Top Tips

**crichmond** · 04-03-2009, 07:12 PM

If you are growing plants such as aubergine or chillis then support your plants with canes when they get to around 2 foot high. If you use 3 canes inserted around the edge of the pot you can tie them together at the top to form a cage around the plants.

**womble** · 06-03-2009, 02:18 PM

Grow lettuce and oriental greens in a tight row. As well as your more spaced out full sized lettuces for tight hearts, I grow salad stuff in short tight lines and as they grow I gradually thin out and eat the thinnings, the remaining plants continue to slowly grow. At the end you should be left with very slowly grown full sized plants.
Which means you don't have to remember to sow salad leaves every two weeks etc.

**catgardener** · 06-03-2009, 02:24 PM

Always place a cane at the start of pumpkin plants and trailing squash when you plant then out. It makes it easier to find the start of the plant for watering later on when they are are fully grown.

It is also useful if you place a piece of pipe in to the ground next to the plants, so that you can water straight down the pipe to the roots.

**shirlthegirl43** · 06-03-2009, 02:25 PM

If you have shallow or stony soil and want to grow carrots, seive soil into a deep container then sow carrot seed at final spacings. You will get lovely long straight carrots. This is also a good way to sow carrots in July and move them indoors when the weather gets bad so you can enjoy fresh carrots with Christmas dinner. Be warned, if you are doing that, do plenty

**Snadger** · 06-03-2009, 05:40 PM

My tip is similar to Zazens but involves leeks! Last year I sowed maybe 50 leek seeds of two varieties in 8 inch pots.
I planted out about half of them into there final positions in May. I planted out the rest where I had dug up my spuds 3 months later. I was eating good sized leeks in succession whilst at the same time planting the other half of the leeks.
The other half are now coming into there own and I have started harvesting.

So I've had two crops from one sowing of leeks!

I will deffinately do the same again this year but may transpalnt the second batch 1 inch apart in a nursery bed so that by the time I am ready to transplant them to there final positions they will have reached the obligatory pencil thickness!

**greendean** · 07-03-2009, 01:52 AM

my tip is when you buy grow bags dont plant into them but empty them into large pots. this way you can be sure they are watered and fed correctly. the plants that is

**SarzWix** · 07-03-2009, 05:31 PM

Label, label, label, label!!!
Brassica plants all look the same as seedlings, so do onions and spring onions, bush & cordon tomatoes, pepper plants & chillis....
It's a tedious job, but it will save confusion and possible disappointment later if you put labels on right from the start

**HayleyB** · 07-03-2009, 06:10 PM

Last year I discovered that slugs were munching my green lettuces grown in a growbag sitting right next to a growbag of Lollo Rossa which the slugs completely ignored. If you want slug free lettuces growing, along with a long season of cut and come again ease then Lollo Rossa is perfect for you.

**cornish crabber** · 09-03-2009, 11:28 AM

When sowing seed in the open I find it a good idea to make a drill twice as deep as you need, half fill it with multi-purpose compost, water and sow the seed on to that and fill the drill with more compost. This makes it less likely that the seeds will dry out at the critical time.
I also sprinkle some vermiculite along the row to help prevent drying out and to demarcate the row to make weed control easier. This works well for slow germinators like parsnip.

**Dogwednesday** · 09-03-2009, 11:54 AM

Jackie's Top Tip

Hi,
Put your hens in your polytunnel to clear it in January. They fertilize it for free, clear insects / bugs, clear weeds and come into lay quicker.
Jackie

**Headfry** · 09-03-2009, 05:23 PM

I use different coloured labels....
so, if I grow 3 different types of pepper I take a white label and write date, quantity, and type on this. I put it into pot with a say, red label directly behind it, then each pot of the same variety gets just a red label. This stops the need to write up many labels! I then use say blue for another variety and so on.
sorry, does that make any sense at all?

**janto** · 10-03-2009, 12:08 PM

hi this year i sowed my parsnip seeds in toilet roll centers when they were 1" tall i transplanted into final possistion. germination was 98% after transplanting i covered with a little fleece never lost one so far.

**Flummery** · 11-03-2009, 10:19 AM

My tip is to pot on tomatoes into a 3" pot when the first true leaves are through. Then leave them in this pot until there are signs of flower buds. They will be pot-bound but there's enough nutrient in your sowing compost to last for 6 weeks. Then plant them into their final positions. This mean I don't sow them until 6 weeks before they will be safe at night in my unheated greenhouse. Time to do some sums!

**archerellie3425** · 13-03-2009, 12:06 PM

watering

My tip is for a home made fine wateringcan, I found a normal one too heavy for new seedlings. take a clean used plastic milk bottle and with a needle pierce several holes in a circle at the top opposite the hande, fill with water and replace the lid, you can then tip the bottle and squeeze to create a fine sprinkling of water.

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