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It’s time to start winter pruning your apple and pear trees for bumper crops this season, but how you tackle them will depend on how they produce their fruit. Do you know your tip bearing trees from your spur bearers?
The list of varieties seems endless, here we’ve picked out some common varieties grown in the UK and identified them as…
Grapes vines need a hard prune in winter to encourage heavy cropping, but how you grow them will determine how you prune them, says AG garden writer, Michelle Wheeler
Rod and spur system:
For fence/wall/trellis trained vines and those grown under glass:
If in its first year, prune out two thirds of the trunk (the rod) and cut the side branches (spurs) to…
AG editor, Tim Rumball shows you how to bring apple trees into shape and boost fruiting performance for the following season
Tim asks the question. We give our answers. You decide who’s right….
How do you grow greenhouse tomatoes?
Kris: grow bags and other containers
Michelle: Open soil in a greenhouse border.
For their full answers see Amateur Gardening 14 April p11
Visit Greenhouse Sensation to find out more about the Quadgrow system Kris is using to grow Beefsteak tomatoes
AG garden editor, Kris Collins, is dusting off the heated propagator to gets his favourite summer crops underway
Fill cells with seed and cuttings compost. I sieve mine first, to take out all the lumps so there are no obstructions for root development.
Water the trays before sowing, to settle the compost and help seeds to stick firmly in place. Watering afterwards…
Get plants started now, for bigger plants and bigger crops, says AG garden writer, Michelle Wheeler
If you have a heated propagator or a space on a warm, bright windowsill, sow tomatoes seeds this weekend. Here’s how:
1 Fill a 3in (9cm) pot with good quality seed compost; level the surface, firm down and water in. Pots are better than modular trays…
The heat of different chillies is measured using the Scoville scale, which marks the degree of dilution of the chilli sample in a sugar solution. A rating of 100,000 means the extract had to be diluted 100,000 with the sugar solution for its heat to be undetectable.
Chilli Variety
Scoville Rating
Naga Jolokia
855,000-1,041,427
Dorset Naga
876,000-970,000
Red …
If you are sorting through old seed packets through the winter months use this handy table to decide whether seeds are worth keeping. For more info on seed viability, proper storage and testing seeds before the main sowing season, see Amateur Gardening 21 Jan 2012, available at news agents and other outlets from 17 Jan.
Veg and flower seeds and how…
Deck the halls with a difference, says AG gardening editor Kris Collins
This is a great alternative to traditional Christmas decorations. Use up surplus apple harvests or buy a few bags from the supermarket. Take a walk and see what berries you can find to add to the display. Treat yourself to a floristry foam cone or create your own shape…
There are a few timely jobs to do if you want a good crop of citrus fruit this year, says Kris
Pruning
REMOVAL OF larger branches is best done in winter, but to encourage a bushy habit and increase branching lower down, new growths should now have their tips removed as they reach 4-6in (10-15cm) in length
Watering and feeding
WATER PLANTS at least…
