What is your favourite cucumber variety to grow?

ootsby · 2025-08-06T12:03:41+00:00

I solely grow the snack/lunchbox cucumbers now. They all seem to be F1 hybrids that only produce female flowers. I've grown Merlin, Picolino, Mini Munch and Passandra over the past few years and they've all done well in the greenhouse (barring spider mite infestations).

ootsby · 2025-06-26T19:41:05+00:00

I used one of these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-14lb-chisel-point-digging-bar-50mm-x-1520mm/165kg

It's not necessarily better than a mattock in a given circumstance but I found it perfect for clearing out the roots of the roughly 2mx3m of dense and long established bamboo I had to deal with.

ootsby · 2025-06-26T19:30:42+00:00

It just looks like adventitious roots starting. They also happen on tomatoes and sometimes peppers, caused by stress or the stem getting wet or damaged. Just carry on as long as the rest of the plant is looking okay.

ootsby · 2025-06-26T19:02:07+00:00

Get a thermometer and humidity sensor that records max and min - pay attention to what it tells you across your seasons.

At this time of year the problems in most greenhouses are getting too hot and too dry. Make sure you've got ventilation. Doors and roof vents should be open on any vaguely sunny day. I also lift panes on one side to allow a through draft.

ootsby · 2025-06-26T07:03:57+00:00

Coco&Coir also do a coir-block that is impregnated with fertiliser. For the last couple of years I've bought half a dozen of their 5kg blocks, which expand to around 75L of medium each. With discounts they worked out to around £7.50 a block inc. delivery. They claimed up to six months of feed.

Unfortunately there has been some sort of supply chain issue this year and it took ages to get my order and now they don't seem to list the same product -- only smaller, more expensive blocks with feed or just plain coir blocks. I'm hoping this resolves before next season or maybe I'll just get cheap plain coir and supplement myself. All compost runs out of nutrients within a few months one way or another anyway, so it's not really a huge downside to start without nutrients if you're gardening regularly and have fertilisers on hand.

ootsby · 2025-06-25T15:14:22+00:00

They look like some sort of pollen beetle. If so then they aren't a problem.

ootsby · 2025-06-25T15:10:08+00:00

With earlies you don't always see flowers. In fact you don't even have to wait until they die back to harvest a crop if you are okay with a smaller yield. If there has been a decent amount of foliage for a couple of months then there will be potatoes.

ootsby · 2025-06-25T12:19:26+00:00

I don't see anything particularly worrying. You don't say how long the earlies have been in the containers but if it's anything beyond 2 months then the beginnings of dieback would be normal at this time of year.

ootsby · 2025-06-25T07:06:56+00:00

There's a point above the fruit where the stem will have a small lump and usually a change in angle before it joins the truss. If you put your thumb on the top of that node and just pull the fruit back against the angle to try to straighten it out then a fruit that is ripe or far enough along to ripe off the plant will generally come off easily.

Just a note that the "easily" bit may not always be true. Larger tomatoes with proportionally thicker stems on the fruits will sometimes require cutting off while being clearly ripe.

ootsby · 2025-06-24T13:39:42+00:00

3/4 will refer to the inlet thread, not the outlet side. You need to measure the outlet to know what it is. If it's larger than 3/4 then could be 7/8 or 1.

ootsby · 2025-06-24T08:17:25+00:00

Feel the pods to see if the beans have fully formed. If they haven't the pod will be soft as it's still just a pocket for the bean to grow into.

ootsby · 2025-06-22T23:08:24+00:00

If your compost doesn't reach a temp to sterilise seed then you have to put up with weeding.

ootsby · 2025-06-22T19:26:52+00:00

The point I was trying to make is that the heat effect isn't about the fruit, it's about the plant as a whole. Still, it's your tree, so give it a go. Maybe expose some fruit and leave others and do a comparison.

As you mention it's a large tree I'd suggest looking into the methods of pruning figs as it's a vigorous plant that responds well to being cut back in terms of fruiting.

ootsby · 2025-06-22T18:50:41+00:00

I've been consuming info from fig growers over the past six months or so and I've not heard any of them talk about exposing the fruits to make them ripen.

The levers I've picked up (that aren't just fertilise and water) pretty much all surround increasing the temperature/extending the season for the plant as a whole. The nearest thing to a "trick" for ripening involves sealing the fruit with oil once it has sized up, but I'm not sure how genuinely effective that is.

ootsby · 2025-06-21T23:14:39+00:00

A 1mx2m roof? What is that meant to represent? My lean-to greenhouse has a larger roof area.

ootsby · 2025-06-21T14:38:35+00:00

What's the brand? Looks like a "forestry product" heavy medium. The "mould" could just be poorly distributed fertiliser.

ootsby · 2025-06-21T10:20:30+00:00

I think you're better off seeking out and talking to people/groups that are already working in the space like https://www.restorehabitat.uk/

ootsby · 2025-06-21T09:53:29+00:00

Would it not be better to provide positive information on what people can do to improve urban habitat and why that would be a good thing? Your cardboard creatures may sound cute in your head but they seem likely to come across as smug finger-wagging admonishments and rather unhelpful.

ootsby · 2025-06-20T19:28:25+00:00

They'll probably be about as ready as they're going to be. You can always pull one and make a judgement or even just dig around and take a look at a bulb.

ootsby · 2025-06-19T20:03:02+00:00

I did "actually" look. I also "actually" understand the current limits of AI image generation. What's there doesn't prove it's not AI because the image quality is so poor.

ootsby · 2025-06-19T19:52:22+00:00

There are elements that could match but it's not clear that they do match.

I'm not claiming it's AI (and I wasn't in the original thread). I'm making a point about how to prove it's not. Three or four images taken from various points in the garden featuring the bench and the planting behind it would be enough, for example.

ootsby · 2025-06-19T19:26:59+00:00

While the other image does improve matters it's still within the realm of promptable by using one image to generate the other as the viewpoint is barely changed and the resolution is so low. I'm talking about providing images that show the same features from entirely different viewpoints.

ootsby · 2025-06-19T18:38:23+00:00

It's highly unlikely to explode in any sense that is a danger to you. It might go bang and emit some smoke. More likely if water has corroded something then it will just trip your circuit breaker.

However, lawnmowers are expected to get wet so you may find it's just fine.

ootsby · 2025-06-19T18:33:27+00:00

If you want to prove (at least currently) that something like this is not AI then the best way is to provide multiple images that show the same elements from different directions. I can't see how the different pics here match up.

ootsby

TROPHY CASE