This marrow flower is a great example of how flowers attract insects.
The flowers are:
* very large – with huge petals
insects-on-marrow-flower
* brightly coloured
marrow-flower-centre
* yellow
guiding-lines
* open – with guide lines to the center of the flower, which attract the insects down the petals to the flower centre.
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seeding-broccoli
When sprouting broccoli is past its best, yellow flowers emerge from
the shoots. These plants should be removed from the vegetable plot and
put on the compost heap.
broccoli-going-to-seed
The disadvantages of leaving the old plants in the vegetable garden
to flower are:
* *they take up space
* *they harbour pests and diseases, eg. clubroot
* *they may not breed true (give plants with exactly the same characteristics as the parent.)
If the plants are left to flower, the flowers will be fertilised by
visiting insects, and then seeds are produced. The characteristics of
the seed depends on whether the parent is an open pollinated variety or
an F1 hybrid.
Open pollinated plants are varieties that grow true from seed. This
means they are capable of producing seeds from this seasons plants,
which will produce seedlings that will be just like the parent plant.
F1 hybrids – are the product of a careful and deliberate cross of two different ’strains’ and will produce plants that are uniform and have particular charateristics, eg very big sprouts, or bright green sprouts.
F1 means first filial generation.
Brussel sprouts are another brassica which goes to seed like broccoli. Bedfordshire farmers were once famous for the sprouts they grew and distributed to vegetable markets all over the country everyday of the winter. Each farmer had his own distinctive sprouts, which he had
developed over the years by breeding his own seed.
Each spring he would:
- select his best plants, with the traits he wanted in future generations
- these plants would be allowed to flower
- flowering plants were anxiously watched to prevent cross
- pollination (pollen from other plants not selected by the farmer, being brought onto these plants)
- no other brassicas were allowed to flower in the vicinity, neighbours with flowering brassicas were asked to remove them
- bees were closely watched to make sure that they had not found a hidden patch over the hill – it was a tense time
- the seeds were harvested and stored in a cool, dry, safe place to be planted the following year.
- safe storage was essential, to prevent loosing the excellent strain to competing farmers ( in our case, these valuable seeds were stored under my parent’s bed – we had a cold house!)
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Bean flowers are beautiful and so variable. These photos show french
bean, broad bean and scarlet runner bean flowers.
french-bean-flower
broad-bean-flowers
runner-bean-flowers
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Flowers on potatoes result in fruits on the potato tops.
After potato plants flower, some varieties, such as Maris Bard, will produce small green fruits, rather like green cherry tomatoes. These potato fruits are POISONOUS.
Do not eat the green fruits that appear in the potato foliage above ground. It is the potato tubers below ground that are edible. Potatoes are in the same family as deadly nightshade – with equally deadly fruits!
Although some potato flowers result in fruits on the potato tops, they cannot be eaten.
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Snap off onion flowers as soon as they appear. If the plants flower, the
onions will become woody and unusable.
onion-flower
If the onion flowers in it’s first year it is said to ‘bolt’. Instead of
producing the onion bulb desired, the plant ‘bolts’ into maturity,
flowers, & produces seed during the summer instead of the normal root.
Mark which onions are attempting to flower by starting to bolt (with a lolly stick, or anything
handy) and use these first as they won’t store well.
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Snap off onion flowers as soon as they appear. If the plants flower, the
onions will become woody and unusable.
onion-flower
If the onion flowers in it’s first year it is said to ‘bolt’. Instead of
producing the onion bulb desired, the plant ‘bolts’ into maturity,
flowers, & produces seed during the summer instead of the normal root.
Mark which onions started to bolt (with a lolly stick, or anything
handy) and use these first as they won’t store well.
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The Maris Bard potato flower has light violet colour petals, and bright
yellow stamens.
maris-bard-flower
The flowers frequently set to produce fruits.
Maris Bard is a first early potato variety
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These broad bean flowers are pure white! The flowers are from the Broad Bean variety Medes
broad-bean-flowers
Medes Broad Beans are a highly productive variety producing medium sized pods, each containing 5-6 tender, sweet, juicy beans.
The broad bean pods are filling now and will soon be checked to see if they are ready to harvest.
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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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