Saturday 11 August 2012

A big Hint and Tip for newbies

And I mean those capital letters.

I don't grow very many F1 hybrid veg. In fact, unless it was free seed I think I grow only 1 and that's Goldrush F1 Courgette. I grow this because I love love love yellow courgettes and if I have enough I make a huge soupy stew [usually Nigella\s Happiness Soup but I'm not eating carbs so it would be slightly adapted but I digress]...And this year, what with losing so many cucurbit plants - I was chuffed that 2 Goldrush F1 plants made it and started producing flowers and there seemed to be little slug damage.

That is - until the courgettes themselves were not yellow when they started growing. Not in the slightest.

And because so many other courgettes are now no longer even alive I can't even rip these out as we need all the courgettes we can get our hands on this year!

Bummocks

So the Hint and TIp is - don't throw away all your old seed packets [I get through so many I rarely save them as most are handmade and the packs get reused or composted; and any plastic bags get reused anyway - but when you have paid GOOD MONEY for F1 HYBRIDS because you just want YELLOW COURGETTES and then find they are not yellow and you threw away your old packets, you can't even send the pack back to the supplier and DEMAND YOUR MONEY BACK.

When I first started, I would stick every pack I grew into a scrapbook for future reference - these days I'd probably take a photo of the packet so I think I shall be doing that in future with ALL purchased packets. Not many turn out completely wrong but at the prices they charge they should at least be the right chuffing veg.


1 comment:

Andy M said...

Hey Zaz

I topo had problems with bought in courgette seeds this year.

I planted what purported to be All Green Bush, but when the fruit appeared it had a lovely varigeated pale stripe running the length of it.

It tasted good, but not what was advertised!

Andy (Samurailord)