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Hi Perry,
No reason for not planting if you like experimenting!
I saved some seed from a Courgette 5 years ago. it was a climbing F1 variety. Each year the seeds germinated okay, but the plant provided a different fruit each year. Last year I had butternut squash from it, but they had none of the sweetness. Unfortunately they all failed to give me viable seeds for this year…
Another issue is whether you have the same growing conditions as those used to provide the flavour of the plants you ate and saved seed from. For instance, I never was able to replicate the flavour of my fathers potatoes which he grew in South West Scotland. I live in NW Kent inside the M25. It was only a couple of years ago I learned that Jersey Royals from Jersey are grown on steep South facing slopes so they get the Spring sun on them more than on flat land as I have. With retrospect, i now realise that SW Scotland has mild Springs and his garden was on a S. facing slope.Trust this info. helps you manage your expectations.
BR
NeilHi Rhys, after the snow etc, just wondered what has haqppened to your soil temperature? Just wondered if the snow we had in the last week has an effect or not….
BR
Neil [Bromley/ SE London]Hi Dieter, this makes perfect sense, but living where we do near London, the ground freezes so infrequently it is not really necessary.. I guess things are different on the continent.
NeilDepending on whether you can spend some cash on your hobby or not, have a look at LED grow lights.
I use IKEA Vaxer (2 storey) grow light set-up and have had seedlings growing in a cool room with the lights on a timer giving them 14 hours light a day. Here is a link… http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indoor-gardening/
The initial cost is quite high, but once you have them they should last for many years.Provenders (Kent / London) provide organic compost at 36.00 for a bulk bag and composted mushroom or horse manure at 40.00.
Prices available to allotment societies.Hi Offwego and Rhys,
I’ve thought about the same issue myself when my friend received a (tractor)bucket load of horse muck to the tune of 1 ton. It strikes me that no dig follows nature relatively closely as a principle. Now, in the great scheme of things, horses do not produce 1 ton of manure at any 1 time!
I feel that the rotting process inside could be anaerobic, producing the bacteria we do not want. The science seems to support Rhys’s approach of mixing woody and wet composting material helping oxygenation.My seedlings for which there was no room under the LED lights have also stretched a bit. However, as I had to make a choice I left the tomato and tomatillo plants on the window cill with less light. The reason for this is that today I’ve just repotted them having carefully curled the stem around in the pot where they can safely produce new roots. My 8″ tall plants are now only 2″ tall.
While this may not be ideal it provides me with 2 benefits:
1. more growing space for seedlings when the sowing goes bonkers later on, and,
2. I have something green to appreciate!Hi Plot 52, Just to add to Charles’s sage words, I find that a good thick 4″ of woodchips on the paths means that when perrenials do pop up, the woodchip is so loose, the roots are easy to remove…
I feel your pain as I was used as child labout 50 years ago to grow potatoes for the family in a field of couch grass, where the rhizomes would go straight through the potatoes! I guess what I am saying is in the bit you are clearing, you may want to be thorough else you will be doing it next year again.Hi Jacob, I’ve been there and it works…
Many years ago We had a family business making kitchen-ware turned from wood. We composted the shavings and sawdust by throwing it into a fruit cage along with anything else which had grown and was smaller in diameter than a small finger. Over the years the surface height grew by about 5′ taller than the starting point.
I believe that the rasps liked it as they grow, in nature, in boggy slightly acidic land. Anyway, these canes had to be be bent over to keep them inside the fruit cage!
Good luck with the project.