Saturday 16 May 2015

Tomatoes. By James Wong.

Tomatoes - James Wong | Official Site:
"Unbelievably, spraying a dilute solution of aspirin onto your tomato plants (we are talking half a soluble tablet per litre of water) is capable of causing their sugar content to soar one and a half times and boost their Vitamin C content 50%.

This treatment can even make your plants more resistant to cold, drought and (not that we'll ever need it in the UK) heat stress too. According to one trial this can even result in a 47% less incidence of late blight, the scourge of tomato growers,
This works as aspirin is a close chemical copy of the plant stress hormone, salicylic acid, which turns on the genes that regulate their defence systems.

The more stress a plant 'thinks' it is under, the more sugars are redirected to the developing fruit in a bid to make them irresistable to passing animals. Plants do this to ensure their seeds have the maximum chance of being dispersed to save the next generation, but it conveniently makes for tastier salad too."
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- Невероятно, опрыскивание раствором аспирина растений томата - помидора (растворить половину таблетки на литр воды) способно повысить содержание сахара в них в полтора раза и повысить содержание витамина С на 50%!

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Thursday 7 May 2015

Order Strawberries today!

Re-Order Strawberries today from - Ken Muir!
- Strawberry 'Buddy'
- Strawberry 'Gariguette'
- The perpetual 'Mara des Bois'
cost = £40.16

Wednesday 6 May 2015

How to grow Strawberry Spinach.

How to grow Strawberry Spinach - Know your Vegetables:
This easy to grow plant produces edibles leaves and fruit - Annual!

An old-fashioned plant that dates to 1600 in Europe.
This curious plant produces greens that are picked and cooked like spinach, but it also produces attractive, red berries that are bland in flavor.
These add a nice touch to fruit salads.
Easy-to-grow plants are similar to “Lamb’s Quarters”, a wild relative.
Found in a monastery garden.
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Homemade Fertilizers.

Lower Lovetts Farm :: Richards Homemade Fertilizers: "Richards Homemade Fertilizers"
Comfrey Liquid (1:50)
I pick the comfrey just before it flowers and cram it into a water butt.
This normally takes 6 to 8 weeks depending on how warm it is. Tip: If you put the tub in the sun it works quicker. You can start using it at this stage.
When you get a green sludge (even more vile smelling a month or so later) I bottle it in 75cl bottles, old screw cap wine bottles. One 75cl bottle will do four watering cans of 2 gallons per can - i..e. one litre to every 10.5 gallons of water (50 litres) or 1:50.
Stinging Nettles Liquid
Wood Ash Liquid
Fill the bucket nearly full with water and stir for three weeks.
With tomatoes I use it once or twice a week, but by August when the tomatoes are at their best I use it every day for a short period.
If you want to keep the plants after a prolonged period of watering with wood ash liquid, add some Epsom salts to the pots and the green will return.
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Most perfect fertilizer + pesticide is epsom salt.

the world's most perfect fertilizer + pesticide is epsom salt.
This is so true- every other week- 1 gallon of water,
1 TBSP of miracle grow and 3 TBSP of epsom salt.

Studies show that magnesium and sulfur, two major components of Epsom salt, may help plants grow greener with higher yields and more blooms.
Magnesium creates an environment conducive to growth by helping seeds to germinate, increasing chlorophyll production and improving phosphorus and nitrogen uptake.

Dilute a tablespoon of Epsom salt in a gallon of water will do fine.
You can use it a s foliar spray as well for blossom drop at the same dilution.

Some people just sprinkle a little in a ring around the plant.

I thinks as a spray its 2 oz per gallon. I weighted that out at the weekend and 2oz filled about 4 tablespoons - so I put 1 tablespoon in a litre of spray - and that was at least twice what I needed for everything I could think of spraying!

Epsom salts almost certainly cheaper at the Garden centre than the Chemist, but given how little one uses it may be a bit irrelevant

1/2oz of magnesium to 1 pint of water and use it as a foliar spray for magnesium deficient plants. I have used this on yellowing tomato leaves and they green up nicely.

Dissolved in hot water & then soak your feet in it.
Great for hardening up your soles before a walking holiday.

Also read:
35 Pest and Disease Remedies

Companion Planting Guides

- RHGS Outdoor & Gardening Blog: Companion Planting Guides:
Also: - Companion Planting.
- Companion Planting:
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Fertiliser.

Growing vegetables on Leeds allotments - Fertiliser Teas:
Basic Method for "Tea"

Cover material in water, and soak; most recipes "suggest" that you put a lid on the container - this is essential; also do not put the bin by your back door. It will stink.
After a couple of days you will have a weak but useful brew, usable undiluted.
After 2-4 weeks you'll have a stronger brew; this will require a lid and is not suitable for people with short arms!
Stir every couple of days to avoid the brew going stagnant.
Dilute to the colour of weak tea and water in as a plant food, every couple of weeks.
Or use as a spray on plant leaves (a foliar feed).
This process produces a concentrated plant food, and your brew will need to be diluted for use - 1 part tea to 10 parts water for watering in your feed; 1 part tea to 20 parts water to spray on leaves.
Dump the material waste in the compost heap!
Remember - this is only a short-term remedy for plants which need "a bit of a lift"; it won't solve any problems with your soil, as it will be washed away pretty quickly.

Specific Recipes for "tea" brews

Animal Manure
Fill a small sack or cloth bag and suspend this in a container full of water;
rich in nitrogen (especially poultry or pigeon manure) - good for brassicas, onions
Compost
fill a bag or sack, as for animal manure
Seaweed
rinse the seaweed first to get rid of salt
rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes)
Comfrey
cut back the comfrey plants to about 2 inches three or four times a year
pack a dustbin with the cut leaves, and cover with water
rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes), and minerals; good source of nitrogen (for just about anything!)
Nettles
you can make a couple of "harvests" a year from your nettle patch
pack a dustbin with the cut leaves, and cover with water
said to prevent disease, as well as promoting health plant growth
rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes), and minerals; good source of nitrogen (for just about anything!)
Odd recipes
any combinations of the above!
basically anything nitrogen rich, such as fresh grass cuttings
the original cold tea from the teapot! Tea leaves are high in potash

These methods produce a much stronger concentrate, which should be diluted at

1 part potion to 10 or 20 parts water for watering in,
1 part potion to 40 parts water as a spray-on leaf feed.
They also have a couple of advantages, in that they smell less, and the concentrate can be stored (in dark glass bottles, in a cool, dark place.

Using a bucket
Use a plastic container with a hole in the bottom, and fill it with comfrey/nettle leaves. Put a weight on top of the leaves and leave.
After about three weeks a black, very smelly, liquid will drip from the hole.
Collect this in a bottle (shelter the hole and bottle from the rain!).
The concentrate can be stored in the dark for several months.
Using a wormery
The above method is popular among those people who have paid out £50 for a plastic wormery, got fed up with the work involved - and discovered it's perfectly designed for making comfrey concentrate!
Using a piece of drain-pipe!
Fix a drainpipe with wire and brackets to garage wall;
Wedge a 6-pint milk bottle and funnel underneath the drainpipe;
Stuff the drainpipe with comfrey or nettle leaves;
Put a plastic pop-bottle full of water in the top of the drainpipe (attached to a length of string); this will compress the leaves down the drainpipe;
and the concentrate will drip into the bottle, while the funnel keeps the leaves back.
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Окопник.

Садовое обозрение - Окопник – не сорняк, а друг садовода:

- настой травы окопника – это лучшее органическое калийное удобрение.
Как раз регулярное скашивание травы окопника и позволяет держать его заросли в рамках приличия.
А трава помогает эффективно поставлять калий для томатов, перцев, картофеля и прочих любителей этого элемента питания, без полноценного калийного удобрения трудно добиться хорошего завязывания и вызревания плодов.

Вот мой рецепт эффективного калийного удобрения:

- листья окопника порубить, сложить в бочку и залить дождевой водой (на 1 кг листьев 10 л воды).
Накрыть бочку крышкой и настаивать на солнечном месте неделю.
Поливать растения настоем, разбавленным водой в пропорции 1:10.
Особенно хороши такие подкормки для растений, выращиваемых в контейнерах или нуждающихся в калии.

Если окопника много, то можно скосить траву, порубить и использовать как мульчу для посадок томатов, фасоли и горошка.
Такая мульча отлично подходит для земляники и молодых плодовых деревьев.
Только обязательно кладите ее на влажную и рыхлую почву, а поверх слегка присыпайте сухой землей или торфом.
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