growing vegetables

[winifred]

Originally Posted by lislaw

That's taking reycling/repurposing to a whole new level.

have you tried the pee on your tomatoes

[misstake]

this is a great information thread so bump

[lislaw]

I saw this on gardensplanireland and thought it was really relevant to this site:

http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about2169.html

It's the toilet roll/newspaper bit I'm talking about so scroll down!!

Lisa

[frantasia]

I use the old toilet roll middles for starting off seeds - the whole thing, pot and plant, put directly into the soil when they're ready. The toilet roll pots will rot away - sometimes I tear them as I plant out the seedling, usually they're already broken or about ready to disintegrate.

I've read that some people put the toilet roll inners in a microwave for about a minute before they use them, this prevents fungal growth (I think). I've never done that and I've never had a problem with them.

thanks for directing us to that interesting thread - I plan on going back to that site, it looks great, full of info.

[mufflets]

Hi there
I hope you dont mind me jumping in here but im looking where to buy seed potatoes for my brother (in mayo). i live in North Dublin and am looking for enough to seed about half an acre.
Any information appreciated.
thanks.

[lislaw]

If you go to the website above - gardenplansireland - on their forum they have names of seed suppliers in Ireland. HTH
Lisa

[Ecoprincess]

bit late with the weekly update but its been such good weather its been outside work only.

So now your onions and Garlic should be popping their heads above the soil. In the greenhouse your beans dwarf, pole, broad should be up and in leaf, along with your squashes, melon, cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatoes, leeks, spinach, chard, cauliflowers, and I'm sure I have missed stuff out. In the garden you seed bed should be raked and sown with brassicas such as kales, sproutings, brussels, and lettuces along with other in situ salads such as scallions, mixed leave lettuces and herbs. In their appropriate place, beetroot have been sown along with perpetual spinach. I hang off with my carotts until next month and my potatoes the ground needs to be a little warmer yet maybe this weekend.

I have sown parsley and transplanted the overwinter to their new home.

The apricots have masses of flowers and the apples are just begining in the orchard, the Artiochokes - globe are beginning to waken as are the herbs. I have planted some sage, rosemary and marjoram in the greenhouse they suffer in bad summers and winters in Ireland so I decided to see how they did in the greenhouse for an all year around supply - so far so good.

I have also planted up more rhubarb, made a new aspargus bed and done a final weeding of the vegetable area before transplanting.

What I still have to do is nastertums the bees love them and I let them grow with the pole beans they look great, are edible and the last flower for the bees before they retire for winter.

Not a good year for the bees lost a couple of hives but still have a few left so will increase this year rather than aim for alots of honey - if its a good year I might have both :)

[sidhe.eire]

Hi all just to let you know you can get seeds from irish seed savers online at www.irishseedsavers.ie they are a brilliant organisation that are saving seeds and keeping certain varieties from goin extinct, you can join for 30 - 50 euro a year (depending on your income) and will get 5 free seeds packets of your choice along with other membership extras..also if your going to buy seeds from garden centres supermarkets etc...be careful that they are not f1 which means they are genetically modified, and because of this you cannot save seeds from them so u have to keep buying them every year...which is not really sustainable!! (of course this depends on whether u want to be or not!!)

[lislaw]

what exactly does f1 mean? Is it printed somewhere on the seed packet?

[Chris P]

Originally Posted by lislaw

what exactly does f1 mean? Is it printed somewhere on the seed packet?

f1 = filial1 ?

Details here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_hybrid

[sidhe.eire]

Originally Posted by lislaw

what exactly does f1 mean? Is it printed somewhere on the seed packet?

yes its on the front of most packets in plain view...

[lislaw]

Oh my God!! So it is!! I've never noticed it before. It's not on all of them but is on some. It's right under the name of the seed along with the latin name - very sneaky!!!
I'll watch out for that in the future. Pity I've most if not all of my seeds for this year bought at this stage.

[fnc]

Originally Posted by sidhe.eire

...be careful that they are not f1 which means they are genetically modified, and because of this you cannot save seeds from them so u have to keep buying them every year...which is not really sustainable!! (of course this depends on whether u want to be or not!!)

Just wanted to clarify - F1 does not mean genetically modified, genetically modified is a totally different thing

[lislaw]

Yep, on reading the wikipedia article it seems to be more about cross pollination and new or variant species. It does go on to highlight the lack of pollination and seed production etc. It seems to me that f1 / f2 on seed packets is a good indicator that the variety is not one naturally found and is a hybrid of two parent plants. I can understand why if you wanted to propogate from seed yourself or wanted only natural/native species you would avoid these type of seed, but yes definately different from what my understanding of gm is. Still, good to know about it in the first place. Thanks

[sidhe.eire]

sorry guys for the wrong info on F1 seeds being genetically modified...but yeah my point was that you dont get to save a lot if any seed from these plants...look up terminator technology on irish seed savers about how seed companies like monsanto etc are trying to stop these plants from producing any seed at all...