Veg patch advice please

[GaryA]

This may be a dumb question......but when do you pull up your veg for eating?
Started a veg patch for the first time this year growing nicely already had radishes, spring onions...some of the potato plants succomed to waterlogging so i pulled em and got some fantastic marble-to-satsuma-sized king edwards better than any i have bought
The swedes have flowers just starting, the tops of the carrots are just visible and most spuds & parsnips are in full green leaf...how long do i wait?

 

[dan_bo]

The taters will be ready a couple of weeks after the flowers are gone, although you can leave them in the ground for a good while to swell. The carrots and parsnips.....If they're sown very close together you can 'thin them out' by removing the larger ones, giving the smaller ones a chance to grow. Otherwise, just whip a couple out and have a look! enjoy!

 

[Arch]

If you can see the tops of carrots, it might be worth just hoeing a little soil up over them to stop them going green or getting nibbled until you pull them... Otherwise, as Dan says...

I leave spuds until the tops have wilted and gone brown. Carrots I always sow too close together and pull a few at a time...

I've got a nasty feeling I'm going to get rot in my onions this year though, due to the damp, and my sweetcorn and courgettes look pretty weedy.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

A useful rule of thumb for fully mature vegetables is to wait until they've flowered. Otherwise you need to look at the packet and find out whether you've planted early, mid or late cropping varieties.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Is there anything that should be being planted now for the winter? I too have begun a veg patch this year, my potatoe harvest has been wonderful, as have my peas!!! Lettuces all got butchered though

Looking forward to my carrots, just wondered what I can do now.

The homebrew is bloody tasty too, wine and beer. Ooooh, I feel like Tom Good

Veg patches have suddenly become more interesting!

 

[dan_bo]

Kale is a good one for winter, and your brussels should have been in april-may for christmas. Leeks can also overwinter, and you can plant lettuce until the frosts start, which these days is about February. My favourite for this time of year though is to plant some spuds in pots to lift on christmas day- If you do get normal sept/oct frosts you can put them in the greenhouse or just keep the worst off them with some fleece or a plastic bag.

 

[frog]

I've started to grow my carrots in a few bits of old drain pipe as the local pests don't get fat at my expense. Cut the pipe to about 10 in ch lengths and filled full of compost. Small diamater pipe so about 10 go into a bucket. Half fill the bucket with water and press a single seed into the top. Sit in cold frame for week to 10 days and seed should have germinated.

Got two spud barrels on the go. One you can slide up the side and remove the crop progressively. Well, you could do if there were any spuds visable. Flowere died in mid June so I was hoping to be eating my own stuff. Greenery on the top is still flourushing so it will be a few weeks before it starts to wilt

 

[snorri]

......but when do you pull up your veg for eating?

The day before the slugs and worms get at them.

 

[HJ]

Take your self down to your local book shop (or B&Q or Amazon or somewhere) and get a copy of "The vegetable & herb expert" ISBN 0-903505-46-0, that should answer most of your questions, for under a tenner.

If your turnips have flowered, start an compost heap...

 

[Cab]

This may be a dumb question......but when do you pull up your veg for eating?
Started a veg patch for the first time this year growing nicely already had radishes, spring onions...some of the potato plants succomed to waterlogging so i pulled em and got some fantastic marble-to-satsuma-sized king edwards better than any i have bought :?:
The swedes have flowers just starting, the tops of the carrots are just visible and most spuds & parsnips are in full green leaf...how long do i wait?

King edwards are maincrop spuds. That means all things going well (not happened with mine this year as everyone in these parts has blight!) have them out when the haulm (plant bits) die back.

Carrots... If they're maincrop then leave them longer, if they're earlies then choose the biggest one and scrape the soil back, have a look. Even have one out, but full the hole in and water that bit to deter carrot fly.

If the swedes are flowering then they're knackered, pull them out and re-sow. Plenty of time for swedes to over winter sill, only put mine in last weekend.

Parsnips stay in the ground all winter, pull your first one out after the first frost. If you haven't eaten 'em all by when they start to sprout in spring, have 'em out. And make soup or wine

What else you got in?

 

[Cab]

Is there anything that should be being planted now for the winter?

In the last couple of weeks I've sown kale, swedes, lettuce (successional sowing through the summer, not sown the winter ones yet), mizuna, rocket. You've still got time to sow 'early' varieties of carrot and peas for an autumn crop. Broad beans and pea varieties for overwintering will go in during Novemner, followed by garlic. Some shallot and onion varieties go in then too, but I don't concentrate on spring planted varieties.

If you can acquire squash plants, now is good.

 

[Cab]

A useful rule of thumb for fully mature vegetables is to wait until they've flowered. Otherwise you need to look at the packet and find out whether you've planted early, mid or late cropping varieties.

Most vegetables are ruined if they flower. Its really only potatoes, skirret and a couple of others that you let flower before harvesting. For the most part vag gardening is about preventing flowering!

(edited to correct 'salsify' to 'skirret'... You can let salsify flower but it doesn't benefit from it.

 

[Arch]

Another good book is "Grow your own Vegetables", by Joy Larkham.

A strawberry question - I've had mine about 3 or 4 years now, and some people have said they really only last that long. Last year and this year, I've had loads of strawberries - will next year be a flop? In which case, I guess I ought to be cultivating from runners - how?

I don't know why I'm bothered, I don't really like eating them - I give most away, and purree the rest to freeze for making smoothies. But it's satisfying to have a good crop, and people are always impressed to be given a tub of homegrown ones...

 

[dan_bo]

I pulled me spuds last night actually. geet swollen and half pink they were an all.

















sorry.

 

[Cab]

Another good book is "Grow your own Vegetables", by Joy Larkham.

A strawberry question - I've had mine about 3 or 4 years now, and some people have said they really only last that long. Last year and this year, I've had loads of strawberries - will next year be a flop? In which case, I guess I ought to be cultivating from runners - how?

I don't know why I'm bothered, I don't really like eating them - I give most away, and purree the rest to freeze for making smoothies. But it's satisfying to have a good crop, and people are always impressed to be given a tub of homegrown ones...

Best time to take runners is in the first year, imagine having a small strawberry patch migrating. One year to get established, good crop next year, smaller the next, then they're a bit weedy. The best plan is to always take cuttings in the first year so you always have a second year crop. Taking runners is easy; let em settle and put a root down, have the runner into a pot, plant out when you're ready.

Dunno about whether I'm continuing with strawberries either. I love them, but Cambridge has loads of strawberry farms, I can buy excellent strawberries quite cheaply.