Courgette & scallopini - now removed
Broccoli - now removed
Tomatoes - now removed apart from the last Green Zebra plant which is still going
Onions - appear to have removed themselves :)
Strawberries - still fruiting!
Spring onions - still going strong (shouldn't have planted so many)
Eggplant - the plants are growing on upwards now, but it's far too late in the season so no eggplants again this year :(
Showing posts with label onion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label onion. Show all posts
04 March 2009
07 February 2009
Weekend roundup
The heat is getting just a tad monotonous, is it not? I hosed the garden down again this morning (quite a mission as the hose is at the other end of the house), and noticed the following:
* The spring onions and the onions (which are particularly weak looking) are still suffering from the purple aphids, it doesn't seem to matter how much I water them
* Whitefly is back, this time on the underside of the tender new purple broccoli seedlings and on some of the citrus. I will try to remember to spray with Neem tonight.
* I seem to have planted the basil a bit late (although it will still get there - mmm pesto) and the eggplant very late - must try harder next year!
Here's my poor exhausted tomato plants mid way through the harvest:
Red Russian in the foreground, Green Zebra in the middle and Watermouth at the back. The San Marzanos are below:
And lastly, my courgette. I've been trying to get a photo of this for a while, but had to wait until all the leaves in the immediate vicinity were gone. You can see the vine coming out of the ground (it always surprises me just how dead it looks once it's dried and split, but evidently it still does the job), then it splits into two! Is this common? Both ends are equally sturdy and as productive as the average plant so I have two for the price of one.
* The spring onions and the onions (which are particularly weak looking) are still suffering from the purple aphids, it doesn't seem to matter how much I water them
* Whitefly is back, this time on the underside of the tender new purple broccoli seedlings and on some of the citrus. I will try to remember to spray with Neem tonight.
* I seem to have planted the basil a bit late (although it will still get there - mmm pesto) and the eggplant very late - must try harder next year!
Here's my poor exhausted tomato plants mid way through the harvest:
Red Russian in the foreground, Green Zebra in the middle and Watermouth at the back. The San Marzanos are below:
And lastly, my courgette. I've been trying to get a photo of this for a while, but had to wait until all the leaves in the immediate vicinity were gone. You can see the vine coming out of the ground (it always surprises me just how dead it looks once it's dried and split, but evidently it still does the job), then it splits into two! Is this common? Both ends are equally sturdy and as productive as the average plant so I have two for the price of one.
Growing Today:
*photoposts*,
basil,
broccoli,
courgette,
eggplant,
onion,
spring onion,
tomato
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19 October 2008
All in a row
Yesterday was awfully chilly but today it was toasty warm outside, so I got a bit of cleanup work done, trying to keep the weeds down before everything goes in the ground. I also planted out the three rocket seedlings into the ground next to the mesclun, at around 15cm apart. They're still pretty small considering they're a month old now, so perhaps they will take off now they're transplanted.
In the beetroot rows, 6 out of 12 Detroit and 4 out of 12 Albino are well and truly at seedling stage now, three weeks after they were sown. I don't need to thin these out as only every second one germinated - spooky! Today I have extended the row with another 6 sown of each, and also mulched in between the rows with some of the Tui pea straw pellets. These handfuls were pinched from the strawberry planters as there's far too much on those now the pellets have expanded. Not too keen on the associated flies though.
Next to the beetroot, the spring onions have also decided to make a move and I now have 5 out of 6 up, spindly and insubstantial as they are. They also now have 6 potential new friends that were sown today.
And round the corner, there's at least a dozen onion seedlings. I think it would more helpful if lemons didn't keep dropping on them though, and ironically it's the ones at the end nearest the lemon tree which have germinated while the other end doesn't seem quite so good - I imagine this will be because the lemon tree has had a couple of loads of compost round it over the past year while the other end missed out.
In the beetroot rows, 6 out of 12 Detroit and 4 out of 12 Albino are well and truly at seedling stage now, three weeks after they were sown. I don't need to thin these out as only every second one germinated - spooky! Today I have extended the row with another 6 sown of each, and also mulched in between the rows with some of the Tui pea straw pellets. These handfuls were pinched from the strawberry planters as there's far too much on those now the pellets have expanded. Not too keen on the associated flies though.
Next to the beetroot, the spring onions have also decided to make a move and I now have 5 out of 6 up, spindly and insubstantial as they are. They also now have 6 potential new friends that were sown today.
And round the corner, there's at least a dozen onion seedlings. I think it would more helpful if lemons didn't keep dropping on them though, and ironically it's the ones at the end nearest the lemon tree which have germinated while the other end doesn't seem quite so good - I imagine this will be because the lemon tree has had a couple of loads of compost round it over the past year while the other end missed out.
09 October 2008
Insects
I have noticed a few more pests around this week. As well as the snails that have been snacking on my lone broccoli (not that I've ever managed to catch any at it), there was a teeny weeny green caterpillar that I squashed yesterday. Checking around today, I've also spotted what might be black aphids on some of my garlic (well, they might be black aphids, I really need to track down a good book about NZ pests with really good photos in it!), and a tiny red spider thingy on the flowering strawberry plant which I'm assuming is a red spider mite. So everything got a good drenching with Neem Oil this evening.
I've just been to inspect the onion patch for any sign of life - there's a whole three seedlings there now, of the two dozen or so seeds I sowed. Doesn't bode well really. I've also got one spring onion out of the six sown, and still only a couple of Detroit beetroot and a couple of Albino beetroot out of the 12 of each sown. On the bright side, there's quite a few mesclun plants now that are recognisably seedlings rather than weeds.
I definitely have more luck with transplantable seeds rather than direct sown ones, so I'm off to pot up some of those seedlings into their intermediate pots.
I've just been to inspect the onion patch for any sign of life - there's a whole three seedlings there now, of the two dozen or so seeds I sowed. Doesn't bode well really. I've also got one spring onion out of the six sown, and still only a couple of Detroit beetroot and a couple of Albino beetroot out of the 12 of each sown. On the bright side, there's quite a few mesclun plants now that are recognisably seedlings rather than weeds.
I definitely have more luck with transplantable seeds rather than direct sown ones, so I'm off to pot up some of those seedlings into their intermediate pots.
20 September 2008
Signs of life
Today I spotted the first sign of some flowers on the strawberry plants in one of the planters - little white petals peeking through the green.
I also sowed the onion seed (straightforward) and mesclun seed which wasn't quite so orderly - staring at the pile of seed, staring at the bed, abandoning any pretence of sowing neatly at 5cm apart, scattering over the approximate area, then waving the hoe through it all to hopefully bury the seeds a bit!
I also sowed the onion seed (straightforward) and mesclun seed which wasn't quite so orderly - staring at the pile of seed, staring at the bed, abandoning any pretence of sowing neatly at 5cm apart, scattering over the approximate area, then waving the hoe through it all to hopefully bury the seeds a bit!
14 September 2008
Onion
Allium cepa, Stuttgart Long Keeper from Kings Seeds
Germinates in soil temperatures of 10-25°, direct sow 15cm apart and 2cm deep, takes 10 to 14 days to germinate, then 26 weeks to harvesting – so I must get these in the ground ASAP by the end of September, and it's too late now to do two sowings which would otherwise have been a nice idea. Apparently they want a long cool spring period to maximise the top growth before the bulbs start to swell in summer.
Onions need a well-composted sunny spot with good air circulation as they are prone to fungal diseases in damp conditions. On the companion planting front, they are good with strawberries and lettuce (and beneficial for carrots), but bad with peas and beans.
At harvest time the leaves should yellow and die down, after which the bulbs can be carefully lifted out with a fork (important to avoid bruising) in a dry breezy period and left to dry on a wire rack in the sun for a couple of days. The necks have to thoroughly dry out (up to two weeks) before storing.
While I grew some spring onions last year, onions themselves will be a new experiment this year. The Stuttgart Long Keeper is an heirloom variety, and I intend to plant a long row in the long triangular stretch (maybe 3 metres long) leading up to the lemon tree shown in my post of 31 August. I did compost this spot in autumn, so hopefully it'll prove to be suitable soil (nothing's ever been grown in it except weeds).
Germinates in soil temperatures of 10-25°, direct sow 15cm apart and 2cm deep, takes 10 to 14 days to germinate, then 26 weeks to harvesting – so I must get these in the ground ASAP by the end of September, and it's too late now to do two sowings which would otherwise have been a nice idea. Apparently they want a long cool spring period to maximise the top growth before the bulbs start to swell in summer.
Onions need a well-composted sunny spot with good air circulation as they are prone to fungal diseases in damp conditions. On the companion planting front, they are good with strawberries and lettuce (and beneficial for carrots), but bad with peas and beans.
At harvest time the leaves should yellow and die down, after which the bulbs can be carefully lifted out with a fork (important to avoid bruising) in a dry breezy period and left to dry on a wire rack in the sun for a couple of days. The necks have to thoroughly dry out (up to two weeks) before storing.
While I grew some spring onions last year, onions themselves will be a new experiment this year. The Stuttgart Long Keeper is an heirloom variety, and I intend to plant a long row in the long triangular stretch (maybe 3 metres long) leading up to the lemon tree shown in my post of 31 August. I did compost this spot in autumn, so hopefully it'll prove to be suitable soil (nothing's ever been grown in it except weeds).
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