Topic: Best / worst tips ever

[VegBob]

I have been growing veg for over 50 years and must have heard almost every tip going. What are the best and worst tips you have ever been given?

[lewic]

My plot-share mate tells me the rhubarb season ends in May and you need to pick it before then or it gets poisonous. Get back from a few days away and the plant has been stripped almost bare!

[caroline7758]

Best tip- grow comfrey!

Worst tip (didn't take it up)- "You want to rotavate- that'll get rid of the weeds". Not the couch and the bindweed it wouldn't !

[blackcountrysteve]

Bob, with that amount of experience you ought to write a column on here
I find it fascinating to listen to the old uns !! you can read as many books as you like
but blokes like yourself have much more knowledge.

Best tip ive been given is get your soil right to stand a good chance of growing succesfuly

what tips would you give the young generation bob ?

[Tee Gee]

get your soil right

As Arthur Billet would say..........the secret is in the soil!

And I agree!.... get that right and your three parts on the way to success!

( This year I haven't and I don't  I know about it ?........not half! )

Another one is;

If you find something/method/variety that works for you stick with it till you find a better one.

To find better ones; experiment with about 10-15% of your stock and grow the other  90 odd per cent with bankers, i.e. those that you know work for you!


This way you get the best of both worlds!

The saying 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' comes to mind here!

[pigeonseed]

Yes definitely, that's one of the all-time top tips I think: only a small amount of experimenting to avoid heartache.

When I started, I wanted rare things, and of course there's sometimes a reason why they're rare...  ::) There's more pleasure in a row of bog standard onions and broadbeans flourishing, than in acres of wilting rarities.

I don't think I've been given bad tips as such, more plenty of unwelcome ones  ;D You know, 'you don't want to be growing that'... 'that's a funny-looking plot'... 'You want to rip out all those X and plant Y...' 'I've never seen anyone do it like that...'   :P

My other favourite tip's from my mum: whatever you do, do a small patch at a time, so you see results before moving on. Otherwise your work is lost among the unfinished bits and it looks like you haven't achieved anything.

[Morris]

Most useful: only grow what you know you like eating in quantities you can eat or realistically preserve.

Least useful (more difficult this one): the spacings and sowing times on some seed packets. Oh, and I would also like to nominate everything Alys Fowler ever writes or says.

[Jeannine]

Soaking sweett corn seed and planting it early.. bad idea, if it germinates it is more by luck than judgement if soaked and starting it early actually delays it`s growth if stuck in pots for more than 3 weeks.

Best tisp..don`t rush things and don`t overcrowd things

XX Jeannine

Re the rhubarb, I think you will find that stopping picking late June-July is to give the plant chance to draw goodness from the tubers rather like a bulb does, nothing to do with poison.

XX Jeannine

[darkbrowneggs]

Soaking sweett corn seed and planting it early.. bad idea, if it germinates it is more by luck than judgement if soaked and starting it early actually delays it`s growth if stuck in pots for more than 3 weeks.

Best tisp..don`t rush things and don`t overcrowd things

XX Jeannine

Re the rhubarb, I think you will find that stopping picking late June-July is to give the plant chance to draw goodness from the tubers rather like a bulb does, nothing to do with poison.

XX Jeannine

Now she tells me ;D  Having just last night soaked my sweetcorn seed for 3 or 4 hours then planted it, hoping for swifter germination.  My first lot is already out in the polytunnel and around 6" high, but I want this lot to come on also, as I find the season, even in the polytunnel is not that long

I will let you all know what happens

All the best
Sue

[caroline7758]

Discovered today another bad tip- using video tape as a bird scarer in place of cotton. It breaks and wraps itself around the plants, especially when it's windy.

[electric landlady]

Good tip - thousands, but main ones must be:
only grow things you like eating
don't sow seeds (or plant things out) too early no matter how much you want to
make compost! and then make some more compost!

Bad tip:
worrying too much about exact spacings etc on seed packets
thinking there must be only one right way to do things

[lewic]

On Gardeners World, Carol Klein advising a client to get rid of a gorgeous Clematis Montana and grow ivy up their pergola instead. OK she might be right, but it seemed very wrong!

[laurieuk]

I started as garden-boy in 1948 and worst tip I have heard is to earth up brassicas that have club root so you get a crop. IT SPREADS THE SPORES EVEN MORE>

I have been growing veg for over 50 years and must have heard almost every tip going. What are the best and worst tips you have ever been given?

[bikegirllisa]

I completely agreed about the clematis, lewic.  I was shouting at the tv "tell her to get stuffed, love!".

[Ben Acre]

One good tip is to sow a small quantity of seeds in a packet and not all at once. Seeds dont need to be discarded if u dont sow that year, most of not all seeds can be kept for years.

[chriscross1966]

ardening......
Least useful ... everything Alys Fowler ever writes or says.

But she's very cute and has red hair and wears miniskirts while gardening.... who cares about the advice? (she's as mad as a box of frogs for starters....)

[1066]

LOL chris  :)

anyway my best tip, from A4A  8) was to pinch out the 1st cucumber on a plant so as to let it really grow. worked a treat

worst - don't think I have one. although I've probably committed a few horrors on my own plot, all of my own devising - but that's just learning  ;)

[Andy H]

Get rich soil and grow closer! A thai lady grows sweetcorn in green house and when she plants them she puts a seed right close to it, so gets 2 crops at different times and they dont care that they are right next to each other, her peas are crammed in very close and they are already 3.5ft high and looking good. Ours are a foot high if lucky!

Cant wait to eat the buggers! Wife moans I eat to many and they don`t make it to the pot!

best way to eat them in my opinion. :-X

[Andy H]

1066, what do you mean???

[davyw1]

1066, what do you mean???

What does 1066 mean by nipping off the first cucumer, Dont let any fruit grow for the first two feet of the plant, this allows the it to get well established.

One old feller give me another tip about cucumbers. Pick the cucumber peal off the skin soak it in viniger then trow it in the bin.

My best tip for gardening is " You are there to break its back its not there to break yours"