hTTi

how is everybody doing on the vegetables front?

I have zillions of small (actually, no longer so small, rather very big now) chillies and tomatoes, in the 500ml yogurt container, still on my windosill. Pondering when is the right moment to move them outdoor. Exciting times.
Hamburg area.

I know they would do better with a greenhouse and I've thinking for years about getting one, maybe this is the year I finally build one, just maybe...

OK, I just googled it: rule of thumb for moving tomatoes outdoor is 10cm 10C (so when they reached 10cm height, and the lowest outdoor temperature is no longer below 10C, they're right to move out). Chillies needs slightly warmer, 12C. Sounds reasonable

Carrots, parsnips, Brussel sprouts and spinach went out at the weekend. Tomatoes and peppers can wait until May....at least around here, up a mountain in the Eifel. Probably warm enough if you live in a city like Cologne, but your location wasn't obvious to me from your post (from experience, it probably says it next to your name, but in a slightly different font from what I was expecting).

It would be great if more people would include their locations just for topics like this and many others.

High from Gilching

Alberto wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2024 9:24 am I know they would do better with a greenhouse and I've thinking for years about getting one, maybe this is the year I finally build one, just maybe...

Dunno about chillies, but with tomato plants, you can put a clear plastic bag over them on cooler days/nights and it has the same effect as being in a greenhouse......

I saw an old tomato shelter free on ebay klein and sent my people off to pick it up - looked like an aluminium frame with perspex panes.

They came back a bit disgruntled and it turned out the old chap had made a steel frame with double glazing and then caulked the whole thing. We are guessing his wife was trying to get the project to last longer....

Bit of an adventure, but now we've got essentially a bus stop for short people in our garden, waiting for Alberto's 10/10 to happen, and then the tiny toms can go out to their new home.

We fitted it with a worm cafe dug into the middle - I'd like to have included a link to that, but I think it was from Westfalia and I can't find it any more - they've been snaffled up by Weltbild and it's a bit murky. Essentially an open bottomed cylinder with worm holes ( ) in the side sunk into the ground with a lid gegen rats and co. You put kitchen abfall into it and the worms come and zhuzh up your soil. We should get an absolute stonker of a tomato harvest.

A week ago during the spell of warm weather I was tempted to move my windowsill tomatoes and chillies outdoor in the Hochbeet.
Glad I didn't move them, the present days turned very cold.

Alberto wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 10:43 am A week ago during the spell of warm weather I was tempted to move my windowsill tomatoes and chillies outdoor in the Hochbeet.
Glad I didn't move them, the present days turned very cold

Yes, one week ago we were in Cannobio and I had planned on returning and possibly filling some balcony pots on Monday. Scratched that. The weather on the Bodensee changes by the hour. I’ve adjusted and now find this complex dynamic simply beautiful. If you can put up with the obvious clothing and planning-for-outing issues it’s a feast for one’s eyes and soul. At the moment the is out and there’s no , but 45 minutes ago it was overcast and sleeting!

Everyone here, including the dogs, lives in a perpetual state of weather confusion. Obviously, the plants too! Good luck with the .

The weather at the moment is the very reason I never plant anything outside until after the "Eisheiligen" It's from the 11th to 15th May, ending on the 15th with "Kalte Sophie". Before that, there is always a chance of snow or ice. This rule has served me will over the years.

Finished to build yet more Hochbeet in my garden. Coupled with the very hard cycling in the morning at evening I was absolutely exhausted but after all this is what Sunday is meant for
These Hochbeets are actually next/along to the driveway going into the Garage. Already filled them with Mutterboden, and planted the berries. This year I planted 24 plants of berries, they add to the raspberries, so current total ca 50 plants!!!. Pity the latest are north facing, but that's all I had left, sunniest spots already gone of course.

I guess in a couple of weeks, so in May, we'll finally have higher temperature again, and the tomatoes and chillies will move outdoor. Chilly plants meanwhile keep growing, they are enormous for the 500ml yogurt pot where they reside.

-2C in Berlin this morning and light snow in the afternoon. It does not look good.

Krieg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:13 pm -2C in Berlin this morning and light snow in the afternoon. It does not look good.

But this is probably a very short spell, so it "does not look good" is a little more negative that it should.....

Alberto wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:20 pm

Krieg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:13 pm -2C in Berlin this morning and light snow in the afternoon. It does not look good.

But this is probably a very short spell, so it "does not look good" is a little more negative that it should.....

Well, to us, it is indeed negative. Several of the seedlings and new plants we had already moved out are not going to survive.

Well, I'm the genius who advised to plant parsnips, carrots etc outside a few weeks ago. Took the dog for a nice walk in the snow yesterday, before having to collect son 2 from football due to blizzard conditions. Beautiful, if cold, weather today though. I'm hopeful that local plants and seeds can survive the odd dip into minus temperatures....admittedly, that's more due to my optimistic outlook (the sun is shining after all), than any particular horticultural expertise.

Krieg wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 10:35 am

Alberto wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:20 pm

Krieg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 3:13 pm -2C in Berlin this morning and light snow in the afternoon. It does not look good.

But this is probably a very short spell, so it "does not look good" is a little more negative that it should.....

Well, to us, it is indeed negative. Several of the seedlings and new plants we had already moved out are not going to survive.

Ouch, I'm sorry

On a more positive note, one of my oldies yesterday asked if I'd like a pot of tomato plants she had going

So I was able to tell the tale of the tomato shelter/bus stop which gave them all a good laugh

And now I have some bigger lovelies ready to go in when the snow/frost goes away!

Not connected with gardening at all, but following the tomato bus stop adventure I asked my people to go fetch a free sofa bed last weekend. In similar vein, looks were deceiving and it is super solid and heavy, and suffice it to say I have had my ebay privileges revoked by my sons

The late April cold spell we just experienced is over, now temperatures should stay much higher, so I just moved out some of my Toms and Chills.
All the zillions of various berries are also very promising, they always do.
So exciting

Re-potted my yellow tomatoes yesterday, and now have them in the greenhouse - the red ones will be done on Wednesday, when I have some free time.
Having been re-potted, they looked a little weary yesterday, but have really picked up again today