Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Florablunder on July 31, 2021, 10:39
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Beginning to feel like I have the gardening equivalent of writer's block - nothing seems to be growing. I have lots of seedlings in pots/plug trays (chard, sorrell, etc) that have refused to progress beyond first sets of leaves for weeks now, even repotting them hasn't helped. I know I should chuck them - but I'd like to know why they won't grow. Meanwhile, my tomatoes on the patio seem to be sticking at green - been waiting weeks for them to go red. And my rocket seeds are going straight from 2 leaves to bolting, so useless for eating. The only things that are growing - the cauliflower seedlings - keep getting noshed by the slugs, so I'm not sure they will survive to make it to the allotment. We are not even in August, yet it feels somehow as if summer is over.
I'm tempted to just throw the lot in the compost bin and get the Christmas tree out!!
(sorry, feeling a bit fed up today!)
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You aren't the only one that feels that way :(
My favourite veg are runner beans and I've had at least 6 different attempts at getting some going, in pots, direct in the soil, tried chitting some more, and only success with about 6 plants Pfft!
I haven't even got my leeks in yet - they're still tiny - and is it worth the effort if they're only going to get eaten anyway? ::)
A bit fed up at the moment, just noticed that in the big tub by the front door, the fuchsia looked like it was drooping, so gave it a good watering. That proved what the problem actually is - there's an ant nest in it >:(
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It has been an odd year for growing to say the least and I have had a fair few failures as well.
My lastest stomp feet moment was that the recent heat wave (seems a long time ago now on a cool, rainy Saturday) nobbled the boysenberry crop and the fruits withered on the canes. It also cut short the harvest on the loganberry and tayberry, so very few hybrid berries picked :(
I am looking at what I do get as a bonus and trying to shrug the rest off. I have chard seedlings on the go and I am going to keep them. If all else fails I will plant them in buckets and use them as a crop at home, but hopefully they will make it to the plot. I have some plants there but not many as germination was very erratic.
Odd about the runner beans though. All my fellow plot holders usually have rows of them by now, but no-one has them this year. I don’t grow them, but my climbing french beans are absolutely fine and I have seen them on other plots as well ???
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Yes my tomatoes still green, both in greenhouse and outside. Been a funny year for me with seed germination down my plot, beetroot, spring onion, carrots, parsnip and swede, all very patchy and poor results initially. Had to resow most of it a month to 6 weeks later to get a result. Not doing too bad now, only did them in the last few weeks, bit too late for spring onion, but there is about a quarter of a row from the second sowing. Beetroot, swede, and carrots had to plant seed for third time to try and get a full row. Just waiting now :( .
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it has been a bad year here too...one of those years wondering why you bother :(
however, there are some promising crops..if any wants a hundred weight of blackcurrants...im your gal :lol:
and, so far, my sweetcorn looks good, but i now need the temps to increase :nowink:
courgettes/french beans, always a winner, but i love peppers and even though i started them the first week in february, they are literally 2 foot tall with pea sized peppers only just showing :mad:
outside toms blighted and cauli blown :mad:
ah, well...there is always next year ::)
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Must be, my main crop potatoes died back at the same time as my second earlies, perhaps the weather here in the SE really fooled them into thinking it is September.
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Beginning to feel like I have the gardening equivalent of writer's block - nothing seems to be growing.
Welcome to my world!
Gardening here reminds me why our ancestors , in a survival situation, lived on cabbage and potatoes. In a good year we have a huge mix of interesting & varied crops; in a year like this we have cabbage and potatoes & the rest were a waste of time, effort ----and space that could have been used by cabbage and potatoes! :lol:
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Beginning to feel like I have the gardening equivalent of writer's block - nothing seems to be growing.
Welcome to my world!
Gardening here reminds me why our ancestors , in a survival situation, lived on cabbage and potatoes. In a good year we have a huge mix of interesting & varied crops; in a year like this we have cabbage and potatoes & the rest were a waste of time, effort ----and space that could have been used by cabbage and potatoes! :lol:
Lucky you. The slugs and snails ate my cabbage before I got the chance. It makes me grateful I am not a subsistence farmer, as I would either be starving or malnourished in a year like this.
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No problems with carrots. Planted in gutters and pushed out early. Very successful. Early Nantes and Paris market. Just put in some little fingers seeds (not in gutters)
The gutter was complete failure with beetroot. Maybe should tried again or just take out individually and plant that way.
Strawberries superb last year's runners.
French Beans a cock up grew about 40 plants up netting can only get to one side. Netting about 10 mm. I assumed as the side I could harvest from (south facing) would have the majority of the beans... wrong. With poor harvest to boot. Next year netting down just extra string. 6 X 6 foot posts so if I just use string I will be able to get my hand through. A real cock up.
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Bizarre in SW Scotland too. Other than raspberries and strawberries the Tay/boysen and logan berries a disaster - fruit set but dried up. Brassicas, broad beans and sugar snaps doing well but the real bonus has been the raised beds we put over the north end of the veg plot which is, essentially, a mire - rushes and sodden most of the time from run-off from the real mire to the west of us. We have limited water - a well supply for the house and a sump for the veg - so only the tunnel gets regular watering. However, those raised beds obviously are wet underneath and the roots have got into it so Runner Beans, carrots, onions, mooli and courgettes aka marrows are doing splendidly. It's such that another raised bed will be made this winter. Parsnips in it basically failed to germinate the three times we tried so we have, err, 7. Peppers and chillies in the tunnel are actually ripening this year and the Green Knight aubergines, well, a glut to say the least. Tomatoes started ripening, although late, (6kgs roasted, blitzed and frozen) but I can wait as I'm dealing with the blueberries at the moment - mostly bottling but some jams. Potato haulms definitely turning yellow, first earlies not a bad crop given the lack of rain over the last couple of months. I'm thinking, like every year this one has ups and downs, unpredictable but that's what makes growing things such fun. We set out to be as self sufficient in fruit and veg as sensible and, so far, are succeeding but every year is different.
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The growing season this year is such a non-starter.
I've barely had 2 days in a row of the same weather, and it just keeps raining.
I put some swede seeds in a ccouple of weeks ago, and got lovely long rows of seedlings.
then something has eaten them all - definitely sslugs because tthey're covered, and there weren't enough leaves to tempt anything else.
No nematodes this year, which is my own fault.
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French Beans a cock up grew about 40 plants up netting can only get to one side. Netting about 10 mm. I assumed as the side I could harvest from (south facing) would have the majority of the beans... wrong. With poor harvest to boot.
Typical :(
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I think its the worst year ever for me and if it was my first year I would be wondering why people bother. Onions have been good and its looking like the squashes are the only ones enjoying the wet weather.
Runner bees look good but not a big crop, assume the set weather is meaning no bees around to pollinate them.
More Tomato's getting pulled up with blight although have rescued a few that are rip enough.
2nd early spud had blight but it looks like I caught it before the tubers got infected. Main crop has a bit but have already started pruning it back.
I did plant on 160 leeks leeks at the weekend just before we had a downpour so no need to water them every day, which is a plus.
Best crop of all mind you has to be the weeds!
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It's the daily peering at the toms which is the order here! Luckily, blight hasn't got this far, but in a year like this, you have to be so careful!
Soft fruits weren't bad, and two gals of gooseberry wine are bubbling away, the blackcurrants thrived, but we're still seeing hardly any 'Joan J' raas forming, and it's the same for chums in the village too!
Runners are OK, but we always sow too many anyway - there are still ten plants to go in for a late (?) crop...
Second lot of spinach bolted, as has the PSB for some odd reason, but the sweet peas are the best for years!
All in all, as mentioned earlier, as new gardeners, we'd have asked ourselves, why bother...
On the plus side...the 'bought' cucumber plant has gone mad, which solves the salmon sandwich issue!
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Glad to know that I’m not alone and that I’m not a moaner by joining in with my woes! I have harvested one tiny courgette from 4 plants. All flowers being male and the plants being puny. A handful of peas yesterday. Half a dozen finger-sized carrots and five ping pong ball sized beetroots.
No top fruit at all after frosts.
The tomatoes are green and are being stripped from the plants by mice/field voles.
Pea plants cut off at the base by them. Or pods eaten before the peas swell.
Voles eaten all brassicas to the ground.
The whole garden/plot is so riddled with tunnels -moles and voles- that every newly planted thing gets upended and left back on the surface for me to re-plant...
Depressing and discouraging.
But I have the best garlic I’ve ever grown and good turnips...Beans might be ok... Fingers crossed!
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Mmm, interesting comments because we moved house last June so are gardening on a different type of soil (slightly acidic), no salt winds, very few slugs and snails, and have a smaller greenhouse. The garden hasn't been used for a few years so dug and/ or made new beds. There's a raised stone-walled cold frame where I sowed some carrots, beetroot, spring onions and sugar snaps. All are going great guns except the snaps as they were moved twice and didn't like it; however, three survived plus I sowed some more which are also growing up the frame. Next to the cold frame is a narrow low stone wall which was covered in concrete so got rid of that, dug some of it over, added mushroom compost, then planted more spring onions, three kale, three left-over sweet corn, and later on planted my leeks. All are thriving and have lovely dark green leaves, plus my corn is the fattest and has more potential cob parts than I've ever seen. The greenhouse, however, is another matter. Dug the two side beds over and planted two toms in each of two large grow bags. They took ages to get going, sprouted side shoots everywhere and currently have toms that are still green. My single climbing French bean at the back was also very slow and only produced one upright stem but it had the biggest, darkest, sparsely-spread green leaves I've ever seen and it's only now producing side stems which are just starting to flower. The three dwarf French beans were planted in the other bed which OH insisted I dug in two big bags of horse manure and they don't look well (see my post about Aminopyralid) and the sweet corn are tall but very spindly and they have finally produced the cob parts which I pollinated by tapping the stems with a stick. My ornamental plants ... well ... they also took absolute ages to get going. It has been a funny year weather-wise so I'll see what happens next year.
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Lots of very interesting comments about the weather. It has been unusually good here in North Cumbria, very little rain, and weeks of sunshine, but due to change tomorrow. Most things are doing really well, sweetcorn, onion and squash are loving the sun, but the brassicas have also done well. Ripe toms and peppers in the greenhouse. So different from last year when it was poor weather and we had a vole population explosion, and we struggled with peas and borlotti beans as they got pulled up/eaten as soon as they germinated!
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It has also been a mixed bag over here.
My yellow summer squash (variety Butter Dish) produced 2 fruits out of 4 plants; what we call zucchini here produced nothing at all. Huge plants, lots of flowers, however very little fruit set. Then the squash vine borers got in and literally liquified the stems into orange mush / dead plants. Be glad you don't have squash vine borers. If I ever grow squash again, it will be tromboncino (resistant to the borers).
Deer managed to get around my deer fence and turned the garden into a salad bar. Squash, peppers, cucumber plants, okra ... they even ate 2 orchid plants and a Christmas cactus.
On the plus side, the tomatoes and cucumbers that did not get eaten have produced a bumper crop, enough that salad is available every day and I have plenty to give away to family and friends. Banana an jalapeno peppers are also producing a bunch.
We have enough growing season remaining that I am going to plant green beans and wax beans later today (I think both of those you may call French beans?). Maybe a tomato or two in pots. That may be it in terms of summer crops for this year, but I may soon get started on crops that will produce over the winter for us (chard, turnips and suchlike).
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No ripe tomatoes here yet either.
Did 2 sowings of carrots and parsnips, produced a grand total of 5 carrots only.
No beans of any type yet, or peppers, or aubergines (no surprise there) or cucumbers. Plants all growing but no fruit so far.
On the plus side, peas, field beans, 1st early potatoes, courgettes all very good.
Blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries tremendous. Pigeons ate the strawberries.
I have 4 small melons that look promising, which will be very welcome if they grow and ripen.
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Lots of very interesting comments about the weather. It has been unusually good here in North Cumbria, very little rain, and weeks of sunshine, but due to change tomorrow. Most things are doing really well, sweetcorn, onion and squash are loving the sun, but the brassicas have also done well. Ripe toms and peppers in the greenhouse. So different from last year when it was poor weather and we had a vole population explosion, and we struggled with peas and borlotti beans as they got pulled up/eaten as soon as they germinated!
It has been unusual this year in that SE England has copped the poor weather since May whereas the north of England and Scotland have experienced dry weather. London has been particularly wet this summer.
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Lots of very interesting comments about the weather. It has been unusually good here in North Cumbria, very little rain, and weeks of sunshine, but due to change tomorrow. Most things are doing really well, sweetcorn, onion and squash are loving the sun, but the brassicas have also done well. Ripe toms and peppers in the greenhouse. So different from last year when it was poor weather and we had a vole population explosion, and we struggled with peas and borlotti beans as they got pulled up/eaten as soon as they germinated!
Funnily enough we had a vole explosion last year too. They even ate the onion tops. They seem to have retreated back into the compost heap this year!