Vegetable Growing 2021

Marrow on 'Plant' A is now just over 36" long at 41 Days After Pollination, still lightish green and continuing to grow, but it is skinny at only 12" diameter. (2nd smaller marrow on plant aborted)



Marrow on 'Plant B' is now just over 35" long at 37 DAP, still lightish green and continuing to grow, but at 14" diameter will now be the heaviest. (again, the 2nd smaller marrow aborted)




With 14 Days to staging exhibits at Malvern and now growing 1/2" a day, both marrows could be over 100lbs by 23rd September, not nearly big enough to get anywhere, but maybe big enough to avoid embarrassment alongside ones up to double that weight. They could stop growing in a few days, Powdery Mildew is appearing (been spraying with diluted milk), weather might be dull and cloudy most days, or heavy rains might cause a growth spurt and split it.

The 3 marrows on 'Plant C' have been left uncovered to ripen for seed saving. This is the heaviest one, but I've neglected them and concentrated on the other 2 plants.

 

Af few more pickings of beans:

6lbs 12ozs on 4th Sept



4lbs 8ozs on 6th Sept



and 6 days after the 6lb12ozs pick,
on 10th Sept, another 8 lbs 12ozs, that's 20lbs in 6 days.



All from 24 plants that originally had a dual purpose of growing a long one for the village show, plus letting loads run to seed to replenish my stock that ran out this year. As the village show was cancelled, I turned them all over to seed production. So all these for eating are mainly a bi-product of that seed production. The long pods I left to go to seed in late July are now yellowing, shrinking and should be harvested this month. I hate waiting until October for runner bean seeds to ripen in cold, wet and frosty weather.

 

Today's picking of French beans, nearly two x 2 gall buckets full.



Not bad for the second picking from a patch sown with a 99p packet of Premier Seeds Safari french beans.

 

My first ever cucumber "tasty king F1".

 

Was it grown inside under cover or outside?

 

Outside. I don't have a greenhouse but the seed packet said it could go outside so I thought I'd try it.

Very easy to grow and I have seeds left over so I'll try again next year but I'll make sure to sow much earlier than I did this year.

My tortoise enjoyed it.

 

That was last Thursday, 5 days later and it's now 39" long. If it keeps that up it'll be around 45" long on the 22nd when I intend cutting it before taking to Malvern Show on 23rd. Think/hope it's probably already over 100 lbs.



But there is a potential problem. It is curved and has a hollow underbelly, with a crease underneath where it has a good chance of splitting. I've eased it onto its side as much as I dare so it's weight isn't resting on just the ends and stressing out that crease. I'm also not watering today, as combined with heavy rain that might cause a growth surge and split it. It appears to be pushing the foam sheet it's sitting on forward as it grows so I'd better check the front if that for obstructions that could cause the marrow to buckle and crack.

Any damage disqualifies it from entry. Hope there's not a nasty crack down there . Might have to make some sort of stretcher arrangement to transport it.



The other bigun is 40" long, but skinny and not so heavy.

 

That's a decent size outdoor cucumber.

 

My runners refuse to stop producing



I started removing the driest of pods for seed saving before it rained a couple of days ago. They've got 290 seeds inside them and there's more pods to come.

They are so fleshy they take ages to dry out, so it's good get them in before it gets wet and cold, go mouldy and the seeds inside start sprouting. Might even encourage more for eating to come on.

Longest bean this year was 27", which could have been much longer if I only let 2 long beans grow per plant and 1 per truss, but our village show was cancelled and I went all out for seed production with beans for eating as a byproduct. As seeds of this variety sell for £1 each, this is probably my most valuable crop this year.



My heaviest marrow is now 40" long, it's been growing 1/2" a day for so many weeks now there's probably no need to keep measuring it, other than to check it's still growing. Diluted milk spray seems to be keeping the powdery mildew at Bay.

I rather expected it to continue growing closer to the July - August growth rates I'm used to, but daily growth halved in September, so I need to plan for getting them off to an earlier start next year for a national September show.

 

Still can't prevent some sprouting in the pods no matter how early I let them go to seed

 

My fourth one of these full of french beans, all from a single 99p packet of Premier Seeds Safari french beans.

I could probably have got more, but I sow 2 or 3 seeds per module to reduce the growing area required at the expense of a reduced crop.

Not many left on them now, soon to be lifted and replaced with garlic.

 

Typical, the day after I entered it in Malvern Show last week it stopped growing. Can't understand it, the marrow was still youthful with pale green shiny skin and could have put at least 25lbs more if it had carried on growing at 1/2" a day until today when I cut it.

But it's still very heavy. I managed to lift an 83lb marrow into the back of my car by myself few years, but I needed help to get this one in. As it's an odd shape, estimating the weight is too difficult, and with that (weak?) crease underneath I wont risk getting it on hanging scales under my weighing tripod.

I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.