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Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 19 1:31 pm Post subject: Boasting Slightly

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46211
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 19 5:24 pm Post subject:
nice, a well tended glasshouse is a pleasure to see

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 19 7:54 pm Post subject:
Thank you.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8918
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 19 9:06 pm Post subject:
well done...a lovely sight

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28234
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 19 7:41 am Post subject:
Very impressive

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 19 8:01 am Post subject:
Excellent. My peppers are way behind that, but at least they are growing with a hope I might get a crop. With luck I will get a courgette or two over the next few weeks.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 19 9:50 am Post subject:

Now there is a green house! lovely job, Shan.

I want to go and see the green house of the man who is doing the excavations for me. He is totally organic-he says-and uses biochar which he burns himself. He has shown me a picture of his broad beans which are about 8 feet high in there. I will confirm, if they let me go in to see them. He tells me that the roof is 12 feet to the apex!
Anyway he tells me using biochar a good way of being slug free, as a side benefit, and he uses it inside and out of the green house, and this stuff is also something of a fertilizer in its own right.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 19 2:24 pm Post subject:
Lovely looking greenhouse and plants, Shan. I have one pepper plant left and it's 3 inches tall.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46211
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 19 7:20 pm Post subject:
3" taller than my non courgettes then

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 19 9:07 pm Post subject:
I willbtake photos of my squashes tomorrow but they are not nearly as impressive as my greenhouse.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 19 8:40 am Post subject:
My peppers are about 6" high, but I cheated and bought them. One has a flower on. I have a couple that came up from seed, but haven't planted out yet. I ought to do that. I use some biochar that is the fines from our own kiln. It will absorb organic material and water and let it out slowly, so it will help the growth although it acts more like a sponge than actually being a fertiliser.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Sun Jun 30, 19 9:37 am Post subject:
It sounds like biochar could be quite useful for soil in hot countries.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 19 6:58 am Post subject:

It can be useful in the UK too. It needs to have some fertiliser in it first, such as Dpacks horrible brew, run off from a wormery, or liquid with well rotted animal manure in it. It will then release this slowly while taking in water when there is plenty in the ground and releasing it slowly when it is dry. This is to do with the pores in the structure; I have used it to clean plating baths, where it is used to remove organic impurities, so this is the proven science. Some people will claim a lot more for it, but I don't think any more has been proven.

I found a flower on one of my peppers btw. Not a patch on your plants Shan, but getting there.

Shan

Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 9075
Location: South Wales

Posted: Mon Jul 01, 19 7:23 am Post subject:
Thanks Mistress Rose. I will have to look at sourcing some in Portugal. The wind strips the moisture from the soil pretty quickly and it could do with something to help.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 19 2:43 pm Post subject:

The man who is helping me with my excavations even eats biochar. He begs all the small branches he can from my tree exploits and we had a big burn-up a week or so ago. It is a definite for hot climates for the reasons you have given, but to be able to regulate water in the soil must be it's most useful point. My friend does the burn up in a 45 gallon drum as well as a large ex oil tank. I will be asking him to show me how the drum system works, I get clean 45 gal drums ad lib! The process is simple Shan, you could manage it yourself with out buying in, assuming you will have fruit trees in UK/Portugal and will be pruning them annually, and it is those branches and bigger twigs are all he uses, 2 inches diameter and less. It came out as having a lot of ash but this is also useful in the garden 'they' tell me. He uses biochar as a pathway to his greenhouse and round the edges reducing the slugs to nil he says. I think this is because he has pathways all round the edge of outside and inside, as well as up the middle. I am asking for a viewing and will report back when I 'know' first hand how it works!

I am hoping to get a lot more done this weekend on the waste pipe situation-one way or another aim is to unblock across the road even to the point of breaking open a pipe or so to get in and do some rodding!

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