Independent Leyton Orient Forum

slacker wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 2:46 pm More rhubarb? It’s great, (I stew it with sugar and ginger and use it cold on top of my oats, nuts, seed and almond milk “overnight” muesli mix that I make in batches to last a few days). You’ll struggle to eat what one big plant provides.

any recipes would be greatly received (only if you can be arsed)

Also, just downloaded an app called Picture This (which appears to constantly asking for you to subscribe but seems to be free if you just ignore it) where you take a photo of a plant and it tells you what it is. A lot of weeds appear to be actual plants! Also turns out i have wild celery and Garlic mustard.

greyhound wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:11 pm planting runner bean seeds in pots never worked for me, the best way to start them off
is to fill a clear plastic bag with dampened down compost, put the amount of
beans you need plus a couple extra ones in tie the top and put it on your window sill,
in no time they will start germinating then plant them in pots until time to plant out.
guaranteed to work.

Couple of tips that have worked well for me this year. I only have a small garden, but grow lots of runner beans and the last few years, many tomato plants. Last year i tried a new variety of Runner Bean e.g Firestorm. Purchased at a very reasonable price from Amazon, planted them in compost in pots and after around 3 weeks on being on my window sill, nothing happening whereas my normal old faithful ''Scarlet Emperor'' was doing ok in same compost, same sort of ports on same window sill. Went onto the Amazon site and many reported the same problem. I happened to mention this to my 91 year old cousin who said ''Did you soak them in water for a couple of days before planting them, if not then give that a try'' Well I took the beens OUT of the pots and soaked them in water for 2 days, re-planted them in the compost pots and low and behold, all starting to come up within a week with around 9 out of 10 coming good, result ! Done the same this year using Runner seed, some from dried pods of from 2 or 3 years ago kept at end off the growing season and yes after planting after a 2 day soak in water, again coming along nicely ! Same goes for tomatoes, took ages for them to come up last year and not many came up in proportion to amount of seeds planted, so this year, around 2 to 3 months ago I purchased a pack of ''Money Maker'' seeds from Lidl for only 29 pence, said 80 seeds on the packet and read on the net about soaking them before planting, so I thought I would give that a try, well tipped the seed into a cup, well covered them with water for one day, then removed the seeds from the cup via a tea strainer into 20 little peat filled pots. OMG, within a few days they germinated so quickly, problem though, around DOUBLE amount of around 150 little plants came up " Oh well getting ready now to move into bigger pots, shame non of my neighbours are interested in having a few of these tomato seedlings, gave away large pots in the pots of fairly large plants and both neighbours let them die through lack of water !

Not much danger of lack of water here.

My old man used to cut the tops off of carrots
Pop it on a saucer of water & leave them on the cill.
Couple of days later they are ready to be planted shoots already growing

All you get from carrot tops are leaves. I think your memory has confused your dad with your nursery school teacher.

If you put a carrot top in water it will only produce leaves, no carrot. However if you do the same with an onion you will get an actual bulb. When cooking cut the root off the onion. Peel off the dead skin, put it in water 2/3 days, then plant and keep damp. It will produce an onion. Something to do when you have time on your hands, like now!

Mick McQuaid wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 9:23 am All you get from carrot tops are leaves. I think your memory has confused your dad with your nursery school teacher.

Used to replant those leaved tops & have more
Carrots from seeds . No confusion.
Was a very decent gardner.

House was full of home grown peas, carrots 2 types of spud, radishes cabbage lettuce tomatoes runner beans
Lettuces scallions beetroot rhubarb etc

I know i used to have to water before & after work when he was on holiday

Turning carrot tops into carrot plants that produce
carrot seeds which in turn produce next years carrots.

Not just "LEAVES " AS SOMEONE ELSE SAID .

That Nursery School was brilliant

You defo don't get new carrot taproots from a planted top, tuffers. It will flower and seed, mind.

Agree with Sid about soaking the larger seeds like beans and peas before planting out. It seems to kick start the germination process. Though I don't grow runners: pretty flowers but the most boring veg.

slacker wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:53 pm You defo don't get new carrot taproots from a planted top, tuffers. It will flower and seed, mind.

Agree with Sid about soaking the larger seeds like beans and peas before planting out. It seems to kick start the germination process. Though I don't grow runners: pretty flowers but the most boring veg.

I never said you would .
I said put it in water & you get
Shoots that are ready to be planted.

Others must have imagined i said you get a
carrot from a carrot top .

slacker wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:53 pm You defo don't get new carrot taproots from a planted top, tuffers. It will flower and seed, mind.

Agree with Sid about soaking the larger seeds like beans and peas before planting out. It seems to kick start the germination process. Though I don't grow runners: pretty flowers but the most boring veg.

As said in my post above, also kick started my tomato seed this year but because of being a much smaller seed, just soaked the tomato seeds for one day. Two days for the runner beans worked out ok for me ! I dont grow peas but no doubt good idea to soak them as well. Best not to soak any seed too long though as too much soaking and the seeds will start to decompose and rot. For most seeds one day soaking is enough. For myself, love runner beans, Bring a pan of water to the boil and place in your runner beans. Cook for 2-3 minutes until they have lost their rawness but retain a lovely crunch. Love new potatoes as well !