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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...

Is the idea behind this that the roots develop more easily in the vermiculite so you get that little bush of sideways roots and not so many going strongly down?

Congratulations!🤩🤗

Thanks for sharing your experience. They’re entirely new to me. Until I read your observations last year, I didn’t know such varieties existed.,I’m looking forward to the new experiment.

I’ve used the same kind of labels and found them to be both waterproof and sun proof, and in a few cases I’ve used them for a few years in succession with no deterioration. I do have plans saved on file too but mainly because I only have big tags for certain things and small tags easily get...

I started three of the four I had from you at the later end of my tomato starting period but within the same window, so they ended up sown on 1/4. Grappoli d’Inverno was the only one I didn’t sow as I just had ridiculous numbers by then. It will be top of the list for next year. So I’ll see how...

Thanks for your explanation. I have to admit that my experience has more often been that I havebunderstood why certain crops aren’t often grown! But I do enjoy the finding out process. I have grown oca. It’s quite popular amongst dedicated veg growers. I love the foliage and its habit of...

Yes, good feeling to have sown the last tomato. Do you sow your long keepers at the same time as the rest?. I love the way you double down on a few food crops like tomatoes and beans but then also reach out to some very unusual stuff as well - pepicha, quilquinna etc. I’m intrigued as to...

My stuff is all Apple so I actually use Pages which is their equivalent of Word.

Thanks for the further info. Your larger tags seem very reasonably priced for the size. I’ve only found large tags online here at twice that price, and for not quite as big as yours. Maps is rather a grand term for what I do and it only works perhaps because I work in four foot plus long beds...

I can echo almost all you say here. I perhaps have a little more space under lights having expanded this season but there’s never enough. At the moment I’m starting zucchini and squash too, which take up more space, not to mention flower seedlings, brassicas, more cucurbits, peppers, aubergines...

Yes, a lovely time, even though verging on overwhelming! I’m interested in your tomato progression. It looks like you start with several seeds in quite small modules. What do you then pot on to and how many for each variety? Do you pot on quite quickly after germination or thin out first...

I hope that really works for you as a long term solution. 🤞

It’s a tricky one! I’ve had some marker pen fade away in sunlight too, so it’s easy to get caught between one that’s too indelible and one that’s not indelible enough. Have you considered a labeller, the kind made by Brother? I’ve had one for donkeys years and it soldiers on. The label strips...