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Thank you for your detailed description. That’s very helpful and I’ll add it to my notes. When I said mine were delicate and spreading I was actually mixing them up with another variety. My plants are still quite small, about 30cm I’d say, but they have quite meaty-looking peppers forming -...

I’m growing Beaver Dam peppers this year. I’d never heard of them before I got some seed, but have read their interesting history. My two plants are quite small and delicate still. Is that typical for the variety? I’d love to know a bit more about them. Are they favourites for you? I believe...

I use bagging of flowering shoots for peppers as I’ve had some crossing in the past. For tomatoes I simply assume they will come true, as with beans and lettuces. I’ve had occasional bean crosses but not knowingly had any tomato crosses and I grow plants quite close together. On my peppers...

An interesting post. I’m intrigued by these varieties with Lima in the name. There’s a discussion in Beans of New York to the effect that some growers had previously thought that a cross between P. vulgaris and P. lunatus had produced such Lima lookalikes but that at the time of writing this was...

Looking back at your photos, your roottrainers are definitely not the same as the version which has been sold under that name in UK. They certainly look much sturdier. And they don’t operate with a hinge which has always been a weakness in the UK version, as once the hinge goes there’s no way of...

Roottrainers have been available in UK for years. They’re not very cheap but I guess affordable. They’re a great design in most ways but the snag is that they’re quite thin plastic and for the money don’t last long. I ended up with piles of half roottrainers because the hinges broke, so I...

Interesting. At the time I was so affected that I didn’t look into possible approaches to alleviating the effects, nor indeed into the digestive benefits. In what form have you eaten psyllium? I’m rather prejudiced against food supplements. It looks like you can grow Plantago ovata, but the...

Adding my observations to the questions about sunchokes and digestion. I’ve been a vegetarian for over thirty years too, and could happily eat any vegetable until I grew sunchokes. The effect was explosive. I loved the taste of them but the windiness was beyond my tolerance. I reluctantly dig up...

Here fava beans are known for often getting lots of black aphids at the top of each plant, and then when they’re bad they can spread downwards. The usual advice is to pinch off the top few inches to discourage them. It doesn’t affect the developing bean pods and the tops are also good to eat...

That’s really bad news. Let’s hope negotiations move faster than last year. You have so many great seeds to offer that it would be very sad if the whole season passed without being able to trade. Good luck, Canada.

The season is getting exciting. We have had drought conditions here, but with much watering I have planted out young bean plants of several dwarfs: Grumbliai, Resistant Cherokee Wax Poroto Huancabamba, Purple Dove, Valentino Verdolino, Porcelain, Mor Kristin Dior Gold Rush Mogette A couple...

I’m able to sow Aquadulce Claudia in November every year in modules. I plant out some in late January or early February in my polytunnel and they are just coming ready now. Another lot go out of doors and they’ll be ready in another three or four weeks. Perhaps something like that might work...

Your fence looks great, @Blue-Jay. I’ve had rabbit problems in the past but interestingly, they’ve shown no interest in beans. Perhaps British rabbits have different tastes. Brassicas have been their main delectation. Or perhaps it’s because I use transplants like @heirloomgal so the bean plants...

Welcome @SusanneinHastings. Which Hastings might that be? We have a Hastings here in England but I’m guessing there might be one or two in US too! It’s an exciting bean time coming up. I have tentatively sown a few dwarf beans in modules in the last couple of days, thinking that I can fleece...

I’m beginning to understand why England is associated with pea growing and feel humbly grateful for our comparatively mild winters and in awe of those in this group who do so much with such short seasons. We can still have frosts up till the middle of May so (to return to beans!) I’m only now...

It was particularly moving as she still cared enough about the beans and the seeds and your kind generosity to want to do something to honour all three of those things. I imagine that still caring that much must add to the poignancy of what is missed for her.

We have frosts down to -8 but not often and not for days on end. I was assuming that by March peas would be able to survive your conditions, but perhaps I under-estimated. It's often round-seeded podding dwarf varieties which are sown early here, like Kelvedon Wonder and Meteor but there are...

Peas are a cool weather crop though. They don’t like summer heat as they’re prone to mildew when it gets hot and dry. I grow them as an early crop and mine are mostly sown in February indoors and planted out in March. They’re all a foot or two tall now. I plant them in cut off plastic bottles to...

That is very odd. I’ve grown the wild tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium and it didn’t protest at all at being in a pot. . It’s difficult to imagine what these young plants would get in the ground that they can’t get in a pot. I can only wonder what it would be like if you put it in a pot of your...

I completely agree! It’s difficult at many stages. Further down the line, for example, yesterday I was potting on tomatoes and in some cases felt I had to reduce three plants to two. Throwing away a perfectly healthy plant is also difficult but, unless you have someone nearby who would like to...