Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: hammers07 on August 07, 2007, 12:27

Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: hammers07 on August 07, 2007, 12:27
:(

out of everything ive planted the only things that are left and useable are onions, leeks and runnerbeans and a few strawberries but they are mainly in flower with very little fruit.

Cabbage,cauli,broccoli , sprouts eaten by pidgeons and those that did survive have rotted away

tomatoes rotted or got blight

potatoes - good to start with but blight set-in and now they are rotting in the ground, those i have salvaged of late are tasteless, cucumbers rotted or eaten, courgettes good crop to start but tatsteless and short shelf life

red onions- rotted or bolted

rasberries - no fruit at all all new shoots just dropped off or died.

sweetcorn -does not really seem to be doing much small thin fruit not ripened - or is it too early yet ?

peas -good crop to start but rotted away

mangetout - as peas

chilli peppers rotted, aubergine rotted,

carrots mushy -

capiscums - rotted away

broad beans excellent crop to start but have all gone brown and rotten

beetroots - very tiny don't seem to be growing any more

lettuces good crop but soon rotted in the wet

ALL_IN_ALL  useless really.


I want to start clearing soon what do i do once i have cleared away all the blight infected potatoes - do i need to treat the soil ?
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: CJ on August 07, 2007, 12:35
Similar story here too - tomatoes blighted, beetroot miniscule, beans a washout etc.  Still as they say "it will be better next year".  'Fraid I have no advice about the soil.
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: muntjac on August 07, 2007, 14:02
heavy lime the lot and dont plant spuds  except on the cabbage or the like ground .. dont lime that bit
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: upthetump on August 07, 2007, 17:03
:roll:

It seems we are all in the same boat unfortunately. Reading your list is like looking at a mirror image of mine. What a shocking year!!!!.

Oh Well, better start preparing now, nothing much left to grow now. SIGH!

 :roll:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: Trillium on August 07, 2007, 22:04
Everything of yours got off to a great start, so just keep thinking what it will be like next year when the weather is better  :lol:  :wink:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: mum of 3 on August 08, 2007, 08:18
weve had a mixed bag this year really,my tomatoes are at home and seem to be doing really well but cabbages and caulis were a let down,beetroot was not as good as last year and peas seemed disappointing,but on a good note my sprouts are coming on a treat :lol:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: Sadgit on August 08, 2007, 08:37
total mixed bag for me this year... not the best year to start having a lottie.
The only things that are going good guns are my dozens of chilli plants.

Sweetcorn is ok, about 3ft tall and only 1 or 2 cobs on each.
Butternut squash, errr no fruit at all... on all 15 or so plants.
Onions - amazing crop hardly any bolted this year.
garlic - dodo dodo dodo.. from 51 planted I got maybe 10-15 usable bulbs
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: diggerjoe on August 08, 2007, 09:11
as i planted a large area for spuds  its annoying to think i can't use that area next year as they all got blight - still it got me to dig it over - caulis going in the space this year  - like others most of veg dissapointing except courgettes only three plants  variety tri ( round yellow , pale green and dark green) neighbours now hide when when they see me coming up the path in case I have more to give away and the family are begging me to stop serving them every meal :lol:
Title: Oh come on chaps ...
Post by: wellingtons on August 08, 2007, 09:30
... collective chins up eh??

It's just awful when all your hard work is defeated by things totally beyond your control, but there is always next year ... oh and clearly diggerjoe will be keeping us all in courgettes for weeks yet  :D

We've actually been quite lucky here in the South East, blight on the tomatoes was my one real heartbreak.   But I didn't do well with caulis or my early plantings of broccoli.  Beans were slow to germinate but they're away now.

One oddity of the year though is that my beetroot were slow to germinate and now are slow to mature ... plants are healthy, leaves looking a picture and the beets are small and firm, but I could do with one or two chubbing up a bit!
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: muntjac on August 08, 2007, 10:23
stick a bit of super phosphate around em . ( 1/4 teaspoon per ) :wink:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: pepper on August 08, 2007, 17:33
I've had a mixed bag too here in Leeds. I've got a freezer full of black, red and white currants and  gooseberries - the blackcurrants as big as marbles! Raspberries and strawberries very poor.
But... one meals worth of potatoes, two meals worth of onions, no sign of my beans, peas and mangetouts,  three carrots survived. Spinach disappointing.
On the other hand, brocolli sprouts and leeks are coming on fine (fingers crossed) and we have been eating a cucumber a day for the last two weeks - think I need to find a relish recipe soon. Also the sun has made the tomatoes come on a treat.
A bit disapponting but when I read how others have suffered I realise it could have been worse!
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: greenfingers on August 08, 2007, 19:41
Well we did really well this year,we had a great crop of WEEDS! :evil:

No joking aside we had loads of potatoes considering it was our first  time growing them,loads of onions that are now in the garage,lettuce beets & radishes still growing and about 3 strawberries so far WOOHOO   :D
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: splodger on August 08, 2007, 20:36
i have had a great year - under the circumstances - but i grew 3 times as much as i would have normally grown (sharing the produce to a winning bid in a charity auction) but the person hasn't collected any veg for nearly 6 weeks now - so i have had a real glut - if they don't collect soon - there won't be anything left  :lol: i have started giving it away to freecyclers - if i get something useful from them.

the only let down for me has been toms at the plot - showed signs of blight - so i took off green toms (to ripen indoors) and pull up the plants - still got enough at home though - so not really a disaster.
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: WG. on August 09, 2007, 06:26
3 degs Celsius at 5am this morning.  I ask you!!

Nearly a bl**dy groundfrost in early August.  I just don't believe this so-called summer!   :evil:  :evil:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: mushroom on August 09, 2007, 09:43
Quote from: "whisky_golf"
3 degs Celsius at 5am this morning.  I ask you!!


 :shock:  :D Actually, that kind of thing is more usual than you might imagine. If you get a still night and a clear dry air mass (probably polar maritime), and if you're away from the coast, radiative cooling can be very substantial even in the height of 'summer'.
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: hermon on August 10, 2007, 11:20
my plot has been a waste of time and effort mainly my fault as i didn't keep up with weeding and it hide about 1000 snail/slugs which ate 90% of all my plants, only now have i got some plants that should make it but i rekon the plot is 30% used this year typical as it is my last year as we are moving soon hopefully (see bed and breakfast link in "Off Topic"
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: Farmer Fred on August 10, 2007, 20:01
it was my very first attempt at growing anythin this year. my plot consisted of about a 5 metre square bit of my back yard, and a wee plastic greehouse. i really enjoyed having a go at growing, however the constant rain has decimated most of it. i managed to get a great crop of early peas, but my carrots didnt take, although my parsnips are looking healthy enough. my onions seem to have done ok too, but my squash, lettuce and cabbage was destroyed by slugs, my strawberrys by something i am yet to determine, probably mice. my sweetcorn is still growing away. but the best thing is i really enjoyed it, and am going to try and get a proper allotment for next year
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: muntjac on August 10, 2007, 21:23
good on ya fred :wink:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: helluvatractor on August 11, 2007, 18:54
was my first year also, me and the wife really got stuck in at the start of the year, tamed a garden full of weeds:

(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z208/helluvatractor/1.jpg)


scrounged a couple greenhouses for free! and she let me have a bit of a veg plot too :

(http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z208/helluvatractor/3.jpg)
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: allotmentnut on August 12, 2007, 11:10
Well, that was a conversation stopper.  You must know a lot about the weather.  Here in Lancashire we have learned to accept what we get.  Which is usually rain rain and more rain.

We just get excited with whatever we get from the allotment.  If its meant to be, its meant to be.

Still got enough veg to eat fresh veg  every day, and some to freeze.  So mustn't grumble.  Every thing we get is a bonus because we don't expect anything. :lol:
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: allotmentnut on August 12, 2007, 11:12
Sorry,  :oops:

My reply is out of place, I didn't realise there was another page.  Thick with computers, but love the allotment.

Hey so what!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: John on August 12, 2007, 11:33
Well some years are better than others and this has hardly been one of the best. BUT
We've loads of onions if little garlic, planty of broad beans if few peas and other beans although there is still a chance the second sowing of French beans will come in with a crop
Enough potatoes, I reckon and the Jerusalem artichokes seem to be doing really well.
Brassicas... well we'll see.
Tomatoes struck down but maybe enough so we'll not need the emergency stock of 4 tins. Cucumbers, thanks to friends :)
The peppers look promising and the sweetcorn is looking brilliant.
Next year I wll do better. PLEASE
Title: well thats almost it for this summer !!
Post by: yummy on August 13, 2007, 13:05
We have not done very well either (our first year).

The only things that are/were any good:
Broadbeans, strawberries, cauli's, sweetcorn, parsnips, plums.

Potatoes size of grapes and rotting in the ground - all foliage dead.
Runners - lost first 3 lots to frost/flood. 4th lot halfway up poles at present with about 10 pods formed.
Peas - lost 2 lots
mange tout - there are about 2 pods currently forming.
Carrots - eaten at a very early stage by something that got under the fleece carrotfly barrier.
Beetroots - hardly any germinated and those that did were only size of marbles.
Onions - more like shallot size
Shallots - mostly rotten - got one tart tatin out of em.
Shan't bore you any further  :roll: