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Post by Elkay on Jul 4, 2012 16:04:29 GMT 1
Have now dug up all the charlottes and cut the haulms off the bintje. It spread so quickly that there wa :os no time to spray - it didn't stop raining long enough to do so, anyway. However, I had 500g free spuds from Point Vert, variety Fridor and with them so far so good
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bettyg36
Look after me - I'm very new
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Post by bettyg36 on Jul 6, 2012 18:18:29 GMT 1
I've had to cut off all the haulms from my Bintje's too, advised by my dad en angleterre who is a well seasoned gardener at the ripe old age of 82. I've left the taties in the ground but keep checking them and digging some for us and parents-in-law. I was really upset when the blight got them, couldn't believe how quickly it spread, just hoping I haven't cross infected my toms in the tunnel!! Not been a good first year in the potager for us. pigeons eating all my brassicas, strawbs going mouldy from all the wet weather or being eaten by slugs or mice. Something I thought were voles eating my onions although after reading on here I am going to research mulots!! Any good recipes for new taties anyone cos we've loads!!!!!
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Post by <-Rinky-Dink-> on Jul 6, 2012 22:09:03 GMT 1
Weellll ............. I have obviously been very, very lucky with my tatties then. I planted Ratte (most of which got frozen, so planted again)... with all the rain we have had the plants became absolutely huge with stems about 3 feet long, and so there was no room for me to get between them to pile them up with soil, so just left them. Anyway, on Wednesday decided to dig the middle row up to give me some space between them. I collected two large buckets full, and most of the plants still had baby tatties on them which would, had I left them grown into even more tatties.
I shall be planting some more in the next week or two as a main crop, so I will let you know how I get on with them.
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Eryri
I'm settling in nicely
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Post by Eryri on Jul 13, 2012 20:00:10 GMT 1
Well done Rinky dink !! Hoping with our CULL--we may save more than a few marbles !! Cheers Eryri
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Post by Ali on Jul 14, 2012 9:25:42 GMT 1
Both varieties here, Charlotte and Desiree have succcccommmed. Even the tomatoes in the greenhouse have got blight! They're watered from underneath with a seep hose so the blight must be in the air
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Post by Elkay on Jul 14, 2012 11:45:38 GMT 1
My polytunnel toms have a little blight too. I have brought in the nearly ripe toms to ripen, cut off the affected leaves and sprayed with a Bio spray. Can't eat anything (apart from the herbs in pots which I removed until the day after spraying) from in there until Tuesday.
This has happened most years (but not so soon as this) and I have still had toms to eat through November - so fingers crossed
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2012 12:45:31 GMT 1
By coincidence ali, I've grown charlotte and desiree in France this year, but in Normandy, not Brittany, which is where you live, I think.
When I was there last week they were all lush with no sign of blight, but I dug up all of the charlottes anyway - they'd made a good size - and with a big sigh hacked the haulms off the desiree.
Couldn't help thinking that blight was bound to happen eventually under the conditions we've had and as I won't be there again until end august it was better to settle for smaller desiree than smelly mush.
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pitstop
I'm settling in nicely
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Post by pitstop on Jul 14, 2012 19:39:05 GMT 1
Is it worth growing your own vegetables really? Seems a lot of work to me for very little gain.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2012 21:04:42 GMT 1
That's a penetrating question, pitstop, and thanks for putting it, cos it gives me chance to question why I bother...
Potatoes, the subject of the thread, and their problems, are still a valued crop cos you can grow varieties you can't buy, or even if you can buy them, you know that they're sound, if grown organically, whereas shop-bought stuff can be laced with god-knows-what, including growth retardant to help store longer - which is why there are so many short people about, from eating potatoes laced with growth retardant - no, not really, I don't know this for a fact but I've long suspected it.....
And potatoes can be grown easily, without any fuss at all, if you want to, just let them get on with it, and if, worst-case scenario, there's disease like blight around, you can just chop of the tops and get whatever's already produced in the ground....
Vermin could be a problem, but in over 100 years of growing potatoes I've never had a single one eaten by them....
So yes, it's worth growing them, it's fun and it brings you closer to God........
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Post by Ali on Jul 14, 2012 21:34:01 GMT 1
We're on the border of 35 and 50 Annon. Didn't mind the Charlottes caving in because we tend to use them as 'new potatoes' but the Desiree; the state they are in has cut me to bits. Was growing them to bring on for baking/roast tatts. Haven't exumed any Desiree yet but I feel they won't be up to much. Pits - this year has been a bad one for the gardeners, but that said you cannot beat digging up your own pots of gold in the form of the freshest crops at the mo such as the new tatts and broad beans. I arrive back at the house laden with 'produce' for the evening supper and am proud of it. Usually there a couple of home-made eggs on top too I agree with Annon with the statement about chemicals, there must be so much used to stop forward growth that it makes one wonder what we are eating. At least in your own bit of space you are in control of chems or no chems and you can pick fresh off the stalk unlike supermarket produce which has shrivelled for a couple of days....
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