Well!!! they appear to have grown... This was the site last Monday when we returned from the UK.
This morning I made an attempt to untangle the five plants which were overrunning everywhere!
And we actually have several butternuts on them, this being the largest. The seeds came from a butternut we bought to make some soup in the winter.
The HELP we require is "What do we now do with these runners? Some of them are 2 metres in length and each plant has more than one!!! We have looked at t'internet but have not found any answers. Does this mean we just leave them to grow longer?
The bed was made for six plants but we only ended up with five, in the sixth space we planted a crookneck Courgette which has also gone mad...
The 'Bed' has definitely been a success but perhaps in hindsight overplanted.
5 comments:
Yes....
you need to let them ramble...
they can get to eight or ten metres for each runner...
but you control their direction using bamboo upright 'steering' rods to turn them back towards the frame...
let them ramble back over the frame....
and then ramble back over the frame....
and then ramble back over the frame again....
their tendrils will grab onto the nearest object.
To untangle what you've got, just snip through the tendrils with a pair of scissors....
making sure to avoid cutting the stem of the Klingon or the neigbouring plant/runner...
cutting the tendrils doesn't damage the plant. At the end of August, you can cut off the ends of the runners and eat them...
but, and it is a big but, whatch out through September for the erruption of side shoots from the existing runners...
the plant will 'self-control' the number of fruit to between five and ten [average eight].
Any fruit that have turned a nice overall butternut fawn colour can be cut off and ripened fully in the sun, off the ground, on a south facing window sill and turned from time to time....
now you know why French windows open inwards.
Next year try a Crown Prince... 20 metres is a good guess... but only two or three runners!!
At least the Crookneck is a bush....
a mighty big bush tho'....
ours got to about a metre and a half across last year.
Other tips:
[1] if you get fruit that turns a little yellow when small, it is best to knock them off before they rot on the plant...
let them rot on the soil and add to the feed.
[2] remove any old large damaged leaves... usually found near the plant's origins... these are no longer doing anything for the plant and will, undoubtedly, be shading the ripening fruit.
[3] any fruit that are resting on the ground will benefit greatly from being given a 'bed' of hay, or an old tile or slate, to keep them off the soil.
[4] the compulsory 'morning tickle' helps to make sure that you get fruit that sets...
break off a male flower and wipe it around on the style of a female...
flower that is!!
[5] keep them well watered!!
The Gods have just done that for us, but if there are three/four sunny days on the trot...
water...
if you see leaves in the morning that look like the ones in the first pic....
water...
etc.
And don't forget to keep feeding them!!
Thanks Tim, we will let em grow and grow.
Ditto to what Tim says, we tend to feed ours on Tomato food every 10-14 days. If you are interested in any recipes we have plenty. Its a plant we grow/buy on a regular basis.
Yes please, Paul, we'd love some recipes, thanks.
Watch out for a problem I had this year with my onions, particularly the overwintered ones - a condition called thickneck. It was caused by all the wet we've had. The neck of the onion is thick (surprise) and soggy. The leaves look really healthy and green until the thing flops over. They won't store, they go rotten from the neck down. All you can do is eat or freeze, or make onion marmelade. Your onions look really healthy... don't want to worry you... Anybody want 20kg of onions to use now, cos I got 'em... P.
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