Hi Sally - yes aware of the high temperature inhibition. The first lot of Little Gem were sown alongside Tom Thumb so that wasn't the problem. The second lot, possible though 1 seed did appear. The latest Johnsons are outside in roottrainers and have germinated well though I haven't checked today to...

I had some old Little Gem seed but not technically out of date. However, I hadn't stored it too well so wasn't surprised when I had poor germination. So bought a 'fresh' packet from Wilkinsons for 80P. Absolutely zero germination. My latest attempt is with Johnsons at more than twice the price. Am a...

According to the guys who wrote 'The Wrong kind of Snow' March 9th is about the average for when frog spawn appears. But in my garden ponds they are always early and frog spawn appeared Jan 30th this year and the wrigglies hatched out about Mar 7th. No idea why these ones are so early as elsewhere a...

Tony - yes I can see that they will probably get round the problems, especially if the talk about checking is just talk. And to do that properly could create a large number of jobs. But if this at least makes the public, or at least the UK public, aware of the possibility(!) that organic from outsid...

I am sure that none of this will come as a surprise to members of this forum, but the consequences could be interesting, if the new rules are implemented.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/eu-commission-plans-tighter-rules-on-organic-food-sector-a-943461.html

We were very intrigued by last week's episode in which Ruth Goodman talked about the veg plot. Seems the Tudors didn't weed but let them grow so that they had something else to fill the gaps, Fathen, etc. Not sure that many of these would be to our modern taste but maybe it will set a future trend. ...

What price Danish pork after last night's episode? Could be good for British pig farmers.

We're going through our winter squash, carrots, still some potatoes and hope to start on the Brussels, Swede and Parsnips soon.

The local allotment has been offered a regular volume of "steeped hops/malted barley" from the local brewery - thousands of litres of the stuff. The person running the allotment wants to know how good it is or whether it is just a soil conditioner, which they don't really need.

I grew them this year for the first time and will do so again next year. Had them in pots in the greenhouse for the real earlies, except that this year that was a bit like having them outside, and a few genuinely outside. Reasonable yield and tasted good. I believe they are supposed to be a first ea...

Watching the first episode of Professor Brian Cox's Science Brittanica I thought it rather ironic that in the lab where the GM potatoes were being modified the variety shown was Lady Balfour.

I think this is always the problem with biological controls, that is knowing whether they have actually worked or whether conditions were unfavourable for the pests. Very difficult to do proper controlled experiments the in the field as opposed to the lab.

If you wanted to organise one of these when would you do it? And any tips as to what to do, include, not do, not include?

Thanks

For some reason my runners are doing the best I've every known. I'm feeding all the neighbours, yet I know that not too far away in Carmarthenshire there are also complaints about setting. The varieties are Firestorm and Enorma. Will go along to the allotments a couple of hundred yard away and see h...

As said above, leave till leaves have died down. Last year was a difficult one and I ripened them off in the greenhouse.