This week in the Kitchen Garden....

[Harrod Horticultural]

I have finally managed to add my location!

[rustylady]

I know St Olaves, lovely place. Used to be a nice pub there right by the river.

[Harrod Horticultural]

Its still there... nice for a quite drink and to just spend a few hours watching the boats and swans going up and down the river. Bit nippy at the moment though!

[binley100]

today two of my toms curled up their toes. Unsure as to why , it may have been chilli fumes from cooking but everything else is ok ....what could be the reason for this sad event ?

[scorpius]

Havent sown anything yet but have started to sort through some seeds

[Harrod Horticultural]

I've started some ealry carrots off in pots in the greenhouse to try and force an early crop. And today I've harvested jalapeno chillies and forced rhubarb from the greenhouse - not bad in February! Also I've got some pea shoots and shallot shoots for picking and using in salads. They taste yummy and haven't made it anywhere near the plate yet - I eat them before they make it to the kitchen!

[chris]

Is your GH heated, HH? Or have you had a mild winter and the fruits of your chillies just stayed on the plant?

[binley100]

so why do you think my toms curled up their toes? .......

[ohbeary]

My Firecracker chilies after a brief rest have continued to fruit................ might try some sweet peppers in the north facing conservatory..

[Harrod Horticultural]

Hi Chris. Yes we have a greenhouse heater and our greenhouse is bubble wrapped too. We have a chilli plant that has made it through two winters. It is now hanging with lovely red chillies.

[Harrod Horticultural]

Hi Binley 100. This sounds like it could be damping off disease. This can be caused by sowing the seeds close together or not providing enough ventiliation. I keep the vents on our heated propagator open to keep the humidity levels down. I wouldn't use the same seed tray again unless it is throroughly disinfected in case it affects future sowings. Also either use commercial compost or make sure home produced compost is sterilised before using it for seedlings. Hopefully your other seedlings will survive and it won't be too much of a disaster.

[binley100]

.......We plant ours in a raised bed with well drained soil, with some Rock Dust raked in. ........

Caulis need extremely firm, fertile soil so make sure you tread it down really well after digging in some organic matter. They don't like their roots to rock. Small heads usually means they have been checked after planting, maybe by a long dry spell (chance would be nice!). Make sure you water them well and feed them with a high nitrogen fertiliser ......
Good luck!

So is rock dust the same as the carbon stuff ? and what sort of nitrogen fertiliser would you recommend?

[Aberdeenplotter]

Bins, I'll take the liberty of answering. Rock dust is nowt like the biochar. It is basically a concentration of trace minerals (excuse contradiction there).

Some more info here Rockdust - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Urea which is almost 50% nitrogen used to be the favoured application but I could almost swear it is no longer available.

More info about Urea here Fertilizer Urea.

If thinking about a high nitrogen fertiliser, just pay attention to the NPK which will be shown on the packaging, the N being the Nitrogen content percentage

edit note : Calcium nitrate which is wholly water soluble is a convenient way of applying nitrogen in a form that can be absorbed by the plants

[binley100]

So which one is the best ? and do you prefer the rock dust? .......
Is urea the same as urine ...? Can't actually see where it's extracted from.........

[Harrod Horticultural]

Rockdust is one of my favourite methods of soil improver. It's so easy to use. I watched an old epsiode of Gardeners' World the other day and Joe Swift called it Gold dust! If you follow the highlighted link to our website you can read all about it along with customer reviews.

I haven't used Urea so wouldn't be able to comment on that one.