Problems
Or are they problems?
This is about
showing you some things going wrong or
Look like going wrong. Maybe not going wrong
Gardening is full of conflicting advice and there comes a point where
You will have to decide quite often
Who do I believe?
I'm, not saying you should believe me for one minute
But what I want to do in these two more films about problems or perceived problems
Is show you some, some examples of things that might look bad, but which are maybe not as bad as they look
They're not as bad as they sometimes made out to be
For example classic one is actually right here. There's not a huge demonstration of it but mildew on
courgettes cucumbers
Everything cucurbits in the summer powdery mildew. In my experience in my opinion from what I see. It's not the end of the world
It's a natural
sequence of events plants getting older losing their older leaves and
There's quite a few courgettes in the garden here. Now, for example zucchini where the lower leaves are really quite white with mildew
And they're still fruiting really well because it's those
New leaves are the important ones
And that's also illustrated here with these
these are squash which i'm growing for winter so "crown prince" the
Lovely gray ones there on the compost heap
And then there's a cheeky curry right here one plant of each actually in this little area
And the cheeky curry are the bright red ones which mature a bit earlier
and they've had a kind of hiccup this
Summer because we had a very warm dry start we managed to water them enough to get going
And then it stayed dry and we stopped watering because we don't keep watering them all summer
and they
one result of that was you get this happening where
There's a fruit down here
Oh, yeah, look at that revolting. Um
actually rotting
and I know that this causes some people anxieties because they
Ask me questions, you know what I do about this is, is my plant going to be all right, all that's happened there is that the
plant has decided
These plants kind of know how many fruits they can support and bring to maturity
They really do seem to know that they make really good calls from what I see
And at that point maybe it was too dry or they were too busy ripening the two that are there
Not too nice red squash for example on the same plant. Plus there's a bit of an issue here with these yellow leaves, you know these
Leaves have been yellow like this all summer
Not very slightly, but it turns out it's not a major problem
It might be a little bit of something you could call virus for me though what i've noticed with especially curry
They'll do this quite a bit
If the soil conditions are not perfectly good for them for whatever reason
and
Well, they obviously weren't quite so brilliant and yet when they've got here this same plant
by this stage
The leaves are going greener, and they're not so yellow anymore
So suggesting, you know this bit more than we know about
and
There's look at this. There's lovely squash again
So it's it's stopped producing there. Now It's starting again, maybe partly because it's reached a little bit of heaven here, which is
A nice heap of compost i'm actually growing squashes on the compost heap
Also a self-seeding potato. There's a bit of everything going on here. So these are heaps of compost which i'm not using until the autumn
That's another misunderstanding actually about composting
for one thing
um
What I find, is that
It doesn't really deplete the nutrient store of compost growing things in it before you put it on the garden
There's just loads of nutrients in there. But also
Compost is about biological activation of what's already in the soil
So that's still good for use in that respect
and
You can see there's some lovely squashes here
Other people worry that compost burns the roots, I get that asked that one ever so often partly because the sellers often say this
I think they don't always understand. That would only happen if the compost heap itself
if it's all in the heap, it's still really hot or fairly hot even because that shows the process of
Decomposition is still happening and that process
Uses up quite a few nutrients for its own
process
and that means the plant then doesn't have enough goodness to grow well, and it will look really
miserable for a while and
Yellow leaves and that kind of thing that's just to do with the stage of the composting process
It's nothing to do with the ultimate result of how the compost will be. So
And for that reason if i'm ever buying compost or having it delivered i'll
Make sure it happens that happens before i'm going to use it maybe two or three or four months time
Thinking ahead a bit
Okay, that's cucurbits. Now. Let's go and have a look at some root vegetables and other issues over here
There's a couple of small things going on here nothing too major
It's quite interesting though to see what can happen to
These french beans
broken
by the wind
And that was, that's probably about one day. We were picking yesterday
uh this plant and
sometimes just the act of picking you move it around a bit and
Just makes it snap there. It's really rather vexing
I haven't found a solution to that one. I am thinking though next year, maybe to grow less dwarf beans than
Climbing beans because they're supported they wouldn't have that problem
It's quite breezy here, but also the act of picking, just to find these beans there
I mean there are plenty here as you can see there
And they hide a bit under the leaves. So you tend to lift the plant up. It just needs to be done very carefully
It's our fault as well. Anyway, that's just good for compost now, but there is a kind of side shoot there
Which will still grow a bit
And then
root vegetables
It's been said so often
that
Big ones go woody
This is a beetroot we harvested yesterday. There's a couple here
And these were multi-sown and we keep taking out
The bigger ones and then the smaller ones remain and carry on growing
So this was a smaller one and now it's a big one. So this was the last harvest
And it's often said that these big vegetables are woody
it's absolutely not the case as you will see but
The main thing is that they're grown in good healthy fertile soil and then a big vegetable is just a big vegetable
There's more of it. So there's lots to like about that and this beetroot was sown
late February and it's now
5th of August so that's quite a little while ago
Uh often with root vegetables and like carrots, It's reckoned say four months is good
You know, this is just average ballpark figures and these carrots were sown
Four and a half months ago. So they've gone beyond that a bit
If I take the biggest fattiest one here actually and just cut it
And it's not going to prove to you because you can't taste it
But you can see that I can cut it pretty easily it snaps open very nice and clean
and
That's a nice juicy carrot
You know these vegetables you could
still grate them they don't have to be cooked even the
beetroots like this I
I do grate, I love them grated and they're really moist they
All this lovely juice comes out when they're being cooked. You can see that even with my little knife
I can cut around it
Actually is it's a bit firm, I would say not woody for sure. Whoops. And there we have
The beetroot you can see, you know, lots of moisture there. That is a really nice
Fleshy juicy beetroot even though it's pretty big
What I was hoping would show there actually is the rings but I think because I didn't cut it very clean
you get
Rings that form roughly according to each moon change, new moon, full moon, new moon, full moon
You can normally count them
from sowing date
going out
to
Or otherwise going in to the current day
And also here same family of vegetables, chard, this one you can see is bolting
It's actually in a clump of three
And what I found with chad is it tend to bolt from being sown a little bit too early in the spring
So it's not like a disaster because there's still lots of good ones. What i'll do is
Since we've got three here, i'll cut it out just below soil level
You can see that's quite like a little beetroot has got those rings again. Actually, It's really interesting
and um
This one will just go on the compost heap and the other two will carry on growing but it's
I always hold off. I don't sow chard too early and I don't sow it in March. This was sown mid April
and
transplanted here early may
and that way
You've got less inclination. It's when it's had too much cold at seedling stage that they're inclined to
bolt and so over there
There's another bed of chard which I sowed in early june
And in fact there were two planting dates the further chard which is much bigger I transplanted 29th of june
And then there were still peas growing this end so
I wasn't even sure I was going to plant the whole bed of chard, but I hung on to the chard plants from that
early june sowing
And then decided to fill up the whole bed with chard
Towards the end of July. So it was nearly four weeks
later
That the second lot of chard was planted
And that's all from the same sewing
So that's an indication you see how much smaller it is. It's an indication of how
If you want best growth it's good to get things out as soon as the seedlings are ready
not too small obviously, but reasonably well grown in a module or in a seed bed. However, you're raising your transplants
The longer you sit on them. Maybe hoping they'll get bigger. Whatever
They take longer than to establish in their final planting place
And also for that it depends on what kind of compost you have
And that you're raising plants in if you're doing them in modules
Which i'm going to show you next because we're going to have a look at
Questions of compost and which ones are good and maybe which ones aren't so good which affects how they grow
The
question of compost is an important one for those of us raising seedlings in
modules, pots whatever and
It relates to what I was just saying about the chard because they happen to be in a good strong
compost organic potting compost
Which had a decent store of nutrients. So although the plants were very delayed
Going into the ground. They hadn't suffered too much. They were definitely looking hungry
But not as bad as for example this beetroot here
This was sown at the same time as the beetroot in the bed up there behind the zinnias in the wheelbarrow
In early June, two months ago and those went in the ground
Right at the end of june
whereas these ones on at the same time, they were the seedlings that
We didn't need at the time so I thought i'll just pop them on
and keep them growing in case there's a gap appears in the garden and I can then transplant them later and
I was kind of thinking I wouldn't really need them, but I don't like throwing plants away
Before i'm really sure I don't need them. So I took it as a chance to try out a different potting compost
And it turns out the potting compost I put them in
Was worse than useless well
The plants haven't died, but they just didn't grow
really quite shocking and it was an experimental compost i've been sent to try so I won't know many names here, but it's just a
you know, that's an example of
Plants that just don't grow sometimes
And if you're a not experienced gardener
Maybe you blame yourself. I think a lot of people do or that, you know, I think they've done something wrong
There's not enough light not enough warmth. Well, they are not watering enough or over watering. There's a lot of
aspects to raising good plants
But generally speaking if you find a decent compost, they should grow they should look as if they want to grow. I mean
Here's another example these chicories
Seedlings which I pricked out three weeks ago
Same seedlings i've got photos of when they were actually pricked out. They looked exactly the same
and
Clearly this compost here
Another trial batch. It's very short of nitrogen. Really that's what makes yellow leaves like this
Now these plants are not dying or anything. They are just not growing if we take out a small one there
You can see there's quite a few roots
It's navigated quite successfully through the compost, but it has not been able to find much food
And in fact, you can also see the the lower leaves going yellow there
That's a sure sign of food running out and not much in there
and then if we compare that to
You know exactly the same
pricking out starting point
In a decent compost both of these are organic
And this one Moorland Gold actually it's one that i've used for many many years now, and it's never let me down. It's consistently
Good source of nutrients in there. So
you know, that's what one you're on the
Pathway to success if you find a good compost like this and keep your plants growing nicely
You can see the color just comparing the color and size of those quite dramatic difference
And same story here
This though is not a potting compost. So in its defense
These peas were sown at the same time. We sow peas in that and we sow peas in there
and this one is
It's called Digestate, so
what the reason I tried it was because the guy who
It was a present again to try and the guy who gave it to me said yeah, you could sow things in that
You know, it's good to go kind of thing
And I had my doubts because it was in the sack when it was delivered
I put in a thermometer and it was 55 centigrade, you know like
130 plus fahrenheit a really busy working heap and generally speaking, that's not good as I was saying at the beginning so
Anyway, I thought well that's sow peas
But the other reason I wanted to sow peas was to check for this weed killer paralid weak killers
Which unfortunately can be in some compost
and pea would be a good one to find out and
Actually broad bean that's right, you know i'd forgotten i'd done that. I sewed two broad beans
And four peas, so the broad beans in here they would be there
They simply haven't come up
whereas the peas here come up and they're looking healthy, so
Even these ones they look alright, I would say that's not paralid. The reason they didn't come up was just
It's not ready to go basically
This one is supposed to be ready to go and it's not working. So if you get this kind of thing
I would complain to the compost company take a photo and send it
It's easier for me to tell because i'm doing a trial here. So i've got a comparison but
Don't always blame yourself, you know with these problems look for understandings
and
It's a chance. It is a chance always to to learn more if things don't go right, you know
Don't despair don't give up. But hang in there look for reasons and hunt around a bit and
It it's a chance just to see more and we'll look at this further in
the next video in this series number four
You