New to the GYO forum with query

[arctica]

I have been buying the GYO magazine for some time now, but have only grown salad veg. I am really happy to have found this forum. You all are so informative. This year we have planted out tomatoes that I started from seed in earthboxes. My OH bought some black plastic buckets from Tesco, drilled holes in the bottom and we are growing aubergines (started indoors from seed) and pepper plants in them. But, I have a query. We also planted two cucumber plants which are an outdoor mini trailing type into two of the buckets. How often are you supposed to water those? I have read something about if you overwater they will rot. Do you let them dry out between waterings? We have been eating the first of the mispoona already. We started a bit late with other salad veg but there is still time to succession sow I think. Is it too late to sow sweetcorn? We live in Hertfordshire.

[zazen999]

You water cukes as often as you can in this heat!

Put a saucer underneath the pot and put some water in it [half an inch]. If it soaks it up then keep putting some in, until it won't drink any more. You'll see that it drinks slower as it gets less thirsty. Then, once you know how much water it needs, you will need to water every day, probably twice a day during the hottest days.

You could plant sweetcorn now, and if we get a good summer it will ripen - last year I had to resow quite late and still got a harvest....if it is a bad summer you might not get it to ripen but it's worth a chance.

[bluemoon]

Put the sweetcorn seeds to sprout between sheets of damp kitchen paper inside a poly bag. In a couple of days they'll have made roots of half an inch or so, plant them in individual pots and, if you do it tomorrow, you should have fair sized sweetcorn plants by next weekend. I never sow mine until this time of year, I'm a fair bit further north, and I always get a good crop. I think that success is more a matter of variety than anything else, I've tried loads, but always come back to one called Sundance, which is really reliable. The good news is it's sold by Sutton's, which are available in B&Q, so you shouldn't have any difficulty getting hold of a packet.

[Snadger]

Welcome to the vine arctica!

[arctica]

Thank you so much

Thank you for your advice about the sweetcorn. I will definitely do that tomorrow. We potted up more plants and tomorrow we will finish potting up all my geraniums and flower pots. I have courgettes (two different kinds) and a few other things to sow tomorrow. Great news about the sweetcorn. I have bought most of my seeds from The Real Seed Catalogue and am getting great results. We had 15 tomato plants at one time but now just have 4 in earthboxes. I may go to B&Q to see about getting some tumbling toms. This site is great. Happy gardening!

[theusualsuspect]

Definitely not too late for Sweetcorn. In fact, now is a good time for them to go directly into the ground.

(French Beans are another thing that does well at this time of year if it's of any use.)