[madcat]

Enough with the gloom!  What have been the surprise stars of your growing season?

I'll start the ball rolling with mine.  Dwarf french beans Kinghorn Wax - picked up on a whim in France, thinking they were climbers.  Read the packet more carefully and thought "oh well, give 'em a go".  Little plants, but real troopers.  kg per plant has beaten the climbers hollow, and with a longer season.

[New shoot]

Little Snowpea - Purple that I bought from Jungle Seeds.  They are dwarf and produced loads of pods.  The pods are small, but were so prolific it didn't matter and they kept going for ages.

I had a few in a pot as an early greenhouse crop.  They got slung outside in the end, but kept going.  The plants were tragic looking, but still flowering and cropping.   I have planted more for an autumn greenhouse crop and saved seeds 

[Lardman]

Whatever pepper is growing where the Jalapenos should be in the top GH, I think they're saved seeds from an aldi sweet pepper. There are lots of them and they're huge  just wish they'd colour up.

Honorable mention to the Shirley tomatoes, which have been the size of beefsteaks with trusses containing as many as the Sungolds in the bottom GH (they've done pants in the top GH  ).

[juvenal]

For the second year running, Sutton's Crimson Crush blight resistant tomato. Big crop and the best fried tomato ever!

[mrs bouquet]

Dwarf Beans for me as well.  Broad Beans sadly in the neighbours composter.  Rocket has done well.  Hanging Tomatoes, still hanging in there.  Grapes Brilliant.  Mrs Bouquet

[DHM]

Sweet Pepper 'Orange';  3 small bushy plants turning about 2-3 large, boxy fruits each a week. They're still flowering now and have the best I've ever grown.

[DHM]

A round of appause also to Swiss Chard Bright Lights, seed to harvest in less than 6 weeks, look fab and have really impressed.

[Plot 1 Problems]

Yellow Delight tomatoes. Almost as sweet as the Sungolds, early to crop and ripen and still going strong now.

[Enfield Glen]

Peppers (sweet and chillies) and Melons grown out doors.

[JayG]

Most crops have done about as well as in a 'normal' summer, although the outdoor and GH toms have been more prolific and earlier than usual, and the GH cukes didn't like the heat at all but have still done reasonably well overall.

Biggest stars, if not the most numerous, are the Crown Prince winter squashes (pic.) 

[Goosegirl]

Onions, Charlotte and Elfe pots, and broccoli.

[sunshineband]

  Carrots of all kinds, best crop ever

  Apero cherry tomatoes, still fruiting away and such a wonderful flavour, even better than Sungold

  Melon Outdoor Wonder, albeit in the polytunnel, with fruits nearly six inches across and so juicy
 
  Courgette Parthenon, which has been fruiting since the end of April in the polytunnel, really tasty too

[Growster...]

Shirley toms - fabulous!

'Cherokee trail of tears' black beans - marvellous!

Sweetcorn - giving' em away!

Keep positive eh?

[madcat]

'Cherokee trail of tears' black beans - marvellous!

I've been pondering them for next year .... you might have persuaded me!

[sunshineband]

'Cherokee trail of tears' black beans - marvellous!

I've been pondering them for next year .... you might have persuaded me!

I can highly recommend them too... didn't grow any this year as we had so many still from the previous year