WHAT CROPS HAVE YOU PICKED THIS WEEK?

A couple of weeks ago my lovely neighbour came over with a beautiful ripe tomato (her first of the season) - that's how lovely she is!!! This from plants donated by me which came from seeds of tomatoes called Raf at the market. I love the flavour of this tomato and considering the cost of them to buy, thought it worthwhile to experiment.

Carolyn Male kind of identified them as Marmand Raf and said she believed them to be open polinated and so they appear to be. So far so good. My big mistake was to plant them in bags of compost and my second was to position them where they would not get all day sun. Consequently they are leggy and the fruits have developed BER. Next year I am going to dig a propper patch for them. Big undertaking as the only site available has never been dug or cultivated - any pointers as to how to begin would be much appreciated. Should I get manure on there - if so when do I do this?

Anyway, I don't blame my neighbour for bringing over one of her delectable offerings...she's probably showing off big time~!!!!! It just goes to show what a difference good husbandry can make.

Next year I will be growing Roman Candle and Costuloto Fioretino - has anyone tried either of these? Also bought seeds of Prescott Fond Blanc melon - who knows this one?

Happy picking peeps
Lizzy

Lizzy, I am always full of it, suggestions that is. I may make my living as a gardener, but at home I am lazy.

When ever I start a new bed in uncultivated soil I use the Lazyman method. I remove all woody or deep rooted herbs from the area. Then start by making a furrow around perimeter, tossing the plants and soil over the surface of the new bed. I cover with a layer of manure and then a deep layer of chunky compost. Then I come back several months later and plant. Lax and lazy.

Great .....sounds good to me Dale - I'm all for the lazy route!!! Maybe I should get a horse - that would save me hauling the poo - what d'ya reckon?!! *grin*

Stick with the pony size, easier to move around than the Lichtenstein.

Howabout a donkey!!!!

Too noisy, stinky and ill tempered. Consider sheep?

Ha - now you're talking...

Sorry folks for hijacking the thread....

I'm growing 11 varieties of chilli peppers which will be maturing early next year - suddenly got the bug - trying not to obsess but it's hard. I should have saved this for when I actually start picking but I can't curb my enthusiasm. Perhaps I should stop visiting the Chilli forums!!!

Today I picked some eugenia berries, mmmmm they are good.

Almost forgot! The avo's are ready to pick, we never let them ripen on the tree. If we leave them too long they rot or the critters get them. And the little 'yellow' berries are Key Limes. I use them in my drink, you know-a little water, a little lime. And I am going to have that mango for breakfast, it is chilling in the fridge right now.

dale you're being cruel! I tried to grow some Key limes but they didn't germinate, I got seed from tradewindfruits but some others grew.

The eugenia berries look like blackcurrants. Is that a Carissa I see?

I've never heard of eugenia berries let alone tasted them. They certainly don't appear in our shops - perhaps they don't travel well. What do they taste like Dale?

Oh to get a ripe mango. The ones we get here are often more like turnips than the lovely juicy fruits they should be.

Picked another seven pounds of redcurrants and have now got 9 gallons of wine brewing. The first tomato is almost ripe enough to pick, another couple of hot days like this and they should all be ripening. The yellow podded peas are still setting lots of pods and I've left a few to set seed for next year. I'll put some in the next R.R

Wallaby, Not carissa, it is called spiral jasmine, it never has a name on it, they are not big on botanical correctness here. I can dig up one of my volunteer limes and send it, a nice 6-8 incher perhaps? Just remember that is hates temps below 50F.

Pat, the berries are not strongly flavored, like a bland gooseberry? With a hint of cherry. And mango is eaten green w/ salt and pepper here. Tastes good too! I can't wait for the avo's to soften, I love them sliced w/slices of tomato and vinegarette dressing. We have a hard summer here, but with benefits.

I would love to stop by and see your garden and have a sip or two of your wine. Maybe next year :-}, ahh wishful thinking. I would love to go the Chelsea Flower Show again, someday. I will have to dig thru my old slides from 92 and get some on digital format and show them off! London was so very peaceful compared to all the things that happened in Paris. And those crazy smokers in Amsterdam! Berlin was changing, but everybody still drinks alot of beer I would bet. I asked for a beer at the hotel desk my 1st night and the young lady told me 'You know you can have more than one'. I think one is enough was my reply with a big grin. Had the time of my life, most of the time, except for religion zealots Europe was very enlightening.

Here is the only digital photo I have of Europe, this was a good day in the park..

This message was edited Jul 20, 2006 4:33 AM

Hi Dale
Interesting what you say about religion in Europe - I find it all pretty laid back (I live in a predominatly catholic cournty now) I have to say that on the surface it appears to be more part of a tradition. Fiestas and Saints days seem to be just an excuse to paartee! After Spains very scary religious history, things have calmed down slightly!!!!!! It's live and let live here - I think on the religion side of things we've learnt a very hard lesson. In other parts of Europe we still have problems with ethnicity though.

Bible belt USA is unsurpassable for ardent fundamentalist christianity (IMHO) It's the one thing I would find difficult to live with. Its a very much them and us situation. I speak from first hand experience because that is my background. I grew up in an American Bible Based Christian organisation in Brasil - I know what it's like and it's very scary indeed!

Sorry to be so off topic people - just had to jump in...

I understand what you mean about the missionary abroad. They are much calmer here at home. I think that is why the go. I just ran into some middle eastern zealots. Hopefully they have taken up gardening.

Today I am stalking a large papaya, I will be out in the forest early and hope to be back my noon, 1 at the latest.

Dale missionaries at home aren't a lot different! If all the zealots in the world became gardening zealots - we'd probably get gardening wars too. Thats the nature of the beast so-to-speak!

What strange hours you keep Dale. It must be in the middle of the night where you are....do you ever sleep?

Having that papaya for brekkie are you? Enjoy - saludos de Espana - Lizzy

Lizzy, I get up at 5am, get my chores done early this time of year, then back home for my afternoon nap :+]

dale, yes please I would love that, the temps inside don't normally go below 16C, on the rare occasion overnight it can drop to 12C when very frosty but still above that.

Spiral jasmine, Trachelospermum, I had a T jasminoides which was getting through any amount of frost with no dead leaves on my south wall, but it was getting smothered by a Phygelius which travels and gets invasive. I dug it up and put in a pot to 'save' it. It has finally expired, the Phygelius I dug up this year and put in my Dahlia imperialis.


Lizzy he gets up early, I go to bed late. Nearly/often cross paths!

Raspberries have suffered from the heat and dry, they did in 2004 too and didn't grow good canes for the next year. Might dig them up and replant elsewhere. Very few boysenberries, grubs get some, blackbirds have become very clever at the balancing act, I eat the occasional one. But I am feeding the wildlife, can't grumble!

I tried the Little Gem-Pearl lettuce when it was very hot, it was a little limp but when it's hot one fancies lettuce, it is sweet and very tender, starting to heart. It's from Mr Fothergill's, any other lettuce would have cooked and gone to seed in the heat.

We had a shower! Only a ground wetter but now it's cool and misty cloud, just like the Tropics, expecting 28C but only 18C by 11am. Fingers crossed for more!

I picked my first crop of basil large leaved and made pesto for the first time in my life - fantastic to be able to pick with such abandon!!!! In England I was very frugal because I didn't have the big supplies I now have. It would have been little pinchings for garnish.

Oh and my first Friars Hat peppers of the season.

Introducing....Capsicum besitosuum......

Oh great, Mr & Mrs!

I picked my 6 plants of basil some time ago, perhaps 2 weeks, they are full of leaves again and need picking again. I filled a bag and froze them, they compact well.

I grew them from seed, a large slug got the rest but 6 plants gives me more than I can cope with. I grow it in a sunny greenhouse in 8" pots.

I've had quite a few French beans, the kidney beans haven't done much with the heat but should produce better from now.

The new potatoes are nearly all dug, very few on them although they are not abnormally small. Last year it was wetter and cool, they did very well.

It was 15C at past midday today, came sunnier later, at least I haven't had to water the same and managed to get some 'potting on' done.

Sweet corn looks to be ready, it doesn't look like I willl get the 2-3 cobs they are supposed to make, why am I not surprised?

Capsicums are getting big, I have 3 types, Georgia Flame, Corno di Toro and some from one I bought, it was thick walled, crisp and sweet, with flavour. They are making quicker than the others.

Tomatoes not yet ready but were late in, they are getting big and some are a yellowish colour so hoping for ripening soon.

Opalka tomato

Georgia Flame pepper, seed kept from last year's crop

Bought pepper

The last pic of all the plants was 4 weeks before this, what a difference!

Tomatoes taken on 31st July

This message was edited Aug 3, 2006 9:23 PM

Peppers with basil behind, now filled even more

WOW Janet!!!!! Thats some Industrial looking kit you have there...are you supplying a few chefs with gourmet veg or something - or do you have a big familyLOL I do have to make note of the clean and tidy floor (I'm a bit of a slutty garderner myself) I bet you've got no slithery creatures surking around your pots have you....

Congratulations of the fantastically healthy looking plants. They look sooooooo luuuuuuush............Thats mine kicked to the kerb where they belong! (sorry didn't mean that my babies!!!!)

Keep sending
Lizzy

Well Lizzy it is my neighbour's greenhouse, mine are not so pristine. He's a builder, likes everything square and level, he cleaned the glass before I put them in. It's only used for these and winter storage, well some other seedlings and things in spring when they find space. My greenhouses have not had a clean for years, I've always got them too full, when some plants come out others fill the space. He doesn't take the same care with his house, it's clean greenhouse glass and cut lawns, the rest goes to pot.

I grow my toms and peppers in lots of home made compost, with gritty soil/leaves dug from the drain and some peat compost, mostly 1/3 each but this year I used more of my own compost. I ran out of peat and am trying not to use it, so the last peppers to get potted, the plants from the bought pepper mainly and 5 of the basil, I used wood ash from a huge pile of burnt hedge cuttings and wood, plus grass clods dug from my new bed. It will have lots of potash and seems to do well, they basil for a start was much darker green than the one without. I've only fed them all twice, I think that will be it!

Slithery creatures, I do regularly hunt for them, I had some big slugs living in the side of a pot this year but found them and took them up the road, deposited in the hedge bottom.

I use quite a lot of tomatoes in season, fried tomatoes on toast, fresh pasta sauce, the last of the crop I just pick when coming too cold and store them in a box. Some can last up to 3 months like that, Fantom is a keeper and Keepsake does well too. I used to make chutney, don't know how I'm going to get around that this year, the vinegar will damage the budgie. I do miss my chutney, once tried the bought stuff is like sludge.

This is keepsake, it's a determinate and they don't go over-ripe on the plant, just sit there while you want them. They also have one of the best flavours around.

Your plants look so healthy...so it must be your compost recipe that make the difference. Well done.

Health Kick I got the seed from Tradewindfruits, only had one plant last year but I kept seed and it's doing well. They have a nice sugar balance.

Well I know only a little about tomatoes or growing them. This year I made a mistake of putting (marmande Raf) in 80 lt compost bags (like a growbag) Even though I have watered and fed them regularly and devotedly they still are getting BER. I don't know if it is faulty compost or what but It doesn't seem to make any difference that I feed them and generously and regularly water them. Maybe the feed just does not contain enough calcium...I don't know. It's been a resounding flop though.

I have ordered some new varieties for next year: Costoluto Fiorentino, Bourgogne Orange, Roman Candle, and I will try the Marmade again in the ground.

Hoping for a better harvest next year!

It's very difficult to control water in grow bags, if the centre dries out the water will go around the edges, like it does in any peat. Tomatoes really need very deep pots if not grown in the ground. I use the large plastic buckets they use for displaying cut flowers in supermarkets. They sell them once used at 8 for £1, very useful for many a plant needing a deep pot.

I tried Costoluto Fiorento and Marmande, I think CF was large and pink but split easily and went soft too easily, although quite nice flavour. Marmande was OK but always a bit too bumpy and funny shapes, I think if I remember correctly the hard green bit where the stem joins went in several directions through the tomato and was difficult to remove.

Am I correct to think that BER is caused by dryness? Peat has no nutrients other than what is added, but other materials are now used for grow bags, such as coco-fibre or bark, still the same problem . Besides that plants don't make proper roots.

This link I found does say dryness gives rise to insufficient transport of calcium. If you grow in soil that shouldn't happen so easily.

http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Tomato_BlossRt.htm

Very useful information Janet. Thanks very much - as I suspected it had to be something cultural.

Very impressive greenhouse, nothing like mine.I always have a tendancy to forget when planting things just how much they grow, so end up with a densu jungly/overgrown sort of house...mind you, my peppers and aubergines that I paid 99p for ,and grown in pots are doing really well, I've had 1/2 doxen aubergines already off them, and a couple of green peppers.Some guy upthe allotment was telling me that aubergines are perrenial, I'm going to check that one out, see how to keep them, he reckons like a dahlia.

The first toms are beginning to ripen at last in my greenhouse, oleh!!....but I'm looking after a chaps next door for a fortnight, and I'm picking literally containers full off of his...he always manages to get his to ripen before mine, no matter who gets to sow theirs first...

We also picked some courgettes (almost marrow size) yellow mange tout, runner beans , french beans beetroot and gooseberries this week from the allotment.Sighs!!...This was how it was ment to be, staggering home with a bag full of goodies, at last...

Lady Bounty!!!!!;)))))))))))

Sue, the variety of tomato does make a difference to early ripening. I used to have Early Goliath from Totally Tomatoes, it was very early, but they don't sell here any more, they are very food flavour too. I could probably get them again, but with a dozen varieties alreay, well..........

I felt the same about 'how it was meant to be'! After messing around with another lot of potting on, watering etc, then pick the beans, dig the potatoes, wash the darned things, all before you have to cook them. After having a shower and wanting a rest, then you have to get up and actually prepare the stuff! But what would we do if we didn't have it all?

You did well to get aubergines this early. I tried them a couple of years ago, and there was such a noticable taste of home grown goodness when cooked in a rattatouie, but I didn't get many and not sure if it was worth my effort. Perhaps an earlier start, I am tempted again.

I picked two sweet corn on Saturday, more ready, they are very full. Perhaps slightly too sweet for my liking although not classed as a super sweet, they are very crisp and tender and easy to eat without getting it stuck in your teeth. If you like a slightly sweeter corn, it's an extra tender & sweet variety (tendersweet) Swift.

This message was edited Aug 7, 2006 9:23 PM

Plants

They are beautiful sweetcorn Janet, and I'm glad you are getting worthwhile crops from your allotment Sue. My kitchen is full to overflowing with gooseberries, demi-johns of redcurrant wine, courgettes and tomatoes. I've also lifted six sacks of potatoes. Picked the last of the peas and saved lots of seed for next year. The Sigmadew cucumbers from HSL are setting nicely and taste lovely even if they look a bit insipid -pale lemon yellow. I've left one large one on to keep for seeds, so I hope they are viable. I'm pleased to say that it doesn't taste at all bitter even though I've left all the male flowers on.

I picked and ate the first fig of the year - delicious.

A few aubergines have set and there are lots of flowers on. I find them the most difficult plant to grow. If there is anything possible to get, they will have it - red spider mite, mould, black fly, aphids etc. They only seem to have aphids so far this year, so quite promising.

I've been out of action for a few days, I fell off the top of the ladder while trying to unhook the cherry tree net from a pointy branch. Well the ladder actually collapsed under me and I ended up laying across it flat on my back on the stone path. I'm covered in lovely rainbow bruises, cuts and scratches but otherwise unscathed.

I've booked on a seed saving course at Real Seeds in Wales in a couple of weeks time which should be very useful. I've only really tried easy ones like peas and beans and flower seeds. I did try saving leek seeds but they didn't germinate. Swiss chard is also an easy one and most of the umbellifers too, although I think they can cross if you aren't careful. I should know a lot more about it after the course.

I'm going to make a few jars of my favourite jam tomorrow - red gooseberry from the Black velvet and I will probably freeze the rest to give me time to decide what to do with them.

Pat xxx

Pat, you sound like someone from 'the good life' I'm ssooo.....impressed.

I hope you're recovering from your nasty fall,maybe tree climbing should be left to the younger ones (not that I'm saying that you're not young...)

The seed saving course sounds good, is that the same company as that sells the seeds?

the sweetcorn looks scrumptious, we tried some last year, but it got snapped completely, some guy said it was badgers that did it...not bothered again..

We've been having a lot of pan roasted veggies lately, in olive oil and seasoning, an easy way to do all the veg in one go, and they're scrummy, dripping with oil and garlic...yum..nice too cold the next day in a sandwich...I normally do toms, aubergines, peppers, courgettes,garlic, onion etc..what evers to hand really.

I can't wait to have enough fruit to make jam with, i keep buying these jars of really expensive jame that the family ilke (made with mostly fruit?) so hopefully I'll be after some recipe suggestions for next year.My only attempt at making jam years ago was abysmal...don't know how long I cooked it for, couldn't seem to decide wether it had reached the setting point, and ended up with something that resembled sticky goo instead, not nice..

Sticky fruit goo and toast, sounds good to me :-}



I live in the tropics almost all our fruits are goo when ripe. This is not a fruit although some begonia are edible...

Hi Dale...what part of which Begonias do you eat?

Thanks Sue, I'm almost recovered and I should know better than to climb trees but I'm afraid I tend to do things I've always done and then think its a bit daft at my age - 58.

Yes the seed saving course is at Real Seeds farm in Pembrokeshire - should be good.

What do begonias taste like then Dale? I'd be afraid of poisoning myself, but they do look nice and juicy.

In the supermarket the other day I was checking the prices of fruit and veg and couldn't believe how much everything is. I'm appreciating everything I grow even more now. I know we put lots of time into growing things but it is so superior to the stuff in the shops for flavour, tenderness, freshness and totally free from chemicals and I'm saving £££££s too - brilliant.

Picked lots of different tomatoes today and four different kinds of lettuce, some very pretty ones and different textures. I'm keeping an eye on the Opal plums as they are almost ripe. At least I won't have to climb this tree, it is on an M9 dwarfing root stock and is all within reach from the ground!

And the squirrel has been visiting today but hasn't touched the filbert nuts yet. Last year he ate them all while we were on holiday and had left all the shells in a little pile under the tree.

Pat and all,

The begonia I have eaten was a West Indies specie, tasted like sour apples, or oxalis if you have ever tried that one.

I know that begonia semperflorens leaves are edible and the flowers of HYBRID tuberous begonia appear in many recipes.

I have eaten many nasturtitum flowers and I like purslane leaves alot, the are high in oxalix acid. Tart they are.