Fruit, Vegetables & Herbs – Page 8

Help Growing Rhubarb

December 16, 2015 hortoris

If you want to help yourÂ Rhubarb water it even when it is raining!

Rhubarb Summary Top Tips

Encourage strong leaf growth to encourage heavy crops with nitrogen compost and manure. Lime in winter.
Stop picking stems by the end of July to allow roots to boost strength for next season.
Plant 3 feet apart in friable but well trodden soil.
Give a thick mulch around clumps to preserve moisture.

Rhubarb Calendar

Plant out new roots with good eyes/buds in November or December.
Divide roots in October-December a large 3 year old root may produce 6 plants/offsets.
Allow all leaves to die down in autumn before clearing away.
Grow from fresh seed sown under cover in September or direct in March
Pick early, second early or Late maturing varieties from March to August.
Grow your own Rhubarb as it is easy to cultivate and gives a large crop of tender pink stalks.
Avoid picking stalks in the first year – let the crowns develop.

Varieties to choose

Victoria, with thin stalks of rosy red that turn pink and green towards the tip. It is a late season cropper.
Timperley Early AGM is the earliest to be harvested with long stems and a good flavour.
Raspberry Red is a mid-late season variety of deep red stalks.
Stocksbridge Arrow, is an old favourite in the West Riding of Yorkshire the home of there rhubarb triangle.
Champagne is also one of the best varieties but there are lots to choose from at your garden centre or cadge a crown from neighbours.

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Help Growing Carrots

December 14, 2015 hortoris

Vitamin D from sun to plate via well grown Carrots

Preparation for Growing Carrots

Grow in an open sunny site.
Remove large stones.
Do not feed the soil as this may encourage carrots to split and fork.
Rake the soil level and create a fine tilth.
Wait until the soil has started to warm up.
Select and buy your chosen seed variety.

Sowing and Care

Always sow carrot seed thinly.
Space 4cm apart to avoid thinning out seedlings later on.
Cover seed lightly with about 2cm of soil.
Space rows wide enough to access for mweeding.
Water the newly sown seed to settle the soil. Repeat every few days if the conditions are dry.
Seed should germinate in 15-20 days.
Allow 2-3″ apart to get good sized roots.
Weed when young and regularly as they develop to ensure the roots have enough moisture.

Photo cc by color line

Other Tips and Advice

Carrots (Daucus carota) are sweet, crisp, vitamin rich vegetables that you can easily grow from seed. I won’t guarantee you will see in the dark but home grown carrots will taste great.

Varieties to grow are listed in a link at the bottom but the short rooted varieties are a good place to start e.g. Amsterdam Forcing, Early Nates or Rondo. Intermediates ‘Royal Chantenay’ and Long Rooted varieties ‘St Valery’. There are 100+ varieties to select from.

Sowing Tips sow according to the instructions on the packet for main crop usually from mid April when the soil has warmed up. Fine soil without stones is the best for Carrots. Do not sow in seed trays or transplant Carrots as the roots will be damaged and the crop useless. Mix the seed with fine sand for even sowing.

Problems to Avoid. Carrot root fly lay eggs and the maggots then eat into your carrots unless you cover the sown seed with horticultural fleece or grow in a raised bed where the plants should grow above the fly ‘fly-zone’.
Fanging or Forking of the roots is caused by stones, too much manure or transplanting carrots. Some times aphids can also be a problem, try a cloche or insecticide.

Growing Tips Water well in dry weather. Start thinning when the leaves are large enough to handle. Carrots need to grow 1-2 inches apart. Eat thinnings from mid June. Mature carrots have a slightly darker foliage.

Harvesting the Crop Carrots can be lifted at anytime but are best eaten when young. They are also best eaten fresh, straight from the ground so only pick what you need.
Grow a mix of varieties to mature at different times. Lift before the frost.

Other Tips Grow golf-ball shaped or short varieties if the soil is stony or clay or you want to use a container. Carrots can be frozen. Larger crops can be stored in a straw clamp or cool damp sand.

Thompson Morgan Seeds to consider buying.

Help Growing on Straw Bales

December 14, 2015 hortoris

Get it right and you can grow bumper crops on straw bales.Â It is clean, cheap and environmentally friendly.
The principle is that decaying straw generates heat to form a ‘hot bed’encouraging healthy roots.

Preparing a Straw Bale

Watered bales are heavy so get them in the right place first.
A polythene membrane will help retain moisture and prevent soil contamination.
Water bales thoroughly. If it is very dry soak over 2 or 3 days.
Apply 6 oz of dry blood or other nitrogen rich fertiliser over the top of the bale and water in
The fermentation will start and the bale heat up. Cover with black plastic to speed up the process.
After 4 days remove the polythene and the bale should be warmer than the air temperature
Add another 6 oz of nitrogen based fertiliser.
Cover for another 4 days then add 12 oz of general fertiliser. The temperature shouldÂ peaking at 50 degrees or so.
Allow to cool to 38 degrees before planting.

Planting up a Straw Bale

With a bucketful of compost make and fill a small hole in the bale. It should be easy to make a small hollow.
Add you plants and water carefully.
New roots will grow through the compost into the decomposing straw.
Chillies, Peppers Tomatoes and cucumbers do well in bales. 2 or 3 plants per bale will give you a good crop.
Tall plants need staking but tumbler tomatoes can be allowed to fall over the bales edge.

Advantages of Straw Bales

Bales are easy to water and retain moisture longer than a grow bag.
Drainage is good and ity is hard to over water.
At the end of the season the bale can be recycled as a mulch or added to a compost heap
Rotting bales give off carbon dioxide which can be beneficial to crops.
Ornamental plants as well as vegetables will flourish.
Bales are generally cheaper than grow bags.
Straw is better than hay the tends to go mouldy.
Liquid feeding is required as straw is low in nutrients.

Apple Blossom Time

December 11, 2015 hortoris

Late blossom arrivals in 2015 looked like being a good year for apple blossom and thus fruit in the North of England. And iut was with some great crops in my Yorkshire garden.

A cold and late spring delayed the buds and blossom until the worst of the weather was over. Energy has been diverted into fruit production rather than new wood after judicious pruning. There has been no significant late frost to damage blossom and there are now many pollinating insects on the wing. Hopefully these are signs that we will have a good crop of juicy apples this year. Just in case here are a few tips to help nature along.

Tips for Better Apples

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Help Growing Spinach

December 7, 2015 hortoris

You don’t need to have muscles like Popeye to grow spinach. It is a simple leafy vegetable that is undemanding if given the right conditions.

It is a long day plant initiating flowering as days lengthen.
Good moist conditions give rapid growth and a quick harvest before running to seed.
Sowing after mid summer reduces bolting.
Bolt resistant varieties include Monnopa, Spokanr and Palco.

Spinach Problems

Blight caused by cucumber mosaic virus causes leaf yellowing. burn the plants.
Leaf spot causes light brown or grey areas to develop. Chose a new site each year and feed wth potassium sulphate.
Downy mildew can by a minor irritants. Thin out the rows and remove infected leaves.

Club Root and Brassicas

December 2, 2015 hortoris

For gardening purposes Brassicas are a group of vegetables in the mustard family that includes Cabbages, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Calabrese Sprouts and Kale.
Spinach, Rapeseed, Swede and Turnip are also from different brassica species but are not discussed in length in this post.

Know about Club Root

Club root is a fungal infection of brassicas
It causes distorted swollen roots and stunted growth
Spores contaminate the soil for many years after an infestation so be careful with new plants that may bring in disease
Control by liming the ground in autumn. More heavily on acid soil.
If you suffer grow plants in 4 inch pots before planting out.
Some brassicas show resistance to club root

Know about Brassicas

The flowers, leaves and stems are usually edible though each vegetable is famous for its own features like this heart of the cabbage.
Brassicas contain antioxidents, minerals and vitimins and are a staple of a healthy diet.
The sulphur content of the brassicas give it the aroma when cooking. Red purple and green heads are now produced amongst cabbages and cauliflowers and if they lose colour when cooking add a bit of vinegar to the water.
Brassicas prefer some shade in firm, fertile, limed soil. Tread seedlings in and support tall brussel sprouts.
Rotate the crop moving to a different plot every year as the roots can suffer from a fungus causing club root.
Plants need space to develop – a sprout will need 2 feet between plants.

Espallier Fruit Trees

October 15, 2015 hortoris

source

Easy Espalier Trees

Buy a tree that has two tiers already trained and in place. This will fruit earlier and benefit from the work already done by an expert.
Make the most of your wall space by planting apple and or pear trees to be trained against the wall.
Before planting stretch three or more wires horizontally along the wall about 18 inches apart matching the two lower tiers to the branches on the tree you have bought.
Use sturdy, pressure treated supports driven in to the ground and galvanised wire fixed with vine eyes.
Plant trees 10 inches away from the wall and lean it slightly inward towards the wall to help tie in the branches.

Training and Cultivating the Trees

In the first winter cut back the main stem to just below the third wire where there are buds growing on either side of the trunk
As the buds develop train each of them by tying to a cane which is gently lowered progressively so that by autumn you can tie them to the third wire
To get even growth and girth raise or lower the cane to stimulate or check growth. Eventually you will have branches 5-6 feet long.
For subsequent tiers support the central growth with another cane then repeat the process. Five branches are an optimum size though you can have more tiers if you narrow the width.
If you are only growing one variety use a self pollinating type or a family tree with two sorts grafted on to the same stock.
Peach trees may produce good crops if maintained on a south-west facing wall in a sheltered spot

Related

Training Fruit Trees

Chestnuts & Pomegranate in Climate Change

October 11, 2015 hortoris

More exotics can be grown in the UK as we get hotter summers and temperate winters. Why not try a Pomegranate or Punica granatum a large shrub or small tree.

Pomegranate tips

Good drainage and a warm sunny wall position will help.
The leaves are green coppery when young changing to yellow as they age with brilliant orange flowers.
A showy variety Flore Pleno is worth growing even if the fruit don’t have time to ripen in poor summers
Nana is a very low growing dwarf variety.

Growing Chestnuts

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Cardoons Thistle be a good Plant

October 8, 2015 hortoris

Plants of the thistle family and close relatives are particularly good for wildlife. When in flower they attract Bees and Insects and the fine seeds provide bird food particularly for Goldfinches. In many cases the Thistles can and have provided food and medicine for human consumption.

Cirsium Vulgare and Common Thistle

These plants are hardy and the flowers, leaves, root, seed and stem are all edible. The root is best mixed with other vegetable due to it’s bland taste,Â leaves and young flower stems can be removed of prickles, cooked and used as vegetables.Â The stem base of the flower buds can be used like the heart of a globe artichoke.Â The seeds of milk thistleÂ haveÂ been used for 2000 years to treat chronic liver disease and protect the liver against toxins.

Cirsium rivulare Atropurpureum is popular with gardeners as it flowers 4-5 feet tall. It has spreading roots and the flower heads should be cut off before being allowed to seed unless you are feeding birds and prepared to weed. ‘Atropurpureum’ is a tall statuesque plant that is perfect for the back of the herbaceous border. It produces elegant, long, leafless stems, each topped with a huge magenta-pink thistle head.

Cardoons

A perennial plant of the Cynara family they are an old favourite. Originally grown as a vegetable and blanched for use rather like celery, the cardoon is now valued for its striking silvery, thistle-like foliage which adds a theatrical touch to the border. In summer, tall flower stems are topped by fat thistle buds which resemble small globe artichokes. The buds open into large purple thistles which attract lots of bees. The dead flower-heads can be left on the plants and will provide an attractive feature over the winter months.

Tips for Potatoes in Sacks

October 7, 2015 hortoris

I am growing my early potatoes in various containers but these canvas sacks look to me to be a great idea. You can buy specially made potato sacks from seed merchants and garden centres but any large bag can be adapted with enough drainage holes.

Tips and Benefits

There is virtually no chance of eel worm or soil borne infection if you use clean sacks and fresh or sterilized compost.
The sacks can be placed where there is spare space increasing your cropping area, particularly useful if ground is scarce.
These polypropylene sacks drain to avoid soggy conditions yet have space at the top to ‘earth-up’ by adding extra soil.
All the fertilizer will be focused on the plants.
Crops are clean and tasty with one plant producing at least enough for a meal for four.
You can start extra early crops in the greenhouse and move them outside later.

Tips from Experience

I have used sacks for several years now. The plants need plenty of water as they grow without becoming waterlogged.
I put 3 spuds in one 2 foot diameter sack.
Top up with extra soil as the plants surface until the bag is full.
I mixed in some rotted horse manure this year and the crop benefited and the soil residue was great for the garden.