[alancas]

last year after repeated sowing,no carrots or parsnips,this year sowed early just after snow went they have all come up but this year no brassicas or they have gone straight to seed,last year leeks ok this year  they are still needle thin,last year all tom plants didnt get over 9 inches tall,this year all doing well apart from a couple shrivelled up,any one else having similar crops?

[Beetroot queen]

Last year was hideous for us so yes we are doing much better this year.

I dont remember having success at all last year and i certainly didnt bother listing and weighing any bits which is unheard of for me. 

So far carrots in buckets looking great, strawberries have been fab, courgettes well what can i say ( less plants next year) cabbage from seed, first time ever.

Broad beans chocolate spot and blackfly again, giving up with them as we have never had them looking nice.  :blink:

Potatoes doing well but i wont bother growing red duke of york again as the taste is not great and they dont boil well.

[maxie]

It hasnt been too bad only disaster is my first 3 rows of taties,very poor but the rest look ok.

I agree on the red duke of york they were the worst boiler new potato ever,though they fried up very nice afterwards.

[madcat]

red duke of york were the reason I tried steaming potatoes.  That was a goooooood experiment - not boiled one since.     Not grown red duke of york either - I agree about the favour too!   

[seaside]

Broad beans better than last year due to a big Autumn planting.

Onions looking slightly better but a few have white rot.

Courgette and butternut definitely and obviously hugely better than last year and likely to give record crops for me. I think I've got setting butternut fruit already

Tomatoes about the same due to the slow start but are picking up nicely. Everything depends on botrytis/blight so still too early.

Brassicas much better, but probably due to extra care and prep on my behalf. I'm a bit concerned they may have been a little too hot under the enviromesh.

Sweet corn was good last year even though it was a short picking season, could be even better this year... they're looking top notch... I could cut a maize maze with them this year, they are getting big big.

Chilli harvesting a bit behind due to my overwintering plants croaking. But beginning to look good despite me no longer falling the nonsense of paint brushing the flowers.

[strider84]

I've heard if you plant your broadbeans in spring you tend to avoid chocolate spot (not sure why though)..

I planted my overwintering variety in spring and they came up a treat had just over x3 full supermarket bags full from 8 plants pods are absolutely spotless.

Blackfly were a minor problem when pods started to form but pinching out the growing tips did the trick of getting rid of them.

Only minor problem was I perhaps let a couple get a little too large so having to pop them out of their 'leather jackets'

[BabbyAnn]

I've heard if you plant your broadbeans in spring you tend to avoid chocolate spot (not sure why though)..

Chocolate spot is a fungal disease - as overwintering beans have to endure all sorts of weather, the plants are at risk of tissue damage which is an entry point for most diseases.  Winters generally tend to be wet - a mild winter is worst as the fungus will be quietly growing undetected and then appear when conditions are right.  Damp conditions are favourable to fungi and allow spores to settle more readily so it spreads rapidly especially when plants are grown close together.  When you sow in spring, the likelihood of chocolate spot is reduced except if the weather turns wet for long periods into the summer months when the plants mature.

Last year I was late sowing and planting out a lot of stuff due to moving plots and this actually worked in my favour - as my neighbours were complaining of stunted growth and poor harvests due to the wet conditions, my crops caught the tail end of it all and by the time we had the warm dry spell from mid-July, they were fine and I did well.  The overwintered onions were the biggest casualty as they did not get the dry conditions to die back and instead swelled up and split but the maincrop were perfect.  The garlic was so-so - not the best year but not a total disaster.  First and 2nd early potatoes were fine except for one or 2 casualties as a result of blight, but the maincrop was awful - not from blight as I cut the tops off, but the spuds were riddled with slug holes.  The other casualty was my outdoor tomato plans - I had umpteen seedlings in the greenhouse waiting to be planted out but after having experienced devastating blight on outdoor toms in the past, with all the constant rain I didn't take the chance and instead composted the lot.

This year I'm late again due to the long cold spring and unable to get to the plot for other reasons, and this has had a knock on effect - bed preparations have been much slower due to the overly wet plot and needed a lot more sharp sand, compost and manure digging in to break up the heavy clay, my first batch of sweetcorn failed and planting out has been badly delayed.  However, this warm spell has certainly moved things along and even a very late second sowing of sweetcorn has caught up and equivalent to last year's progress so I'm very hopeful they'll be fine, outdoor tomato plans take 2 are cracking on (fingers crossed we don't get a wet August which has happened before ... with dire consequences), squashes doing exceptionally well.  The downside is that the remaining beds I did not have time to prepare have dried out into concrete, it's too hot to do such heavy work clearing them (last weekend I nearly made myself ill just trying to plant out the cabbages and sprouts) and I still have lots of other things yet to put in ... the sweetcorn, cucumbers and calabrese are quickly becoming pot bound in this heat, and work is getting in the way of going down to the plot except at weekends    The ongoing heatwave is also taking its toll on the soil and most of my time now seems to be watering issues - the potatoes seem to be worst affected at the moment.

Chillies, peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse and polytunnel are well on course for a bumper year   

[surbie100]

This year I'm late again due to the long cold spring and unable to get to the plot for other reasons, and this has had a knock on effect - bed preparations have been much slower due to the overly wet plot and needed a lot more sharp sand, compost and manure digging in to break up the heavy clay..... The downside is that the remaining beds I did not have time to prepare have dried out into concrete, it's too hot to do such heavy work clearing them (last weekend I nearly made myself ill just trying to plant out the cabbages and sprouts) and I still have lots of other things yet to put in ... the sweetcorn, cucumbers and calabrese are quickly becoming pot bound in this heat, and work is getting in the way of going down to the plot except at weekends    The ongoing heatwave is also taking its toll on the soil and most of my time now seems to be watering issues - the potatoes seem to be worst affected at the moment.

Chillies, peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse and polytunnel are well on course for a bumper year 

You're not on your own - I'm in a similar situation and am now starting to wonder whether to write this year off for brassicas rather than half-kill myself trying to get them into the ground.

[JayG]

I don't have either the available space or the right sort of soil for brassicas (with the important exception of radishes) so I'm heavily reliant on the "summer stuff."

Sweet corn, runner beans, climbing French beans, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and squashes were all planted out in early June, which is the same time as last year, but instead of still sitting there sulking in the cool gloom they are all romping away now apart from the greenhouse cukes which are still resisting my attempts to keep them alive (both plants roughly 50/50 alive/dying now!) 

Of the earlier sown/planted crops leeks, onions, shallots, garlic, carrots and parsnips all doing well having mostly caught up after a slow start.

Only crop which was significantly delayed was the blueberries, which were nearly two months later than usual flowering, although even they should make up time given that this hot weather is set to continue for at least another week. 

[Sweetpea C]

I've heard if you plant your broadbeans in spring you tend to avoid chocolate spot (not sure why though)..

I planted my overwintering variety in spring and they came up a treat had just over x3 full supermarket bags full from 8 plants pods are absolutely spotless.

Blackfly were a minor problem when pods started to form but pinching out the growing tips did the trick of getting rid of them.

Only minor problem was I perhaps let a couple get a little too large so having to pop them out of their 'leather jackets'

So....what is the the right size to pick? oh dear!



Edited to separate quote/reply

[BabbyAnn]

Only minor problem was I perhaps let a couple get a little too large so having to pop them out of their 'leather jackets'

So....what is the the right size to pick? oh dear!

there is no right or wrong way  , but baby beans are definitely sweeter and less chewy than the larger beans.  Getting the size right takes a bit of practice - the pods can get quite big when left to mature (size of a banana length) so select one about a third to half the size, open up the pod and the beans should be pale green and about the size of a square baked bean.

Beans that get too big are still edible, but sometimes worth googling for some recipes (many Mediterranean countries use fava beans in recipes - boiled, mashed and made into tasty morsels)

[Sweetpea C]

Thank you - I'll get picking then and beans it is for tea :-)