Here's some pictures of my hydroponic basil, using the Kratky method. It's very simple, no pump or anything. There is a constant air gap between the top of the water and the lid of the container, so the plants put out lateral 'oxygen roots' which can absorb oxygen from the air.
The containers are jam buckets from the same cafe we get all of the coffee grounds from. I cut two holes in the lid just wide enough to hold the yellow net cups. The net cups are filled with clay pebbles which help to support the plant. The buckets are wrapped with aluminium foil and the lids with cardboard to prevent algae building up in the water and using up all the nutrients.
The nutrient solution is just a basic hydroponic nutrient made from two powders (A & B) I got off eBay quite cheaply (£15 for 1kg of each). You make a separate stock solution of both A & B because if you try to mix the powders together in water the calcium will precipitate out. I then add 7.5 ml of each stock solution to 1 L of water. Each bucket takes 5 L of nutrient solution. The water level drops as the plant grows, so I top them up once or twice a week, depending on the weather. You have to make sure not to fill the buckets right to the top because you don't want to drown the 'oxygen roots'.
We've had almost 300g of basil (leaf, no stem) since the start of June from 6 buckets (12 plants). The buckets are on the window sill I used to use for growing chillies, but indoor peppers don't pollinate very well and the flowers drop off. Basil in the greenhouse often gets mould or just doesn't do very well for me. The chillies are now in the greenhouse instead. It's worked out very well! This winter I'll be trying lettuce in the grow tent.
So later on today (hopefully) we’re off to a bit of the coast somewhere around Mull (not sure which bit yet) to meet up with Bobs friend Dougal. This crazy young man is kayaking around the UK. 1 to see how fast he can do it. 2 because that’s the sort of thing he does. 3 to raise awareness & money for diabetes.
You can follow his progress here. He has a live tracker. Some time the tracker is so tightly zoomed in you can only see a blue screen ( as I discovered) . Zoom out and you’ll find him . And see his previous adventures.
So sorry - I have searched and searched but can’t find the post. It was either Martin or JJB. Apologies to one of you! Anyway we both had some odd seedlings pop up in our sweet pea sowings that looked like vetch foliage. Not even from same supplier - mine was cheapo from Lidl (incidentally, they have been fabulous!!) Martin’s of JJB’s came from a “proper” seed merchant. I grew mine on in a three inch pot- didn’t bother to plant them out. Here they are …. Quite pretty and def not vetch!
How did yours do Martin or JJB????
A “friend” kindly gave me some seed of so say “Frosted Explosion” grass (panicum elegans).
Even though I have it self sowing all around the place, I thought I’d sow it under cover and get a head start on the garden ones.
Hmmmmm! Frosted explosion my bum!!!
Anyone recognise it please???
Saw this advertised as a pop-up cover for picnic/BBQ food but I wondered whether they might be OK for covering seedlings or strawberries . I haven't seen it so no idea how robust it is or how easy it would be to peg down.
Not mine - but I’d like to know the name so thst I can find it and buy it!
Absolutely smashing shrub about 2 and a half feet tall.
Leaves are VERY similar to rosemary - so I expected the leaves to have a fragrance. They had no fragrance though.
Tight little clusters of white buds. I would imagine that it would be great to use for foliage in a bunch.
Any suggestions, please??
Just wondering if we are the only ones that always sit at the table to eat? I know lots sit eating off of trays watching the tele. Even if its only fish and chips, plates are warmed, table set, more often than not fresh flowers from the garden in a vase in the middle of table. I remember my Mum always did the same and even had a cloth serviette every day until her 90's and she lived on her own, Funny the things we carry on doing from our parents.
In general carrots do badly on our very heavy clay, so beyond the odd hopeful row of early Nantes I don't bother. But I recieved a free packet of gonsenheimer treib in a seed order so sowed a row.
Wow - almost a whole row germinated and in 91 days matured into harvestable roots: I usually get 10% ish!!
The RHS is very dismissive, describing them as "wild" with fruit that is "small hairy and lumpy"! For that reason I only sowed a row. In fact thay have nice smooth conical bright orange roots. The taste test comes tonight.
Of course just before I noticed them I'd filled the remaining space in the root bed with spare kale plants!!
The point of the post? Anyone grown them before? And don't give up on stuff you can't grow because you might find a variety you can
Has anyone got experience growing cranberry plants. I bought 2 of them about 3 years ago, for the first 2 years I kept them in pots of ericaceous compost then transplanted them in the fruit frame earlier this year. I don’t know how they fruit they seem to be a ground cover plant but no sign of any flowers buds etc.
Sorry about the quality of photos I had to resize to post.
Onion white rot is a serious fungal disease that can persist in the soil for 20 years or more. It is caused by fungal spores which are black dots that lie dormant in the ground till triggered by onions growing nearby.
This year, out of a bed of about 100, I found 9 infected.
This picture shows 2 onions, one with much more infection.
And this shows the worst one cleaned up. It obviously needed using fairly quickly.
I have a garden area where white rot exists that I am slowly trying to eradicate. It is taking a long time. I've probably been at it now for 10 years but it was a lot worse then. I only grow autumn planted seeds/sets there and cycle round the plot in a 5 year cycle. Autumn planted sets can be harvested a lot earlier than maincrop and the fungus doesn't seem to develop till the soil warms up and these are then nearly ready to harvest. Autumn planted will store for a lot longer than books say but obviously not as long as maincrop. In last year's plot, there were no onions infected but this year I found a few. Any with yellowing leaves I give a pull to check the roots are still there as the fungus tends to travel up the roots to the bulb. When I found the one above, I pulled up the rest of the crop ,a bit early but of a reasonable size to use. I'm hoping by doing this, I'm removing the onions before more spores can form so reducing the prevalence in the soil. I also take out and dispose of a small spadeful of soil round any onions found.
