spuds

[diggerrick]

how do you stop potatoes from chitting, i have already planted some but i have to many to put in all at one go cheers ???

[diggerrick]

[saddad]

Keep them cool... around 4C... but unless you have a walk in fridge you are just going to have to slam them in. You can knock the chits off them.. so they have to start again, but I wouldn't encourage that...

Welcome to A4A Diggerick.  :)

[chriscross1966]

Put them somewhere bright like a windowsill.... the chits green up and stay short...

[Busby]

I have a normal fridge with a vegetable drawer and that's where I put my seed potatoes - every year - until I plant. They have always been a success, all kinds. I don't really see the point of chitting, the week or two time difference until harvesting is hardly worth all the trouble otherwise involved .

[diggerrick]

hi,i am looking for approx 4 tonnes of topsoil,i live in mansfield area notts,can anyone recomend  the best place to get some. :) thanx

[Stripeybea]

Hi Diggerrick

Another local! Our allotment is in kirkby, not far  :)

Joe Walker Haulage sell topsoil for £13.00 a tonne but dont know if thats a good/bad price, they are based at Selston

Bea

[saddad]

When I did a search in Derby it was coming up at £50-£60 per tonne... so that's a good price, but not necessarily good soil.  :-X

[lincsyokel2]

what kills the price of topsoil (in fact any aggregate) is the price of haulage, if you can get hold of a bloody great trailer and fetch it yourself, its a lot cheaper.

[diggerrick]

hi, can anyone give me advice on growing them also are they a salad crop?or do you cook em?cheers rick. ;)

[chriscross1966]

hi, can anyone give me advice on growing them also are they a salad crop?or do you cook em?cheers rick. ;)

They're nearly inedible IMHO, you'd be better off growing real peas :D.... Heck, you'd be better off growing mangetout, and I hate mangetout..... otherwise treat as a non-hardy bean, sow at the back end of April in big modules or small pots, plant out mid-end of May after hardening off....

chrisc

[Robert_Brenchley]

Have you tried Kent Blue? A lot of mangetout is pretty tasteless (it's good in something spicy though), but KB is really sweet-tasting. Let the peas grow, and eat the lot.

[diggerrick]

hi, anyone out there got any good/usefull recycling ideas for my allotment?dont like spending too mutch.so any ideas would be grateful. :)

[cacran]

I love recycling in fact my allotment is full of recycled stuff. Everyone thinks I am mad. Before throwing anything away, I look at the possibilities!!!!!

Pallets are good for all sorts of things. Like fencing, decking, pergola, raised beds. All of which I have done.

Tay bags make useful compost storage. I made some bays with pallets but found that bind weed was encroaching from next allotment, into the compost. I got hold of some Tay bags and put one in each bay. It has been a success.

Pop bottles make useful cloches.

Plastic  milk cartons can be used for all sorts of things. Cut off the tops, turn them upside down and you have a funnel. Pierce the bottom part and you have a plant pot.

Clothes rails can be used for peas or tomatoes to climb up.







B

[chriscross1966]

Builders dumpy bags for compost heaps or grow-bags

[kt.]

Mine have been in the attic since Jan.  First earlies went in 2 weeks ago but all my others have chits up tp 10 inches long!  No doubt half will snap off when they go in the ground tomorrow.

[BoardStupid]

I love recycling in fact my allotment is full of recycled stuff. Everyone thinks I am mad. Before throwing anything away, I look at the possibilities!!!!!

Pallets are good for all sorts of things. Like fencing, decking, pergola, raised beds. All of which I have done.

Tay bags make useful compost storage. I made some bays with pallets but found that bind weed was encroaching from next allotment, into the compost. I got hold of some Tay bags and put one in each bay. It has been a success.

Pop bottles make useful cloches.

Plastic  milk cartons can be used for all sorts of things. Cut off the tops, turn them upside down and you have a funnel. Pierce the bottom part and you have a plant pot.

Clothes rails can be used for peas or tomatoes to climb up.







B

An old metal framed clothes airer stripped apart makes great cloche frames  ;D

[diggerrick]

hi, i have just found i have ants in a part of lotty are they freind or foe? ???

[ceres]

Diggerrick, I've sent you a Personal Message.

[chriscross1966]

Black ants are foes generally, they'll farm aphids on your beans, red ants are friends cos they eat bugs.... black ants do too but the reds don't farm aphids.... if you have no beans leave then alone, if you do have beans scatter ant-bait traps amongst them, if you wipe out the black ants the red ones take over.....

[cornykev]

Diggerick, cross dressing we don't mind but cross posting makes me dizzy. Tonybloke will be on soon.  :P
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