The Vegetable Patch: Carrots

Saturday, 26 April 2008

Carrots

Carrots are in which have also been potted up for a few weeks in green house

Sowing
Sow 13mm (0.5in) deep in rows 15cm (6in) apart. Sow thinly to avoid thinning out, or thin to 5-7.5cm (2-3in) apart.
Early cultivars can be sown as soon as February or March under cloches or similar protection, but the main sowing season is from April to early July.

Growing
Be careful when thinning out to avoid carrot rootfly - they are attracted by the smell released when the skin is bruised.
Keep the soil evenly moist to avoid splitting.
Keep weeds at bay as carrots can easily be swamped by them.

Info from Royal Horticultural Society

Looks like the carrots have started growing as the first lot of shoots have appeared after just one week

Runner Beans

The runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus, Fabaceae) is often called the scarlet runner bean since most varieties have red flowers and multicolored seeds, though some have white flowers and white seeds. It differs from the common bean in several respects: the cotyledons stay in the ground during germination, and the plant is a perennial with tuberous roots (though it is usually treated as an annual).
The green pods are edible whole but in some varieties (the scarlet runner) tend to become fibrous early, and only the seeds within are eaten. The seeds can be used fresh or as dried beans. The starchy roots are still eaten by Central American Indians. The scarlet runner is widely grown for its attractive flowers by people who would never think of eating it.

Carrots

The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus, Etymology: Middle French carotte, from Late Latin carōta, from Greek karōton, originally from the Indoeuropean root ker- (horn), due to its horny shape) is a root vegetable, usually orange or white, or red-white blend in colour, with a crisp texture when fresh. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot. It is a domesticated form of the wild carrot Daucus carota, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. It has been bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot, but is still the same species.
It is a biennial plant which grows a rosette of leaves in the spring and summer, while building up the stout taproot, which stores large amounts of sugars for the plant to flower in the second year. The flowering stem grows to about 1 metre (3 ft) tall, with an umbel of white flowers

Tomatoes

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins tobacco, chili peppers, potato, and eggplant. The tomato is native to Central, South, and southern North America from Mexico to Peru. It is a perennial, often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual, typically reaching to 1–3 m (3 to 10 ft) in height, with a weak, woody stem that often vines over other plants.
The word tomato derives from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl. The specific name, lycopersicum, means "wolf-peach" (compare the related species S. lycocarpum, whose scientific name means "wolf-fruit", common name "wolf-apple").

Courgettes

Zucchini (pronounced /zuːˈkiːni/, in North American and Australian English) or courgette (/kʊɚˈʒɛt/, in New Zealand and British English) is a small summer squash. Its scientific name is Cucurbita pepo. The zucchini can be yellow, green or light green, and generally has a similar shape to a ridged cucumber, though a few cultivars are available that produce round or bottle-shaped fruit. On a culinary level, zucchini is treated as a vegetable, which means it is usually cooked and presented as a savory dish or accompaniment. Botanically, however, the zucchini is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower.

Saturday, 26 April 2008

Carrots

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