Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: jaydig on December 01, 2015, 19:26
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Haven't decided on anything new yet, but have decided what I won't be growing. This year it's dwarf French beans. They join the ranks of spring onions and aubergines, these things I've stopped growing because they just won't grow for me. Anyone else have certain veg that just don't do well for them?
I can't grow a decent swede to save my life. I have great crops of caulis, which I almost didn't bother to grow because I thought they'd be difficult, but swedes, that everyone else seems to find easy, have just defeated me. Any suggestions for varieties that might be more successful than others?
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Parsnips , swede and carrots seem to defy me. On the success front cauliflowers , potatoes and tomatoes.
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Sprouts. Absolutely useless. Followed all the advice, diffferent varieties, the plants themselves huge,
but just keep on blowing. Be back next year though. The other brassicas fine. gggrrree.
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I can't grow a decent swede to save my life. I have great crops of caulis, which I almost didn't bother to grow because I thought they'd be difficult, but swedes, that everyone else seems to find easy, have just defeated me. Any suggestions for varieties that might be more successful than others?
I share your pain. I had 3 years of useless swedes. This year they were module sown in June and planted out in July in a bed with lots of leaves & some manure when they had a good root system. And I have decent swedes! Not whoppers, but they actually look like swedes this year.
I grew Gilfeathers Turnip and Joan.
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Haven't decided on anything new yet, but have decided what I won't be growing. This year it's dwarf French beans. They join the ranks of spring onions and aubergines, these things I've stopped growing because they just won't grow for me. Anyone else have certain veg that just don't do well for them?
I can't grow a decent swede to save my life. I have great crops of caulis, which I almost didn't bother to grow because I thought they'd be difficult, but swedes, that everyone else seems to find easy, have just defeated me. Any suggestions for varieties that might be more successful than others?
I find the biggest problem with swedes is the number of things that want to eat them or grow on them. Pigeon, flea beetles, mildew, cabbage whites etc. I find they grow best started in modules and then transplanted under netting at a decent spacing - 18" They also like rich well matured ground.
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I have had lots of success with the variety Joan from Real Seeds.
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Swedes, parsnips and cabbages. They all get eaten by nasties. :(
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Swedes, parsnips and cabbages. They all get eaten by nasties. :(
So you CAN grow them, but something else eats them first? I know that feeling :dry:
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On current performance over the last 4 years, I can't grow parsnips. I got 3 seeds to germination point last year, which was at least a start, then they got slugged.
Next year is the Year of the Parsnip.
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Carrots.
Everyone else's carrots always look like they're out of Tescos. Mine actually are because I can't get any results from them so have to go shopping! Either they don't appear, or if they do, they're tiny, split or forked.
The only good thing is that they aren't affected by flies but that's probably only because even to them, they look pretty unappetising...
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;)
Hi
Swedes are a so called open ground crop, I have tried them quite a few times but they always get mildew or rot from the bottom up!
Apparently they need lots of fresh air around them, I have tried spacing them 18 inches apart in my allotment and they still failed.
I have given up on them for ever, the tennis ball sized ones they have in the supermarkets are immature, hard ,tasteless yet people still buy them!
Was in Northern Ireland a couple of years ago, theirs were almost football sized,very sweet even to eat raw easy to cut up and the flesh was a pale orange colour they were delicious!
Never been back so I have not had a treat since then with swedes, even in Scotland, the land of Saint Andy ;)
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Thank goodness it's not just me that can't grow a decent swede. Thanks for all the advice, and next year I'm going to try the recommended variety 'Joan', and start them off in modules. I'll try giving them more space than I have in the past and see what happens. If I don't get decent swedes next year I think I'll give up trying!
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I can highly recommend Willemsburger - it's a green topped variety which used to be available from a few online seed suppliers but I can only find them from Moles Seeds now. A couple of years ago I trialled Marian, Invitation and Willemsburger - the biggest and best were Willemsburger, followed by Marian. I chose those 3 because they are clubroot resistant, but I also started them off in modules to make sure they got a good root system before planting them in manured soil with a good handful of lime in each planting hole. I also had them in fairly tall cages covered in debris netting, and used slug pellets. Throughout summer I was amazed by the number of cabbage root flies on the debris netting and when I started harvesting perfect swede, I realised that it was well worth using a finer mesh netting to keep them out not just the cabbage white butterflies. However, by September the whiteflies still got in but the damage was minimal.
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Is this the same variety?
http://moreveg.co.uk/epages/bd0b9b93-06b9-4b49-9efb-f179fdacfbdd.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/bd0b9b93-06b9-4b49-9efb-f179fdacfbdd/Products/SWDWM
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Is this the same variety?
it is - but not a good photo as the swede I grew were round, not parsnip-shaped LOL
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I'm still struggling to grow Aubergines. I tried some different varieties this year but I don't think the weather was on my side, so I'll try again next year.
I've also struggled with swedes. I read that they don't like being transplanted so sowed directly this year and they were better. Not great, but better!
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A favourite quote from the Simpsons, "some folk couldn't grow stink on a monkey !". ;)
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We struggled to grow swedes on our allotments for many years. Our allotment guru thought it was due to sulphur deficiency with power station emissions being cleaned up. Then we started using "nutrimate" and the big swedes returned. :)
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For me it's carrots, they start out ok and taste great when they are miniature, but grow a full sized carrot that has not been eaten and nibbled by the bugs. Its not happening for me I'm afraid. :( >:(
I vowed I would never try them again then some kind person gave me some free seeds...aaarrgghhh!!!! 8)
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For me it's carrots, they start out ok and taste great when they are miniature, but grow a full sized carrot that has not been eaten and nibbled by the bugs. Its not happening for me I'm afraid. :( >:(
I vowed I would never try them again then some kind person gave me some free seeds...aaarrgghhh!!!! 8)
Grow under very fine mesh cloches, all your troubles will be over.
edit to fix quote
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I keep trying to find pigeon resistant varieties of brassicas ;-) until I do, I am going to struggle. The birds seem to take joy in breaking down / ripping apart / removing even the most resiliently built netting!
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Oooh, not just me then! Swedes, carrots, parsnips (although 3 parsnip whoppers made it through from 2 packets, so it is technically possible :D) will keep trying though :tongue2:
Not sure why my sprouts did't make it- it must be me as my neighbour's are wonderful, but I do organic and he sprays :unsure:
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Carrots.
Everyone else's carrots always look like they're out of Tescos. Mine actually are because I can't get any results from them so have to go shopping! Either they don't appear, or if they do, they're tiny, split or forked.
The only good thing is that they aren't affected by flies but that's probably only because even to them, they look pretty unappetising...
Try Paris Market or Sprint. Paris Market are round in shape - not much good if you want a traditional-looking root, but they taste very sweet and are great for grating as well as slicing. Sprint grow, according to the blurb, only 10 cm long. I tried them last year in a very unpromising clay bed as an experiment and had surprisingly good results. Some grew quite a bit longer than 10 cm, despite the poor ground.
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For me it's carrots, they start out ok and taste great when they are miniature, but grow a full sized carrot that has not been eaten and nibbled by the bugs. Its not happening for me I'm afraid. :( >:(
I vowed I would never try them again then some kind person gave me some free seeds...aaarrgghhh!!!! 8)
Grow under very fine mesh cloches, all your troubles will be over.
edit to fix quote
Not necessarily, fine mesh will not stop the slugs nibbling the seedlings down to the ground.
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Dare I say it but to date slugs have not been a problem :ohmy:
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Dare I say it but to date slugs have not been a problem :ohmy:
But they are for me, to the point where I actually sow some slug pellets alongside the carrot seed in the ground itself, as the little black slugs were devouring the seedlins as they germinated. This, plus the fine mesh and constant stone picking prior to sowing, has improved things no end.
Swede still eludes me, but I shall try again next year...maybe I need to feed them better when they are little?
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Definitely carrots. Had 2 germinate out of about 80 sown. And they soon got nibbled. A decent radish also evaded me last season
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try to avoid growing as many this year, and see what actually..rally..absolutely I can avoid and not grown any of that type :mad: