The Vegetable Patch

They were banned, but I believe unbanned shortly after, I would have to look it up. I don't use them as I try to grow organically. The white ferric ones do ok and are not harmeful to wildlife in the way the blue ones are. I have used them in very wet years and they work. Keeping things tidy and not leaving hiding places is a good bet. I can't be bothered with beer traps and they are unpleasant to empty. I just put up with some damage, this year they decimated my lettuce, a melon and leaf chicory but rest is ok. The copper tapes are expensive and didn't seem to work for me. Nematodes ditto.

I am not going to Scunny as on holiday. Next away trip for me is Morecambe.

 

Back from Spain and I've tons of toms, they smell gorgeous and very tasy they are too. Lost a lot to wind but still more than we can handle. Now I know a bit I'll do better next year.

The chili plants though, what a disappointment, all seven look in top condition, well grown, healthy green, been watered/fed well and had plenty of sun. Result? Not 1 chili.

 

Are you growing your chillies outside? If so, that is the problem. It will be too cold. There is a chilli called Nigel's Outdoor chilli but I only try and grow mine in my greenhouse or polytunnel. You might get away with outside in a sheltered spot down south.

 

The Royal Society for the Protection of Inferior Vegetables?

Just got back from a fortnight's wandering; some carrots still left to be pulled, and the parsnips look very promising; I hope the parsnips underneath will be as impressive as their tops. The pears are now ready to be harvested as well: pear chutney, orchard jam (pears, plums, and apples, plus ginger), pear tarts, poached pears...

It has been a very good year for the fruits and veggies over here at RCB Towers.

RCB

 

A good haul. Three first prizes, for garlic, bread and turnip. 8 second prizes for kale, courgette, onions, sweet pepper, pumpkin, tomato, pear, blackcurrant jam and apricot jam. 5 third prizes for carrots, chillies, cake, blackberry gin and French beans.
City won as well. Might have a sample of the gin later on tonight.

 

Congrats on your results you must be very pleased with your efforts, However I have a question to see if you can help, My apple tree is overloaded with fruit as is my pear tree but my plum just refuses to fruit, It is now 3 years old and around 12ft tall and has loads of foliage but fruit there is none, Any suggestions to help on next years crop?

 

Nope inside, they've only been outside for maybe 10 days & only in hot weather. A pal planted some at the same time and now has loads of fruit, but he lives in a south facing raised caravan, the heat difference must have been immense over summer. That's the only think I can think of, my plants look great, they always have, but no fruit?

 

I wouldn't worry too much. Most full size (i.e. not a cordon type) plum trees won't start fruiting until they are 4 years old, so may be next year you will get fruit. The only other thing to bear in mind is the variety. Victoria is self pollinating I think, but lots of plum varieties need another tree nearby to set fruit.

 

Thanks AB, It is a Victoria and just planted another the same nearby hoping it will help, Should I prune fruit trees hard after leaf has gone? ( Novice at this )

 

The only 2 things I can think of are temperature and what you are feeding them with. That fortnight outside could have thrown them, they don't like night time temperatures below about 15. Also, they don't like it above about 36 or so in the day and they like a bit of humidity. I have installed blinds for shade on 1 side of my greenhouse roof and have self opening vents. On hot days I leave the door open too.
Also what do you feed them with? They will grow lots of leaf but tend not to fruit if they have too much nitrogen. I feed mine with a diluted liquid seaweed feed about once every 10 days. That seems to work for me. The fact that the plants look healthy means you have probably got the watering right - they don't need nearly as much as tomatoes. I let them almost dry out between watering. I have a really good book on growing chillies, sadly now out of print. I will dig it out and see if there is anything I haven't thought of.

 

I think this is good advice here.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=339

 

Come the apocolypse, I'm pitching my tent on @Allotment Bantam's lawn.

 

All round Allotments on 31st October?

 

Victoria is self-pollinating. As far as pruning goes, the link provided by @Allotment Bantam says mostly what I was going to say; my source is the 1988 book "Home Grown" by Denys De Saulles (London: MacMillan) -- it is a very useful book for anyone growing one's own fruits and veggies. Plums are different in that pruning is spring and summer, not winter (as for, say, pears).

I'd add that for fertilising, the easiest option is fertiliser spikes formulated for fruit trees. (I put a ring of them around the drip line of my pear tree every year, and it seems to be very happy with the treatment.) De Saulles adds that fertilising a plum is not necessary until it begins to bear fruit; he recommends three separate fertilisers: potash sulphate in late winter at 15g/square m., sulphate of ammonia in the spring at the same rate, every two or three years superphosphate at 70g per square m. Personally, I'd go with the spikes!

RCB

 

They were not outside at night, only during the day in the sun. They've been fed on pond water and a bit of tomato feed, nothing else.

 

They do best with a high potash fertiliser, not so much nitrogen. Lots of people use tomato food and do ok though. I can't think of anything else.

 

This evening I went to a Gardener's Question Time event that was part of the Saltaire Festival. It was chaired by Chris Cooper. On the panel there were experts in horticulture from Shipley College and elsewhere.
I asked about your chilli production issue. They had three suggestions. One is too much feed, encouraging leafy growth at the expense of fruiting - the plant makes fruit to propogate itself, if it thinks it is on to a cushy number, it will be happy to just sit there without making fruit. They thought this likely if you got no flowers at all.
The second option was not enough light - were they hidden amongst your tomatoes?
Finally, someone said are you sure they are chilli plants. I think you can discount this, as I thought you grew them from seed.
Hope this is useful. I made everyone laugh telling them about the vegetable patch thread on a football website.

 

Dog Vomit Fungus started appearing on my lawn.

 

First parsnips pulled today, as needed for dinner, a turkey pot pie. Own carrots, onions, and thyme in there too... Mmmmm.

This wasn't a good year for parsnips, in that most of the seeds did not germinate. No idea why, unless the spot in the veggie patch was a little too much in the shade of the pear tree. Still, if the rest of the ones that did come up will be as good as today's, I'll be happy.

RCB

 

Harvested the last of the sweet and chilli peppers from the greenhouse today. Will freeze some chillies and dry the rest for crushed chillies and chilli powder. Good crop this year.