Any arbtalking veg growers in da house?

[Goaty]

Garlic is already growing well.

 

My early stuff is about 5 inch, Marco is a long way behind. !st time ive done garlic, is this normal i.e early/late types?

[felixthelogchopper]

My early stuff is about 5 inch, Marco is a long way behind. !st time ive done garlic, is this normal i.e early/late types?

 

I would normally have got mine in at Xmas so not sure. Trying Casabalanca this year plus a few old cloves that were knocking around in the greenhouse.

[Goaty]

I think got mine in in november, I should diary date things but never due. Have put dates on seed labels then hope to reuse labels next year.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Well Ive got my seeds well on the way to an early start indoors, leeks/broccoli/onions, ive bought some pink and regular Garlic to plant out, sounds like I should be putting it out already!

 

and me spuds are halved and in trays, never done them before thought this might be the way to go, maybe not hearing about the egg box idea!

 

 

[defenderjack]

glad you put this up , ive gota get started every year i have it planned to start earlier but never happens , ive got a thing about growing chilli plants , i done these from seeds of the ones from the year before , i dried most of them out and chopped some up tonight to go in some burgers

[Gnome]

Tony I am really interested in this method of spud growing. I don't want to be shot down in flames by anyone and I don't want to think you have done something wrong because there are no right ways of growing, you just get different yields. So here goes.

 

By splitting the spuds in two you have reduced the amount of stored energy in each tuber. You might find that because of this your plants will be slower to start and there could be a reduction in vigour.

 

By splitting them there is an increased risk of soil bourne disease as a large open surface area is perfect for them.

 

I don't know if you are watering them but in those enclosed areas you might get botrytis grey mould if you don't let the air circulate.

 

 

As I've stated I am keen on new ways of doing things.

 

I prefer to go a more traditional route and get the large egg boxes( the old cardboard trays of 25 or so) and place them with the end which has most eyes facing up and make sure none are touching and they are kept in the light and fairly cool and dry.(cold dry greenhouse). It's a common method that many on here may have used.

 

My neighbour gets spuds from the local shop and he just plants the same variety year after year in the same spot and has bumper crops so everything is possible in my book.

 

I tried your splitting method at college with a large piece of ginger in a 2L cola bottle and it rooted no problem.(The Jock's amongst us might see the funny side of that) The only problem was maintaining the high light levels required up here.

[Goaty]

In the old days I read recently, due to postage posts they only used to send out the eyes of spuds, on maincrop this should give more plants which means more yield per weight of sets.

 

Sweet potatoes are grown from slips i.e shoots off the tuber, just stab it through with a cocktail stick sit it across a jar of water with bottom inch immersed. Several slips from a tuber.

Edited February 20, 2013 by Goaty
long day !

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Tony I am really interested in this method of spud growing. I don't want to be shot down in flames by anyone and I don't want to think you have done something wrong because there are no right ways of growing, you just get different yields. So here goes.

 

By splitting the spuds in two you have reduced the amount of stored energy in each tuber. You might find that because of this your plants will be slower to start and there could be a reduction in vigour.

 

By splitting them there is an increased risk of soil bourne disease as a large open surface area is perfect for them.

 

I don't know if you are watering them but in those enclosed areas you might get botrytis grey mould if you don't let the air circulate.

 

 

As I've stated I am keen on new ways of doing things.

 

I prefer to go a more traditional route and get the large egg boxes( the old cardboard trays of 25 or so) and place them with the end which has most eyes facing up and make sure none are touching and they are kept in the light and fairly cool and dry.(cold dry greenhouse). It's a common method that many on here may have used.

 

My neighbour gets spuds from the local shop and he just plants the same variety year after year in the same spot and has bumper crops so everything is possible in my book.

 

I tried your splitting method at college with a large piece of ginger in a 2L cola bottle and it rooted no problem.(The Jock's amongst us might see the funny side of that) The only problem was maintaining the high light levels required up here.

 

Yes ive been wieghing all the methods and pros and cons up and came to this option because I believe I can cause a higher yield using the heaping method. I am going to start them in dipped rows then as they grow keep infilling, till by the end the soil will be humped up to around 18 inches.

 

I saw a version of this done in a wheelie bin, planted in the bottom and filled every so often till by the end of the season bin full to brim. The yeilds are VERY impressive.

 

I am doing a bit of an experiment, its not just a case of growing a few veg here, its about how much I can yield in a limited space. I am curious about the way the Agri business is changing and is now trying to own the food production business outright, by intellectual property rights on seeds (see Monasato) and how they basically promote a world view of scarcity and create a fear factor to promote their game.

 

so Im going to do this out of interest, as well as a desire to preserve veg heritage seeds, and avoid mainstream agri crops which are going GM.

[Gnome]

I see where your coming from Tony. You could try a few the standard way as a control. It might give you a better comparison. The weather will have a big impact on your yield if the last few growing seasons are anything to go by.

 

I've tried the car tyre system a few times where you keep adding a tyre and soil as the plant grows. My results were that low profile tyres are more suitable and the maris pipers made lovely chips.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I see where your coming from Tony. You could try a few the standard way as a control. It might give you a better comparison. The weather will have a big impact on your yield if the last few growing seasons are anything to go by.

 

I've tried the car tyre system a few times where you keep adding a tyre and soil as the plant grows. My results were that low profile tyres are more suitable and the maris pipers made lovely chips.

 

 

the low profiles thing makes sense, and your right about the control thing too might need to get a few more seeders now! didnt try the tyre thing because i dont like the inward portion but you saying low profiles makes a LOT of sense, inspired