Ratatouille gardening

[Sylvan]

I can just hear you thinking "Poor confused old dear - she must mean lasagne gardening".

Sorry to disappoint; I do have my moments but this isn't one of them.

I know you shouldn't grow potatoes and tomatoes next to each other and you can't grow strawberries where you've grown either pots or toms, but I was wondering about aubergines and sweet peppers. They're both related to tomatoes too aren't they?

I want to grow three varieties of tomato, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, tomatilloes and possibly pepinos (another tomato relative).

Actually it's more "need to" than "want to" - the seeds all expire this year.

The only available space is likely to be three (possibly four, if the chard bolts by mid-June) 8'x4' raised beds.

Is it going to be possible?

[Suky]

I grew aubergine and peppers side by side with tomatoes last year in the greenhouse. I only had 2 aubergine fruit but that was due to me not realising that they needed more space than I gave them. The peppers and toms certainly fruited well.

[Sylvan]

Thanks Suky.

Were they in the same soil or in separate beds/pots?

I've never grown aubergines before. Do they need a lot of attention?

[Suky]

They were in the same growbag as a pepper. They have furry leaves so need a good airflow to prevent mould but I don't know what else, perhaps that's why I didn't have much luck

[Sylvan]

That's encouraging. I can stick them in the same bed then.
No problems with good airflow round here! Maybe even a little too good.

[missalaska]

I've got 6 aubergines, 4 green peppers and 1 chili growing in one bed, 4 of my aubergines have now set fruit. I also had a tomato popping up at the back of them.

I have read before that in order to set fruit the temperature needs to be above 23 degrees but below 32 degrees for aubergines, can't remember where I read it, so can't corroborate.

[Sylvan]

Eek! Doesn't sound as though I'll get any fruit then.
Temperatures above 23 degrees are once in a blue moon up here.

Perhaps it would be more sensible to hang on to the seeds till they put up my greenhouse (if ever), even though they'll be out of date.

[taff]

One tomatillo plant is going to take up 3ft square worth of room, and you need two for a good fruit set [ ignore me if you've taken this into consideration].
I've grown aubergines outside a few years. the first 2 years, they did absolutely nothing, lots of foliage, flowers all fell off. Last year my neighbour gave me a fairly high and large cloche that I put over them, and got fruit as a result. Woo!
One courgette plant will also take up 3ft square.
My peppers outside have never been great either unless they were covered, or sheltered against the wall [south facing]

[Sylvan]

A couple of years ago I sowed half the packet of tomatillo seeds. I can't remember how many I ended up with but I know I planted out at least 8 of them in a 4'x2' raised bed against the south wall of the shed.
We harvested so many tomatilloes that we're still using them.
I feel I ought to sow the other half of the packet this year, even though I don't really have room for them, because it says "Sow by August 2011".

We're 3 or 4 hundred miles further north than you, not to mention being at a much higher altitude, so if you had no luck with outdoor aubergines I think I'll definitely give them a miss. (I don't like them anyway - they remind me of j-cloths!)

Last year I grew my courgettes in Morrisons flower buckets, with the bottoms cut off, all jammed cheek by jowl in a raised bed. The year before they were in a mixture of flower buckets and 12" square pots, sitting on a sheet of black plastic (but that area has been turned into a lawn).
I was hoping that if I put them straight in the bed, a couple of feet apart, we wouldn't have to water quite so often, since the lottie's eight miles away.

I haven't tried peppers in the North Pennines yet. I grew them on a south facing slope in the Cheviots once. They were small and strangely shaped but there were a fair number of them.
Come to think of it, though, that was at about 127 metres and the beds I was thinking of putting them in this time are at over 300 metres.
I was trying to avoid planting anything that needs a long season in the garden, in case we move, but perhaps I could try buckets against the shed wall (though it might be worth trying a couple at the lottie, just as an experiment...)

[missalaska]

A quick update to say that initially the green peppers did fab, the aubergines haven't fruited as well as they did last year but the fruits are earlier.

I'm in 2 minds about it because I put up a wind break when the plants were young but we've had strong winds for up to a week at a time that I think it maybe the wind that is the problem, whatever I try.

I'll try something different next year!

[Jono]

I've grown aubergines outside a few years. the first 2 years, they did absolutely nothing, lots of foliage, flowers all fell off. Last year my neighbour gave me a fairly high and large cloche that I put over them, and got fruit as a result. Woo!

I've tried aubergines outside for a couple of years too. Not had any luck at all. Will try a cloche though. Was the fruit a good size?

[Sylvan]

What sort of summer temperatures do you get missalaska?

[missalaska]

Sorry Sylvan only saw this now.

Summer average is around 26 degrees which is fairly consistent where I am because on hotter days I have the sea breeze but it can get up to 35/38 on odd days and it can hang at around 29/30 for a few days.

This year was a disaster for my aubergines we had hectic wind because of the floods up country and I notice at the green grocers they've hardly had aubergines, they've been big and old or baby ones.

I think the main issue with the green peppers and aubergines together is they attracted more pests. But with the wind and also with a stream of guests that I've had to entertain I've not been able to be as attentive as I was last year.