Kitchen Garden Forum

An interesting experiment, Primrose, so thank you for the update.

Time I think, for my annual moan about "pseudo" jersey potatoes. Had some with some English asparagus and despite being sold as Jerseys ,they didn,t have that creamy colour or textUre and certainly none of that traditional "seaweed" Jeraey taste.
Every spring in recent years we,ve bought these hoping for a seasonal taste only to be bitterly disappointed. They probabky undoubtedly came from Jeraey but they are definitely not the Jeraey Royals of old.

Are these actually obtainable any more or are Jersey potatoes now just an expensive marketing con? And has seaweed spreadin, which allegedly gives them their special flavour been banned by regulations somewhere?

Am I obsessive in that I chop and cut all the tough brassica dtalks before putting them in the compost? I slice down the stalk with a knife before breaking or cutting into pieces six inches or less.

Or do others do this?

And another question. Has anyone else transplanted those volunteer or escapee potatoes from last year's crop ? I always miss some and this year I decided to lift them carefully and bung them in a bed of their own to see how they do.

I get clubroot so all brassica roots go to the bonfire. I used to split the stalks then shred them into the compost but now I just strip them and chop off the thinner part then put them on the bonfire as well. I got rid of the shredder, couldn't stand the slowness.

Stephen wrote:Am I obsessive in that I chop and cut all the tough brassica dtalks before putting them in the compost? I slice down the stalk with a knife before breaking or cutting into pieces six inches or less.

Or do others do this?

I used to use a hammer to pulp the stems .more satisfying.

Any pepper growing afficionados on here?

I have one plant, sown in February which is growing like Jack & the beanstalk - far, far too tall. Have never really had this problem in the past so unsure how to deal with it. It hasn't started flowering yet.
If I cut out the top third of the plant to reduce it to a reasonable height, will it start growing sideshoots which will bear flowers?

no real advice here, mine did that last year, I suspect I coddled them with too much heat and water in the greenhouse. This year, they are still short (possibly a bit on the small side) as I've been leaving the door open even on cool days, and not giving them a lot of water. Most will go out in the ground very soon, a couple I'll pot up and leave inside and see what the difference is.

Spot the netting repairs!

I shred all brassicas before adding to compost heap (I even shred cardboard as well to speed things up).

I pull the odd volunteer potato up in other beds but have a 10ft square which has some growing from last year so left them there and planted new one in-between them.

Beautifully darned, Stephen. I don't suppose it would do for socks .....
We have to net all our vegetable plants in the garden because the blackbirds, desperate for worms, are digging up all the seedlings and the house sparrows nibble the leaves of peas, beetroot and any type of lettuce. The brassicas are under tall netting any case to preserve them from wood pigeons and cabbage white butterflies.

I think I got payback from my commenting (read moaning); about the lack of rain & filling the butts constantly. The weather forecast of light showers turned into full on heavy rain complete with lively gusts today & overnight as well but a bit of sun this morning to entice me down. It was deafening & crowded in the tunnel with the dogs, but thankfully at least I had the shelter. Every time it looked like passing & I went out to do things another downpour hit me, so got fairly wet. More to come tonight apparently.

Oh, you lucky thing, Westi - I don't mean the getting wet - at least you have had RAIN! Everything is so so dry here. I planted the dwarf beans yesterday and the soil was bone dry before I gave them a good soaking. The forecast IS for rain, but I'll believe it when I see/hear/feel it!

Rain update: 11.5mm overnight!

Monika wrote:Rain update: 11.5mm overnight!

In English ??