A few queries and HELP!?

[carlos1981]

Hi guys,

Just a few queries, and 1 bit of help required if i may?

This is my first year trying anything, os i know a few would be likely to fail.

First - Help! I have one of the tomato greenhouse put up jobbies (Wilko's did them) but since putting tom plants in this, the leaves have curled up, one plant has gone and stopped any growth with purple spots on the leaves (pics to follow). I'm assuming i done something wrong, but no idea what, anyone any ideas?

Next to this, is a cucmber plant, which has since doubled in size, and is doing fine! Is now starting to flower as well as continuing to grow upwards!

Main queries relate to the time it takes for the fruits to develop on Cucumber plants, and Pepper plants?

Pepper plants (x3) have all flowered, and been shook daily, and i now have one fruit well on it's way, and a few others about to start, just wondering how long it takes (roughly) till able to harvest, or do i just play it by sight?

BBC dig in seeds have arrived, but is there any point in planting any of these? Surely must be too late?

Finally, is re: Basil! Damn this grows quick, and easy!! I now have 2 plants, one is flowering, so i need to know if there is any good way to store this?

[Compo]

Hi Carlos

I expect you will get various replies answering bits and pieces of your queries. Looks like the toms are gonners, try and get some late plants, garden centres and even wilkos might have some in big pots with fruit, I wonder if you have let them dry out, they do like humidity as well as well drained organic material to root in.

Your peppers are doing fine by the sound of it.........Chilli Peppers? If so pick them when they are firm and glossy or leave them a bit longer to go red or yellow. You can dry them on a saucer on a window sill and store them for cooking.

Keep watering and now feed the cukes and the peppers with tomato food as directed by the manufacturer. The cukes will be edible when the first fruits are a fully formed which will follow on from the flower stage. Feed all these plants from flowering onwards. We need to know the variety of your cucumber to advise on pollination, but most varieties now need no special attention.

Basil you can move out on the patio now and keep picking the leaves for cooking, I believe it as an annual and leaves can be dried and stored in jars.

That is the best I can offer I am sure others will add to this as the day goes on.

CoMpO

[carlos1981]

thanks for the tips!

Peppers are Sweet peppers - Suttons (Caspium) F' Gypsy

Cucumbers are Long Green Ridge/Marketmore's

I think at this rate i will be flooded with peppers soon, i have around 8/9 flowers fully open on 3 plants, and still more buds waiting!! Still no complaints there.

I think i will see if there are any tom plants going at the wilko's or the garden centre's and learn lessons for next year!!!!

[hilary]

Hi,
With regard to your questions on the peppers- they take a long time to mature about 18 weeks but the good news is that you can pick them when immature (green) or leave until red/yellow. THey do need high humidity, higher temperatures than tomatoes and high light intensity but will succeed under glass in this country and outdooors if sheltered and we have good summer! I have heard of people treating peppers as perennials but then you would need to heat the during the winter.
Re cukes - I grow Marketmore as an outdoor variety so nor probs there if indoors and they take about 12 weeks to reach maturity. Try to pick before mature as this encourages further fruits.
Re Basil - just keep picking and I think best preserved in ice cubes as drying seems to lose a lot of the flavour.
Good luck -
Hilary

[FelixLeiter]

We need to know the variety of your cucumber to advise on pollination, but most varieties now need no special attention.

Normally it is better if cucumbers are not pollinated at all. Greenhouse varieties produce fruits which are bitter and mis-shapen if they are pollinated ("bee stung"), hence all-female varieties. However, Marketmore is usually an outdoor, ridge variety and it's fine if the flowers are pollinated. Fruits swell very quickly once they start to form — check on them daily and pick as soon as they are big enough to encourage more. Lots of water and humidity is what they like most, as do your peppers, but tomatoes are not so keen on these conditions. You have to make a few compromises with a mixed greenhouse.

[Mike Vogel]

I grew Marketmore last year and we both enjoyed tis taste. It's an outdoor variety, but in the poor summer we had the ones outdoors did nothing. But I have a half-sized greenhouse in which I grew 2 plants and they were the ones which produced the goods.

Now we have tasted our first "Masterpiece" variety. It has a slightly aromatic taste and it's a deeper flavour then Marketmore. I could cheerfully recommend either variety, but I'd grow one or 2 in a greenhouse in case the oudoor crop fails.

I haven't tried any odd ones yet.

mike

[MrsL]

As said, basil is best stored in ice cubes - chop finely, place in ice cube trays and cover with water. Freeze, and when solid, turn out loose into a bag or box, so you can take one or two out at a time. Can be putinto sauces, etc frozen. Much better flavour preservationt han dried, which isn;t worth doing as all flavour is lost, IMHO. Remove the flowers form the basil plants, or they will put all their effort into making seeds instaed of leaf production. keep snipping off bits regularly to keep the plants healthy, and they should go on until about September time, with luck.Otherwise, can be stored as pesto (don't add cheese if freesing, though), or infused in olive oil to make a well-flavoured very useful oil.
Hope this helps.

[ken]

Just to add a quick note on pepper Gypsy, which we have grown consistently for years and years...The peppers are not large compared with some you'll see in the shops, but the flavour is good (especially when fully ripe) and they are very prolific. You should get plenty of peppers. You may find the plants need staking when they are fully loaded with fruit.

[carlos1981]

Ok, so following this....

Thanks for all the advice, i now have around 9/10 Peppers on the way! Plenty of Flowers still there, so as stated, should get quite a few!

So the 2 tom plants i gave up on, took them out of the greenhouse thing, and now 1 is flowering!! How, i have no idea, but im not complaining!
I have a mate who did a swap! 1 pepper plant for 1 tom plant, so i now have a fruiting Gardeners Delight plant going as well.

The Cuke plant is now the height of the greenhouse, so i have pinched out the top of that to stop it growing up, and there are plenty of small fruits forming. It is gorwign crazy at the moment, so i now have to work out how to keep the lower branches off the floor!!

I also have potatoes - Charlotte, Flowering, does anyone know a rough guide on when these will be ready to pick?