"Growing Food in Your Polytunnel" (Gatter and McKee) suggests the use of bicarb. of soda as a useful fairly organic spray against blight on tomatoes under cover. Might be worth a try. Not much use outdoors, I`m afraid. It`s actually been a nice day down here in darkest Devon. There`s been ...

There are a few protective sprays you can use to stop blight attack, but nothing is now available to eradicate it once it has struck your spuds/toms. I find the answer is to spray around mid June, and then again at fortnightly intervals until lifting time. I have also applied the same schedule to ne...

This discussion was a while ago, but one of my grandaughters has finally shown me how to post the picture, so here are my strawberries in the pipe planter. We had a marvellous crop from them, and will certainly carry on with it next season. Variety Elsanta, grown from runners taken last year.

Thanks, Ricard with an H. The info about Elixir Garden supplies is most useful, and indeed, they are a good deal cheaper than my local people. Have just placed my first order with them, for Growmore and Garden Lime in 25 kg sizes. What a nice change not having carriage slapped on the bill! I note yo...

A good deal of talk here about Growmore granular fertiliser. Does any one have suggestions of good suppliers at a reasonable price. I currently pay £21.99 for 25kg at our local garden centre, up from £19.99 last year. With no carriage charge, I would guess that that`s pretty competitive. They also d...

I guess that I`ve always done it wrong, then! Just about all my lawn clippings, of which there are plenty, get spread over any uncropped area, and then are rotovated in once the area is fully covered to a depth of about 2 - 3". Obviously, there`s a slug problem with this in the early stages, bu...

Re ringing the 5hp B & S engine on my Merry tiller Super Major, without reboring, solved the problem in my case, and transformed the machine. Still works like new some four years on.

Have so far, only grown Little Gem lettuce, Rocket and strawberries in this thing, and have been delighted with the results. Salads were planted in alternate holes as a guard against botrytis etc. (e.g. 8" apart), whilst strawberries were planted in every hole.( e.g. 4" apart!) All worked ...

Thanks Snooky,
Might have to look into one of those. Sadly, parts for my current machine have become VERY pricey, whish is a shame as it has given great service over many years.

Hi Primrose,
If you read my reply to Snooky, I think you`ll get the idea of this thing.

If your plants are that anvcient, I would definitley take some runners now, and replant for next year. As for a photo, well I`1m getting on for 80, and I`m not sure how to go about that! Sorry. The planter is standard plastic drainage pipe, with 3" holes cut 42 apart, and i incorporated a lengt...

Just to say that the pipe planter featured in KG last year, has turned out to be a real winner.
Have set up a 6 m long one in the polytunnel, and a 2.4 m one in the fruit cage for strawberries. Both are producing prolifically.Great idea!

Does anyone have experience of the Cobra Mini Tiller?
Of especial interest would be price of spares and accessories.
Hopefully a bit cheaper than the obvious alternative tiller.