Any veg gardeners out there?

[KayBea]

wondering if anyone can help...
when do i harvest my spuds?
i cant remember when i planted them or what type they are (not helpful i know)
my dad said to wait until they flower & the flowers die off...
but there are no flowers :/
they are planted in a pot & if i hold them up straight they are about a metre & a half heigh

the leaves are huuuge & starting to over crowd everything else

xx

 

[Varenne]

wondering if anyone can help...
when do i harvest my spuds?
i cant remember when i planted them or what type they are (not helpful i know)
my dad said to wait until they flower & the flowers die off...
but there are no flowers :/
they are planted in a pot & if i hold them up straight they are about a metre & a half heigh

the leaves are huuuge & starting to over crowd everything else

xx

Potatoes are either earlies or maincrop. Earlies are harvested around 12 weeks after planting, so around now if planted in April.

Maincrop will need around 15-18 weeks and yes, you wait for flowers and dieoff before trying.

Some earlies don't flower, so without knowing the variety the best thing to do is have a feel around under the soil with gardening gloves on. If they are earlies and potatoes are ready you should come across a potato or two in your travels under the soil! I did this to check ours before harvest and pulled out a potato!

 

[KayBea]

wondering if anyone can help...
when do i harvest my spuds?
i cant remember when i planted them or what type they are (not helpful i know)
my dad said to wait until they flower & the flowers die off...
but there are no flowers :/
they are planted in a pot & if i hold them up straight they are about a metre & a half heigh

the leaves are huuuge & starting to over crowd everything else

xx

Potatoes are either earlies or maincrop. Earlies are harvested around 12 weeks after planting, so around now if planted in April.

Maincrop will need around 15-18 weeks and yes, you wait for flowers and dieoff before trying.

Some earlies don't flower, so without knowing the variety the best thing to do is have a feel around under the soil with gardening gloves on. If they are earlies and potatoes are ready you should come across a potato or two in your travels under the soil! I did this to check ours before harvest and pulled out a potato!

thank you. they are earlies, but havnt flowered yet. the flowers are there but havnt come out yet if that makes sence? i'll wait a week & have a rummage. xx

 

[Varenne]

wondering if anyone can help...
when do i harvest my spuds?
i cant remember when i planted them or what type they are (not helpful i know)
my dad said to wait until they flower & the flowers die off...
but there are no flowers :/
they are planted in a pot & if i hold them up straight they are about a metre & a half heigh

the leaves are huuuge & starting to over crowd everything else

xx

Potatoes are either earlies or maincrop. Earlies are harvested around 12 weeks after planting, so around now if planted in April.

Maincrop will need around 15-18 weeks and yes, you wait for flowers and dieoff before trying.

Some earlies don't flower, so without knowing the variety the best thing to do is have a feel around under the soil with gardening gloves on. If they are earlies and potatoes are ready you should come across a potato or two in your travels under the soil! I did this to check ours before harvest and pulled out a potato!

thank you. they are earlies, but havnt flowered yet. the flowers are there but havnt come out yet if that makes sence? i'll wait a week & have a rummage. xx

Let us know what you find

 

[Varenne]

Thanks for the replies everyone, it's so good to see other (I'm assuming normal!) ladies excited about fruit and veg!

Harvested a load more peas today and now have raspberries coming in. The strawbs are also becoming red.

My broad beans are looking good but apparently you can only harvest them at...ahem... 6 inches. Mine are a measly 3 inches or so

 

[Varenne]

Also got an apple tree and a pear tree

So jealous! Our garden is nowhere near big enough. I did become impatient and plant a pip from a pink lady. Now we have this enormous apple sapling in falling over on our kitchen windowsill, desperate for light!

 

[Varenne]

My dad and I share two allotments between us. We have just harvested our first early potatoes and lettuces. We're also growing runner beans, broad beans, carrots, beetroot, radishes, onions, shallots, sweetcorn, peas, courgettes, squash, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, rhubarb and probably lots of other things I've forgotten!

Must be awesome to have 2! I'm on the waiting list for one but I'm going to keep chickens on it. God knows how I'll have time for that plus the garden plus work/uni. Hopefully by the time we have a baby we'll own a big garden!

 

[Mazzy17]

Does anyone grow pumpkins? I have been told injecting milk into them helps them grow bigger

With all these talks of allotments i am tempted to look into getting on the waiting list for one

 

[Haylee.]

We have a great veggie garden at the moment! We have just come into winter so we are growing broccoli, tomatoes, rocket, cos lettuce, basil, coriander, parsley, choko, potatoes, pumpkin, beetroot, fennel, pumpkin, snow peas and chillis. We have mandarin, orange and lemon trees, a macadamia nut tree, garlic and ginger growing..

Wow didn't realise we had so much! We have just moved on to family land that had the established fruit trees and fenced yard to keep the chickens out so other OH and I started the vege patch!

Your potatoes look great Vareene! We pulled a couple out the other day and they were tiny

Mazzy - we are growing pumpkin, I prop them up on a rock or log to get more sunlight (still on the plant) don't know if it makes a difference. How do you inject the milk?

 

[Mazzy17]

With a syringe and into the stem.

 

[RachA]

Also got an apple tree and a pear tree

So jealous! Our garden is nowhere near big enough. I did become impatient and plant a pip from a pink lady. Now we have this enormous apple sapling in falling over on our kitchen windowsill, desperate for light!

You don't need a big garden to grow apple/pear trees. My brother and sister in law had a tiny garden but they bought a couple of mini trees and got a great crop off them. You can also grow them in pots.
My apple trees are planted in our garden-we do have a large garden-but I didn't want to the grow huge so I specifically bought trees that are supposed to be pruned back to 6ft each year. I'll try and take a picture and post it.

 

[Marie000]

We're growing a big garden as well, and so far I am quite happy with it.

We already harvested baby carrots, lettuce, radishes, peas and some herbs.
We are also growing tomatoes, zucchini (summer squash), winter squash, peppers (sweet and hot), eggplants, sunflowers, jerusalem artichokes, cucumbers, beans (snap beans and dry beans), kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli, tomatillos, pumpkins, potatoes, melons, strawberries, red currant and probably a few more things I am forgetting about.

We are hoping to have enough food to can and freeze for a good part of the winter.

We also have chicken and ducks. The ducks help us with the garden by eating the bugs. But the chicken are not allowed in the garden.

It's our first time this year growing potatoes. I was hoping to grow them in a container, but I didn't have one and I was running out of time, so I planted them in one of our raised beds. We'll see how it goes. So far, the plants are looking good.

 

[purple_kiwi]

My grandpa use to have 3 large gardens so this year since he passed away and always asked me to grow something with the kids I decided to try one myself. I have a super small garden lol. It is right along my fence in the back yard and I am sure it was meant for flowers but I had other plans.
I have some head lettuce (which all I see so far is huge leaves with nothing curling in), green onions, carrots, radish, yellow beans, broccoli (that I need to thin out but I am scared I will kill to much or something) tomatoes, mini cucumber. Then I have a bunch of pots and a huge container full of more. Peppers, mini tomatoes, strawberries (which got no berries ) another tomato plant and some more carrots. Then I have potatoes which I planted one in a reusable grocery bag (it was quite large) and the other this huge tomato bag I found for a $1.

I have lot more then I thought lol. But I seriously over planted. I need to some how fence off my tomatoes as they are starting to shadow cucumbers that I will need to trellis up some how.

 

[RachA]

Does anyone have any tips in growing onions? I've tried a few times and never have any success! I've tried the onion sets and seeds and neither have worked.

 

[lindseymw]

What do people do to keep slugs and snails off their veg?

They have taken a massive liking to my carrots & rocket! All my veg are in veg bags rather than the ground.

 

[Varenne]

Pellets around everything but the salad. I try to do it as little as possible, but it's the only way I've tried all the "natural" methods. I get rid of the "corpses" asap so birds don't eat them.

This year I decided to try without once again and almost my whole pea crop was ruined by caterpillars and slugs. They seem to love bags, easy to hide in I suppose. Some people try pointy shingle around plants but I've found it doesn't put them off one bit.

 

[freckleonear]

What do people do to keep slugs and snails off their veg?

They have taken a massive liking to my carrots & rocket! All my veg are in veg bags rather than the ground.

Crushed egg shells seem to be working pretty well for us this year.

 

[Marie000]

I heard crushed egg shells work well for slugs.

In my case, I got ducks. They love the taste of snails and slugs. Not a very realistic solution for most though.

I still have problems with all my cabbage family crops getting eaten by bugs. This year, I got a insect net to put over the plants and it helped. For the first time I have brussel sprouts and kale growing well. Unfortunately, I lost my broccoli, but that was my fault. It was planted far away and I neglected it.
I don't know if a physical barrier like that would work with slugs. I guess the net would have to be held on the ground so the slugs can't sneak under. Maybe burrying the edges of the net would work.