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DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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Get yourself to the supermarket and buy some .
Once home take the two biggest ripest and put them on a dish in sunlight for a few days , then chop them up into 10mm cubes Now mush them up in a screw top jar half filled with clean fresh tap water. Pop the lid on , shake it like mad for 20 seconds and repeat this for three times a day for three days .
On the third day before shaking gently pour off the now pinkish water that contains the rotting flesh , re fill to half way and repeat . On the sixth day you should be able to pour out mainly seeds . I did this for my strawberry crops .
3/4 fill a grape punnet with potting compost , teaspoon the seeds in water on it & use a kitchen sieve to sieve on a very light coating of compost . Cover with cling film for two days . then remove it. Keep the compost trigger spray damp and out of direct sunlight ,. in about 19 days you should see tiny sprouts of grenery .
Once the plants have four leaves carefully prick out into three or four inch pots and bring on on a north facing wall , keep them damp till they get to a decent size . then pot on as needed .
IIRC , they can be taken out the pots dry , made devoid of soil , stored in a sealed poly bag in the fridge for three days to stratify the young plants then store as is in a deep freezer till you have a decent bed prepared in April next year . All the stratifying does is send them into hibernation , the freezing holds them there till they awaken when you plant the transplants out
I shall give that a go if they have murano in Aldi again... last time I went they had different ones in.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Will they let him in?
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
- Messages
- 7,243
- Location
- Near to Cross Hands Llanelli SouthWales GB
Hopefully in between serious down pours ( the gardens say thank you ) I'm off strawberry hunting to bag 12 kg of them for jam making . If that fruitier & veg merchant hasn't got any for me I back to making sugar syrup once again with Certo .
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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I shall give that a go if they have murano in Aldi again... last time I went they had different ones in.
I love Aldi and Lidl but to get costs down, don't they and others just look to buy "strawberries" at the best rate they can, on the basis the average customer will be less fussy about the variety unlike those with a discerning palate like yourself?
I have a discerning pallet...
prepman
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Any Legume will add nitrates so good start. Home grown is a total different taste. Brassicas I had lots of issues cabbage root fly. I loved the broad beans, sweet corn and brocolli I grew.. Arthritis is too bad for spade work now and mini digger would destroy rather than till.
Grew dried peas from the pack eg 'Bigga Peas'. Marrowfats are brilliant.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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I have fitted a kiddies small metal sand spade to the butt of an old scrapped sea fishing rod . 20 dessert spoons or less of soil per spade full , 280 of mixed ballast per Belle mix . my brick bilt raised beds are fully keyed in & mortared beds in groups of six 36 inches deep on a drainable holed foundation of 12 "x 15 inches wide below ground concrete . It took ages & ages to fill each bed even after putting in about 1/3 of sharp sand as a bed fill at the bottom . T'was a very good decision on my part as I knew which way my disabilities were heading over 20 years ago . The beds are now 14 years old .Any Legume will add nitrates so good start. Home grown is a total different taste. Brassicas I had lots of issues cabbage root fly. I loved the broad beans, sweet corn and brocolli I grew.. Arthritis is too bad for spade work now and mini digger would destroy rather than till.
Grew dried peas from the pack eg 'Bigga Peas'. Marrowfats are brilliant.
Cabbage root fly = witling yellowing stunted two to four week old transplants that when pulled out usually have a maggot inside the stem feasting on the plant just below ground .
prevention .... put a thick dark split pair of black collars round each plant when you transplant them and don't let the ground dry out , keep it well moist & slug /snail protected if you can .
Even to pouring on a a single cup of water on each plant root area each evening till they get well established . . make the disc 's the same size as a CD or slightly bigger , rotate the slots so they are at 180 degree to each other to ensure a good darkness underneath them . I've used some old left over black Butyl pond liner , power washed , soap & Dettol scrubbed both sides , rinsed well then left to dry before using a biro to mark round the CD's then cut them out . Fold the disc into 1/4 pie shapes and snip out a very small bit in the middle max hole sixe 8 mm for the plant hole then cut the skirt slot in it .
Hmmm like it ....not too late to get some dried marrowfats from the likes of Tesco ( 2.3 mile local to me ) soak some for 24 hrs in fresh water then plant them , sodding snails ate all but one of my earlier 24 plants ..................
BTD'S !Miserable when that happens. Everybody has there own method of dealing with slugs and snails. Mrs T has her few leaves of scattered 'sacrificial lettuce' and for very tender young plants we have an old tatty cast aluminium lattice table that no slug or snail will go near. Good electrical field I gather.I sodding snails ate all but one of my earlier 24 plants ..................
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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- Near to Cross Hands Llanelli SouthWales GB
Popped 50 Tesco's best dried marrowfat peas in a glass of cold clean tap water for 36 hrs. , changing the water twice , left it in the kitchen but out of direct sunlight . Last night they were starting to develop chits , so in the drizzle I put a ring of pig wire fence 3 foot in diameter on one of the raised beds and sowed a pea every vertical wire then did the same between the verts , still had peas to play with so I put the rest in four inches further out in the same manner , the two peas left over went in to the middle of the ring .
Gave the sown bed a light dose of snail killer making sure the brick corners got a triple dose as it is where snails hide in day time hide & the first place for the growth medium to dry a little , out so the snails are about 6 inches down from the top .
Just after I finished the sky decided to weep stair rods for half an hour or so . Should I have watered them in ? 
Later if they get going well I'll sit another pig wire ring on top & cable tie it to the bottom one and ad three or four six foot long stabilizing stakes to the inside of the ring . learning from experience that a decent gust can turn over an un-staked set of rings when it's fully clothed in pea or bean vines .
Gave the sown bed a light dose of snail killer making sure the brick corners got a triple dose as it is where snails hide in day time hide & the first place for the growth medium to dry a little , out so the snails are about 6 inches down from the top .
Just after I finished the sky decided to weep stair rods for half an hour or so .
Should I have watered them in ? Later if they get going well I'll sit another pig wire ring on top & cable tie it to the bottom one and ad three or four six foot long stabilizing stakes to the inside of the ring . learning from experience that a decent gust can turn over an un-staked set of rings when it's fully clothed in pea or bean vines .
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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Well...what to do after a beer and Thai box meal?
Take a Zilt stick and bit of 15mm copper. That's my electrodes sorted. Lad's meter:
Push into dwarf bean pot:
0.8VDC:
Same again with the runner pot, link the two "earth batteries" together and we get 1.6VDC:
Wonder if it's enough of a deterrent if I put two copper strips around the pot?
Take a Zilt stick and bit of 15mm copper. That's my electrodes sorted. Lad's meter:
Push into dwarf bean pot:
0.8VDC:
Same again with the runner pot, link the two "earth batteries" together and we get 1.6VDC:
Wonder if it's enough of a deterrent if I put two copper strips around the pot?
Its gota be easier poppin to lidl or Aldi lol
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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The day I do easy is the day I'll stop. Gotta keep the old grey matter ticking over.
Onoff
In the land of the unfinished project I am King!
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I did wonder if putting a copper rod in their is detrimental to the plants? After all you bang copper nails in to trees to kill/stop them growing etc. I'll whip 'em out later.
A compost battery is I've read a thing. As you keep topping up with "fresh" material it keeps the electrolytic medium as in the "soil" from getting depleted. Ditto in a septic tank or treatment plant drainage field.
DAPPH
as dyslexik as I'm daft
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Bit of an old wives tale about nailing a tree with copper nails to kill it . The Old apple tree my aunt nailed every 1nch round its 28 inch girth it didn't do a thing even 12 years later . It could be the acid content of the bark & wood reacting on certain trees .
