Kitchen Garden Forum

Hopefully the KG Team will pick on this too!

I've just been and potted my three plants on, into 5 inch pots.......i wonder if i should have used square pots to get an advantage....

I'm going for the direct sowing on the compost heap, which is square, except for one corner which has collapsed & now round - covering all eventualities, well except the one of finding which seeds! Can someone advise me what variety we've got to plant, I have a few packets, all unopened & all freebies from mags. (Sorry KG, I do like your content better, but always attracted by free seeds)!

oldherbaceous wrote:Hopefully the KG Team will pick on this too!

I've just been and potted my three plants on, into 5 inch pots.......i wonder if i should have used square pots to get an advantage....

Mrs S sowed the KG marrow seeds on 17/4/17,
the variety was Long Bush Green 2 as stated elsewhere.
The 5 contained average 5 seeds. Ours contained 6.
Of the 6 only 3 have germinated.
Today I also planted then on and purely by coincidence also used 5 inch round pots.
I wonder if I should have used square airpots to gain an advantage (don't even know if they make square ones) (nor care )

I've only just found the packet hidden away in my wife's flower seeds

And since potting on the only 3 that had come up earlier another one has poked its head through

I see Pa has been eating plenty of eggs for breakfast. Good tip to keep the slugs and snails off though. They've even been getting inside my mini plastic greenhouse.

1st prize for observation Primrose.
I deliberately said nothing to see who commented first.

Snag is slugs can tend to go under the soil to get further in to the plant itself.
Snails tend to want to go over the top so it does put them off.

And Pa, what posh labels too! Do you save them from year to year? I! m afraid mine are rough and ready with an F for Ferline tomatoes or a GD for Gardeners Delight, on the assumption that I know what a tomato plant looks like. (On which topic I shall post elsewhere so as not to highjack this thread.

Direct sowed 3 today, 1 in the back compost in a pot with the bottom cut off it, 1 in the front compost the same way & one direct on top of the front compost covered with some sieved soil. Kind off moist enough for sowing but will need to set up a watering system when (if) they take off & might try some reflective white plastic material under them as want to cook both compost heaps anyway as they are a bit too weedy. Fingers crossed but not too hopeful really - I'll probably throw a bucketful of weeds on top of them, despite the cane markers!

Primrose wrote:And Pa, what posh labels too! Do you save them from year to year? I! m afraid mine are rough and ready with an F for Ferline tomatoes or a GD for Gardeners Delight, on the assumption that I know what a tomato plant looks like. (On which topic I shall post elsewhere so as not to highjack this thread.

Slightly longer than short answer, yes save labels for re-use. Print new ones when trying a new variety.

Hi,

Checked again and don't appear to have KG free seeds (I missed a month as I was renewing my subscription so it may have been then). I have a pack of Long Green Bush 4. Assume these are different though (but must have been free as I would never buy Marrow seeds!! I have a big enough problem with large courgettes). I've emailed KG Admin to see if I can get a pack.

Pawty

Alas Pawty you could have had my packet but I took them down to our Library seed swap day as for the same reason as you I always end up with one or two accidental marrows from courgettes which succeed in staying hidden under courgette leaves until it,s too late!

I'm slightly intrigued by this marrow topic. Are marrows actually overgrown courgette varieties or a separate species?

As a child I remembered marrows - it was almost a national pastime to grow them on the earth on top of Andersen air raid shelters when we had our fair share of them unappetisingly stuffed but I never ever recall young ones being picked as courgettes. I imagine it was possibly Elizabeth David who introduced them to our culinary repertoire after the war, along with aubergines, in what was probably regarded as "queer foreign stuff" by much of the population.

As for giant marrows, I don't see the point of them. If they grow to the point where you can't get a whole one, stuffed, into your oven, what's the point of growing them any larger, apart for exhibiting at the Annual Horticultural Show? I suspect that perhaps some of them get grown that size by accident because overnight they just seem to have grown like Topsy, especially in wet weather. (Not much danger of that happening this year with the drought in the South of England.)

Marvin the marrow is growing very well in his round pot. Square pots must slow up growth when the root hits the corner and then has to acutely change direction rather than going in a natural circular motion. I am talking absolute rubbish. Not a clue which is best. Anyone else have any theories?

Dear Emma, there's another thread with thoughts on round and square pots.....maybe a clever person can put a link on here for you.