Re: What are you harvesting today?

by freebird 27th May 2020, 7:31 pm

My broad beans are still flowers!

by Dandelion 27th May 2020, 11:10 pm

My broad beans are covered in blackfly!! And also need a few more days for the beans to swell - I'm giving them lots of washing up water!

by freebird 30th May 2020, 11:32 am

Today my very first pickings from the fruit cage - two ripe strawberries, with lots more to come. Everything in there (blackcurrant, gooseberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries) is looking promising, and makes me so glad I put in the effort to get everything in the ground last autumn.

by frankbeswick 30th May 2020, 12:08 pm

My fruit is looking good this year,though the pears are not wonderful. Blackcurrants,plums and apples seem fine.

by Chilli-head 30th May 2020, 3:07 pm

It is getting too hot and dry here for soft fruit, especially strawberries. The ones in the shade of the apple trees look happiest.

by Dandelion 31st May 2020, 9:43 pm

They were enrobed (as they would say on a posh menu) with blackfly, but once I'd podded the broad beans and got rid of the pods so no-one was any the wiser, the beans themselves were lovely at tea time!

by Ploshkin 31st May 2020, 9:59 pm

I've had the first two cucumbers from the polytunnel and a few lettuce leaves from a trough outside. We ate the first broad beans today and I also have peas ready.
I am disappearing beneath the mangetout and courgette mountains already.

by FloBear 1st June 2020, 8:39 am

Had the second huge handful of broad beans yesterday. And, for the first time the blackfly visited. I chopped off the tops as I don't need 5 to 6 ft high bean plants and gave them to the chickens. As I said, they were inadvertently 'planted' last Autumn and we've had a mild winter so that must be why they are so well advanced. I thought the flowers were scented but with the heavenly scent of Clematis Armandii close by, I wasn't certain.

Soft fruit is coming on and I am watering my pear trees religiously as I am desperate to harvest a few fruit especially from Merton's Pride which has never yet fruited.

by Dandelion 1st June 2020, 6:06 pm

I've never heard of Merton's Pride, FloBear - it will be interesting to hear what the pears taste like when you finally get some. It took one of our heritage apple trees over seven years before it fruited.

by FloBear 2nd June 2020, 2:26 pm

Just checked, it's Merton not Merton's. Apparently it's a triploid variety - I don't remember knowing that when I chose it. Still, I have a Comice that I bought at the same time and a possibly-Conference that was growing semi-wild when I moved here.

"Merton Pride is related to the well-known English Williams pear, crossed with a Belgian variety of good repute called Glou Morceau. The result is undoubtedly one of the best quality English pears available, notable for its juicy buttery flesh."

I really hope I can taste a few this year.

by Ploshkin 2nd June 2020, 6:21 pm

I'm not sure how something can be juicy and buttery but I hope you find out Flobear.

by freebird 2nd June 2020, 9:08 pm

I think buttery refers to the texture, Ploshkin. A really good Williams pear would have that sort of texture.

Nice to have had a good helping of salad leaves out the garden for dinner tonight, with home grown strawberries after.

Counted 7 cucumbers on the way - reckon I'll be picking within a week, and saw my first little green tomatoes today.

by Dandelion 2nd June 2020, 9:20 pm

Buttery and juicy - my mouth is actually watering!

by Ploshkin 2nd June 2020, 10:00 pm

I've had broad beans and peas from the polytunnel. The only things that are looking a bit second hand are the strawberries and tomatoes, showing the effects of excessive heat I think. I'm sure they will fruit just fine, theres a fair bit coming, but the leaves are looking rather curled up and dry.

by Chilli-head 3rd June 2020, 12:17 pm

Is it the tomatoes that have leaves curling ? That is said to be due to large day / night temperature changes. I've also heard it said that the lack of water in the atmosphere due to aviation makes the day/night temperature difference greater by maybe a degree, so perhaps it is worse this year ?

by frankbeswick 3rd June 2020, 1:58 pm

It is nothing to do with aviation. Leaf curl is due to heat and lack of moisture.

by Ploshkin 3rd June 2020, 2:42 pm

Undoubtedly day/night difference. Because the hot weather is earky in the year, nights have been quite cool. I'm amazed how well the plants cope with a fluctuation between 10°c and 45°c. The tunnel is much more humid than a greenhouse and every morning there is condensation raining from the roof but i suppose the atmosphere is still very dry in the heat of the afternoon. The tunnel is in full sun all day, when we get sun.
I've put the strawberry hanging baskets down on the floor as I thought that the heat would be less intense than up near the roof.

by Chilli-head 3rd June 2020, 2:46 pm

Have you got / tried / considered an internal water tank ? Water does have a very high heat capacity. It does take up space though.

by Ploshkin 3rd June 2020, 3:38 pm

I did have 2 water barrels inside the tunnel when I put in the unsuccessful automatic watering (leaky hose silted up too readily) but i took them out. The tunnel is quite exposed and I find that the minimum temp is usually the same as outside. Before the winter I construct a fleece tent in the tunnel for plants that need protection and that is very successful. When we had the frosts at the beginning of May I already had melons swelling and I made a cylinder of fleece to keep round them and they are still doing well.

by Dandelion 3rd June 2020, 10:46 pm

Thank you - I wondered why the leaves on my tomatoes had been curling. Hopefully they will have a bit of respite now that the weather is cooler.

by Ploshkin 3rd June 2020, 10:58 pm

One damp day today and you would never know my tomatoes had been looking so ropey! I couldn't believe the difference.
Oddly, just one still has very curled leaves and it's the Italian one which you would have thought was more suited to very hot weather.

by freebird 7th June 2020, 7:23 pm

First cucumber out the greenhouse

by Chilli-head 7th June 2020, 8:16 pm

I'm in full cucumber crisis. Three in the fridge and more in the greenhouse. These are full sized ones too - I usually grow Cuicino which are baby cucumbers, this is Femspot (is it just my dirty mind that finds that a worrying name for a cucumber ?), they seem excellent fruits.

by freebird 7th June 2020, 8:52 pm

No, not just you CH! Sounds like a contraceptive, or suppository or something.

by FloBear 7th June 2020, 9:18 pm

Bloomin'eck, my cucumber is just putting out its first tendrils.

Another good crop of broad beans. I've now cut down a lot of the stems and foliage and will pick the remaining beans as they mature. The chickens appreciated all the greenery.

by Ploshkin 7th June 2020, 10:15 pm

My cucumbers are ramping up production now too and we ate my first lettuce. The broad beans have been an exceptionally good crop, still quite a lot of beans coming and I only had 5 plants. Peas are also doing well, I've been harvesting for a couple of weeks.

by Sponsored content