Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello

I've just returned from an Illustrated talk by Barry Newman on The Modern Kitchen Garden. He's a fellow of the National Vegetable Society and expert grower and speaker. His talk was fascinating, and I'd like to share with you Grapes a few of his tips that I hadn't come across before.

Lots of people grow tomatoes and cucumber together thinking they like the same conditions (I did), they don't, cucumber likes a warm and moist atmosphere and tomatoes like a warm and dry atmosphere.

Support potato haulms to help to prevent them from yellowing and being eaten by slugs. He does this by inserting pieces of wood around them and attaching string to the wood to support the haulms.

Potatos don't grow any deeper than the planting depth, that is why it's beneficial to earth up as the stalks produce more potatos then.

If you harvest potatos to store, chop the haulms off around 5 days before harvest to harden the skin.

Most of you may already know about these tips, but as I'm new I thought I'd share them wth other newbies .

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Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan

Oh, I forgot.

He's successfully grown butternut squash up his hedges. He puts some good compost at the bottom, pops and seed in and they scramble up and over, producing a good crop.

He got fed up with his wooden raised beds needing replacing, so he's replaced them with a lightweight concrete bed. The lightweight concrete was inexpensive, I can't remember where he got it from.

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Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan

all good advice Tracey - I shall take on board the on about the hedge and the butternut! I'm just about to post a question about a 'climbing frame' for butternut but would use the hedge if I had one!

Staking potatoes? Is this an April Fool?

Yellowing leaves are down to blight, eelworm or leaf curl virus. Staking won't prevent any of that I wouldn't have thought...

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

Thanks fot the tips Tracey, very useful.

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Imagination is everything, it is a preview of what is to become.

Thanks for posting the tips. There's something you learn everyday although I have heard about the risk of growing tomato and cucumber in the same greenhouse as they thrive in different regime.

Interesting fact about the potato growing nature, kind of help me understand why you can still grow potatoes from mulching with straw or grass clippings.

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Food for Free

He didn't take them individualy, the put the string around the potatoes in the whole bed. He was adamant that leaving the haulms floping on the ground was an invitation to pests and disease. He showed a picture of them staked and they did look very perky .

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Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan

Whats a haulm?

The bit of the plant above the ground! ( easy when you know!)

I've just remembered another tip.

For long straight show carrots and parsnips, poke a long rod into the soil, fill with compost, plant seed in compost. The carrots and parsnips take the least line of resistance as they grow long and straight.

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Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan

Yo Tracey, I like the idea of sticking a rod in the ground for straight carrots. I'll give it a try and report back later. Many thanks.