Earthing up Potatoes plus flowers and outside progress

As mentioned in my last blog post the Potatoes have grown really well and had actually started falling over out of the bags...

I have today got round to filling the remainder of each bag up with compost and standing them up a bit prouder:

The falling down Potatoes. One thing I really do wish I had done is make the wooden Potato planter idea which I have linked to elsewhere and, when I get a chance, will look up the link and put it here. They have grown so well it would have been nice to have been able to care for them a little more as these little bags really are NOT big enough at all.

This is one of the Potato plants (not sure which variety) which has been lifted and supported better by the addition of more soil around it. Hopefully this will also fill with Potatoes.

Whilst I was outside I took a few progress pictures; this is the Foxglove which is looking like at least one of the plants has survived; it will not grow fast enough for me to see a result however I think I have learned a bit and will be planting many of these in my next garden.

This is the bed with the Coriander in it, with the shop bought one clear at the front, and the stringy seed grown plants looking wind blown, but if you look closely showing signs of green returning to them. I am confident these will now take and provide herbs next year.

This slightly blurry picture is the Chives which have definitely taken and will now probably go mad like the ones before at my old garden.

Finally for this brief update I have got flowers on my Begonias which are on my bedroom windowsill right next to my head as I sleep so I am now getting some nice whiffs off them (which makes a difference, in my bedroom I can tell you...)

This Begonia just has one flower on it but it is very pretty indeed.

This one is slightly larger and is covered in flowers. I hope that these will live for more than one year; it would be nice to have these every year.

Anyway, that's me for today.

Keep growing, keep reading

Potting up the Tomatoes

So it has been a very long time since my update, due to foreign travels and then a week spending all the money buying all the whisky!

When I got back I had some pretty bad news in that the plants in the heated propagator have all died (I think I may have saved on Ghost Chilli) but still not a good thing; everything else however is fine.

This update I am not going to post pictures of dead plants because it'll depress me. Instead I had to pot up the Tomatoes in the self watering planters into slightly larger ones and so you are lucky to be treated to these...

As you can see the compost in this is completely full of roots now...

The roots have grown so far they have come through the bottom of the planter and grown down the wick into the reservoir.

I have these larger water bottles from a camping trip which I am going to convert into a self watering planter.

The water bottle, cut in half and positioned with the reservoir at the bottom.

Yes, that is an old pair of my boxer shorts and yes there is a good reason for this picture....

.... in the absence of any spare shoe laces, and not wanting to remove the ones from the shoes I am currently wearing, I decided to use these boxers as the wick; here I have cut along the waist band and then down in an L shape to make the wick.

The long end is then threaded through a hole in the water bottle lid with the waste band end still protruding where it will go into the bottle.

The lid tightened back up onto the bottle with the wick in place.

Starting to add moist compost to the planter, with the wick pulled through it to assist in transporting water throughout.

The Tomato plant transplanted into its new larger home. I have had to gaffer tape the stake so it didn't keep falling over, something which I didn't consider prior to the move.

Very exciting news: I have one Tomato developing on the plant, with a load of other flowers looking promising.

So there you are, Tomato update done.

While I was outside doing the re-potting I took some pictures of progress amongst the outdoor plants.

The Potato plants have shot up since I last looked; they need earthing up but are way out of the bags already...

The Lettuce plants are starting to look like lettuce plants, but are still small. I hope they start to grow a bit faster; I think maybe this is because I haven't watered them at all... I did water them after this picture was taken though.

The Onion plants are also looking ok but still quite small. I may pull one of these soon just to see what is happening underneath the soil *impatient*

The Broccoli is probably overcrowded now as it has continued to have the best growth. I may have failed slightly with this because I have ignored it and, apparently, they like good regularly watering. Oh well.

The shop bought Chives are looking ok; they haven't died at least.

The original shop bought Coriander is starting to look established; if I can resist eating it then this may become a very good bush.

Of all the Foxglove only one seems to have survived but it is looking ok.

So there you are: Tomato potting up, and some good progress.

It'll not be as long til my next update as I'm now back and not planning on jetting off round the world too many more times.

Keep growing.

Birdseye Chilli in detail

So for a few weeks now I have been muttering and complaining about the bad progress of my Birdseye Chillis and the other day I managed to knock one of the leaves off using the mighty power of a drop of condensation from the lid of the heated propagator.

So this morning after being woken an hour early due to day break (but not sunlight) streaming in through the window I decided to take some detailed photographs of these seedlings and see if any of you lovely people may have some advice as to why they are doing so badly..?

So, here you are:

This is the Birdseye seedling which lost a leaf to condensation drippage; you can see the leaf under it to the right. The surviving leaves are all a bit crinkly and feel dry to the touch; not soft as leaves should be but stiff...

The other Birdseye seedling is in an even worse state with curled up leaves which are turning brown in the middle.

Another shot of the first Birdseye though this makes it look healthy! It isn't.....

Both Birdseye seedlings in this picture; each is only about 2-3" tall (contrast with the Crossley Specials which are all about to about 8-10" and have lots of leaves)

This is the second Birdseye and you can clearly see the brown on the leaves, with the completely shriveled leaf dangling down in front.

I have put this one in just because it is arty farty and I lied the picture.

One final picture of the more unhappy of the two Birdseye seedlings.

I really would like some advice/suggestions about this so please don't be shy.

By way of contrast these are the Ghost Chillis which are thriving, in the propagator box sat right next to the Birdseyes which leads me to believe it is not a problem with the amount of light they are receiving or the temperature at which they are being kept.

Finally, and slightly off topic, while taking these pictures I spotted the following little fella poking his way out through the compost:

This is the first pepper seedling to appear. Not bad only a few days after they were planted :) here's to the other three showing very soon too.

Thanks for reading and please do send me any advice.

Planting Begonia tubers

At the weekend another part of my huge seed/tuber order arrived so Sunday morning I decided to plant them out. The packet said "plant immediately" which put a bit of fear in my mind as to what would happen if I didn't.

I am not sure if, post growth, I will be able to re-harvest the tubers and take them with me to my full time homesteading destination (any advice welcome) but hey, if they will die if I don't plant them now I'm not going to put them in my seed-bank to take with me because that would just be a waste.

Anyway, following on from my so-recently learned lesson my first task was to bring in and warm up some compost.

The five three inch plant pots brought in and filled with compost and sat next to the radiator, alongside the Carrots and Parsnips and Geranium seedlings. This surely is final proof that yes, I do learn from my mistakes.

I have never bought tubers before and this is the bag which they came in; it was a very lightweight material and had lots of holes in it to keep the tubers dry and aerated.

This is a Begonia tuber. Yes, I know what it looks like but trust me; it is. I am holding it "hollow side up" which, apparently, is the way you plant them also.

The method of planting which the instruction leaflet said (yes, I know, I read the instructions... How can I ever look my dad in the eye again!) said to put it on the compost hollow side up, carefully push under the surface, and water thoroughly, making sure however to not let water pool in the hollow. So that is what I did...

... I didn't get any pictures of that part of the process so you will just have to trust me when I tell you that this is a picture of the previously shown pots, post compost warming, with a tuber in each one, carefully pushed in and watered without allowing water to collect, yes you guessed it, in the hollow on the tuber.

Bear in mind that I brought the compost in at about 8am on the Sunday morning and then did this planting at about 11pm so this gives an idea that you can decide to plant something in the morning, and have warm enough compost in the evening, so long as you have your heating on.

Finally a couple of pictures to show that the heating of the compost really does work. This is a picture of two Carrot seedlings still standing up strong and tall and not wilting in the slightest. The mildew appears to have reduced also, though the soil still has some moisture in it. This is, I think, a success so far.

The Geranium seedling is also still looking just as it did prior to re-potting, another successful move operation. I did accidentally scatter some compost on the leaves while moving it but I don't think it will stay on there for long when the plant continues to grow.


Anyway, there you are; some more plants ready to start obsessively watching for progress, and some more proof that yes, you really should be aware of the temperature of your compost when moving seedlings from propagator to medium pot.

Cheers

Removing Seed Casings

This post follows on nicely from the one yesterday. You will remember that, when I was taking my update photographs I noticed that the Carrots, which are growing well, had a large proportion of seedlings with the seed casing attached to the plant and preventing the leaves from spreading.

This is a common problem and is addressed in many places on the web but I thought I would quickly post a blog about what I did about it just now.

This is one of the Carrot seedlings with the seed casing still trapping the young leaves.

A lot of blogs suggest moistening the casing which will allow it to be removed easier and, to be fair, I think that when I come to the next round of carrying out this task I will do that. This time, as I was impatient, I tried it without using moisture.

I got a Stanley knife, and a pair of needle-nose pliers, and very carefully and gently loosened the casing, being sure to not uproot the seedling. With a minute or so per seedling of effort I was able to detach the casing without causing any tearing of the leaf.

Just on the very tip of these needle-nose pliers you can see the removed casing.

This is what a seedling should look like, with no casing trapping the leaves and able to grow healthily and well.

Anyway, that's a short update for you today.

Keep Growing.

Frost protection measures

Over the last couple of weeks I have been advised by various people to protect my seedlings during the frost season with hay.

Looking at the forecast for the next couple of days it looks like now is as good a time as any to implement this advice so this evening I went past a well known large shop and bought some hay bedding normally used by people with small animals as pets.

As it was dark, today presented the first opportunity for me to use the flood lights in the garden. They are so bright, and really were useful.

My hay. Hopefully it is multi-purpose and not only useful for rabbits and other small animals.

Slightly battered looking onions; I didn't cover these back up with their cloche after the weekend and unfortunately snow came back and before the snow, hail. Fingers crossed they haven't been bashed so hard they die :/

The broccoli, however, was covered with a cloche and therefore shows no ill effects of ice-beating from hail stones. The plants towards the bottom left of this picture have also had a bit of a growth spurt and are looking rather good :)

Starting to cover with hay; having never done this before I have no idea how much I should be putting over the top. My concern is that I may kill the plants by cutting off their sun (not that there is any sun at the moment but yeah).

The broccoli and onions covered in hay, and then the hay held down by the cloches.

Fingers crossed this doesn't back fire and I end up with lovely healthy plants after this period of cold has passed.

Either way, I'm learning.

If you have anything to add, please do shout and I will be very pleased of the advice.

Cheers