Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi there - we sowed poached egg plants seeds for my raised beds months ago and they are now in and doing well but not flowering yet. Went to Garden Organic at Ryton yesterday and theirs were HUGE and in full flower! Did we sow them too late? Theirs were so big and sprawling I dont see how an annual could be like that so early in the season! Please help as I am worried that by the time they flower they will be too late to attract insects for my veg crops...

they'll come a bit later. the ones flowering now were autumn sowings

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

Once youve sowed them once they tend to self seed, so you will have them forever and they then flower that bit earlier. Flower size prob depends on what kind of soil you have and how happy the plants are . Mine are huge this year cos they are near the raspberries that were lucy enough to get some manure!

I might have dug mine up by mistake as dont know what they look like as young seeds

Mine have been and gone but I put my seed in autumn time

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I usually plant them in spring - as this year, and they have literally just shown their heads above ground, but a few years ago I planted the seed in Oct, and they grew really big - infact carried on growing slowly over winter, so that by early spring I had a green bushy hedge edging my veggie bed. They actually got a bit too over-enthusiastic and messy, so I tend to plump for more manageable spring sowings now

LCG

I let them self-seed. They are an excellent ground cover/green manure over winter, and provide early food for beneficials (hoverflies and bees).

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

come to think about it I haven't seen mine this year.I let them do their own thing in my flower bed up until now so maybe they have run their course and I need re sow

I do'nt know whether I have an allergy to poached egg plants or whether it is the plants themselves, but when thinning out or pulling out I have to wear gardening gloves, otherwise the rash on my hands is very painful and lasts for days.

I have mine in a pot, and they are just tiny seedlings (but so are half my veggies) !!