First Nasturtium

[suee]

Nasturtiums also taste good to slugs and snails. Mine were lovely healthy plants - especially the mahogany gleam - then I went out one morning to find a set of leafless stems. Thankfully the dwarf dalias were not to their taste. The trouble is my old man is moaning now that there is more beer in the garden in my traps, than in the fridge!
Sue.

[veggieginger]

Thanks two_sheds, I will look forward to eating them if they survive the wind we have at the moment.

[veggiewomble]

I've had nasturtium growing in troughs outside for yers and they've invariably come up again every summer. However I've only had flowers ONCE, that was the first year I had them. Now I never seem to get a single flower anymore - what gives??? I get tons of leaves though, mor ethan I know what to do with....

veggiewomble

[noidea]

My 3 year old planted his first wee tray of Nasturtiums this week and he is very excited about actually eating flowers! Everywhere we go he asks people if they would like to come see his Turshums.

I will would love to try and save the seed should they grow well. I am a bit confused by that though... At what point should I notice them?

C

[Flummery]

When the flowers have dropped their petals. So you can't eat ALL the flowers if you want to save seeds!

[NSB]

I didnt realise they self seed as I planted some from seed for the first time and they have a lot of flowers already, shall I just let them die back and self seed or collect the seeds?

[rustylady]

You can eat the leaves as soon as you feel there are enough veggieginger. Obviously you will stress the plant if you remove all its leaves but if you take a couple from each of several plants and add them to your salad they they really pep it up.

Also if you stress the plant by pinching some of it's leaves you will spur it on to produce flowers.

[multiveg]

Last sowed Nasturtiums about 2 years ago. They self-seeded, including in neighbour's plot. Still, the bees love them and they do look quite pretty.
One year, 20? years ago when my dad had his allotment, I looked into companion planting. The book (can't remember which one) said that growing them next to french beans would deter blackfly. Well, we did that but my nasturtiums died - they contracted the blackfly but there wasn't a single aphid on the french beans.
In another year, cabbage whites had found the nasturtiums and those pesky caterpillars left all but the veins!