Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Mystery Tomato

I went to my local hardware store and bought a couple of tomato plants to fill the gaps in my frost bitten plants. This one was called 'Elisir' - so I bought it home and looked it up...not much known about this variety. Has anyone grown Elisir? All I found out was that they were red, an F1 hybrid and resistant to splitting. Lovely hot weather here in London at the moment, so everything is growing up leaps and bounds.
The sweetcorn has grown inches a day at the moment, and the second sowing of seeds that I planted the day after the frost...have caught up with the original survivors and are nearly the same size! I planted out my pumpkins and corn together today. Queensland Blue squash from Scarecrow, and Tromba D'albegna from Mas du Diable.
You can just see above my brussels sprouts and leeks settling into their new home. I am searching around for something to protect them with at the moment.
I was never any good at successional planting, especially when it comes to lettuces! it just doesn't seem right to plant 6 lettuce seeds then wait a month. Matron has to go the whole hog straight away. Here I have rows of Winter Density, Labacher Ice, and the red one is a variety I bought on the North coast of Norway at Nordkapp. The packet said something like 'Americanischer Braun'.. well, at least they are hardy. I am going to pick these lettuce a leaf at a time.
Finally, I thought my banana 'Musa Basjoo' had bitten the dust after I forgot to cover it this Winter, but half a dozen little banana plants have started to grow from the base. Today I pulled them all up - with lovely masses of their own roots - and potted them up.

8 Comments:

At 8:11 PM, Blogger Doc said...

I grew Elisir last year, it performed well for us. We liked the nice medium sized fruit and rich color. Taste was decent enough and they seemed to last a long time in the storage bin. I forgot to order more seeds this year or I probably would be growing it again.

 
At 12:16 PM, Blogger Kath said...

It's amazing the way things catch up. I always try to get in a few early sowings, mainly because winter is boring! This time of the year though, you wonder why you bothered!

 
At 3:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not pretty I know but the fine mesh netting scaffolders use works v well I got rolls of it unused from a building site in Reading so worth asking if you see scaffolding coming down

 
At 11:52 PM, Blogger Dan said...

The banana's are looking good!

 
At 2:21 PM, Blogger tina said...

I've never heard of Elisir, please let us all know how it does. Lettuce looks good!

 
At 3:46 PM, Anonymous kitsapFG said...

Glad you are enjoying some summer like weather. I am always amazed how second seedings can handily catch up to first sowings if the weather is much improved from the first sowing.

 
At 8:32 PM, Anonymous Lee said...

Very interesting! I really enjoyed reading! But an update on the lady bird eggs would be good, Did it work to just leave the plant alone and let the lady birds do their thing? Regards, Lee

 
At 8:58 AM, Blogger Matron said...

Lee - an interesting question. With hindsight I lost too much crop to the blackfly. By the time the ladybirds had found them, laid their eggs, hatched and started eating blackfly there were just too many blackfly and the crop was ruined. I would definitely use some sort of spray in future!

 

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