God I love growing our own

[enrico]

Any recommendations for where to get fleece and netting at a good price. I need to replace all of mine this year. I need to replace the supports too. Thought I might try blue water pipe. Anyone tried that?

Builders net is really cheap. They use it for stopping things falling off roofs onto glass.

 

[E&MBees]

Builders net is really cheap. They use it for stopping things falling off roofs onto glass.

How long does it last for?
Do you find that strands break off? I don’t want to be dropping bits of plastic into the ground.

 

[enrico]

I have never used it as I didn't know it was available until our builders used it. It seemed as good quality as the cheaper garden netting and comes in all sorts of pretty colours
I made a note that next time I got any I would buy that instead.

 

[roche]

I found this. Fascinating.
https://www.cosmic-core.org/free/ar...geometry-of-plants-part-1-fibonacci-sequence/

Thanks Dani, great link.

 

[fian]

You should know that the male ancestors of a drone in a hive comply with the Fibonacci sequence. So he has 0 parents, 2 grandparents, 3 great-grandparents, 5 great-great-grandparents and so on.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You should know that the male ancestors of a drone in a hive comply with the Fibonacci sequence. So he has 0 parents, 2 grandparents, 3 great-grandparents, 5 great-great-grandparents and so on.

Post 1638, previous page

 

[Moobee]

they must grow a lot of that in Croydon, just got off at East Croydon station half an hour ago and that's all I can smell!

Just back from the USA, the rank smell was everywhere!

 

[Moobee]

How long does it last for?
Do you find that strands break off? I don’t want to be dropping bits of plastic into the ground.

I buy scaffold netting in big rolls - it doesn’t seem to disintegrate like cheap nets do - it’s been on my veg beds for at least 4 years with just some colour bleaching from the sun.

 

[philat98]

Anyone else having trouble with germinating their onion seeds. Two packets of red onions and nothing

I had the same thing last year with onions. I think seed quality has gone down since the Covid. I wonder if they are saving money by packing old seed that they have had in storage for years. I have started saving seeds and it seems to be working pretty well.

 

[JamezF]

I have started saving seeds and it seems to be working pretty well.

I'm really going to try to put a lot more effort into saving seed this year. The way prices have been increasing it seems to make sense.

James

 

[pargyle]

I'm really going to try to put a lot more effort into saving seed this year. The way prices have been increasing it seems to make sense.

James

I've harvested the seeds from the last of my chillie crop ... I had them all separated out on a piece of kitchen paper into the various flavours on the kitchen window cill drying .. 'er indoors decided to tidy them up and move them onto a plate .... anyone want a lucky dip of chillie seeds -could be anything from Devils blood through Demon Red to Snack Red ... sadly, you won't know what you've got until you bite into one next year and find your eyeballs fall out .... or not as the case may be !

 

[Moobee]

I've harvested the seeds from the last of my chillie crop ... I had them all separated out on a piece of kitchen paper into the various flavours on the kitchen window cill drying .. 'er indoors decided to tidy them up and move them onto a plate .... anyone want a lucky dip of chillie seeds -could be anything from Devils blood through Demon Red to Snack Red ... sadly, you won't know what you've got until you bite into one next year and find your eyeballs fall out .... or not as the case may be !

I did that one year with curcubit seeds. Forgot to label them and ended up with loads of butternut squash and one cucumber plant!

 

[Moobee]

Not as much time to spend in the garden today, which was a shame as despite being chilly it's been a lovely day -- lots of sunshine for a change instead of the grim heavily overcast skies that are mostly what we've had of late. Had to finish writing a first draft of my CV, too. That was pretty strange. I've worked for so many companies over the last twenty years and it's all been word-of-mouth, even the multi-nationals. It's possibly the first time I've written a CV this century. Then I'm told I need to play with Linked-In. *shudder*

Anyhow... I cleared some space indoors so I could set up my "spare" propagators as I'm sure I'll need them next weekend. One of them is looking really quite tatty. I'm quite tempted to build my own in the greenhouse using a soil-warming cable. I reckon I could do it for not much more than the cost of a new propagator and have four times the space. And it wouldn't be in the house where light levels aren't as good.

After that I got a bit more weeding done. Three and a half beds down, four and a half more to go...

James

I did well last year with a large heat mat, all my various trays of seeds arranged artfully over the top and a load of fleece.

 

[enrico]

I've harvested the seeds from the last of my chillie crop ... I had them all separated out on a piece of kitchen paper into the various flavours on the kitchen window cill drying .. 'er indoors decided to tidy them up and move them onto a plate .... anyone want a lucky dip of chillie seeds -could be anything from Devils blood through Demon Red to Snack Red ... sadly, you won't know what you've got until you bite into one next year and find your eyeballs fall out .... or not as the case may be !

They cross lots anyway so you would probably have got pot luck, she just made it even more pot luck

 

[JamezF]

They cross lots anyway so you would probably have got pot luck, she just made it even more pot luck

Indeed. Peppers apparently have a reputation for promiscuity.

James

 

[Swampie]

Indeed. Peppers apparently have a reputation for promiscuity.

James

Hi everyone. First post from me.

On the topic of onions, Ive never really put an effort in on them. A bit like carrots, I thought they were so cheap to buy, that they'd not be worth growing. In my mind I had a Venn diagram that has three circles: things that cost a bit to buy, things that my family actually like eating and things that are enjoyable to grow (and actually want to grow). The bit in the middle where all things overlap, was the things I would grow. However I have since realised my folly and the fact that when two of the circles are massive, you can ignore the third and the world wont end. And with onions being super fun to grow and scratching that itch to get started in January and also being something that we eat every day, this year Ive thrown myself into onions with abandon. We will drown in onion! Back on topic, all seeds have been great.

On peppers. They were my first foray into plant breeding. Back then, pre-internet, you had to know a guy who knew a guy. It spawned three decades of plant breeding for me. I never looked back.

My fun project at the moment is squash landracing. The idea is that heritage varieties are great, but they are effetcively landraces from thousands of kilometers away that were arrested at the moment in time that somebody started marketing them as a variety. We should be be growing and promiscously breeding these varieties to suit local conditions and let them continue their journey. My squash adventure has had a few false starts, but now in its current form of a focus on grey/blue curcurbita maxima blends is in its third year.

Super amped for a new season.

 

[JamezF]

However I have since realised my folly and the fact that when two of the circles are massive, you can ignore the third and the world wont end. And with onions being super fun to grow and scratching that itch to get started in January and also being something that we eat every day, this year Ive thrown myself into onions with abandon. We will drown in onion!

I kind of ended up on the same path, more by accident than design. Last weekend I sowed somewhere around 700 onion seeds and even if we get a nice fat free-range organic onion from every one, we'll probably still eat nearly all of them in a year. Same sort of thing with garlic. Eating one bulb per week as a family doesn't really present that much of a challenge.

James

 

[Swampie]

I kind of ended up on the same path, more by accident than design. Last weekend I sowed somewhere around 700 onion seeds and even if we get a nice fat free-range organic onion from every one, we'll probably still eat nearly all of them in a year. Same sort of thing with garlic. Eating one bulb per week as a family doesn't really present that much of a challenge.

James

Yeah. I forgot to mention garlic. I switched from a mix to 100% elephant garlic this year (planted last year). My thinking was that I can simply propogate so much more elephant garlic than garlic, if I up my game on the corms (which so far are going well). Also, elephant garlic has a well developed flower, as opposed to the fertility issues of normal garlic, so I'm hoping to generate some true seeds and play with the breeding this autumn. Elephant garlic, in the leek family, will hopefully produce tons of seed like most leeks. Although Im quick to add that I have found not one piece of information, anywhere of anyone growing elephant garlic from true seed, so perhaps it will be a futile pursuit. luckily, Im somewhat of an expert in futility!

 

[philat98]

Hi everyone. First post from me.

On the topic of onions, Ive never really put an effort in on them. A bit like carrots, I thought they were so cheap to buy, that they'd not be worth growing. In my mind I had a Venn diagram that has three circles: things that cost a bit to buy, things that my family actually like eating and things that are enjoyable to grow (and actually want to grow). The bit in the middle where all things overlap, was the things I would grow. However I have since realised my folly and the fact that when two of the circles are massive, you can ignore the third and the world wont end. And with onions being super fun to grow and scratching that itch to get started in January and also being something that we eat every day, this year Ive thrown myself into onions with abandon. We will drown in onion! Back on topic, all seeds have been great.

On peppers. They were my first foray into plant breeding. Back then, pre-internet, you had to know a guy who knew a guy. It spawned three decades of plant breeding for me. I never looked back.

My fun project at the moment is squash landracing. The idea is that heritage varieties are great, but they are effetcively landraces from thousands of kilometers away that were arrested at the moment in time that somebody started marketing them as a variety. We should be be growing and promiscously breeding these varieties to suit local conditions and let them continue their journey. My squash adventure has had a few false starts, but now in its current form of a focus on grey/blue curcurbita maxima blends is in its third year.

Super amped for a new season.

You are dead right about onions.
I bought some heirloom shishito sweet pepper seed from the US that are very early fruiting and producttive. I expect they might do well in the UK.
I grew a a very sweet squash last year Marina di Chioggia. Not very productive though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

shishito sweet pepper seed

with a name like that it sounds more like a severely hot chilli