[ElizaDParticipant]

Hi Catherine

Perhaps your raspberries will reshoot from the base? I stuck two raspberry plants in a large pot as I had nowhere to put them several years back. Earlier this year I just prised them apart and planted eight canes in my garden in reasonably well rotted horse manure. I have six plants growing strongly and I have been picking raspberries from them. They are Autumn fruiting but have fruited early as I did not cut the canes down in the winter. I will cut these tall fruiting canes at the base when they finish and hope for more fruit off newer canes in the autumn.

Fingers crossed.

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Stu,

Did you find an answer to your question? I ask because I am also thinking of planting my 3 blueberries presently in pots even though I am getting good cropping from them. It would just be easier – less watering.

Regards
Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Bumping up again!

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Charles

Just bumping this one up. Also to let you know I can see a nasty anonymous post at the end of the blackfly on broad beans thread.

Regards
Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Hi Rhys

I am in Somerset. My raspberries started ripening third week in June so nearly as good as you. Some of my cucumbers are in large pots this year and doing better than the two plants in a raised bed (marketmore, organic seed) put outdoors late May. The first harvest is from one of the potted plants. I planted radishes around the potted cucumbers and had huge juicy roots as these received lots of water!
I have had about half a dozen courgettes from two plants also grown in large pots this year too.
My garden is crammed with way too many lettuces of many kinds and as you say these have been so lovely this year even though it has been so dry. My family and neighbours are very happy to get bouquets of many varieties of lettuce and radicchio.
I do not have any ripe outdoor tomatoes yet but I do have some readonably sized fruit so we shall see how the weather goes as to when these ripen.
Dwarf beans are prolific. I reckon if I was to sow a second crop of dwarf beans around this time next year I would be able to harvest after my holiday instead of coming back to almost finished climbing beans. Save the effort of putting in supports too.
Here’s to a good downpour on Thursday to save time and effort watering and glorious weather for the weekend! Happy growing!

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Hi Rhys, I haven’t bothered with runner beans this year. Sowed my dwarf beans in April and covered with plastic sheeting just as an experiment – worked well too. I may well just sow dwarf beans next year as the climbing beans always seem to reach their cropping peak as I am about to go on holiday! Anything else of yours really early this year?

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Been harvesting my dwarf cupidon beans for a good two or three weeks now and just getting small beans on my climbing Cobra and cosse violet which should be ready in about a week or so. A good couple of weeks behind you but to be honest I was slow getting my climbing beans planted out this year as I knew the dwarf would be cropping. My first outdoor cucumber has just been brought in though!

Regards
Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Thanks, Charles, just what I wanted to hear. Two or three years at most is all I generally manage in rotation terms in any case but I do generally try not to follow with the same groups of plants. Growing a lot more veg this year and so space is tight. I read in your books that you sometimes only manage two years between the same group of plants, particularly salad stuff, but I hadn’t really thought of the length of time a crop is in the ground, yes, the peas are only there a short time in the scheme of things. Makes life easier.

Thanks again
Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Actually the above should say in year six of no dig, as 2012 was my first no dig year.

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Same here in year five of no dig – very little slug damage even in the shady places. Ants however are another thing and they are driving me to distraction!

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Hi Karen

I am growing some of my cucumbers in pots for the first time this year because of lack of space. One of my pot grown ones is showing the same stem rot as on yours. I believe it is overwatering the pot in my case. Never had a problem with cucumber stems rotting when I’ve planted in the ground. All my other pot grown look ok but they are in a slightly sunnier spot than the one with some stem rot. I too will ease up on the watering. Courgettes, apart from being a little wind battered, are doing great in pots but then they grow faster than the cucumbers and need the water. I tried to raise the soil a little in the middle of the pots when I planted and I water around the rim mainly.

Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Hello John

Thanks for this. I am going to start some today and see how it does then.

Thanks again
Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Hi John

Some of my apple tree leaves suffer this same problem but in a little while now I’ll be finding lots of ladybird larvae amongst the aphids so I don’t pick them off – just wait for the predators to get growing! Of course my apple tree is quite large so I can afford to let things be. You have less leaves on your espaliers so this may concern you more. I find in my garden that the ants encourage the aphids. Do you have ants running up and down your espaliers? They run up and down my apple tree, blackcurrant bush, raspberries and blueberries. I try to keep a saucer of water round anything in pots but I can’t do much about the trees and bushes planted in the ground. Sometimes glue bands can help.

Regards
Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Thanks Don for your inpu, I will give it some thought about making the beds deeper then. I was concerned that deeper beds may dry out more and become a home for the ants that love this very sunny area. Still measuring up so no final decision made yet. Any further thoughts welcome!

Many thanks, Eliza

[ElizaDParticipant]

Thanks for this John.

Yes, water pipes are the problem as they are absolutely nowhere near the required depth. My neighbour found this out when he was building a small garden room and struck one at a depth he could not believe. I had also found one previous to this when putting a small pond on the edge of my patio – pipes criss-cross this area. I know there is soil there from digging out the pond. This pond area has now been filled in but I’m thinking of this same spot for the narrow(ish) raised beds.

It would enable me to better rotate a few summery things mainly, e.g. toms, courgettes, beans, maybe cucumbers and it would also be handy for overwintering salad stuff and a few spring cabbages. I don’t think roots from these crops should cause too much of a problem but if anyone thinks differently please let me know! I have decided I will remove the slabs as you suggest but put in 6″ raised beds just to be on the safe side.

Thanks again for your input.

Eliza

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