2016 - the Challenge and Experiments threads

[veggiechicken]

We're always up for a Challenge so this is a thread to list all the ones we're doing in 2016, with links to the actual threads.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nge_85744.html Ongoing from 2015

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nge_87441.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ent_81691.html

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tml?highlight=

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tml?highlight=

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_87738.html (Norfolkgrey)

Growing ginger - bramble http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1402291

Perennial Beans (Bigmallly) http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1473811

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ies_79238.html (bigmallly)

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...elp_82927.html (Norfolkgrey)

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nts_87753.html (lottiedolly)

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nge_89676.html

[Guest]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_87738.html

just incase I lose it

[bramble]

Growing Ginger.

[Bigmallly]

7 out of 10 buckets have sprouted so far:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ies_79238.html

[Guest]

It is an old thread http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...elp_82927.html but I plan to have another go at sweet pots. I failed at chitting/sprouting stage last year, however I already have some potential volunteers for next year. So fingers crossed.

[Lumpy]

I have had ginger growing quite happily in with my pineapple until the moving men broke off both stems so I have just planted some more.

You never know they might do something.............


other than that growing anything is going to be a challenge next year Ho Hum!

[lottie dolly]

Potato experiments

based on host potatoes

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...nts_87753.html

thankyou VC

[veggiechicken]

Anyone want to add their Challenges to the List?

[vixylix]

My experiment for this year is planting three large supermarket potatoes to see what they do

My challenge is to try grow shallots from seed!

[ancee]

I've a piece of ginger in the fridge. Quite big, should I shove it in a plant pot and see what happens? Last year I bought some from wilkos and put it in the garden and nothing happened

[Bigmallly]

To maintain 9 SFG beds all year round...............no chance..........

[noviceveggrower]

It is an old thread http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...elp_82927.html but I plan to have another go at sweet pots. I failed at chitting/sprouting stage last year, however I already have some potential volunteers for next year. So fingers crossed.

I was thinking of doing sweet potato so I was looking about for advice and found this site. Don't know if this is any use for you NG

Starting Sweet Potato Slips

[KevinM67]

This is a great thread - grouping everything together.

I've never noticed it until today.

[veggiechicken]

Bumping this in case there are more experiments going on - or updates needed!

[Penellype]

My whole garden feels like one big experiment!

Completed experiments:
Grow salad leaves in a Chiligrow planter. Very successful (mizuna, namenia and pak choi)
Grow new potatoes in quadgrow vegetable planter. Very successful - much better yields per seed potato from Lady Christl than when grown 3 to a 30 litre bucket. Bucket plants got blackleg (4 buckets), quadgrow ones didn't (4 pots).
Grow turnips in paper tubes, plant the tubes into a pot. This worked extremely well, giving me some of the best turnips I've ever grown in a pot. Last year I used modules and they were a complete failure. Now trying the paper pots with swedes.
Strawberries in a hanging basket. Not a great success - the plants wanted to grow upwards, not outwards, and because I had nowhere to hang the basket and put it on a large plant pot on the floor, the plants around the sides got little light and didn't produce much fruit.
Meteor peas in a 25 litre pot. I was expecting only a few small pods, but the result was quite spectacular. An excellent crop of peas from just 12 plants sown in rootrainers in January. I only did this at all because I didn't have enough Half Pint seeds to fill the set of rootrainers and I shoved the Meteor into a spare pot because I hadn't anywhere else to put them!
Glue band round apple tree to prevent ants farming aphids. A disgusting job as the glue is so sticky it requires turps to remove it from fingers. A complete failure - the ants are still happily farming aphids on the apple tree.

Currently running experiments:
Carrot flyaway in a quadgrow planter without a net. Will they get carrot fly? Do they taste any good?
Blight resistant tomatoes (Mountain Magic, Ferline, Legend) - do they taste nice enough to warrant growing fewer of other varieties? Will they get blight?
Mildew resistant peas (Terrain) - Do they taste any good? (yes they are very good). Will they get mildew?
Mint to deter wasps from strawberries
Fine insect mesh cover to keep sawflies off gooseberries. No sawflies yet...
Fuchsia berries - will they really taste nice enough to eat?
French beans in chiligrow planter - doing very well, beans nearly ready
Leeks in a saladgrow planter - looking promising
Runner beans in pots - last year I tried 5 litre pots and got a very small crop from plants that quickly died. Trying 11 litre pots and 30 litre buckets this year.
Sweet potato in 30 litre bucket in greenhouse.

I'm sure there are more that I have forgotten about. I do love an experiment!