Grow Your Own Magazine

Morning to all grapes. Going to sound a daft question but I started my onion sets off in the greenhouse as advised by my daughters neighbour. They grew quickly and sprightly but when it came to putting them in I had broken my wrist and have had a metal plate put in and I am seeing the surgeon tomorrow to see how successful it has been. . I did them one handed a few weeks ago but despite the fact that the tops looked healthy the bulbs seemed soft. They look good in my plot, very green but I have probably put them in too deep. Do they get firmer as they get bigger or shall I just accept that they've had it. If they are not going to be any good I could really do with the space for something else. I have a long garden but most of it is paths, grass and fruit trees. I am catch cropping at the base of the runner beans and have spuds in sacks in between the shrubs. All done one handed! Talking of spuds I am only growing earlies but we want spuds for Christmas. Years and years ago we grew some in sacks and had them Christmas day so it was a success but we cant remember whether we used early spuds in which case I shall save some from whats in the garden. Sorry about the length of questions. Been weeding this morning and wanted an excuse to sit down !! Many thanks.

Well done for doing ANYTHING one handed! Your soft onions will only be the onion sets. As they grow you should get good onions even if they have been left a bit long before putting in. I'd leave them and give them a chance.
As to earlies at Christmas - you can buy seed potatoes that have been kept chilled for later planting - Carlingford and (if memory serves,) Charlotte are the usual ones. But there's nothing to stop you stowing a few of your own crop in the salad drawer of the fridge - make sure everyone knows so they don't cook your seed spuds! You can put them in around about August.

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Some days you're the statue, some days you're the pigeon!

vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 1st 2008

That was quick Flummery, thanks for that. I would not have thought of putting them in the fridge on the basis that they go black. Not going to matter much for a seed potatoe though is it. I'll give it a go. I did notice that my local Wyevales still had spuds in there last week although I expect all the earlies have gone by now. By the look of it you could fill a bag and probably mix them. I suppose if I took a magic marker with me I could write on the spud as I put it in the bag and then get a mixture!!!! On second thoughts maybe not, OH finds me embarrassing enough sometimes as it is as the older I get the more likely I am to speak my mind (especially about poor service). Thanks again Flummery.

Well done you - we shouldn't have to put up with poor service.

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Some days you're the statue, some days you're the pigeon!

vegheaven.blogspot.com Updated July 1st 2008

Sanjo.

I would also take a marker pen, write on the potato and mix them - if I wanted to!

Never worry about what people think of me...life's too short!

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Andrea :wavehello

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...logs/zazen999/

moon trial underway with onions, lettuce, tomatoes and calabrese.