Gardening questions and chat!

Our one Longue de Nice pumpkin has produced 15 pumpkins averaging 3kg.

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I wouldn’t grow them if I only got 1-1.5 kg, I think we ended up with around 90-100kg, the chooks were getting them in the end…

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No kidding! In Lot et Garonne (47). It’s heavyish clay soil, ideal for orchards and agriculture, not so brilliant for horticulture as it compacts easily. As the SPs are grown in a polytunnel, they get a lot of water through the summer. Water’s essential to try to keep the temperatures down a bit, despite both ends being open.
I’ve learnt to concentrate on ‘luxury’ crops, asparagus, artichokes, fennel, citrus, lemongrass, chillies etc. , although with cauliflower prices reaching a new, heady high of €5 each recently, they’re back on the list for next year :laughing:

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Not far from me then (mid 24). I will be trying these in the summer!

Sorry to repost but still a bit in the dark about what to do regarding these 2 things?

If you haven’t yet harvested I’d do so, you will probably find that some have started growing again.

I planted red onions and shallots last minute in the spring and didn’t water enough in the dry March ended up with quite a few that never grew. I kept them and most are still firm / good condition. Can I plant them now or waste of time?

I’d just eat them, this will be their 2nd Winter and they’ll just bolt in the Spring.

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That is exactly what has happened, mainly around the edges where we obviously missed some! I guess in my head is something I read about potatoes for Christmas and wondered if I can let them keep growing, at least until first frost, and could potentially get a small harvest?

Thank you, this was my thought from reading at some point about a 2 year life cycle. Have hubby saying just put them in and try but you have confirmed my thoughts with a reason I can give him!

I hope you OK, you’ve been very quiet!

Thanks for the concern, I’m fine thanks :blush:
For the potatoes, dig on Christmas morning and you’ll get a few presents :gift: :potato::potato::potato:

Aubergines, piments et poivrons safely in their Winter home. The setup is WIP.
7 hours of light on tempo night tariff

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Oh questions, questions that could save me living with himselfs’s chilli plants all around the house all winter. What light? What is the room? Insulated?

The lighting’s 6600 lm 6500k IP65.
Lm is lumens, K is the lighting spectrum (6600k more or less daylight) Ip is the indice de protection for humidity / water resistance.
They’re in one of the cellars, I’ve no need for insulation the temperature difference Summer /Winter is +/- 4c, so for me 14-18c.
If you want to do the same don’t waste money on expensive aka grow lights with multiple spectrum lighting, unless you want plants flowering in your cellar, just buy LED lighting as mine, for keeping plants alive during Winter and starting seedlings off or growing lettuce and micro greens.

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Today saw the employés municipaux raking up leaves and loading them onto a truck. Now they in my courtyard and been promised another load.

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Sadly one of our cantonnier is a big gardener so I’m guessing where our leaves will be going! I’ll ask my neighbour though, who is the other on the team!

Just seen on another post you’re having baked spud for lunch. Got me thinking, did you get any Christmas potatoes from your garden.

Yeah we did, maybe 1/2 kg. Sadly they went green really fast so didn’t get to eat them!

Normally I would spend the Christmas period sorting out what seeds i might want for the coming year and what (veg) I was going to plant when.

Because of an almost total lack of garden maintenance last year, this year is going to be tricky BUT I’m much more able to do stuff now and my porr partner isn’t having to do everything himself.

What I’m working round to is the sweet potato question. I have some left from what was an amazing harvest last year - especially since they were just planted and left. I’m thinking of doing slips as per @Griffin36 's suggestions last year and was wondering…

I can presumably use a left over sweet potato from last year’s crop but was thinking about perhaps another variety as well? Where do people get their sweet potatoes to form slips from? The supermarket? Garden centres?

I look forward to your replies! I’m also keen to get sweet potatoes in this year.

Fig trees been pruned today, hoping for fewer wasps and more ripe, easier to pick fruit as a result.

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We hate it when our neighbour has his fig trees pruned during the winter, as this removes the tiny figlets which form during the summer and would (if left unpruned) overwinter and give us an early crop the following year… OK we get figs during the current year but always later, towards the autumn, and I hate waiting… :wink:
he now only prunes every few years… much better !!!

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Yes we read that and have left a decent amount on. To be honest we don’t really use them all so a smaller crop not a huge issue. I actually think that the extra light may well get more to ripeness any way.

Now that’s a bummer if you can’t have your home-grown potatoes :melting_face:

Yes quite! I also ended up feeding the chooks the last of the courgettes / marrows!