Justvera's Inbox

Actually Vera modern low energy light bulbs are if anything even more efficient than standard grow lights as long as you just want light which is as close as possible to the wavelength of sunlight. If you want heat of course you are out of luck but you say you dont. The only thing is because of the lumens psm being rather low on these household lights they do need to be fairly close to the seedlings in a light box, but they won't scorch them so no problem. I won't go into full details (unless you want technical bumph, in which case PM me). It is not the amount of light that the human eye can detect but the wavelength of the light and it's closeness to sunlight. Household low energies are very close indeed better even than the flourescent ones sold for fish tanks. I keep a small lamp above my Pachypodium lamerei to boost daylight in winter. It works.

John

I am not sure about it, but I did buy some low energy screw in lighbulbs. I think they were 60 watt or so. Flourescent grow lamps a bit higher I think and certainly two tubes throw out a lot more light. It was cheaper for me to use the standard screw in type receptacle.

The extra warmth would be minimal. Soil cables would be much more practical.

My only pearl to this conversation being. Do a search for Police auction houses. Here in the States there is a great site specializing the reselling of confiscated property. Since pot growing is a big deal here. So are deals on the confiscated equipment. I even got a great chainsaw for a super price.

In this case crime did pay, in two ways, they lost --I won.

I was told never to use Leyland trimmings, trouble is I cannot remember why.....

The problem with trying to shred trimmings from conifers is the resin in them - it tends to clog the shredder

I would put your trimmings under a hedge or in the back of a shrubbery. It takes too long for the heavy pieces to compost.

We prune ours back to the ground every February. Then we allow only three buds to grow. We get no flowers, but the leaves get to over a metre across. It grows to about 12 feet each season.

As this tree will reach forty feet, I'm not suprised it was growing fast! It flowers in late spring - but on wood made this year; by pruning now, you have removed any wood that would have carried flowers. In future, if you need to prune it, do it as the flowering finishes.
Back in January I wrote two blogs on pruning. You might like to look at them to help you

hi there, i stopped shredding a while now,i got a small steel beer barrel ,which i sit on a couple of house bricks and i burn all my mail that i dont want ayone to see,it works perfect ,and i put the ash back into the gardennot a bad idea,good tip ,glad to help ,anyone else with anything good send it this way cheers for now gingernut

As I understand it, you're right - protected species! Useful/interesting link: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/gardening/homes_for_mammals/hedgehogs.asp (hope links are allowed - if not, sorry, please remove answer)

Think youll find that hedgehogs are protected wildlife species and you will not be able to pick them up and relocate to your home.The best answer is to try and provide an enviroment that they come to naturally. An old log pile compost heap a neglected corner is ideal and this may not be easy to re - create in a city garden.You can also purchase ready made hedgehog homes but if you not got the enviroment then unlikely to move in.Finally if offered hedgehogs please do not accept as may have young that will be left defenceless and their homeing instinct to return to them will mean they will leave and put themselves at risk crossing roads in a city.

Are you feeding you Toms with Tomato feed? That may well help. As Spritz says, it could be watering, it could also be the odd weather we are having. The only way to combat calcium deiciency in growing plants is to spray the fruits with a mild solution of calcium, but that is really only an option for professional growers.
Next season, if you are going to make your own growing medium like that, add a little lime to it as well, though the bonemeal should have helped. It contains calcium.

It can also be the result of erratic watering.

This sounds like Blossom end rot. This is caused by a shortage of calcium. Difficult to treat as you need to do this before the plants are planted. Are they in the soil, plant pots or Growing bags?

It was a Alan Titchmarsh tip - You get a better root ball and it also helps to retain water better. I purchased the rings as they have two sections one two water and one two feed. They are not cheap but well worth the purchase for better yeald. Harrods Hortricultural website is one of the best as there prices are very competive. I also use them to grow peppers.

Thanks

Debs

thats a good tip Ainsjane, but do you mind if i ask why? is it to do with dranage? cos i had planned on poking holds in the bottom of the bag. my greenhouse base is concrete. when i grew them a few years ago i did use big pots and found that they dried out very quickly. i have never grown them in bags before but thought it would help keep moisture in as they can be quite thirsty can't they.

I have been growing tomatoes for a few year now and tend to start them March but this year I am starting them inside at the end of this month. Want them to get of to a real good start.

I would also recommend when using grow bags not to just plant in the bag but get a desent sized plant pot (bet you have plenty around) cut the bottom out and place this in the grow bag add addition soil and pop your tomatoes plant in this.

Debs

Another tip for starting tomato seeds - put the seed tray/pots of newly sown seed in the airing cupboard. Check daily and when the first one starts to push through the compost, have the whole lot out and into the light.

Good for you Justvera, now i am jellous! and Andrew is very experienced - i am a florist with a bit of general knowledge in gardening, mainly through trial and error (to be honest more error than anything lol) - but then its sometimes the best way to learn. but i like to help as and when i can. Hope you have a lovely holiday!

i have'nt grown tomatoes for a few years - as i have'nt had a greenhouse for a few years! so it's my first try in my new greenhouse this year, and i was planning a bit of an experiement to see what works best. my greenhouse is unheated, and i don't have much room in the house for propergaters. so what i am going to do is sow a few in the cold greenhouse every couple of weeks from the begining of march onwards and once all of my other plants geraniums, agave ect move out after the danger of frost has gone i can chose the ones that have worked best to pot up into grow bags. and i should have a better idea of when to sow them next year. but Andrew is right i would'nt attempt it before March, but i gues it would also depend on where you are in the UK as to how soon you can start - i am in the south east, so we are quite lucky with weather (most of the time!)

Much too early. I reckon to sow the second half of March. Once your seedlings are too big for the propogator, they won't like sitting around in a cold greenhouse. Last year I didn't sow until April but they grew away well and had pretty well caught up to the usual size by the end of May.

Hi JustVera. I planted some overwintering onions recently. They were called Senshyu Yellow and I picked them up from my local garden centre. I don't know if they're Japanese, but the name sounds it.

I planted them about a month ago, and just checked the pack; they say to plant in autumn so you might still have time. The garden centre had loads of bulbs for over winter so maybe try your local one.

Yes, we have some very old pear trees against the old walls at Standen (where I volunteer garden). We prune the new growth back to one or two buds, the new groth is a more coppery brown than the older wood. also, trim any badly spaced or crossing twigs. Early training is important for young trees so buy a good reference book (Dorling Kindersley RHS one called Pruning and Training is excellent)

Provado Ultimate Bug Killer is good stuff.The whitefly has a 3 week life cycle!So spraying is almost a weekly thing to keep them in check.Home made,you can try your own Horticultural Oil mix, vegetable oil mixed with ordinary soap.Prevention might be to cover plants with garden fleece to keep them off,but you have to bury the edges otherwise they will sneak under! Frost wont do much,but adult flies are killed off by heavy rain,so you can also blast plants with a hose on a regular basis.Careful how you dispose of infested plants or you will end up spreading the whitefly elsewhere. They are very resilient and probably here to stay,so keep trying and see what works best.

Yes after harvest cut shoote to first new buds.

Hello again Justvera and darkmust.
Just googled about composting newspapers and gloss mags.
The ink on newspapers nowadays is vegetable based so is definitely ok to compost.

darkmuse.

All the "hits" say it's a no-no to compost glossy mags. They don't mention what types of ink is used. So I think I will play safe and recycle instead of composting such material.

Thanks darkmuse. Must do further research.

FYI - Glossy magazines and boxes should also be okay. I believe the gloss is china clay, so harmless for composting. Unfortunately the way the clay is obtained is not necessarily harmless to the environment!

Hi Jstvera,

I believe that the ink on newspapers nowadays is not "chemical"
but something else (I can't remember what exactly) So they are safe to compost. I do compost newspapers with no problems. What I do not compost is glossy magazines/leaflets.

I look forward to hearing how you get on

Hi Justvera, You can send Andrea your email address (or anything else for that matter) by private message. If you click on Andrea's profile you will see a link to "Leave a private message" next to the user icon. Only you and Andrea will be able to see messages sent in this fashion. Hope this helps.