Geoff, Thankyou for that...its good to know when you plant each crop as it gives me some idea to go on... I usually raise all my seeds in the greenhouse, harden off then plant out when able into the plot, now I can work out when to start the poly tunnel ones that much earlier to get it right...It en...

Hi primrose- I had the same problem with the first sowings of polestar last year,,,plenty of flowers and few beans.... for the second sowing I put a drip hose along the back of the bed for continuos watering and with better weather conditions the second sewing was much improved.. This year I'm going...

Thankyou JB for your reply- I did make sure that the tunnel has the best allround light in the garden before siting it....so hopefully that will be ok once I get going...yes all enthusiam is now curbed until march! I'll make do with reading more seed cataloges and reading about growing in tunnels, I...

Thanks alan- you're right I'm getting carried away with the sweetcorn idea!.. its tooo small!! Thanks for letting me know about the peas though they are my favourite crop all year.. and as with everything I cant wait to start planting - I'll just have to sit on my hands for a few more weeks.. thanks...

Hi I have just bought and put up my first polytunnel -not huge 4.5m x 2m but so exciting! I've been growing vegs outside for the last 10 yrs or so and am now fine with the timings of those. Its the sowing times of the ones I want to put in the polytunnel.. for example can I plant salads etc now?? wh...

HI - I had the same problem and cut all the smaller ones off about 10 days ago , all going well now with new fruits reforming and lots of flowers so fingers crossed.

hi oldherbacious - I was reading a very old gardening/allotment book from the 30's that I got in a charity shop on older growing techniques - and that's what it told me to do - so although it seemed pretty harsh to go down a 14ft row and taking out all that growth i did it! it was only after reading...

Hi Johnboy, I would recommend it's worth a try for next year, I'll definately be doing all my crop then.They were just about 4'' with 3-5 sets of leaves, and I pinched back to just above the first leaves on each stem. They seemed to take a while to get going after that but when they got in their str...

colin- i would say too late! at 5' all the new growth nutrients are taken. I pinched out at 4''-6'' back to the first shoot, quite harsh, but well worth trying next year - or this year if your quick with another smaller crop. maybe start in the greenhouse or tunnel if you have one? to get them going...

thanks so much for coming back to me so quickly guys,,,, there is hope then! although I'd love to do alans method, you're right I cant round here.Next door is one of the 'oh aren't they lovely' brigade!!! I think I'll have to try the holly suggestion though in the meantime and then do the cage thing...

Hi - I live in greater London - but Foxes are driving me mad. Earlier this year I bought cages and netting etc for my brassicas - last year I lost the lot to caterpillars, and thought I was outsmarting them this year by covering them from the start. All went very well for the first 2 months - then f...

Progress on the pinched out rows.........they outcropped the rest by at least 50% and are still going strong. I started picking the crop 3 weeks ago and will be doing so for at least another 3 I think. Next year I will definately pinch out early on all of them. the heavy cropping is worth all the ef...

Hi Alan - Thanks for that thread, I'll certainly try that - never thought of it before I'll keep things updated on my experiment.

Just to let you know how my peas are - I'm so pleased with them - I pinced out one long row and left the other - and the pinced out ones have now overtaken the norm , and not only that they are much healthier bushier plants - just waiting for the flowers and crop now but all things are definately lo...

Thanks for that oldherbaceous - maybe I'll pinch out the one row and leave the rest, they are early onward and sugar snap......I'll let you know how it goes.....must go and be brave now and start pinching! thanks june Dear Polparrot, we have mentioned this earlier in the year, but i don't think anyo...