Starting to plant potatoes and repotting the Parsnips

Happy weekend everyone :)

At the end of last week the final part of my bumper-order arrived which was my potato planters and some seed potatoes. Yesterday, therefore, I got all excited and decided to get them planted out.

These are the three shiny clean planters just out of the box. And yes that IS sun you can see in the picture. I know, it's been so LONG since we saw it!

Not so clean now, the instructions that I had read up to this point in time told me to fill the bag about one third full and plant some seed potatoes at that depth. So this is what I am doing...

... however after filling two of the three planters to that depth (just about) I recalled my hard-learned-lesson and thought "ooooh - I should be warming this up before planting". So this is one of the large bags of compost next to the radiator and I also brought the other two bags in after taking this picture.

I also read the rest of the instructions and discovered that they recommend that you Chit the Potatoes prior to planting into warmed soil anyway so this brought a resounding stop to my "let's plant some potatoes" plans for this weekend. I have, however, set them a-chitting...

Three egg boxes from the stack I have saved now finally coming in slightly useful.

The Maris Piper seed Potatoes set with the sprouting end upwards in the egg box which is clearly marked for future reference.

Five Rocket Potatoes set out for chitting.

And finally the Charlotte Potatoes wedged in.

These three egg boxes are now sat on a chair in the dining room next to the window as that room is cool and has plenty of light; my effort to take over the entire house with growing stuff is going well :)

So now I just leave these for a while; some websites are suggesting six weeks which just will NOT happen - I'm going to leave it until all of them have some good green showing, and then get them in the planters and outside...

To make up for the disappointment of not being able to plant my Potatoes, and also to make space on the boards next to the radiator, I have decided to take the sprouted Parsnips and put them into deeper soil. This is the first one to be moved.

All the Parsnip seedlings re-potted. I am a bit disappointed with my yield from the Parsnips and Carrots; I have probably only got about 65% seed success. I will not bother with the effort of singly planting these root crops again; next time I do it I will plant as I did last year, into grooves in the soil and using lots of seed up (but I will remember to bird-proof the seedlings too).

So, finally for this super long blog post, I have a couple of updates then I'll let you get on with your day...

First of all the second Birdseye Chilli has sprouted. This picture was taken on Saturday and when I checked this morning it was already about twice as big as this.

The shop bought Coriander is now fully back to life and looking strong and healthy. If you look to the right edge of this picture you will see stubs where leaves have been picked; this is providing us with tasty additions to curries regularly already.

Outside, the Broccoli appears to be putting on a growth spurt and the leaves are starting to take on a less "juvenile" shape. Here's hoping we can be eating this soon too.

By contrast the Onions have not really done much at all; this picture nicely shows the success I have had with each seed as you can clearly make out the V shape I planted the seeds in.

Lastly for outside the Lettuce is still pathetic and small... come on little seedlings, get big so I can eat you!

Finishing with a success story; the seed grown Coriander, which was looking so unhappy in the rubbish planting material the seeds came with, are now really strong looking and potentially I will be ready to give a couple of these away to deserving people. Shout now if you want any?

So, there you have it... I will keep a photo diary of the potatoes and may bore you yet with a day by day chitting progress report when I get round to planting them.

I'm hopeful for another guest blog post shortly too.

Keep growing.

First sight of Birdseye Chillis and other things

So a brief update today, just focused on some progress I spotted which inspired me to take photographs of various green growing things.

I'll get straight into it...

Leading off with the most exciting of the progress, the thing which inspired this whole post. This is the first Birdseye Chilli seedling which appeared literally over night (as they do) and is already 15mm tall. Now I am going to be checking every day for sight of the other seedling.

This is one of the Carrot seedlings I transplanted thinking it was dead. As you can see I was wrong. The white stain is the ring caused by the toilet roll which is now fully buried and rotting away.

The Parsnips are still in their toilet rolls and are growing well; think these will be a transplant job for the weekend.

The two Ghost Chilli seedlings are looking well established and are showing second growth now; from memory this presages a bit of a growth spurt so maybe soon I will have to put these into a larger container too.

The Globe Artichoke seedling which appeared so quickly has continued it's super fast growth and is now almost too big for the heated propagator tray. It's mate still hasn't put in an appearance though.

I'm still waiting for some advice about the Foxglove seedlings, which it seems to me have looked pretty much like this for weeks now. Should I be moving these into a bigger space? Or wait a little longer....?

The Moneymaker Tomato seedling still only with primary leaves but looking strong. The Gardeners Choice have not yet put in an appearance, but the seedling I threw on the floor (not pictured) is actually still alive and well.

The large Geranium seedling which is growing again and slowly shedding the dirt I scattered on it by accident. The smaller seedling is still only in early stages and does not show the leaf style of a Geranium yet.

Last but by no means least this is one of the Crossley Special Chillis. These are now really starting to look strong and healthy and I have a lot of hope for a good crop this year. You can see that it is really starting to put leaves on now and these, as commented earlier, really help to turbo-charge the growth of the plant.

So that is it for now; just a quick update around a few of the seedlings.

I will do a full update at the weekend if I get time.

Keep planting and growing.

*** EDIT ****

I almost forgot, I have a little update on the shop bought Coriander and Chives. If you remember I brought them in because of the snow and they were looking very unwell indeed.

While not looking incredibly healthy I think I can comfortably say the Coriander has survived.

While the Chives are not looking quite as good I think they may survive also.

Thanks to everyone who said encouraging things to me about these plants, including but not limited to my Uncle Alan.

They made it!

Lots of progress

So it is the weekend again and it is time for the latest update photographs from around my house.

I have a LOT of photographs so I will crack on now without any further delay.

The mint plant really flourishing. This is left behind the curtains all the time so it has lots of light, and I am watering it about once or twice a week at most.

The Moneymaker Tomato self watering planter. This is the one which I massively over-watered originally however the water has drained through into the reservoir and the soil is now the correct moistness; I think this idea is one of my favourites that I have ever come across.

Gardeners Delight and another Moneymaker Tomato. The self watering planters are really proving themselves.

The two Ghost Chilli Seedlings. I think these need another week or so in the heated propagator however they are looking very strong and healthy.

The biggest of the Crossley Special chillis, showing good second growth. The other five plants are all coming on and I am starting to think it is time to re-pot these into their final homes (which will also free up the heated propagator to allow me to plant other things).

The cloud of Foxglove seedlings seen through the cover of the heated propagator.

At last the second Geranium seedling has popped through. The first one is definitely ready for re-potting.

If you close one eye, squint the other and stand on your head you may be able to see the TINY seedling in this photograph (taken with a zoom lens standing on a chair as I do not have a macro lens... yet) which I think is a Echiniops Ruthenicus seedling. There are two of these showing but the other one is even harder to see!

The tray of Parsnips growing in their toilet rolls. I have been ensuring that there is standing water in the tray at all times.

The only Parsnip seedling so far showing and, as with the Echinops Ruthenicus seedlings, very very tiny.

The tray of Carrot seedlings (and yes, there are a number of seedlings) also with standing water to act as a kind of self watering system.

A single carrot seedling striving to the sky and with it's first little leaves opening nicely.

This carrot seedling has still got it's seed casing around it and stopping the small leaves from opening. This is a problem and I will blog tomorrow about removing it.

The shop bought Chive plant outside and still alive. It is looking a little unhappy, but is still growing. I think this needs moving to a more sunny position.

The shop bought Coriander which has bedded itself in well in it's new home. This, unlike the Chives, looks like it is OK with not being in direct sunlight.

A tiny Lettuce seedling, shown next to some hay and a chunk of moss.

Onion spikes luxuriating in the sun, but not really growing much.

The Broccoli, still the most advanced of my early outdoor plantings, but not really growing much either.

Just to do a quick summary, these early plantings have already been overtaken by the seedlings (like the Carrots) which were planted two months later. I think they have not really been a great success. I am hopeful, though, that with the advent of spring (and yesterday was 1st March) they may suddenly explode into growth and I will get a good early harvest. To test this I will be planting the same seeds again outside in the next month to see if the next seeds overtake the winter planted seeds.

Three oranges growing on the Citrus Tree.

The Citrus Tree (though I'm not sure it is large enough to really warrant the label "tree").

The tray of seed grown coriander which is another success; all the seedlings have reestablished themselves and are growing again.

One of the seed grown Coriander seedlings (which had previously been one of the worst looking seedlings) now showing how much it has grown.

Right, that is my update; short I know :D

It is great to see so much success and I have another blog ready for you tomorrow, and may even get round to doing some of my re-potting today also (which of course I will also photograph and blog).

Keep growing.

Planting carrots and parsnips in toilet rolls

Over the Christmas holidays my uncle gave me a tip. He said that, if you want to grow straight carrots and parsnips easily then take toilet rolls and fill each with compost and plant one seed per toilet roll.

I have been waiting for the opportunity to try this out and today I finally got the chance.

I have spent the last 4 weeks collecting toilet rolls, both at home and at my business, and also at my place of work. I have collected a lot of toilet rolls!

I also have bought a couple of plastic boxes to use as the trays.

The two trays with toilet rolls assigned, on the left for parsnips, and carrots on the right.

My first attempt to fill a toilet roll with compost. Unfortunately as soon as I picked it up the soil fell out the bottom; this is something that would obviously happen and I was just stupid to not consider that.

The first toilet roll filled with compost. I ended up filling it up individually by hand.

All the toilet rolls filled with compost and ready for planting.

This is a single parsnip seed. I had forgotten just how light and floaty and unusual they were.

The parsnip seed placed carefully in the toilet roll and ready to be pushed a couple of mm under the soil.

Carrot seeds on the palm of my hand; these ones are very tiny.

The carrot seed placed into a toilet roll full of compost and ready to be pushed under the soil.

Once each seed was planted and pushed under the soil I pulled the trays inside and placed them near a radiator (but not too near as that would cause them to get too hot) so they can be warm enough to germinate.

I then covered the bottom of the trays with water, which will be drawn up through the compost as the compost dries out, meaning the seed has a better likelihood of germinating too.

So there you have it. My Uncle's tip for growing carrots and parsnips in toilet rolls.

I have two other things to update you on. First of all, I noticed what looks like bluebells starting to come through in the back garden.

I think these are bluebells? There are three or four clumps and I can't wait til the flowers open!

Secondly, while today I have cooked some rabbit stew which I am about to eat shortly, a new addition to our household has arrived:

This is Sassy. She is a 9 week old rabbit. Very very cute!

Anyway, I have another update for you for tomorrow, showing progress on all the other plants.

Cheers