[Sharonx]

Hi,
Having a few problems with different things and just wanted a winge!
Parsnips were sown over a month ago and not made an appearance, beetroot sown at same time and out of a whole row about ten have grown.
Sweetcorn I chitted at home and am growing in pots have been half eaten by slugs in the cold frame, despite me going out with torch every night. Courgettes I started in pots a month ago didn't take so I started some indoors in the conservatory and these all appeared in a few days. Now the ones in the cold frame have decided to pop up! Now got too many!
Any more winges?? Oh yes, rocket has been eated by flea beatle so have chucked that all out, rhubarb has hollow sticks??? don't know what that's all about! Peas don't look up to much either.
All in all I'm pretty fed up, and that's probably just the start of it

[mickwood]

Hang on in there chuck

***HUGS*** 

[durham_lass]

I feel the same.  My mini greenhouse got blown over in the strong winds last Friday.  I lost most of my seedlings, peas, courgettes, sweetcorn & alpine strawberries.  I managed to save some sweetcorn and planted them out in the allotment but they don't look too good.  I also managed to buy some courgettes from B & Q and a friendly plot holder has given me a few strawberries.  Still disappointed as I wanted to grow my own from seed this year.

[barney rubble]

Its a bit early to suggest a double, but sounds like you could do with one

i'm sure if you replanted many of your seedlings would catch up - we have been promised a good summer

[blackisgreen]

WOO STOP/ RELAX/ REFLECT/ CALM DOWN
right we all have problems but just take it easy {have a cadburys caramel} its not too late to have another go .try other stuff if you like ,it will all come good in the end but dont give in ,dont give in

[scabs]

I know the feeling, but think of all the hard work you have put in and about the rewards later in the year!

If it is any consolation, I have had failure after failure since I started in January... I guess it's a learning curve. 

Chin up!

[richyrich7]

A lot of disappointments happen when you grow anything, it's a learning curve, 30+yrs of growing I'm still learning, still loosing stuff can't grow a decent cauli for love nor money 
I've found one of the biggest causes are slug/snail damage easy solved get a few pellets out, I try not to use them in the garden but in the greenhouse & coldframe they are a must. Sowing too early is another sure way to struggle, and be careful with your watering not too much nor too little, if you take a pinch of soil and squeeze it if you see water then it's wet enough.

[Wombat18]

You are not alone!  I'm still in the first year of my allotment, and most of those things have happened to me too.  My cauliflower didn't, my brassicas turned into a pigeon free for all and then got downy mildew,  slugs treated my very first bed of radishes as an all-you-can-eat buffet and my cheap Argos greenhouse blew away in the first gust of wind.  You just have to hang in there and get lots of advice from your fellow allotmenteers, even if the advice you get from one person is the complete opposite of the advice from the next!  Just take everything in your stride as a learning experiences and make the most of your triumphs. 

Also, consider nemaslug.  It's pricy, but there's something quite satisfying about terminating the little * wholesale.  I've haven't seen a single (alive) slug since I put the first lot on at the start of April.

Also, parsnips are incredibly slow to germinate.  Give them a couple more weeks.

[Trebor]

Diversify and plant in succession would be my suggestion:

If you stick in a small amount of different crops then you have a better chance of success with some of them – I do this with all crops, little of each but many varieties. This year for example I have runners, broad beans, peas, mange tout, sugar snap, berlotti and dwarf French beans, all in 6ft rows of each. The mange tout haven’t worked out very well, but I don’t care as the others beans and peas are doing well.

Planting in succession means you get a second or third chance with the same crop. Again I planted beetroot early and had many gaps. Just filled these in with more seeds and planted further rows which have come up so now will have beetroot over a longer period of time and no gaps.

Finally they are ‘only’ plants so try not to be too disappointed if a few don’t work out quite how you had hoped!

[diggerjoe]

just apply the 'oh well' principle as I have done this season - oh well at least i tried and now i'll have another go and as for parsnips I cannot grow them at all - as everyone says its a case of some you win some you dont but keep smiling and keep at it.

[Trebor]

just apply the 'oh well' principle as I have done this season - oh well at least i tried and now i'll have another go and as for parsnips I cannot grow them at all - as everyone says its a case of some you win some you dont but keep smiling and keep at it.

On the parsnip thing, I had a failure with these and then tried a little experiment. I planted some out in seed trays and not having a propagator lid used cling film to cover them. I had three rows, covered one completely, one partially and the other not at all. The row covered in cling film came up in about two weeks, the others failed. I am not giving this a guarantee, but if you try the same then you may find you have more luck – it seems the moisture and warmth is very beneficial.

[Nefertari]

Trebor, I'm going to try your suggestion.  i discovered the other night that I'd been cultivating mostly weeds and just 1 parnips (i'm a newbie too and didn't know what parnsip seedlings looked like).  I've read somewhere about germinating them on damp kitchen paper with a very thin layer of compost over the top.  I only did this tuesday evening so don't know if it'll work.  However I'm going to cling film or plastic cover it when I get home.

[diggerjoe]

Now I reckon I'll give that a try Trebor. I had gone down the paper pot route but not one showed up but perhaps it was due to them being in an unheated greenhouse. As it was a no show I just put a beetroot seed in each so as not to waste the pots and they seem to like it as I 've had 80% come through. I would not be surprised to find parsnips amongst the beet later in the year!

[Kristen]

I've sown Parsnips in paper pots.  Only one or two germinated.  I sowed the rest of the packet on damp kitchen paper to chit it.  That was 2 or 3 weeks ago and for the last 10 days I've been getting one or two a day that have sprouted to "prick out".

However, I bought my seed last Summer 50%-off, and I have since read that Parsnip seed doesn't keep, so that is presumably largely responsible for my problem

[andreadon]

don't be disheartened.
for about 3 years i refused to grow anything but courgettes because i was fed up with failing with everything else!
it's only last year that i started up trying again.
i managed runner beans as well as the courgettes, but the tomatoes, carrots, sweetcorn and spinach all went horrbily wrong!
i'm trying again!

i'm also trying parsnips and after just giving up on them, i finally have some seedlings coming through.  although, there's a possbility they're just self-seeded chamomile.....