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Veg plans for 2021

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12467…13

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    #92
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,696 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    The Master. wrote: »
    how many kilos should I get for 1 square metre?

    kilos per square metre, or potatoes per square metre? Depending on the variety, four seed potatoes with 3-5 eyes per spud would be about right. For 12m² that'd work out at around 2kg.


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    #93
    gigglybits
    Registered Users Posts: 54 ✭✭gigglybits


    SouthWesterly wrote: »
    Turned out really well.
    The JA needs to be left in daylight for 2-3weeks before eating.

    Have yacon for next year

    Interesting, so does leaving them in daylight for 2-3 weeks reduce the wind factor?


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    #94
    scarepanda
    Registered Users Posts: 3,439 ✭✭✭scarepanda


    Onion sets and seed potatoes, any recommendations of where to get them online?


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    #95
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    gigglybits wrote: »
    Interesting, so does leaving them in daylight for 2-3 weeks reduce the wind factor?

    Converts the inulin to starch


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    #96
    Igotadose
    Registered Users Posts: 12,963 ✭✭✭✭Igotadose


    scarepanda wrote: »
    Onion sets and seed potatoes, any recommendations of where to get them online?

    Fruithill Farm has quite a few on their site. Have been happy with their garlic in the past.


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    #97
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,359 ✭✭✭macraignil


    SouthWesterly wrote: »
    Converts the inulin to starch


    I have read a good amount about inulin and Jerusalem artichoke and never found a reference to sunlight having the ability to change inulin to starch and read plants that use inulin generally do not form normal starch. Do you have a link to where this information was published?


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    #98
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    macraignil wrote: »
    I have read a good amount about inulin and Jerusalem artichoke and never found a reference to sunlight having the ability to change inulin to starch and read plants that use inulin generally do not form normal starch. Do you have a link to where this information was published?

    Sorry no link. I was told about it and didn't have any issue with them.

    Dug up a wheelbarrow of mashua and oca today.

    Set aside 50 and 70 respectively for planting this year.


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    #99
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users Posts: 13,749 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Started germinating chillies today, I didn't do this till March last year and I found it way too late, but I still got plenty of fruit, actually still have some on plants even now.
    Today I got beetroot, parsnips, and more chillies. Am going to put a raised bed together in the next few days.


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    #100
    Thelonious Monk
    Registered Users Posts: 13,749 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    The quickcrop videos on youtube are very good, filmed just under Benbulben in Sligo. They are worth it alone for Klaus's amazing accent.


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    #101
    Living Off The Splash
    Registered Users Posts: 2,103 ✭✭✭Living Off The Splash


    Turned my compost heap yesterday. Looking good. I will work on my raised beds at the end of the month. Trimmed some hedges.....beginning to enjoy it again.


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    #102
    laoch na mona
    Registered Users Posts: 2,965 ✭✭✭laoch na mona


    last year was a disaster due to covid as I was in a flat and couldn't get up to the homeplace to the garden.

    So last years plans became this years. Basically just increasing my growing area, I'll post photos when i can.

    Im also going to have a small poly tunnell / green house for chillis and tomatoes

    I've to order about 60 euro worth of seeds now


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    #103
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,696 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    Broke ground on a new patch of the garden today in the hope of getting it ready for planting in March and April (maybe transplant in some onions and cabbage before then). I'm struggling a bit with my major re-organisation, not least because of being a bit too successful with last years' winter crops and them still being in the ground.

    But building on a generally very successful 2020 (as far as veg is concerned) I set one of my guests to sow the first of my solanaceous plants yesterday: tomatoes (cherry and coeur-de-boeuf), pumpkin, gherkin, melon, Cayenne pepper, red/green peppers and jalapeño chilis ... only she dropped the pepper and chili seeds at the same time, so it's going to be fun trying to figure out which is which when the time comes to plant them out!


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    #104
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Got my oca, mashua and Jerusalem Artichokes stored for replanting thus year. Had a great harvest.


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    #105
    Bill Hook
    Registered Users Posts: 114 ✭✭Bill Hook


    Lifted the mashua at the weekend and put aside 20 to plant next year. Cooked a big go of them for dinner Saturday night: they tasted absolutely horrible so I am going to put the rest of them aside to plant next year (for the leaves and flowers which are both nice to look at) and give tubers to friends/family.

    Only had a few oca so put them aside for next year.

    I leave the Jerusalem Artichokes in the ground and harvest them as I need them leaving a few in the ground for next year. One of my favorite plants: nice taste, hassle free and consistently big yields.


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    #106
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Bill Hook wrote: »
    Lifted the mashua at the weekend and put aside 20 to plant next year. Cooked a big go of them for dinner Saturday night: they tasted absolutely horrible so I am going to put the rest of them aside to plant next year (for the leaves and flowers which are both nice to look at) and give tubers to friends/family.

    Only had a few oca so put them aside for next year.

    I leave the Jerusalem Artichokes in the ground and harvest them as I need them leaving a few in the ground for next year. One of my favorite plants: nice taste, hassle free and consistently big yields.

    I liked the peppery flavour of the mashua. Artichokes took a bit of getting used to.

    I roast them


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    #107
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,359 ✭✭✭macraignil


    SouthWesterly wrote: »
    I liked the peppery flavour of the mashua. Artichokes took a bit of getting used to.

    I roast them


    I agree that roasting the Jerusalem artichoke improves their flavour. Also helps to use them fresh out of the ground as they are not as nice when they have been allowed to dry out.


    Got a yacon which is another type of edible root crop in a pot at the end of last year so will be planting that in the ground for the first time this year.


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    #108
    Bill Hook
    Registered Users Posts: 114 ✭✭Bill Hook


    Agree about roasting Jerusalem Artichokes. They also make great fritters/bhajis grated (raw), mixed with a bit of chickpea flour and fried.

    Grew Yacon for the first time this year. Only harvested one plant so far which tasted nice raw and was also nice enough roasted. Very hard on the digestive tract (much worse than Jerusalem Artichokes)... not exactly rushing out to dig more of them (although I should because I don't think they stand well like the J. Artichokes).


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    #109
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    I left the JA for 2 weeks for the inulin to convert to starch.Less side effects

    Have yacon and ullicus to plant this year as well.

    Gardens for Life has some great video on his YT channel on all these tubers


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    #110
    macraignil
    Registered Users Posts: 3,359 ✭✭✭macraignil


    SouthWesterly wrote: »
    I left the JA for 2 weeks for the inulin to convert to starch.Less side effects

    Have yacon and ullicus to plant this year as well.

    Gardens for Life has some great video on his YT channel on all these tubers


    I have never heard anyone else claiming that inulin turns into starch. I don't think what you are claiming is true. This quote from the wikipedia page on inulin is relevant:


    "Most plants that synthesize and store inulin do not store other forms of carbohydrate such as starch."


    I find them best to eat just straight out of the ground and think the quality reduces if they are allowed to dry out.


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    #111
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,061 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Took charge of a kilo of Scottish seed potatoes, Sharpe's Express. Onions next and shallots this time with lots of salad greens. I'm wondering if I can keep my winter greens going long enough at tickover level that they might find new vigor in the Spring. Must have a think about other crops.

    I'm supposed to be building a tomato house. After last summer I'm not bothering with outdoor cropping.


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    #112
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,696 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    SouthWesterly wrote: »
    I left the JA for 2 weeks for the inulin to convert to starch.
    macraignil wrote: »
    I have never heard anyone else claiming that inulin turns into starch. I don't think what you are claiming is true.

    Inulin does not convert to starch. If you put the effort in, you can get it to breakdown to fructose, but it's not an easy (or natural) process; quite the opposite - inulin is a very stable carbohydrate, as this study showed:
    The inulin breakdown occurred when the temperature reached 80C at pH 4 (Fig. 4) however, even after 55 min heating at boiling water bath, only 20% reduction sugar was released.

    There has been lots of other work done on inulin too, over the years. To turn it into something else (i.e. fructose), you need to add enzymes or chemical catalysts. Leaving the tubers to sit at ambient temperature will have no effect on the inulin content. @SouthWesterly - if you have any studies at all that claim (or preferably demonstrate) this to be different, I'd be interested to see them, seeing as I have my first JA sitting in a pot out the back waiting to be planted this year.


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    #113
    Bill Hook
    Registered Users Posts: 114 ✭✭Bill Hook


    I don't find the Jerusalem Artichokes too bad, I'd put them at the lentil/bean end of the scale. I would be fairly used to eating them so maybe I've built up tolerance. The Yacon on the other hand was more at the stomach cramp/Delhi Belly end of the scale. Maybe I will build up tolerance if I keep eating them - lockdowns are good for this sort of experiment!

    IMO Jerusalem Artichoke is a lovely vegetable and unbelievably hardy. There is a patch of them at the home place this last 15 years or more that has survived heavy frost, The Beast from the East and flooding and still comes back every year.


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    #114
    MacDanger
    Registered Users Posts: 2,354 ✭✭✭MacDanger


    Is it too early to start chitting first early potatoes?


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    #115
    Harry Palmr
    Closed Accounts Posts: 40,061 ✭✭✭✭Harry Palmr


    Chitting is fine from here on for March planting.
    The Master. wrote: »
    last year i bit off more than i could chew and it was a disaster.
    this year I want to just grow potatoes.

    I have 12 x square metre beds.

    how many kilos should I get for 1 square metre?

    where is a good place to get them? I feel I may have missed the boat going by some posts on here.

    So do you have a bed of 12 metres squared (144 metres area) or 12 square metres? :)

    Plant potatoes at 1 foot intervals. If doing multiple rows zig-zag the pattern with the rows 18in apart.
    X
    X
    X
    X
    -
    -
    ---X
    X
    X
    X
    X

    As for getting them,
    https://www.fruithillfarm.com/seeds-and-propagation/organic-seed-potatoes.html
    https://theirishgardener.com/collections/seed-potatoes-1/products/first-earlies-seed-potatoes


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    #116
    dfbemt
    Registered Users Posts: 1,398 ✭✭✭dfbemt


    Apart from overwintering, I never plant until 1st February.

    Planted my first seeds of 2021 yesterday.
    - Chilli Naga Yellow (5)
    - Chilli Orange Habanero (10)
    - Chilli Shake (15)
    - Pepper King of the North (20)
    - Pepper Corno Di Torro Rosso (20)

    I also mistakenly planted, about 2 months too early !!
    - Gherkin Partner (8)

    Planting will be ongoing from now on.


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    #117
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Got delivery of my seed potatoes today.


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    #118
    laoch na mona
    Registered Users Posts: 2,965 ✭✭✭laoch na mona


    First few tomato and pepper seeds started inside. Will start a few broad beans as well. I'll make a start on some bed prep this weekend to be ready for the first bit of planting in March


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    #119
    SouthWesterly
    Registered Users Posts: 6,456 ✭✭✭SouthWesterly


    Just ordered a walnut cultivar for the garden. My wife is a very happy lady:)


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    #120
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,696 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    Having watched the rest of ye dabble in all kinds of exotic veg last year, I've decided ... ... ... to stick with the old reliables this year! :) Well, kind of - as my re-landscaping is now behind schedule, I'm not going to try anything other than what I know I can cope with - so essentially all the same as last year, but with some (such as chilis and peppers) in greater quantities, and others (such as sweetcorn) to be sown in smaller but more frequent batches).

    I've been to Lidl and splashed out on a couple of dozen packs of seeds (both the 29 and 65ct) packs (forgot to get Lupins, though :frown: ); picked up five lavender plants this morning to add to the herb garden that's under re-development, along with a standard and a creeping rosemary. The ginger that got off to a such great start didn't survive having to live in the real world :( ; not sure if it was the wrong temperature, humidity or light that most affected it ... but I picked up another budding corm in Lidl last week, so will try again.

    Also received a big bucket full of raspberry canes from a grateful co-worker, for which I'll need to find a place.


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    #121
    dubbrin
    Registered Users Posts: 156 ✭✭dubbrin


    Going to try Parsnips again this year. 2019 - nothing germinated - planted in late spring.... 2020 - 20% germinated but took ages, was nearly June before they sprouted and they didn't get to 'full size' by autumn, more like balls! I know they're meant to be difficult, but what's the secret....?!


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