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Category: Fruit, Vegetables & Herbs

Tips on growing good Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs

Top Ten Vegetables from Gardeners Tips

Top Ten Vegetables from Gardeners Tips

A million gardeners everyday pick up a spade and thank the beans.

organic-vegetables

Every list of top ten vegetables to grow your own would probably differ, mine would vary based on season, current successes and even personal hunger. Most of this top selection of ten varieties are part of the RHS vegetable collection available from Thompson & Morgan amongst other seed merchants.

Broad Bean Bunyards Exhibition
One of my all time favourites, Bunyards Exhibition has a very good flavour and is excellent for freezing. They prefer a well-drained, moist, rich soil. A reliable performing heavy cropper with of long pods it will grow in most soils.  Pick regularly once pods are full to promote further pod production. Support the plants as they grow by placing a cane or stout stick at each corner and tying in with string. Keep well watered particularly when flowers are setting. Pinch out growing tip when first flowers set pods to deter blackfly. …

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Types of Apple Rootstock

Types of Apple Rootstock

Big apple trees may give you the pip but smaller trees can be a delight.

Modern apple trees are grafted on to a root stock that will govern the vigour and eventual size of the tree. These are the vital statistics of some common rootstocks.

Name

Nature

Height ft.

Spread ft.

M 27

Very Dwarf

4-6

5

M 9

Dwarfing

6-8

9

M 26

Semi-dwarf

8-10

12

M 106

Semi-vigorous

10-13

12

M 111

Vigorous

13-15

15

The larger the tree the more fruit it should bear up to 300 pounds on a mature orchard tree on M111. The smaller trees bear fruit after 3 years, larger trees need 3-4 years

  • Apples are potentially long lived trees and the small trees are often pruned into pyramids and central leaders. For an espalier tree get a root stock that is M26 or M106.
  • Semi dwarf and semi-vigorous can be grown in containers but need care with water and feeding
  • Smaller trees need staking all their life

There are many professional fruit tree firms like Ashridge, Ken Muir and Blackmoor but Amazon also offer a range using their supplier base.

Moneymaker The Tomato to Grow

Moneymaker The Tomato to Grow

The clue is in the name – with Moneymaker you get a large, reliable crop of juicy tomatoes

What Tomatoes to Grow

  • New growers need to select reliable varieties to grow to develop their enthusiasm.

  • Moneymaker crops so well and regularly in my greenhouse that I will be growing it again.

  • Thompson Morgan have over a dozen varieties with the AGM so if I was looking for a new variety I would try one or two of them. Seeds from Thompson & Morgan

  • If you are a regular grower you may be tempted to something different and there are 280+ varieties of Tomato at Totally Tomatoes

  • Personally I do not grow tomatoes outdoors perhaps I am missing something .
  • Get your seed selected and bought early for planting and germination in late February.
  • Companion plant tomatoes with French marigolds to deter whitefly, and basil, chives or mint to deter aphids and other pests.

Selection

Tumbler for containers or hanging baskets

Beefsteak for large 1lb tomatoes

Gardeners Delight for sweetness and abundance of smaller fruit

Ailsa Craig an heirloom variety tried and tested through the years

Golden Cherry F1 thin skinned as it says on the label

Heirloom varieties are popular but often need more care and produce smaller but special crops

Cordon varieties are also called indeterminate like moneymaker and Gardeners delight need to grow a single stem up a cane or string support.
Determinate or Bush varieties can be left without support although some fruit will trail on the ground and stop growing sooner than indeterminates.
Semi determinates are shorter plants but as with all indeterminates they need side shoots pinching out and stopping at the top of the support.

Giant Pumpkin Growing

Giant Pumpkin Growing

Third in a short series about Curcurbits.

The British record for the heaviest pumpkin weighing 1,725 pounds can be beaten and you can win local shows next year by striving for this level of achievement.

Growing Tips for Giant Pumpkins

  • Start in February with a large hole filled with up to a ton of well rotted horse manure
  • Buy ‘giant seed’ via the internet or use Atlantic Giant seed.
  • In March sow the flat seeds, edge downwards not flat, in good sized pots in the greenhouse.
  • Plant out on top of the compost or manure pile when the risk of frost has gone. Keep a cardboard box to cover the plant on nights when frost is a danger.
  • Remove all but one (the chosen one) of the pumpkin fruits. If there are several, choose one that is about 8 feet from the roots.
  • Cull all further fruit regularly.

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Winter Squash From Seed

Winter Squash From Seed

Want to grow through autumn to eat during winter try sporty Squash!
Squash

You can grow winter squash from seed and the plants will grow well outdoors in the UK during summer and early autumn. Squash can be damaged by frost so bear this in mind. However they store well so winter squash are a garden crop worth growing from seed.

Sowing Seed of Winter Squash

  • Sow individual seeds an eighth of an inch deep in 3″ pots filled with good seed or cutting compost.
  • Sow at the beginning of May and keep in the greenhouse or on a warm windowsill.
  • If the weather turns cold put them in a propagator set at 22-30 degrees C.
  • During the first half of June harden the plants off and transplant them when the roots have filled the pots.
  • Germination is quick 7-10 days and is reliable with fresh seed.
  • Do not exclude light as this helps germination.

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Growing Pumpkins and Squash

Growing Pumpkins and Squash

To calculate the circumference of a Pumpkin use Pumpkin Pi

Squash

On Halloween I am not alone in writing about growing Pumkins and some of my notes are from Sarah Ravens recent article in the Telegraph.

Pumpkin Growing Tips

  • Sow seed vertically into very rich soil.
  • Pinch out all the growing tips in mid August and keep doing so to send energy into fruiting.
  • Keep well watered and the soil full of humus.

Pumpkin Varieties for Next Year

  • Crown Prince is a large heavy Pumpkin with blue-green skin that can exceed 10lb in weight.
  • Kabochas F1 hybrids and Sunspot are good orange skinned varieties.
  • Butterboy, Sunburst, Sweet Dumpling and Uchiki Kuri seeds are on offer ref TL840 with Crown Prince in a mixed pack of 5 from the ‘Squash Offer’ Rookery Farm Holbeach PE12SG 0844 7704653

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Ten Tips to Deter Carrot Root Fly

Ten Tips to Deter Carrot Root Fly

Psila rosea or carrot root has larvae that feed on your root veg by burrowing into the flesh ‘ugh!’

Carrots

Five Tips to Deter Root Fly

    1. Select varieties to grow that have been bred for resistance to carrot root fly.

    2. Cover carrot crops with fleece to prevent low flying female flies from laying eggs on your crop.

    3. Follow good crop rotation to avoid overwintering pupae hatching in the middle of your crop.

    4. Grow in narrow beds with 18″ high polythene or fine mesh barriers to keep female flies at bay or in raised beds.

    5. Use biological controls such as nemotodes, Carrot root fly killer or sticky traps.

Five Scent Deterrents for Root Fly

    6. Sow seeds thinly to avoid thinning out which releases the scent of the carrots thus attracting flies.

    7. Grow carrots alongside strong smelling plants like alliums chives and garlic.

    8. Sow carrots in June after thee first generation of pest have gone.

    9. Do not grow your carrots with similar root veg like parsnips and celery as they too can harbour root flies.

    10. Sow carrots mixed in with other crops to make them harder for pests to single out for destruction.

Five Varieties Resistant to Root Fly

More carrot seeds at Thompson & Morgan

Photo = Carrots by Steve Wilhelm CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Planning to Grow Fruit Trees

Planning to Grow Fruit Trees

So you want to grow Apples, Plums, Pears and some orchard type fruit trees. Well stone me these are right pips fresh from our garden tips.

Novice gardeners can expect to get fair crops from Fruit trees and bushes without too much effort. With extra care a great deal more can be achieved.

Beginners Tips
Go for well know fruit types do not start off with the exotic.
Buy good quality plants from a local nursery. Ask nurserymen what varieties grow well locally and do they need other trees as pollinators.
Give them enough space to grow in fair soil with some sunshine. Do not just cram them into a small corner space.
Trees need time to establish themselves but get better with time so do not rush the crops.
Bushes and canes will produce a crop quicker.

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Growing Autumn Raspberries

Growing Autumn Raspberries

Autumn raspberries provide fresh fruit from August to October.
Raspberries can be planted as bare-root plants in the autumn. For late summer and autumn fruiting varieties you can leave it until late autumn to plant but a bit of soil warmth will help them get established.

Primocane varieties are cut down to the ground each year and grow a new cane which fruits later that summer or autumn.
Floricane varieties that we grow for summer raspberries fruit on the canes produced the previous year and we think of them as summer varieties.

Tending Tips for Autumn Raspberries.

Peas are Legumes Too

Peas are Legumes Too

What do beans, lupins, lentils, wisteria, peanuts and clover have in common? They like peas are all from the legume family.

Despite photographing this plant if I could identify it I would not need to buy ‘Legumes of the World’ by Gwilym Lewis, Brian Schrire, Barbara Mackinder, and Mike Lock available from Kew

legu

‘This is the first comprehensive guide to world legumes, describing and illustrating all 727 genera. Legumes contribute enormously to the world’s economy – through food and drink, pharmaceuticals and medicine, biotechnology, building and construction, textiles, furniture, horticulture, paper and pulp, fertilizers, chemicals, pest control and ecotourism. This book spotlights as yet untapped economic potential and for the first time places genera in a modern systematic framework.
Containing over 1,000 illustrations – colour photographs and line drawings – this is a lavish yet much needed reference for botanists and other professionals involved with legumes.’ Ordered from Kew Books at Kew gardens this book costs a marrowfat sized £59.95 but it is still cheaper than Amazon.

Other Resources
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