Week 27 Beanpole mountain becomes beanpole heap

Posted on 14. Oct, 2007 by Tracey in My Veg Plot, Pests

Sunday 14th October 2007

Today I was mostly cutting down my runner bean mountain.

Runner Bean Heap

It has come to the end of the runner bean producing cycle. The beans left on the plant are stunted, yellow and are showing no signs of fattening up anytime soon so this has forced me into cutting down the structure to make way for my broad beans (Sutton variety) and overwintering peas (If I ever get them as they are currently floating around the postal system somewhere).

As the beanstalks had curled themselves around the canes, the best way I saw to remove them was to cut the plants off at the base of the plant near the bottom of the cane and then cut the stems near the pole going upwards and pulling off the plants.

I have left the runner bean roots in the ground so they can fix all the nitrogen and give the soil a nutrient boose overwinter. The roots are doing the hard work for me otherwise I would have had to dig more manure into the bed for next years veg. Its all very clever really.

Bean Roots fixing nitrogen in the ground

Whitefly Pest News

Cabbages
I am still quite concerned about my holey cabbages, I have found fewer green caterpillars on the plants this past week but now I have a problem with whitefly and it is all over the backs of the leaves.

Carrots and Turnips
The whitefly is now congregating on my carrot leaves and on the underside of my turnip leaves. This pest is becoming a real pain to deal with by picking off by hand.

Solution
I went through the plot picking off and squishing whitefly and now I am trying an organic solution which I have seen on a few forums now. I have put a 2 squirts of washing up liquid into my 7 litre watering can and stirred well. Then watered over the affected plants in plot 1 and 2. I will keep you posted if this worked or not.

Mini Vegetables

Heres my mini vegetable feast:

Mini Vegetable Feast

I had estimated my carrots to be ready to harvest this week but when I picked one out of the ground I realised they were no where near ready. I don’t think I calculated the harvest date correctly and definately didn’t take into consideration the less light and heat at this time of the year! So I picked a few turnips and a radish to add to my mini veg harvest. Just think, in a top restaurant these slim pickings would be used in a gourmet meal!