Fruit and veg growers of 2023

[Evoluzione]

As the bulbs poke through and another seed catalogue falls through the letterbox I realise it's time for this years thread to start
Any interesting plans for this year?
Is UTH going to capitalise on his new found tomato growing knowledge for a bumper crop?
What will the weather favour?

I'm currently trying Winter veg. The idea is you start them off late Summer so they get strong enough to stand Winter, maybe grow a bit during, but get into their stride in Spring for an early crop. Some Normal Varieties are hardy enough to make it through, some plants have to be special Winter Versions though.
You can do it outside or under glass, i've found outside to be a waste of time. It's just too harsh, not only the cold, but high winds and heavy rain either kill them off or they just sit and do nothing.
If you try it in a greenhouse/polytunnel then you need to think about what will happen if/when the spaces is needed for your Summer plants as there will be an overlap. I've turned over some permanent space to them and also planted some which can be pulled outside or transplanted to carry on growing in Spring.

NV of beet spinach and Spring onions have survived:


WV onion sets:

I'll drag these outside when the weather is better to grow. Sadly they don't see the sun there which has slowed them a bit, but they're doing ok.
I don't know what those containers were supposed to be originally, maybe lids for something? I picked them up cheap on FBM.
The outside ones just look pathetic, even though they have barely any top growth the wind has rocked them loose in the ground.


Here we have NV broccoli and beetroot, W onions, garlic Kale and some cauliflower. The Cauliflower was crap although the seeds arrived about a month after I ordered them so they didn't get very big, they started to die off even before the temps got to zero


For reference it's been down to -7 here. The Broccoli flagged and looked sick at repeated nights of that, but did actually recover and even has some heads on it:



W lettuce is looking lush:

I'll grow that again.

You can actually harvest some stuff over Winter by plucking bits off to eat, but for that you need a lot of plants to make one meal.

Plans for this year

This is the initial long list, I've been a bit overly optimistic so will maybe not get round to growing them all:

Sweetcorn 'Pot of gold' Dwarf variety supposedly good for containers and exposed locations.
Florence fennel
Marigold
Cavaloro Nero kale
Celeriac
Toms, various and cherry types
Cucumber (mini)
Self blanching celery
Early and late carrots. Try sweet candle and Amsterdam forcing
Swede
Sprouts
Broccoli
Red cabbage
Thyme
Kohl
Cape gooseberry
Potato
Peas?
Parsnip
Cabbage
Pak choi?
Asparagus?


Fruit:
Raspberry
Blackberry Waldo
Blueberry
Nectarella
Grape vine in PT?

I'm T2D and she is usually on some kind of diet (Keto these days) so we don't eat potatoes (starch/carbs = sugar) and have to be careful with fruit (sugar) and here is a surprising thing you may not know; above ground veg is generally less popular, but better for us and below ground veg is the opposite.
The reason we like root veg is because it's higher in sugar than above ground veg.
I'm going to go big on toms and carrots, quite a few potatoes. The reason being other people want them so I can trade and sell. Carrots i've found will overwinter in the ground as will some other crops, this means fresh veg to eat, trade and sell all through Winter.

People have discovered growing potatoes in buckets to be successful so i'll give those a go. I've also been researching how to grow great carrots without forking so will try a lot of those too.

I think some things are as tasty from the Supermarket as they are home grown, but then I haven't a great sense of taste. Carrots and toms are certainly better home grown though. You sometimes have to look for good reasons to grow your own other than the satisfaction.

I created an indoor strawberry bed by digging all this out with a mattock and pickaxe, there was so much stone and rock in there, I riddled the soil, it was about 50/50 stones/soil!
I mixed it with home made compost, put some weed suppressant sheet over:



You'll see a blowlamp lurking, that's used to burn/melt the holes through the membrane:



Use a plank so you don't overly compact the soil. It's all planted out now with some space at the back for cucumbers to climb. The shade from them shouldn't be too much of an issue as they're on the North side.

Other banter, ponderances, tips and tricks later....

[PositronicRay]

I don't eat much fruit and find veggies hard work.

So tomatoes and basil (again) in a second hand green house. Beds ready, basic irrigation, in last was a doddle.

Kudos to those that put the effort in though.

[droopsnoot]

I put some onions and potatoes in a few weeks back, and have a few onions showing. I've got tomatoes, mustard and cress in pots on the kitchen windowsill, and a few other seed packets still to go in.

[Evoluzione]

PositronicRay said:

I don't eat much fruit and find veggies hard work.

So tomatoes and basil (again) in a second hand green house. Beds ready, basic irrigation, in last was a doddle.

Kudos to those that put the effort in though.

Hard work to grow or eat?

This was last years basil:


Sorry, I don't know what they were called!

[wombleh]

Tried some winter veg which did quite well for a few months, until the freezing spell which wiped most of it out, along with some citrus trees in the greenhouse.

Still planning this year, avoiding brassicas as not had much luck with them.

[Evoluzione]

droopsnoot said:

I put some onions and potatoes in a few weeks back, and have a few onions showing. I've got tomatoes, mustard and cress in pots on the kitchen windowsill, and a few other seed packets still to go in.

That's about 3 months early for the UK, what's your secret? Heated greenhouse? Villa in the Spain?

[PositronicRay]

Evoluzione said:

PositronicRay said:

I don't eat much fruit and find veggies hard work.

So tomatoes and basil (again) in a second hand green house. Beds ready, basic irrigation, in last was a doddle.

Kudos to those that put the effort in though.

Hard work to grow or eat?

This was last years basil:


Sorry, I don't know what they were called!

Last Yr.



Hard work to grow. with basil I buy a cheap supermarket plant or two from the produce counter split it into 4 or even six, plant a basil hedge under the toms and it thrives.

Edited by PositronicRay on Wednesday 25th January 08:08

[Road2Ruin]

I'm in. Have the usual fruit; strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, blueberries, apples, pears, but also some veg. Not sure what yet this year, probably potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and courgettes. Have fancied chillies too, but only I eat them...

[XCP]

Evoluzione said:

droopsnoot said:

I put some onions and potatoes in a few weeks back, and have a few onions showing. I've got tomatoes, mustard and cress in pots on the kitchen windowsill, and a few other seed packets still to go in.

That's about 3 months early for the UK, what's your secret? Heated greenhouse? Villa in the Spain?

I was worried. I am still mulling over which seed potatoes to buy.

[Evoluzione]

XCP said:

Evoluzione said:

droopsnoot said:

I put some onions and potatoes in a few weeks back, and have a few onions showing. I've got tomatoes, mustard and cress in pots on the kitchen windowsill, and a few other seed packets still to go in.

That's about 3 months early for the UK, what's your secret? Heated greenhouse? Villa in the Spain?

I was worried. I am still mulling over which seed potatoes to buy.

If it helps Suttons have rated the potatoes in their paper catalogue, they have letters after them denoting what they excell at or are a good all rounder etc. Are you putting them in the ground or containers?

[XCP]

Evoluzione said:

If it helps Suttons have rated the potatoes in their paper catalogue, they have letters after them denoting what they excell at or are a good all rounder etc. Are you putting them in the ground or containers?

I am returning to gardening having bought a house with a garden including a raised bed and a greenhouse! I shall be planting some spuds in the ground and some onion sets and carrots and French beans in the raised bed. Tomatoes in the greenhouse. Nothing too adventurous to start with. All frozen solid at the moment obviously.

[droopsnoot]

Evoluzione said:

XCP said:

Evoluzione said:

droopsnoot said:

I put some onions and potatoes in a few weeks back, and have a few onions showing. I've got tomatoes, mustard and cress in pots on the kitchen windowsill, and a few other seed packets still to go in.

That's about 3 months early for the UK, what's your secret? Heated greenhouse? Villa in the Spain?

I was worried. I am still mulling over which seed potatoes to buy.

If it helps Suttons have rated the potatoes in their paper catalogue, they have letters after them denoting what they excell at or are a good all rounder etc. Are you putting them in the ground or containers?

Most of the potatoes were already in the ground when I cleared a spot for the onions to go in, and I just re-planted them in a different area where I thought I might remember them. As they were already there, I haven't really given it much thought. This is my Dad's old vegetable patch that I've sort-of taken over, and pretty much every time I clear a bit I find some potatoes in the ground. I don't even eat all that many potatoes, but I don't like to waste them if they'll grow again.

Onions said "plant September to December" on the packet, bought cheap from the Wilkos clearance at the end of last year. I planted onion seeds last year, and none came up.

[Evoluzione]

XCP said:

I am returning to gardening having bought a house with a garden including a raised bed and a greenhouse! I shall be planting some spuds in the ground and some onion sets and carrots and French beans in the raised bed. Tomatoes in the greenhouse. Nothing too adventurous to start with. All frozen solid at the moment obviously.

Beds or bags for tomatoes?
Be aware carrots are 'special needs' veg so be careful.

[Sticks.]

Yes, I've given up doing carrots, even in a part of the raised bed with sandy soil. So I expect I'll go for the easy option of first early spuds, swap them for runner beans - unless I think of something else, maybe leeks - onion sets, maybe broad or french beans. The small bed is for strawberries and the greenhouse will have a range of tomatoes, cucumbers, padrons, chillies and some mixed leaves.

So far the garden is still like a bog, being clay, so I've done nothing except buy a greenhouse heater.

[Evoluzione]

droopsnoot said:

Most of the potatoes were already in the ground when I cleared a spot for the onions to go in, and I just re-planted them in a different area where I thought I might remember them. As they were already there, I haven't really given it much thought. This is my Dad's old vegetable patch that I've sort-of taken over, and pretty much every time I clear a bit I find some potatoes in the ground. I don't even eat all that many potatoes, but I don't like to waste them if they'll grow again.

Onions said "plant September to December" on the packet, bought cheap from the Wilkos clearance at the end of last year. I planted onion seeds last year, and none came up.

I see, you have Winter onions like I have in the pics above.
Potatoes may or may not come up, if they've been frozen, rotted away or eaten they won't of course. My mother would always lob old wizened potatoes on the compost heap where they'd get buried and be kept warm over Winter, next year they'd have accidental potato plants growing in there.

You've outlined the big potato problem of course and that is finding them all.

There is one other typical issue with them. It's been realised that disturbing the ground in such a way is actually bad for it and crop volume will worsen (Google/YT 'No dig').

Taking both those into consideration is why container growing is gaining popularity at the moment. You can start them earlier if you have indoor space before pulling them outside, then tip the whole lot out at the end to get to all the potatoes.

[Evoluzione]

Sticks. said:

Yes, I've given up doing carrots, even in a part of the raised bed with sandy soil. So I expect I'll go for the easy option of first early spuds, swap them for runner beans - unless I think of something else, maybe leeks - onion sets, maybe broad or french beans. The small bed is for strawberries and the greenhouse will have a range of tomatoes, cucumbers, padrons, chillies and some mixed leaves.

So far the garden is still like a bog, being clay, so I've done nothing except buy a greenhouse heater.

What was the problem with the carrots, forking? Carrot root fly is another big problem for many.

[Sticks.]

Evoluzione said:

What was the problem with the carrots, forking? Carrot root fly is another big problem for many.

I've not had a problem with carrot fly, probably because of the (number of) onions, but they just don't grow any longer than my thumb, at best. As shame, as I like them and they store well enough.

Re onions, there are varieties you can plant in Autumn but by now they'd have grown a bit. The disadvantage of putting them in now is I think the birds will have them, as any little shoots look worm-like, get pulled out and dropped.

I know no dig is popular but one advantage of digging is potatoes will grow more easily and for me, wanting to get first earlies in as soon as I can, I can let some warmth into the soil. Some people cover with black plastic for this. Something which could be debated ad inf

[droopsnoot]

Evoluzione said:

You've outlined the big potato problem of course and that is finding them all.

Yes, made worse by my lack of attention span that means I can never quite seem to keep going long enough to clear the whole patch, and it's not all that big. I lose interest much too quickly. Also, I didn't plant them, so I've no real clue where to start.

Growing in pots is an interesting one, I might try a few like that. Need to clear the greenhouse out - it's been used for storage for the last few years. Plenty of plastic stuff that has gone through too many heat/cold cycles to be any use, if I can just find a few minutes.

[wombleh]

Always found spuds in containers got demolished by slugs here. Despite going out hunting after dark with a torch and bottle of salt water!

[Evoluzione]

wombleh said:

Always found spuds in containers got demolished by slugs here. Despite going out hunting after dark with a torch and bottle of salt water!

I'll be doing nematodes this year.