Totally in over my head...Help!

[scottishbaby84]

I'm a complete novice at gardening, so some of my methods and lack of knowledge will probably shock you and embarass me lol I thought I'd put all my questions in the one thread for less confusion and this seemed to be the appropriate sub-forum so apologies if its not. I'll give you a brief summary of my garden and plants first.

Garden soil is very sandy, stoney and tightly packed, and veg has been planted in holes filled with mircalegro planter.

I have 3 tomato plants. One is a cherry, the sideshoots = no flowering variety, I don't know what the other two are, they were given to me after germination. They are in large pots filled with miraclegro fruit and veg planter, my cherry plant has a bamboo cane for support. They are all in the cheap £20 plastic greenhouse from B&M bargains.

I have copious ammounts of some kind of small broccoli - long and thin stems with little, sparce florets. Potted again with miraclegro, in medium sized bamboo pots. Again the the plastic greenhouse.

I've beets, but again not sure what kind, they are potted the same as the broccoli. in the greenhouse, a few have been planted into the garden.

Carrots, in the garden, seem to be growing fine.

Leeks, in deep, long length pots in the greenhouse, in the miraclegro planter.

Spring Onions, same as leeks but not florishing, growing very slowly.

Strawberries, in the garden, not producing a lot of fruit.

Red Baron Onions. Very long stems, about a foot and half long and I have no idea when to harvest them.

Questions:

* My cherry tomato plant is pretty tall, about 3 feet and has started to produce little green tomatoes, however the top leaves have gone weird. They are speckled with light green patches against the normal green colour - what is this?
* Should I take them out of the greenhouse?

*When do I know when to harvest the broccoli, I'm sure from the description you'll know what kind it is

* Just how much growing room in depth do leeks need? and it is best to grow them in pots or get them in my soil, even if it is poor quality?

* Same question for the spring onions.

* what am I doing wrong with the strawberries? They produced little fruit, most of which were small and got eaten by pests. With that in mind, what is the best pesticide to use and how do I use it?

* Red Onions are florishing, I got my brother to plant them and I don't think he's planted them deep enough because the bottom of the stems (leaves?) are pruple and they're quite close together. How do I know when to harvest them?

I am very ammature at this but have been successful with most of my crops so far (by luck for the most part) so any advice on anything would be great, especially how to get the most out of my plants and the best way to grow them and advice on compost, pesticides and feeders. I could also do with a 'what to look for' as far as diseases are concerned, how to avoid them and if they can be treated.

Thank you so much for reading through all this and any advice offered is really appreciated

[stupo74]

Hi again Jo,
Phew, what a read that was.
The best way in which we can help with affected plants, is to see some photos. That way people can see the problems, enabeling whoever, to give a better diagnosis.
Also, you could buy a copy of the "Vegetable Expert" by D G Hessayon, which shows in good detail most of the common diseases associated with your plants.
I am not expert enough to offer any better advice, but i am sure it wont be long before you have all the answers you require from other members.
cheers stupo.

[hiyatim]

hey there, welcome to the forum, uve come to the right place and i have no doubt all your questions will be answered in due course. Im new too, first year of planting but i think i can answer some questions for you... or at least try, anything i get wrong will be corrected in due course

im pretty sure u would be better with the beets, spring onions, and broccoli not in the greenhouse, they dont need to be in the ground tho, i grow all mine in pots if you bring them out tho u need a fine net over the brocolli

your questions...

cherry tom. im not sure, mine is growing outside but isnt a none flowering variety, think it depends on variety but im not too sure, it sounds like its doin well where it is tho..

brocolli..how big are th small florets?? you will know its needing urgent harvesting when the flowers start to open slightly, once you start seeing a hint of yellow then the buds are opening and u need to harvest them, jut cut them off with secatares. with mine ive harvest some where the buds have just started opening and ive even had the odd fully opened flower, i just pulled them off and ate them, tasted nice

ive not grown leeks so cant help, i think u can grow in pots maybe but they would need to be a decent size.

springs i grow in pots, i have 4 in a 4x4inch pot and they grow nicely

ive not grown strawberries but i would defo advise getting netting to stop the birds pinching your fruit, im not sure about pesticides, if you think its pest then id say get some photos on here, if you thinks its slugs then theres loads of things you can do to help with that, u dont even need to go to pesticide, can keep it organic

red onions sound similar to mine, i had too many sets so planted them close, they have red sticking out too, i wouldnt worry. id wait til the foliage dies down before harvesting, they are in the ground now so i wouldnt move them, they may just be slightly small. when did these go in??

cheers

tim

[scottishbaby84]

Thank you both for replying and for the advice Getting photos of my plants is a pain because my camera died and my phone takes rubbish pics but I'll give it a go.

My worst fear is the dreaded blight which might have already started on some of the lower leaves. I had to remove some yellow ones this evening when I went to feed them. The only way I can describe whats going on with the top leaves is like light green spots or patches, and they seem to be a lot drier and smaller than the leaves on the bottom.

hiyatim - they are about an inch in height and width and I planted my barons about 6-8 weeks ago now.

I agree with the beets and what not being outide cos the ones in the ground seem to be growing better than the ones in the greenhouse.

Thanks again guys! x

[Lesley Jay]

Hi ScottishB, firstly let's sort the blight thing out! Tomato plants that get hit with blight get brown / black patches on their leaves and also brown / black areas on the stems which rots. There will also be brown patches on the tomato fruits which also rot. You will know if your plants get hit with blight as the disease strikes so quickly and in a few days the plants are rotting.

A more likely reason is magnesium deficiency which causes the leaves to turn yellow but the veins on the leaves remain green. You describe dryer leaves - scorch causes dry, papery patches on leaves and these patches will turn a greyish colour. If it is scorch there's nothing to worry about but always water the plants from the base so as to keep the leaves dry. Spots of water on leaves act like a magnifying glass when the sun hits them and this scorches the leaves. If it is magnesium deficiency then it's easy to treat with epsom salts diluted in water 20g to one litre and then either feed or use as a foliar spray a few times a fortnight. Have you over watered the plants? That can also cause yellow leaves.

Here is a thread with scorched leaf photo's:-

Yellow Brown Leaves On Tomato Plant

Here's a couple of threads with photo's of magnesium deficiency. It can look different!

spotty tomato leaves

Look at the marrow plant photo's on this thread.

Help-whats happening??

[scottishbaby84]

Thank you lesley! Yes it looks very much like scorch but the weird thing is they are kept in a greenhouse, which due to my watering has a lot of condensation, so maybe thats dripping on the plants then drying and scroching them at the hottest time of the day? cos I always water from the bottom and only in the evening.

I used to water them every night until I came on here and read that the roots need to breathe as well so I'm only watering them every 3 days now and with condensed liquid food once a week, any advice one feeding is also welcomed.

Thanks again