Kitchen Garden Forum

On Tuesday evening we covered all our seeds growing in the polytunnel with plastic covers as it looked like we would have a cold evening. Unfortunately on Wednesday neither of us could go up to the pt and uncover until 4pm, by then the damage was done, I have lost 32 broad beans in deep trainers, 25 sweet peas and 10 cabbages. All lost to heat and moisture under the plastic tops. I was really upset as both broad beans and sweet peas were really healthy.

You have my sympathy Catherine, what a shame. I just caught my wilting seedlings in time in the greenhouse todayeven with a through draft it was too hot in there.

Dear Catherine, now that is a shame.

With the Broad Beans and Sweetpeas, if you are very lucky they might reshoot from the base, just depends how badly damaged they are. But i would cut the damaged portion off and give them a couple of weeks to see what happens.

Give them all good soaking ..then pinch the tops out ..and you may end up with sturdier and stronger plants as a result.With a little later crop as a bonus !!

Unfortunately I pulled all the dead looking seeds out and binned them so I have planted some more in the deep trainers.

I wish that we had a proper greenhouse instead of a polytunnel. For the last three years we have had blight on our tomatoes and I am sure it is because of the heat problem and providing good through air proving difficult I don't know if I will grow toms this year.

I am growing cucumbers and aubergine both of which we eat loads.

I might grow some toms on my patio instead and see how they do. Any suggestions on which type to grow??

Our problem isn't the weather but mice in the greenhouse.

I don't use propagators or plastic covers in my tunnels. Unless we get severe weather, most sowings will cope in a tunnel without heat, from March, providing you close the doors at night and open them in the morning. I use a thermometer to keep an eye on the lowest and highest daily temperatures and I sit all of my pots and trays in an inch of water until they've germinated.

My first outdoor sowings of broad beans are through now, so they really don't need too much heat.

Very bad luck, Catherine. But you didn't need to have covered any of your seedlings, especially in a polytunnel. Broad beans are completely frost hardy and so are sweet peas (they can be overwintered without heat). Come to think of it, your cabbages seedlings would withstand a chill, too. At this stage of the season, you gain nothing by resowing your beans and sweet peas into deep trainers — they will quickly establish from a direct sowing.

As far as your tomatoes and blight is concerned, blight is only a problem where the foliage gets wet. If you grow them on a patio they stand a chance of getting rained on, and blight is then more likely to ensue. You describe having a heat problem in your tunnel. Tomatoes absolutely love heat, believe me.

Sorry to hear about your weather disaster, Catherine. Yes, it really has been unseasonably warm yesterday and today, 21 degrees!

My broad beans and peas have been planted outside for at least a fortnight without any protection in the garden and the sweet peas on the allotment with just a sort of windshield round them, open to the top, on the allotment. And since then we have had light frost - no damage done. The bulk of the broad beans and peas are going into the ground on the allotment over the weekend.

Hi Monika, Nigel and I were just talking about you today. Please let us know when your Horticultural show is on this year as we would like to come again this year.

As far as the beans and peas are concerned have you covered your beds with plastic to warm them up or have you just planted into the ground.

Are your beds warm enough for the peas to go in yet? We are on holiday two weeks on Friday and did not plan to put our peas in till we came home. If you are okay planting then maybe we should get ours in before we go away. Do you cover with fleece or just leave them to get on with it.

I would like to plant my sweet peas (of which I have a great many) out before we go away to make it easier to look after than in the PT.

Sorry so many questions but you are slightly further North (everso) than we are and I am curious to know what you have already got in.

Good to see you posting again Monika, hope all goes well.

Catherine, glad to hear you got lots of Sweet Pea plants, I intend to plant mine out tomorrow with their usual fleece windbreak.

Geoff do you mean you put a fleece wind break to surround your sweet peas how high and for how long. Mine are in the polytunnel, do I need to harden off before I plant them out or can I just put them out as they are.

We bought an envelope of sweet peas with five different packets from a professional grower at Tatton Park last summer but hardly any have germinated. Very disappointing. Not cheap either.

I adore sweet peas and have grown more and more over the years. They are all over our allotment. The same goes for sunflowers, last year I grew 60 sunflower and planted them all along the borders of the allotment they did really well.

I plant them straight out from cold greenhouse so I guess that is about the same. I have posted how I wrap the cane structure in metre high fleece before
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9007&p=85811&hilit=sweet+peas#p85811

Hi Cathrin, I'm no great shakes at this gardening lark, but thats real bad luck with the polytunnel However it was toms that got me into gardening in the first place 4 years back. I went with a recommendation from GQT's Bob Flowerdew, he got really excited over a new variety called 'Sungold', it crops well and the flavour is superb. This is my stand from last year, it croped so heavy I had to build the cane 'A' frame support!!!



I'm not bothering with toms in the greenhouse this year, the outside Sungolds do so well, its not worth the effort . . .

CJS

Wow CJS they look fab, I think I might try them this year if I can get hold of some. Thanks.

Thanks Geoff I will try that method I think.