Allotments 4 All

It's true, Shintokiwa is very sweet, the sweetest cucumber I've ever eaten.

Larger fruits are smooth but the smaller ones, picked 15-20cm have a grooved, prickly appearance. Perfectly edible though, never found it necessary to peel them.

They're still producing despite being quite heavily coated in powdery mildew for most of the season. Perhaps in years like this they would be better off outdoors. I'd like to compare them to Saiko, which is allegedly PM resistant. Though I think they'd be hard to beat for flavour.

Shintokiwa looks like it has a very smooth skin too.  I doubt it would need peeling.  A very different cucumber from any we are familiar with and I hadn't heard about it either.

There are so many really nice and useful seeds to look forward to again.  Have just googled Grandpa's cress and that also looks so unusual and different than the feathery cress we are more familiar with.

Quote from: Vetivert on September 15, 2025, 18:08:19Looks like you all have some very exciting seeds in the pipeline!

It's been some time since I grew early prolific straightneck but I distinctly recall being impressed by the flavour, so looking forward to growing it again!

Peas were a flop this year, the early season heat was just too much for them. [/i]

My peas also had quite a lot of failures. They are always a bit of a fight against pigeons who love nibbling them when they're at ground level and love sitting on them when they're tall making a solid cushion and nibbling freely. Netting over the whole lot is the only solution I've found.

This year though I lost some varieties I was growing on for seed. Unusually I went away for two to three weeks in August to fit with school holidays. By the time I returned all the drying pods had completely disappeared. I'm sure small rodents are keener than ever to make the vegetable garden their home.

I hadn't heard of the Shintokiwa cucumber but it looks very good going by Vital Seeds' description. Did you find it exceptionally sweet as they claim, Vetivert?

Looking forward to the watermelon, Galina. A short season variety sounds very promising.

Shintokiwa cucumber ripening 

Looks like you all have some very exciting seeds in the pipeline!

It's been some time since I grew early prolific straightneck but I distinctly recall being impressed by the flavour, so looking forward to growing it again!

Peas were a flop this year, the early season heat was just too much for them.

Green tomatoes have a different flavour, sweet and almost spicy, very sophisticated, Markfield Rover.  We love them, ever since that iconic tomato of Tom Wagner's, the Green Zebra, took the tomato world by storm, now over 40 years ago. 

I have a small offering of watermelon seeds.  Small because only the first fruit is currently ready, called Golden Midget.  Really small, looks more like a grapefruit on the ground. Correspondingly, there are not that many seeds.  I didn't bag it, but there were no other watermelons around.  It should be early enough for UK, even if summer isn't as blazing as in parts this year.  Sorry I didn't take a photo. 

This was my source of seeds and their description:  "Golden Midget has been on the market since 1959 and originates from America. This variety was developed by Elwyn Meader and Albert Yeager at the University of New Hampshire. This small watermelon, weighing about 1.5 kilos, is very suitable for our climate due to its small size (and thus short growing period). 'Golden Midget' is a golden-yellow melon with juicy and sweet pinkish-red flesh. Compared to other varieties, the plant has a relatively compact growth habit, making it suitable for growing in pots or containers.

With most watermelons, it's difficult to determine when the fruit is ripe. With Golden Midget, it's somewhat easier. You can actually see it. The fruit changes color from green to yellow. Once the fruit has turned completely yellow, it's ripe."   

https://www.jansenzaden.nl/products/citrullus-lanatus-watermeloen-golden-midget-47340?_pos=1&_psq=golden+mid&_ss=e&_v=1.0&variant=46390648570112

Green Spindle would be of interest thank you Galina . Next season I want to explore green tomatoes more .

More seeds of Green Spindle are fermenting as I write this Jan. 

And I have washed the debris off the Early Prolific Straightneck squash seeds and the seeds are now drying. 

Yes, little pots of drying seeds waiting to be sorted on every available surface! The floor of our little spare bedroom is also full of white buckets of bigger stalks upside down waiting to be threshed - lettuce, coriander etc. and brown paper bags with bean pods.

I'm not close to a final list for the seed circle either but the next month should clarify things a bit.

Thank you for your good range of crops, juliev. Looking forward to variety names when you're ready. I'm growing Kakai this year by way of naked seed pumpkin but alas, no successful hand pollination. Perhaps yours is Kakai? I'm looking forward to harvesting your Desert Spirit Landrace. In my squash jungle with one or two new varieties I'm unsure of, it's difficult to see exactly what will emerge but I think there are a couple of beauties.

And I, for one, Galina, would enjoy growing on Green Spindle to see what happens.

Now that is dedication MR, thank you.  Glad Carol Klein helped too