Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: AlaninCarlisle on September 26, 2016, 19:06
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Without a shadow of doubt mine is my leek crop. All 250 of them. As per usual I started them off under heat in mid April and planted them out into good earth in late May. I grew 3 varieties including Musselburgh and Autumn Giant and they grew well, too well. In late August they started to bolt and develop seed heads and the whole lot are totally ruined with tough unpleasantly textured centres. This is the first time in 20 years of growing them that this has happened. I can only blame the Cumbrian heatwave in June followed by a long warm July and August as I treated them in the same way as in the previous seasons
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Cauliflower :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
I paid £3 for a pack of 20 seeds from T & M.
Not one of them has come to anything .
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That's rotten luck, Alan.
Been there, watched the plants muck about, and I'm afraid it will often happen.
Our winter leeks are not looking good either, although we've done what we always do.
Can you snap the seed heads off, and at least let them flourish on their own? We take any plants with seed stems apart, and just use the fleshy outer bits for soup etc, and at least we get 'something'!
But that's not a friendly answer - sorry!
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Cauliflowers☹️ And cabbages. Butterflies got in under the cover.....need I say more.😠
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Tomatoes wiped out by blight. Onions and garlic undersized.
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Whole shallot crop destroyed by allium leaf miner :( , beetroot pathetic examples this year, leeks all hopeless. Luckily other things have been good :) - it's all a balance, isn't it!
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All cabbages, spring, summer and autumn gone to the slugs and greenfly, polytunnel, cukes, and chillies, spider mite! Gutted 😥
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my biggest let down was the strawberries i put in 52 plants,we had about 12 strawberries, tiny nasty little slugs got the rest,and potatoes 20 seed spuds in,enough small potatoes for 2 meals :(
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And first early spuds - pathetic!
They hardly got going, then were slugged to kingdom come!
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mine is fed had heart attack down on nthe plot 5 weeks later a mini stroke while on the plot end of august rusted to hospital while on the plot blood clot had killes the bowl/colostomy opp with a 90 per cent chance of being a vegetable
i came out ok though now recovering good ready for sping lol just getting seeds an plants sorted
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mine is fed had heart attack down on nthe plot 5 weeks later a mini stroke while on the plot end of august rusted to hospital while on the plot blood clot had killes the bowl/colostomy opp with a 90 per cent chance of being a vegetable
i came out ok though now recovering good ready for sping lol just getting seeds an plants sorted
that rather puts life into perspective doesn't it. Glad you are recovering well. Make it easy on yourself when making next year's plan.
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mine is fed had heart attack down on nthe plot 5 weeks later a mini stroke while on the plot end of august rusted to hospital while on the plot blood clot had killes the bowl/colostomy opp with a 90 per cent chance of being a vegetable
i came out ok though now recovering good ready for sping lol just getting seeds an plants sorted
Here's to a better year for you, sorry to hear you have been so poorly, as PM says puts it all in to perspective
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Well you certainly put my leek problems into perspective, m1ckz. I hope you continue to make a full recovery
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mine is fed had heart attack down on nthe plot 5 weeks later a mini stroke while on the plot end of august rusted to hospital while on the plot blood clot had killes the bowl/colostomy opp with a 90 per cent chance of being a vegetable
i came out ok though now recovering good ready for sping lol just getting seeds an plants sorted
I wish you all the best [hugs] ... but considering all the illnesses occur on the plot, I wonder if it is worth considering a different hobby?
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The weather! Its been too cold or too wet or too warm or too windy at all the wrong times and did for just about all the fruit and veg in my garden and greenhouse.
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Pumpkins - only one survived to any size. And about 4 courgettes and a marrow.
Strawberries and blackcurrants are fab though.
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Lost all but one summer cabbages (cutting it this weekend)
Lost all romanesco and most broccoli plants.
Lost all swedes and turnips.
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Suash seeds. Sowed two lots as no germination first time. Minimal germination second time and what grew when planted was eaten by slugs :(
So no squash at all!
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Courgettes. Again... :nowink:
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Shallots - Golden Gourmet, grown from the same initial stock for at least 10 years, and by far the most disappointing so far.
Last year they copped for allium leaf miner for the first time but grew through it - this year they were so weak and spindly it was hard to tell whether they'd been attacked or not! ::)
Only about 4 plants out of 30 sets produced anything like usable shallots, the rest divided OK but the bulbs were no bigger than the originals.
Will have a long think about whether to use them next year (I'm a bit paranoid about the risk of importing white rot with any new bought sets.)
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I've not logged on for a while, my 'grow your own' has been the usual disappointment. :(
Garlic not a single head survived
Broad Beans about 2 lbs from 24 plants
PSB replacement from last years non producers.....nothing, even the Cabbage White didn't
bother.
Japanese Onions about 75% survived & grew to the size of a squash ball
Courgettes 2 from 2 plants
Strawberries about 1 lb from ~ 30 plants
Raspberries about a small yogurt pot full from 3 plants
Cherries not one single fruit
Tomatoes starting to ripen & will get about 2 to 2 1/2 lbs from 7 plants
Runner Beans Firestorm has been good when they finally got going
My biggest disappointment, growing veg :( :(
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Shallots - Golden Gourmet, grown from the same initial stock for at least 10 years, and by far the most disappointing so far.
Last year they copped for allium leaf miner for the first time but grew through it - this year they were so weak and spindly it was hard to tell whether they'd been attacked or not! ::)
Only about 4 plants out of 30 sets produced anything like usable shallots, the rest divided OK but the bulbs were no bigger than the originals.
Will have a long think about whether to use them next year (I'm a bit paranoid about the risk of importing white rot with any new bought sets.)
Could you grow them from seed?
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After a few years shallots build up virus and the stock needs replacing. The most dangerous replacements are from a friend. Stock from any reputable supplier should be safe.
I have found that golden gourmet do best planted quite late in the Spring i.e. March/April. Mine were hit with downy mildew this year so only made picklers. I will replace as downy mildew can be carried over.
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Cultivated blackberries Fantasia, dreadful taste this year, did not get to pick any as someone nicked the lot!
Rabbits, rabbits and more rabbits,I have a 4 foot high chicken wire fence around my plot, but they jumped over it and ate everything that germinated, carrots, parsnips, peas, beans, beetroot, lettuce and even gladioli leaves as they emerged!
They hid in the potato rows, in the rhubarb patch and under the blackberries bushes!
One jumped over the fence into the next plot, right into the jaws of his terrier, one shake was all it got he said!
Now they are all over the paths, just sitting there, they have been badly infected by myxi, should be less of them about next year!
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Rabbits, rabbits and more rabbits,I have a 4 foot high chicken wire fence around my plot, but they jumped over it and ate everything that germinated, carrots, parsnips, peas, beans, beetroot, lettuce and even gladioli leaves as they emerged!
My veg plot is in a rabbit infested area too but I've found that a I metre wire mesh fence buried about 20cm into the ground, ie just about 2ft 6" above ground, has kept them out for the past ten years
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Shallots - Golden Gourmet, grown from the same initial stock for at least 10 years, and by far the most disappointing so far.
Last year they copped for allium leaf miner for the first time but grew through it - this year they were so weak and spindly it was hard to tell whether they'd been attacked or not! ::)
Only about 4 plants out of 30 sets produced anything like usable shallots, the rest divided OK but the bulbs were no bigger than the originals.
Will have a long think about whether to use them next year (I'm a bit paranoid about the risk of importing white rot with any new bought sets.)
Could you grow them from seed?
Yes, that should avoid any imported disease problems, but of course you only get one bulb per station in the first year rather than the half dozen or so with sets, and I've not got a lot of space to play with.
After a few years shallots build up virus and the stock needs replacing. The most dangerous replacements are from a friend. Stock from any reputable supplier should be safe.
That's a possibility I'd not thought about with shallots - may have to bite the bullet and buy new sets next year.
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Beetroots completely decimated by voles. Tops somehow still 'growing' on some of them, but the beetroot almost eaten away. Same voles have tunnelled under my leeks and eaten them too. They've also eaten the centres/root of the Swiss Chard. And something (still don't know what) stripped my peas - I posted about that earlier this year and still haven't got over it!
And all my brassicas have leaves like lace doillies. Not quite sure what we'll be eating this winter :unsure:
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Yellow haricot beans which whilst very prolific they were just not as well flavoured as the green ones so they won't be grown next year.
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This whole season was pretty much a bust but if I had to think of the biggest disappointment in the garden, it was sweet onions. Planted around 700 seeds and around 300 started plants and have not one onion to show. Not a one.
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First time in 60 years I had repeated losses of my Runner Beans. Twice I Put out my pot sown varieties, twice I bought plants at an exorbitant price. Despite glass, nets, bird scarers, and scoot; rabbits and jackdaws cleared the lot.
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My first "successful" melon. It is a whole 2" in diameter. It is living up to its name of Petit Gris de Rennes, petit being the important bit. Plant got mildew. Suspect it won't taste very good.
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Main crop spuds, I have for many a year grown Romano but this year our GC closed and by the time I got round to getting me seed spuds it was Cara, slugs have loved them, 5 rows binned!
leeks, some have gone to seed some haven't
Toms, started off fantastic but then went downhill quick.
Everything else as been reyt gradley
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Tomatoes - lots of promise but just yucky and not ripening properly. Even the indoor ones which is just weird.
And what is Cucumelon about - not growing them again
Is there a post about what went well??
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Flower Sprouts or Kalettes. I was really looking forward to trying this new brassica and they've grown really well but they are absolutely covered in little grey aphids. Impossible to remove them without taking each little sprout apart and even then they don't wash off. They are also on the kale in clusters but some leaves are ok. I don't fancy eating the extra protein so the whole lot is for the compost heap. Only the PSB seems unaffected.
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Is there a post about what went well??
There is now :)
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Onions, many went to seed or did not develop.
Leeks, still cant get my leeks to thicken up to a good standard.
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My radish this year were not the best, many took on a more lanky appearance and more than usual had many that went woody very quickly. Same ones I always sow.
Did find my all year lettuce and my French salad lettuce grew more upright and not such a good spread crop. Tasted fine, but grew too quick and died to quick. But succession sowings more often sort of solved that.
I thought some of my beetroot was small, but recently they have all taken on a spurt and are as big as ever. Not sure if the warm and dry weather stunted them a bit.
My Hunter beans and French beans took a long time to get going and are now finally cropping fine, but have had better years.
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Broccoli, epic fail. One spear sprouts and then flowers before I can pick it.
Leeks, bolted in the hot dry weather in August, they are much thinner than usual and looking a bit sorry for themselves. I can still use them by slicing length-ways and removing the hard core.
Brassicas in general, doing well apart from epic whitefly infestation. Clouds of them every time I harvest, and one or two plants looking a bit battle scarred.
On the plus side, no-one has driven a car into me this year, so have at least been active on the plot for most of the growing season unlike last year.
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That's a thought with leeks that have bolted, slice them lengthways and remove the hard inner core
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I think it was on this thread that someone suggested cutting leeks right down if affected with. Something. Well I did just that & I was amazed when I went back yesterday they were all up an inch above the soil after just one week. Not to say they haven't been affected under ground but it was worth a punt as they would all have had to be dug out. I'll wait a week or 2 before trying a couple
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Brussel sprouts: grew to a huge height and looked great until they bolted and then got eaten by the same thing which has decimated the PSB.
PSB: See above
Leeks: all ran to seed but then I did use some mini plants from the year before!
Runner beans, lots of growth but very few beans.
Garlic: bit mixed with only 50% forming proper bulbs.
Beetroot: Small ping pong ball sized roots or bolted.
But next year's garlic is already in, the beds are being prepped with either green manure or covered with weed control fabric and hope springs eternal.