[Riala]

Wow.. I have a multitude of questions for you Lotties today, you will need a large cup of tea, and a heavy duty spade to lean on while we discuss this lot!

I will add a brief description on top of the Pic, and a question. Ready? Alright, lets go:

1. Toms.  I lost my tom plants to blight, first time succesfully growing anything edible and I go and lose the lot!! Oh well. I rescued what I could, and I have just put them on the window sill. Question: How long should I leave them to turn red before giving up on them?




2. Strawberries.  I have attempted to 'plant on' the runners, but I read here that you can only snip the long bit when they have rooted.  Question: How do I know when they have rooted, and why are my leaves turning a strange blotchy red colour?




3. ID. These plants were left for dead as nothing was happening in them.  I had forgotten about them and was in the garden attempting to bring order to my jungle, when I found them near the shed door! Question: Can anyone tell me what I have growing? I think the bigger ones are french beans, but the smaller ones, no idea.

[Riala]

4. Progress of French beans.  They seem a little lonely in there, but at least I am growing something successfully!




5. Pumpkins, Lettuce, Beets, Leeks, Sweetcorn.  Not entirely sure what is going on here, but I will try to explain.  The Pumpkins (or possibly BNS) seems to have been having these little yellow flowers forever! No sign of anything, they are just taking over.




6. The Lettuce is fine, tastes lovely! The leeks do not appear to be doing anything other than sitting there.  Beets is the problem.  They are looking withered and rather sad, even though we have had rain constantly. Do they need pulled? Or has something else happened to them?  Just noticed, the carrot tops are the same.

[Riala]

7. Sweetcorn. I have two lots of sweetcorn planted a month apart, but the newers ones have taken over height wise to the others. Question. I see no tassles now on the older plants, but when I pulled one to check, it was only half a cob.  How long do I need to wait to pick them?
Older ones.


Newer ones.


8. Rhubarb.  Never grown it before, but I found this hidden gem not long after moving in. When can I pick it to make a crumble? And will it grow back next year or do I have to pull the whole thing up when I have cut all the stalks?

[Poolfield2]

I don't think I have energy to answer all of those questions but the first one, just leave tomatoes til they turn red, if they start to go wrinkled make green tom chutney or throw them on the compost.

Rhubarb, you can pull a few sticks now as long as they are not too thick. Don't take many or it won't have enough strength for next year.

I think the other stuff looks pretty healthy and you just need to be patient.

[Janeymiddlewife]

I'lll take over the next few Qs........

Strawberry leaves will change colour like autumn leaves, when they start to dry up you can pull them off gently, next year's new leaves will be clustered in the centre and a bright green. The runners will start to put out tiny hairy roots when ready for planting on.

I think your beets look a bit close together - you could thin every other one, you can use the leaves as a salad leaf or wilted like spinach, if the beets are very small you can finely grate raw into salad.

Sweetcorn - normally the tassles on the cobs go dark brown, the cobs should be a good size before you pick them - may need another month - are you watering  & feeding them lots?
Pumpkins also need lots of feeding & water to make fruit swell

HTH
JMW

[Riala]

No need to water anything with the amount of rain we are getting.

Pumkpins/Squash - There is nothing there, nothing at all, just a lot of yellow flowers.

[Kimberley04]

I got the tip from here, but in terms of waiting for tomatoes to turn red and ripen, put a banana near them.  They emit a chemical, I think it's ethanol but perhaps not, that helps other fruit to ripen.

[Riala]

A banana on my warm windowsill will do nothing other than attract wasps ( as I have learnt... 4 dead in 1hr!)

As such the banana had to go.

[Janeymiddlewife]

A banana on my warm windowsill will do nothing other than attract wasps ( as I have learnt... 4 dead in 1hr!)

As such the banana had to go.

Put them in a clear plastic bag, but ttake them out every now & again as they tend to "sweat", you can also use a paper bag, but guess the waspies will smell through that, you can also bung them in a kitchen drawer with the banana

[DD.]

They emit a chemical, I think it's ethanol but perhaps not, that helps other fruit to ripen.

Ethelyne.

[DD.]

BNS and pumpkins both need loads of space. Sadly they do not have it.

My 5 BNS have 40 sq m of space, for example.

[Riala]

I am always fascinated by the different approaches to gardening and the varied advice I receive, that is why I come here. 

I can take a pinch of everyones advice to find my 'middle' ground on growing. 

BBC tell me that I can grow a pumpkin or BNS in a pot, and not a ginormous pot either.  Not everyone has a ton of space, especially these days with so many flats and high rises going up.  I am not exception.

I am extremely limited space wise, and being in a rental means I can not just dig the garden up.  Our cottage garden is in the contract as "do not touch" so I am not able to pull up the annoying poisonous berry tree taking up a 3rd of the space.  Nor can I rip the 5 lavendar bushes out that are terribly large and overgrown and covering most of the path.

My pumpkins/BNS have the required amount of space according to the BBC (where I got the BNS from)... I know now for next year that I need a hell of a lot more space for them, so I will not bother trying them again until some one drops a field at my front door. <giggle>

[Kimberley04]

They emit a chemical, I think it's ethanol but perhaps not, that helps other fruit to ripen.

Ethelyne.

Thank you - couldn't remember !

[gillie]

Actually it is ethylene.

cheers,

Gillie

[peterjf]

hang a banana skin next to your green toms