broad beans flower up to a certain point. the tips eventually seem to go back to just producing green spindly leaf growth. you will see this in early sown crops. So pinching out tops does not effect overall yields. For sown crops (late march say) its common for tops to still be growing out flowers w...

Actually pollination is important in courgettes. i think the unpollinated courgettes don't develope very well. they don't fill out, and go tuff quicker, with kinda hollow cores. ie its also common for rot to set into the fruit at the flowering end. Maybe pollination is not the reason, but from exper...

yes you can pinch out the growing tip of peppers/chillis to make them bush out. they readily put energy into side shoots. Joy Larkom recommends doing such if plants are tall and spindly. You will loose out the earliest peppers on the plant. But i have heard the view that; the peppers at the growing ...

Hey people. Cucumbers are probably the least hardy of all the common veg plants we grow. Outdoor types still want to be kept above 16c all the time ideally. i don't know how you plan to do this with cloches. all looks like sheer folly to me! You can keep them in the house. harden off during the day ...

cloches do 'sweet F all' regarding min night temps. they protect plants from wind primarily.

polytunnels the same.

forget the day time temps. work by the night temps with these 'hot-type' plants.

again primrose: why are you doing things so early? outside tomatoes should really only go planted outside in june at earliest in british isles. i would say the leaves are gong paler , due to getting acclimatised to new conditions, but in a cool enviroment. If you see them start to take stock and gro...

i have grown a mixture of plants for salad leaves. Rocket,mizuna, 3 types of oriental mustard greens,komatauna...list goes on. but 'rudy chard' and 'bulls blodd- beetroot' also. i find that its very easy for the chards and beetoots to suffer from over-head watering and collapse in a 'damping-off' lo...

I have 5 plants of 'canton dwarf in my polytunnel boarder. I think they are about 8 weeks old now. They are starting to go to flower too. A bit too early for my liking as havn't fromed tight base yet. This is my first experience with 'canton dwarf'. I have grown the bigger 'joy choi' for last couple...

So i took your advice people. and sowed a batch of 'Red Russian' Kale' and 'F1 Candissa' late summer cabbage, about ten days ago. I made a cold frame, but constructed a fleece cover frame, instead of the usual glass/plastic lid. The seeds are up now, and i must say i am very happy with them. The ste...

I reply to Johnboy: So if you were starting off say a batch of 'F1 hispi' summer cabbage in early febuary you would not put on a propagtor. You say that 'Brassicas do not need heat'. I am going to be a bit nit picky here, but do you start in tunnel or polytunnel. surely that is heat? which starts me...

Shading. the following is my hunch. Shading probably does make sense say in a tunnel or greenhouse to reduce day time peak temps. So say early on in year(eg:early march), with say brussel sprouts. i put on a propagetor set at 13c min temp. i semi-shade drom the south with a big piece of cardboard be...

To cevenol jardin:
what do you mean by 'light removed'?

Primrose:
Can i ask why are you sowing 'purple sprouting broccoli' in febuary? when traditionally sowing is not started till april/may. Whats the advantage/logic?

It might be worth pointing out that there could be two forms of leggy seedlings in brassicas. 1)those germinated in dark which get stretched looking for light. 2)those who at germination look perfect, but seem to grow too fast later until true leafs form. heat?? issue 1) is a common occurance across...