can safely plant them without risk of infection. White rot doesn't usually affect the whole crop unless you plant very close, we plant all our alliums at 9 inches each way and a few get the disease but those next to them don't so we just plant a few more than we will need to cover the losses. Sure it wasn't downy mildew? Your choice of Garlic is not what we would have chosen, Elephant isn't actually a garlic it's a leek relative and we didn't find a use for it, and Solent White was a disaster for us a few years ago, nearly as bad as Marco last year. We have planted Thermidrome and Germidour both of which have proved excellent on our plot, also planted Chesnok Red as a trial. We also found it not worthwhile planting Broad Beans or onions to overwinter, too many died and they don't crop much earlier than spring planted anyway. What we have got in for the winter/spring are Brussels sprout two varieties that extend the season, Winter Tundra cabbage, Savoy, Walcheren Winter Armardo Aprl caulis which have to be the easiest and cleanest ones to grow. Also Leeks and Parsnips and a few Swede left that need using before they rot. All of which have to be grown from seed about May/June time. -- Regards Bob Hobden just W. of London |
#8
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Plants to plant now
Bob Hobden wrote:
White rot doesn't usually affect the whole crop unless you plant very close, we plant all our alliums at 9 inches each way and a few get the disease but those next to them don't so we just plant a few more than we will need to cover the losses. Sure it wasn't downy mildew? Oh, I don't know. Hang on, I'll just google for images ... Nope, google images seems to back me up, the photos that claim to be white rot on google do look like my onions and garlic last year. (Kind of white fungal looking fluffy goo with black damaged bits) I think about 80% of the crop was totally unusable, 50% of what was left was rescuable to cook and freeze, and the last 10% has been stored (and since then a few of those have rotted, so I must not have filtered them out carefully enough even then!) We got it last year, too, on a different patch, so I suspect the whole allotment site has a problem with it, unfortunately. I don't think we were the only ones to succumb to it. Your choice of Garlic is not what we would have chosen, Elephant isn't actually a garlic it's a leek relative and we didn't find a use for it, and Solent White was a disaster Ah, it wasn't really a 'choice' so much as what the Independent Offers from Mr Fothergill was offering at the time I thought of it. ;-) for us a few years ago, nearly as bad as Marco last year. We have planted Thermidrome and Germidour both of which have proved excellent on our plot, also planted Chesnok Red as a trial. Last year Nick sourced all his overwintering onions and garlic carefully - 3 different colours of onion and a bunch of different garlics, and look what happened! And the same the year before. this time I think he's given up, so it was just down to me and my whimful purchasing. We also found it not worthwhile planting Broad Beans or onions to overwinter, too many died and they don't crop much earlier than spring planted anyway. I think I may do what I 'accidentally' did last year with broad beans, which is to plant a patch out, and the same amount in pots in the greenhouse, then use the greenhouse ones to patch up the gaps in the outdoor planting when 3/4 of them fail to thrive! rot. All of which have to be grown from seed about May/June time. Yeah, bit late for me there, unfortunaetly. |
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