June « 2008 « TopVeg – growing veg,fruit&herbs

June 30, 2008

Time to Harvest Medes Broad Beans

Filed under: pea&beans — Tags: broad bean, harvest — TopVeg @ 5:24 pm

It is harvest time for the Medes Broad Beans

Podding-Medes-BroadBeans

The broad bean variety Medes was sown on 13 April, and harvested 28
July, giving a sowing to harvest interval of 102 days. This interval
could be reduced to 90 days, if, when 4 clusters of flowers are showing,
the remaining flower spikes are removed. This will induce earlier crops.
But it will bring all the beans together – which may not be desirable
for a small family. It is often better for the harvest to be spread out.
Pinching the later flowers out will also reduce yield, but will help to
reduce blackfly

Medes is a highly productive variety, producing medium sized pods 15cm (6in) long.

Pods-Medes-BroadBeans

Each Medes Broad Bean pod contains 5-6 white beans.

medes-broad-bean

The Medes beans are particularly sweet and creamy. Medes are recommended
for freezing, and were the variety used by Birds Eye.

The time to harvest broad beans
is when the pods have swollen and the shape of the bean can be seen through the pod, as is the case for the variety, Medes, now.

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Jobs for July in the Vegetable Garden

Filed under: calendar — Tags: july — TopVeg @ 4:48 pm

July is the month when all the hard work in the vegetable garden bares fruit. A lot of time will be spent harvesting fruit and vegetables.

Sow directly into the ground:

Kale, spinach beet, Chinese greens, cabbages, winter lettuce & winter radish.

Harvest:

Soft fruit, such as raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, currants, tayberries.

French & runner beans, peas, potatoes, cabbages, spinach, beetroot, courgettes.

Salad leaves, lettuces, radish & tomatoes

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June 29, 2008

Does potato harvest depend on Flowering?

Filed under: potato — Tags: flower, KingEdward — TopVeg @ 2:19 pm

A common question is “Does potato harvest depend on flowering?”

Careema asked that very question:

    Can anyone let me know if I can harvest early potatoes before the
    flowers appear? This is my first time to grow them and I really want
    to succeed. Thank you in advance.

flower-potato-KingEdward

TopVeg said:

Hi Careema

    You can certainly harvest some varieties of potatoes before the
    flowers appear. Time of harvest really depends on the size of the
    new potatoes. Flowering is not directly associated with the size of
    potatoes.

It is possible to scratch away some soil and have a little look at
the potatoes – to see if they are big enough to eat.

Early potatoes are usually ready about 12 weeks after planting -
obviously depending on how warm & wet the weather has been.

    Different varieties of potatoes flower at different times in the
    life cycle of the potato plant – so stage of flowering is not a good
    guide to harvesting time.

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When to pick gooseberries

Filed under: fruit — Tags: gooseberries, gooseberry, pick — TopVeg @ 2:14 pm

When to pick gooseberries depends on the variety.

Picking usually starts in late May – before the gooseberries are ripe.
The first picked gooseberries are hard and tart. They are used for
cooking crumbles, pies and tarts.

Picking some gooseberries early will thin the crop, and allow those
remaining on the bush to grow larger and ripen. They will get softer and
sweeter as they become ripe.

gooseberries-on-bush

Dessert gooseberries are particularly large, soft and sweet when ripe.
They are usually ready in late July or August and can be eaten when
picked, without cooking. But it is worth picking a few desert
gooseberries in late May , which can be cooked, so that the fruit is
thinned out.

The gooseberries will not all ripen at the same time, so gooseberry
bushes have to be picked several times to harvest the ripe gooseberries.

*Leveller is a popular desert gooseberry which is ready in August.
*Leveller has thin skins.

invicta-gooseberry

Invicta is a green-berried gooseberry variety, grown for cooking. It
has mildew resistance, & ripens in late July/early August.

thorns-gooseberry-invicta

Invicta is a very prickly variety so it is worth wearing gloves when
picking Invicta gooseberries.

The answer to ‘when to pick gooseberries’ is from late May, but pick
gooseberries several times, to allow the smaller fruits to get bigger.

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Broad Beans Damaged by Thrips

Filed under: pests&diseases — Tags: broad beans — TopVeg @ 2:09 pm

The broad beans are being damaged by thrips.

Click on the photos to enlarge them and see the damage caused by thrips.

ThripDamageBroadBean

: broad-bean-thrip-damage

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June 27, 2008

Pesticide Residues in Manure Damage Plants

Filed under: Uncategorized — TopVeg @ 4:53 pm

It has been discovered that pesticide residues in manure may cause damage to plants.

The Pesticides Safety Directorate issued a Regulatory
Update number 15/2008, on 16 June 2008, stating that they have ‘received a number of enquiries from allotment users concerned about damage to their plants, particularly potatoes and beans, which have either failed to grow properly or, in some cases, have failed to grow at all.’ Potato crops show unusual growth effects, particularly thickened, distorted leaves
and poor growth.

The problem has been traced to a herbicide called aminopyralid, which is
found in products marketed by Dow AgroSciences Ltd such as Banish, Forefront, Halcyon,
Pharaoh, Pro-Banish, or Runway.

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Potato blight can devastate a crop

Filed under: pests&diseases — Tags: blight, ptato — TopVeg @ 12:33 pm

Potato blight can devastate a crop in a short time. It is important to
keep potatoes protected against attack from potato blight.

New potatoes are not a concern as they have produced the tubers and will
be eaten shortly. But main-crop potatoes have not started to bulk up,
and an attack of potato blight now may mean that there are no potatoes
to harvest.

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June 23, 2008

Blackleg, aerial stem rot, and tuber soft rot of potato

Filed under: pests&diseases — Tags: potato — TopVeg @ 7:38 pm

Blackleg, aerial stem rot, and tuber soft rot of potato are all similar diseases caused by several types of soft-rot bacteria (Latin name – Erwinia carotovora).

blackleg-in-potatoes

Blackleg has developed in the vegetable garden after the potato plant is well up. The stem bases of the diseased plants show an inky-black to light-brown decay that originates from the seed piece and extends up the stem to more than two feet.

black-potato-stems

Leaves of infected plants tend to roll upward at the margins, become yellow, wilt, and often die.

potato-Blackleg

There are also a few potato tubers in the garden with soft rot, which
have tissues that are very soft and watery, and have a slightly granular
consistency. The diseased tissue is cream- to tan-colored, and often has
a black border separating diseased from healthy areas.

potatoes-with-soft-rot

Black leg enters the potato from the stem, so appears at the end of the
potato.

soft-rot-from-blackleg

The soft rot then develops from the point of blackleg infection.

development-of-soft-rot-fro

In the early stages, soft-rot decay is generally odorless, but later a
foul odor and a stringy or slimy decay usually develops as secondary
decay bacteria invade infected tissues.

Blackleg originates from the seed, which is why it is important to by
certified seed, as certified seed will have been checked for blackleg.

Blackleg, aerial stem rot, and tuber soft rot of potatoes are all caused
by similar bacteria which grow more rapidly in we, hot conditions.

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