Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!

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jambop

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Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« on: June 01, 2021, 11:30 »
This has been a really poor spring and as gardeners and allotmenteers we have been quite frequently on here moaning about our individual lots, however spare a thought for commercial growers and farmers. I was chatting to a friend the other day who told me he knows of one vineyard in the Medoc region where the late frosts decimated the fruit buds and at least 80% of the would be crop has been lost and consequently there will be no grape harvest at all from that Chateau. This cannot be the only vineyard affected the bad weather was widely spread throughout France so there are going to be many people not making a living from wine making this year in the Bordeaux region this year!
« Last Edit: June 01, 2021, 11:32 by jambop »

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Growster...

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2021, 12:26 »
That's very sad, JB!

We had a similar conversation with a fruit grower in Kent, where the frosts were jeopardising the whole range of tree fruit etc. They were having to use 'frostbusters', which are not much more than huge blowers, running between the rows, to keep the temps up! That is so expensive and time-consuming as well!

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Russell Atterbury

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2021, 13:16 »
I wonder if the mythical control of our worlds weather will ever become reality. One for the sci fi buffs?

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SimonF1

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2021, 07:06 »
We just got hit by a late frost, it was -4°C on Wednesday morning. Cucumbers are dead, tomatoes are dead. Potatoes will probably survive. Peppers are mostly dead, but the yellow peppers seem to be okay for some strange reason. There are hailstorms forecast for the weekend, so it will be next week before I start replanting.
20210527_115143.jpg

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Russell Atterbury

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2021, 07:41 »
Sad tale SimonF1. I'm interested to know if a minus temperature in early June, is a not so rare occurrence in the part of Austria you live.

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jambop

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2021, 08:30 »
Feel sorry for you Simon F1 apart from the expense of buying new plants there is all the effort that went into growing the first lot. Still have time to get some crops though. We Had a hail warning yesterday and I has all my tomatoes covered with old 50L compost sacks I am sure my neighbours think I am mad but some years back we had a hailstorm that not only destroyed the garden it wrote my car off! No if I can I protect what I can just in case and compost bags work well you can also use them if a light frost is forecast, a minute to put on or take off but could save your season!

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SimonF1

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2021, 10:11 »
We have a thunder warning for tomorrow and Monday, so I am going to wait with replanting. Frost in the first half of May is normal here. We area little higher up - call it 1400 foot, so we do get a longer winter, but this was excessive. I have another two pumpkin plants that have just sprouted, so I can replace them. Trouble is, we can get frosts here early October, so everything has to be grown by then, at least tomatoes and peppers have to be finished by then.

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Russell Atterbury

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2021, 07:54 »
SimonF1, it seems to me like you have to deal with challenging growing conditions.....even more than most folk on this site. And a short season as well.

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Ema

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2021, 07:35 »
I have a friend in Provence who is currently working in the vineyards for a few weeks, cutting off all the frost damaged growth and selecting growing shoots. She said its been a bad year there but they will still make some wine.

My perennials do seem behind this year after the dry April, as do my broadbeans which are only just setting pods. Most of my annual veggies have only gone outside in the last 2 weeks because of the cold nights which is late for me but i know they'll catch up!

SimonF1- if I could teleport you some of my extra seedlings I would! is it typical to grow cucumbers outside where you are?

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al78

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2021, 14:42 »
I foolishly went on holiday for a week and despite my best attempt to set up a water reservoir for the stuff still in modules, half of them shrivelled up and died. The danger of going away for any length of time in the summer when you live in SE England.

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SimonF1

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Re: Gardening gripes and moans... perspective!
« Reply #10 on: June 09, 2021, 09:24 »
I grow everything outside since I don't really have an alternative except kitchen window and balcony. We are told it will go above 30°C next week, which is earlier than usual, but not much we can do about it. Growing season? Up to now I have calculated with last frost around May 10 and first frost around 10 October. Looks like I have to revise the first figure. A lot of things will survive a light frost, but not cucumbers! To be honest I ahve never managed to grow any. I had plants out last year, but they either got eaten or crushed by the marrows. They are separate now, so we will wait and see. Potatoes survived the frost with just a few brown leaves, but the Colorado beetle is already busy. Maize is coming up nicely. Onions and garlic are doing well. Beans are starting to sprout and I have another two pumpkin plants to replace the dead ones. Not quite sure what they are - I was just given a handful of seeds taken from a pumpkin and told they grow well. There are plenty of stands selling pumpkins in the area anyway. The first set of carrots is on the way. Frost does not bother them, but the second set planted a couple of weeks later has still not come up.



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