Veg plans for 2020

cuculainn · 14-04-2020 12:10am

pconn062 wrote: »

You could take them out of the propogator now but leave them inside somewhere warm for another few weeks.

Just another follow on question regarding tomato plants.

I have had them indoors till now but they need to go outside at this stage....do I need to do much hardening off with tomato plants and can they tolerate temps down to 4 degrees at night? They plants will be in a tunnel.

Thanks!!

pconn062 · 14-04-2020 11:32am

cuculainn wrote: »

Just another follow on question regarding tomato plants.

I have had them indoors till now but they need to go outside at this stage....do I need to do much hardening off with tomato plants and can they tolerate temps down to 4 degrees at night? They plants will be in a tunnel.

Thanks!!

I don't know if you need to harden them off if they will be in a tunnel. However I might hold off for a few days at least as there was frost last night and more tonight which from could damage the plants. I am going to wait until the start of May before putting any frost sensitive stuff into the tunnel. You would be surprised how cold it gets in a tunnel in the evening. Are you running out of space indoors?

[Deleted User] · 14-04-2020 12:53pm

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

Sorry, just saw your post.
I've a 1/4 acre veg garden. I had a local farmer in with a plough and then he came back to rotavate it. He grows, spuds locally.
I'm going no dig this year so this was the final year to plough it.

Bought an electric propagator this evening... This lockdown is dangerous!

Are the propagator worth investing in. I have a polytunnel and i have been trying to plant seed strawberry and chillies and after 2 weeks not even a peep. Wonder would a propagator be the way to get the garden moving

amascid · 14-04-2020 3:47pm

I'm hoping to plant some rooster potatoes this year. Due to the lack of finding any rooster seed potatoes online - I'm thinking about using some of the store bought roosters I usually buy in Tesco. What are peoples experiences of planting store bought Roosters? Anything I should be aware of?

CelticRambler · 14-04-2020 6:00pm

keeffo2005 wrote: »

Are the propagator worth investing in. I have a polytunnel and i have been trying to plant seed strawberry and chillies and after 2 weeks not even a peep. Wonder would a propagator be the way to get the garden moving

I have a very old propagator (must be twenty five or thirty years now) and it's great for getting things started, especially in January, and for keeping things growing when I'm not around (I'm often away for work for two, three or four weeks at a time).

The only problem I have with it is that it's too small! So I'm often faced with a choice of potting stuff on to make room for the next batch of seeds, or holding off on that next batch in the hope that I'll get the right combination of weather and time off a few weeks later.

Even now, where we've got afternoon temperatures in the mid-twenties, I have seeds gone in since last week to make up for some seedlings I lost to the drought while I was working in March (tomatoes, peppers, gherkins and basil)

uck51js9zml2yt · 14-04-2020 7:40pm

keeffo2005 wrote: »

Are the propagator worth investing in. I have a polytunnel and i have been trying to plant seed strawberry and chillies and after 2 weeks not even a peep. Wonder would a propagator be the way to get the garden moving

Honestly don't know. First time getting one but I figured it would speed up germination.
I saw, it on an Irish fb group. It was a small one with a 24 cell tray.
Got beans and peas in today including beans I got while in India.

cuculainn · 15-04-2020 12:18am

pconn062 wrote: »

I don't know if you need to harden them off if they will be in a tunnel. However I might hold off for a few days at least as there was frost last night and more tonight which from could damage the plants. I am going to wait until the start of May before putting any frost sensitive stuff into the tunnel. You would be surprised how cold it gets in a tunnel in the evening. Are you running out of space indoors?

Yeah running out of space....the plants are also getting big and need to be reported(did that today). The light they get through the double glazed windows also does seem to satisfy them!!!!

I took a chance and left them in the shed tonight. Not as Cold as the tunnel so hopefully they will be ok....thanks for your help

MacDanger · 15-04-2020 9:17am

amascid wrote: »

I'm hoping to plant some rooster potatoes this year. Due to the lack of finding any rooster seed potatoes online - I'm thinking about using some of the store bought roosters I usually buy in Tesco. What are peoples experiences of planting store bought Roosters? Anything I should be aware of?

This is my first year planting spuds but I was chatting to the guy in the garden centre and he said he previously planted shop-bought roosters and got a decent crop out of them so it's worth trying. Others here will know better but I think there may be an increased risk of importing disease into your garden by doing it

[Deleted User] · 15-04-2020 10:36am

CelticRambler wrote: »

I have a very old propagator (must be twenty five or thirty years now) and it's great for getting things started, especially in January, and for keeping things growing when I'm not around (I'm often away for work for two, three or four weeks at a time).

The only problem I have with it is that it's too small! So I'm often faced with a choice of potting stuff on to make room for the next batch of seeds, or holding off on that next batch in the hope that I'll get the right combination of weather and time off a few weeks later.

Even now, where we've got afternoon temperatures in the mid-twenties, I have seeds gone in since last week to make up for some seedlings I lost to the drought while I was working in March (tomatoes, peppers, gherkins and basil)

Thanks, i have the polytunnell but i am thinking the electric propagator would have me eating produce a lot quicker.

Might look into it and see whats the best recommended

[Deleted User] · 15-04-2020 10:49am

Karlee Magnificent Valve wrote: »

Honestly don't know. First time getting one but I figured it would speed up germination.
I saw, it on an Irish fb group. It was a small one with a 24 cell tray.
Got beans and peas in today including beans I got while in India.

Cheers, let me know when you see the sprouts please

Harry Palmr · 20-04-2020 3:33pm

Spuds sneaking through, planted 10 in all which for a singleton ought to be enough in summer.

Lettuce and onions progressing and a batch of spicy greens seeds went into a tray yesterday
hopefully they'll be in the ground by this date next month.

MacDanger · 20-04-2020 3:48pm

Planted carrot seeds in the ground over the weekend. Have some broccoli, leeks & cauliflower planted in tubs, they're coming along nicely, maybe ready to plant outside in 4-5 weeks

CelticRambler · 20-04-2020 6:26pm

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Spuds sneaking through, planted 10 in all which for a singleton ought to be enough in summer.

Ten??? :eek:

That'd never do me for a summer, never mind the rest of the year! So far, I've planted 200 and wondering where I can fit another 75 ...

Still have about 30kg left from last year's harvest, hoping that'll get me through to this year's earlies!

CelticRambler · 20-04-2020 6:50pm

My current "work in progress" - charentais melons, red cabbage, sweetcorn, sweet peas (not for eating!), red/green peppers, jalapeño chilis, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, white onions, gherkins, normal tomatoes, sunflowers, ornamental gourds, pattypan squash, physalis and basil.

Peas, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, shallots, potatoes and winter-sown lettuce are in the ground; pumpkins, parsley and more peppers and tomatoes are in the propagator. Beetroot and more lettuce to be sown this week or next (have switched my attention to flowers and flowerbeds for the moment).

(Nearly everything there was grown from Lidl's 29ct packets of seeds. Once you get used to getting "ten different things for the price of one regular packet", it's very hard to go back to the mainstream brands.

)

Harry Palmr · 20-04-2020 7:09pm

CelticRambler wrote: »

Ten??? :eek:

That'd never do me for a summer, never mind the rest of the year! So far, I've planted 200 and wondering where I can fit another 75 ...

Still have about 30kg left from last year's harvest, hoping that'll get me through to this year's earlies!

If 10 seed potatoes yields about 60-70 actual ones that'll do for me!

countrywoman · 20-04-2020 7:49pm

Where did he get the seed potatoes?

SouthWesterly · 20-04-2020 8:29pm

My asparagus from the UK, arrived today.
After a few hours soaking I planted them out.
More to come from clarinbridge at some stage.

Harry Palmr · 04-05-2020 12:22pm

It's amazing how stuff grows when you're not really watching it. Then and now pix really hammer hom how quickly everything moves in an Irish spring.

Spuds - about 10 days between the two.

Onions and lettuce

and my sickly Tumbling Tom now flying

Seve OB · 04-05-2020 11:57pm

i planted some spuds, same pack in 2 pots, and in a bed. the pots have been up now for about 2 weeks. the ones in the bed , well only 3 of maybe 6 or 7 starting to break through now. im novice at this, tried spuds last year and they all came up same time. kinda odd the difference between them.

does anyone know if seeds can die? i planted some beetroot seeds, some sunflower seeds and some bean seeds which i found in the shed which were probably a few years old, nothing coming up yet. probably stuck them down about 3-4 weeks ago now. all in shaded garden which might make a difference

Samson1 · 05-05-2020 2:51am

keeffo2005 wrote: »

Are the propagator worth investing in. I have a polytunnel and i have been trying to plant seed strawberry and chillies and after 2 weeks not even a peep. Wonder would a propagator be the way to get the garden moving

I got a Vitopod this January (was a sale) from Quickcrop + the lights and so far very happy with it. Tomatoes germinated in 6 days, chillies in 7 days.

Seemed dear at first, but I read lot of reviews on it, and I haven't found any negative ones. Seems very well made and easy to put together. Standard size is roughly 22" x 22" interior, and can buy height extensions for it. The standard size, for me is big enough with some juggling, but for maybe 20% more you could get the larger one, which is double that size, which would give a lot of comfort.

I am delighted with it, and my only qualm is should I have gone for the larger one!

CelticRambler · 05-05-2020 7:53am

Seve OB wrote: »

does anyone know if seeds can die? i planted some beetroot seeds, some sunflower seeds and some bean seeds which i found in the shed which were probably a few years old, nothing coming up yet. probably stuck them down about 3-4 weeks ago now.

Every type of seed has a "best before" date which can be very short (a year) or quite long (5-6 years or more) and all of those you've listed would be among the longer ones. A lot depends on how and where they're stored, though, so if they were traumatised during storage (too cold, too hot, too damp - even for a short period) that would affect their viability.

Living Off The Splash · 05-05-2020 9:25am

A whole row of my seedling Swedes wolfed by a slug overnight. He has gone to slug heaven...

craggel69 · 05-05-2020 9:32am

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

A whole row of my seedling Swedes wolfed by a slug overnight. He has gone to slug heaven...

well he died happy at least!

CelticRambler · 05-05-2020 10:44am

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

A whole row of my seedling Swedes wolfed by a slug overnight. He has gone to slug heaven...

I'm having a similar problem with my strawberries. Incredible April temperatures brought the flowers out early and the (lovely big) fruit is ripening now ... just as the temperatures have dropped again and it's been raining persistently: perfect slug weather, and wet straw doesn't do anything to deter them. :mad:

CelticRambler · 05-05-2020 10:59am

CelticRambler wrote: »

Garlic likes a good cold spell and although I have a few feral plants from bulbs that escaped being harvested last year, I'm not hopeful of a good crop this year from anything that needs a hard frost.

On the other hand, I already have a drill of potatoes growing nicely - it's an experiment, to see if I can have new potatoes for St. Patrick's Day!

Well, the feral garlic is doing really well, as is the planted garlic, so the lack of a really hard winter didn't seem to upset it. Good to know for future years.

As for the potatoes, I didn't have new potatoes mid-March, but then I didn't go looking for them either seeing as I still had tens of kilos of last years' crop to work through.

Here they are, though: self-sown (winter) on the right, compared to March-sown earlies (Sirtema) front left, between two rows of onions, and April-sown maincrop (Charlotte and Desirée) in the background.

gnf_ireland · 05-05-2020 11:36am

I have to say I am mad jealous of you all, given I am still locked out of my allotment and no idea what I will be going back to on 18th May !!

SouthWesterly · 05-05-2020 4:42pm

Just in from the garden. Got a bed cleared of buttercup and planted:
Beetroot, carrot, turnip, parsnip,chard, spring onion, radish, sunflower and marigold.
We also got oca and mashua in this morning. 30 artichoke and some more asparagus planted yesterday.

Beds are filling up.
I'm just sitting here hoping we don't get a blast of cold wet weather which will destroy all my fruit tree blooms.

Living Off The Splash · 06-05-2020 12:16pm

French Beans have still not seeded yet. Everything else sown directly in to the ground growing well.

Slugs still a daily problem.

pconn062 · 06-05-2020 1:39pm

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

French Beans have still not seeded yet. Everything else sown directly in to the ground growing well.

Slugs still a daily problem.

Are the slugs damaging your seedlings or mature plants?

SouthWesterly · 06-05-2020 5:19pm

Another day in the garden and another bed done.
Gigantes beans, Swede, turnip, okra, dwarf beans and salad leaves.

Veg plans for 2020

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