What have you done in the greenhouse/polytunnel today?

While watering today, I spotted the first tomatoes starting to swell. Only about the size of a marble yet, but a welcome sight They do seem to be the one thing that is ahead this year. Most outdoor stuff is a couple of weeks late - that seems to be what the farmers are saying too.

I have a couple doing that..have never had them so early in my (unheated) PT.....

Did some sorting out this morning & planted more seeds. Overwintered peas nearly ready to pick, not a lot but enough to add to a salad.

Blimey even I don't drink wine at 7 in the morning......

Glad you have got it mended now

Greenhouse is over to keeping tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes warm at night (they get throw out in the day time to harden off!), nurturing melons, still developing late courgettes and pumpkins and loads of flower seed trays.

The greenhouse bed has now been filled with plants: cucumber, chilli, peppers and basil. Plus pots of aubergines and "back up toamtoes" (in the event of wipe out due to blight outside)

Chilli-head, when did you seed you tomatoes that are now "tomatoing"

Mine have toms on in the PT and I sowed them in the conservatory like porch in a heated propagator, in the beginning of Feb (Imbolc, actually..I always sow then!)

But they are well ahead of themselves this year...a good 2 weeks early!

Zoe wrote:
Chilli-head, when did you seed you tomatoes that are now "tomatoing"

6th Feb this year. I usually go for beginning of Feb for indoor toms; I've tried later (early March) but could not bear the wait. Earlier did not seem to help because of light levels. I have got some horticultural lights, but it seems to be going just a bit too far. Also the neighbours start to get suspicious ...

Went & looked & the lets not grow things in the greenhouse.
Courgettes are doing well well though everything else is so slow.

As I've mentioned earlier, partially due to CW's infectious enthusiasm, this year I'm trying out growing my tomatoes in my homemade garden compost, alongside the same varieties grown in New Horizons.

So far, I have to report that I can discern no significant difference in performance, either growth, leaf colour, or number of flowers. This I take to be pretty encouraging, as it means my homemade is doing as well as the best of the bought stuff. Still, I'll have to wait for the taste test for the final verdict ..

It also becomes obvious that my composting, as I suspected, is not hot enough to kill all weed seeds. In fact I think I have an idea to save a huge amount of effort on tomato growing - simply set up the containers and fill with compost, then a few weeks later weed out down to just one volunteer per pot No seed purchase necessary.

The other lesson is, no matter how old and no longer viable they might seem, don't dispose of old seed packet contents in a cool compost heap. I have parsnips growing as weeds where I mulched around my apple trees !

Now how useful is that Chilli, bearing in mind that parsnips are not the easiest things to grow.

Now that is the kind of weed I would love to have!!

Chilli

I half fill my buckets ( my grow pots) with my compost in Feb..leave them for the weed seeds to germinate, pull the weeds out and add to the compost bins...then plant toms etc on the surface and fill to the top with more compost.

That way I make sure I get the maximum extra stem rooting from the toms, peppers etc...( by burying the stem) AND I can dispose of the weed seeds which have germinated in the first lot of my compost...

the next lot, the seedlings are on the surface, so I just pull those out as well....

I don't have any toms as weed seeds though...mainly rocket or courgettes or borage....

I plant my indoor tomatoes in those white plastic drums used in the food industry; they are about 15 litre. I saw the bottom out and sit them on a 10cm deep bed of sand. I always plant them first in about 10L of compost, then top up when fruits start to form with compost with some bonemeal added, in the hope that the calcium might reduce blossom end rot. The "weeds" in my compost are mostly tomatoes and chillies (there's a surprise ) so are not a big deal to pull out.

Borage - what a weed. I remember tractor hoeing a plot of sugar beet with a big borage problem. Attractive to bees ? we had a swarm of them persuing the tractor. Looked like a scene from Shaun the Sheep !

Borage? For the second year running, my borage seeds (from T & M) just do not germinate... I have tried pots, I have tried seed tray, nothing doing.
Hard to believe it's a weed from where I stand. On the other hand, the soil here is full of calcium - maybe that is antagonistic? I would love to have a bit of borage here, as the flowers are so magnificent - and look lovely on a dinner plate too.

snoopka, shall I send you some? have spent a lot of today hoeing it out!

Thank you for offering, CW. Unfortunately, what I need is the plant, not the seeds since those don't seem to germinate here. It would probably be impractical and costly to send whole plants across the channel, but I will hold on to that thought!
On the other hand, it is possible that the T & M seeds were duff ones (not that they should be, as they are not cheap!) - so perhaps I should say yes to seeds, just in case? If it is a weed, surely it should grow easily?

I will send you some of my seeds ( as they are obviously so VERY potent!) if you pm me your addy?...seeds won't come for a bit...but I don't mind sending you some?

I bought some Borage seeds this year - they have come up and some are hiding from the chickens under plastic bottle cloches. Ironically, I am also pulling them up all over the place presumably from some I grew before (a bit vague about when...) so I needn't have bothered!!

IMO and E ...Borage is a weed and comes up EVERYWHERE!

Like courgettes and pumpkins..................

I've just planted it for the bees really - I know you're supposed to put it in your Pimms, but I don't like Pimms!!

Nice clear up & more seeds planted. Everything looking good if a bit slow.

Harvested the first new potatoes tonight...mmm....

Planted 6 more tomato plants in to final positions, also 1 pepper plants and cleared out some overwintering kale etc which has really past its prime...

Have more peppers and aubergines to plant in PT tomorrow, also 6 further tomato plants, then apart from more salad sowings the PT is finished for the summer...

Will have 20 peppers, 10 aubergines, several cucumbers and about 40 tomato plants in it, when I have finished the planting. Plus various peas, beans, salads fruit bushes etc ....

Feels good to have caught up at last!

Next week we will be eating mostly cucumbers


This variety is "Tiffany". Super plants - just have to work out what to do with them all !

I have lots on mine...must be a good year!

Do you have a greenhouse or a PT? I can't remember?