Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: AlaninCarlisle on June 25, 2018, 21:16
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For the first time in 30 years I'm unlikely to have any parsnips, despite four sowings throughout April and May. I put this down to extremes of temperature in the period, unless some kind of bug or creeping pest .
has developed a taste for them
Anyone else had a spectacular failure?
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Onions. Turbo from setts hardly grown. I was so pleased to find them to buy this year too.
Broad beans and peas about half / two thirds normal height but I will get a crop from them I think.
Beetroot is very feeble.
Globe artichoke not happy.
Strawberries very poor - not sure if this is weather related or it is time to replace.
Most other stuff is OK.
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no parsnips.
broad beans covered in blackfly
short peas
plenty of strawberrys but something keeps beating me to any ripe ones.
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Celeriac and celery are my big disappointments this year with all but 2 celery and 1 celeriac plants being munched to the ground by slugs shortly after being planted out. Like Anne, my peas and broad bean plants are much smaller than usual but I've had some (not as many as I'd have liked) broad beans and there's quite a few pods on the peas, so fingers crossed.
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Autumn-planted onion sets failed as most bolted :(
Spring-planted sets regulary disturbed by moles so gave up the ghost
Only half the parsnips groing, but that's better than last year I guess
OK on most other things thank goodness
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Parsnips were our big failure too. True across all the plots on our site, even from the very experienced green thumb brigade.
No spring onions, but I did wonder about the age of the packet. And the lettuces are well behind hand .... but now on their way.
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No 'abysmal failures' so far, but I have lost possibly as much as a fifth of my Lady Christl potato plants to what looks like blackleg, although the plants I've dug up did manage to produce a portion of undamaged spuds apiece. (Certified seed potatoes do not come with a 100% guarantee there are no diseases present, and blackleg infection seems to be more common in UK seed potatoes than you might expect.)
My parsnip germination was patchy, so I had to resort to transplanting some of the thinnings into holes filled with MP compost in the hope of avoiding forking - time will tell but they are at least growing OK so far.
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Onion sets have been hit by leaf minor and look quite sorry for themselves. I doubt if i will get enough for stoning and using this winter.
Broad beans have failed spectacularly and peas very patchy but catching up now.
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I've no Summer cabbage for the first time ever :ohmy: I don't know if it was poor seed, poor compost or the weather variations, but all the repeated early sowings either didn't germinate, or never got to a size worth planting.
Later sowings for Autumn/winter cabbage have been more successful, so far.
Most other stuff is struggling, as we need some rain. Tap water never works as well as rain IMO.
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Strawberry's lasted for just over a week before giving up fruiting and were all very small.
Spinach has been virtually non existent, some grew to 1 inch and went straight to seed.
Carrot germination rate has been very poor as well, out of 3 packets of seed I will be lucky to get 30.
Peas have done well but have needed watering daily.
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Parsnips and spring onions - zero. Beetroot, onions, potatoes, autumn-sown garlic and shallots all doing nicely, in fact the beetroot leaves are bigger than I've eve seen before.
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For the first time in 30 years I'm unlikely to have any parsnips, despite four sowings throughout April and May. I put this down to extremes of temperature in the period, unless some kind of bug or creeping pest .
has developed a taste for them
Anyone else had a spectacular failure?
Parsnips seem to have been a problem for most folk on our site this year. Personally, in one thirty foot row I have just two showing, and this is despite sowing twice!
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I have one row of parsnips. The second row I have sown twice, but no growth. Neither union seeds, leeks, radish is having a hard time, fennel and red beets are still very very small, half of our potatoes didn't grow.. So quite a bit, but still a reasonably filled garden.
I keep sowing until the time has passed. This has helped the carrots, sweetcorn, pumpkins, cauliflower, broccoli..
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Dwarf French Beans - netting blown off and eaten by pheasants. Replaced by autumn kale
Cauliflowers - net tunnel blown off by storms, plants eaten by pheasants. Leaving these in in case they re-leave.
Raspberries - storm blew over half the canes on the summer fruiting plants.
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Wild rocket ; very few seeds germinated and those that did stayed miniature.
Blueberry Spartan; very healthy looking plant with not a single blueberry! I re potted it last year so maybe it is just too happy in its new pot to bother flowering?
Potatoes succumbing to black leg. I don’t know yet whether I will loose them all but not looking good :(
Parsnips doing extremely well after an extra ordinary success with germination :D
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Blueberry Spartan; very healthy looking plant with not a single blueberry! I re potted it last year so maybe it is just too happy in its new pot to bother flowering?
I've had two blueberry bushes for donkey's years, and the smaller of the two has always produced more berries than the larger. Last year, the smaller one had very few leaves but loads of berries, and larger one loads of leaves but hardly any fruit! I bought a third bush earlier this year with the intention of getting rid of the larger one but guess what - this year the larger one has lots of berries and the smaller one hardly any (but lots of leaves.)
Answers on a postcard please!
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Yesterday, I pulled up Broad Beans, not good, and too many blackfly. Salad crops rubbish, Just been buying lettuce !Rocket has been devastated by Flea Beetles although I kept it covered. Mrs Bouquet
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Lettuce, couldn't get the seed to germinate early on, and now the later plants are shrivelling in the heat, even with a parasol to shade them. Raspberries suffering too with the lack of moisture. Peas have been a struggle, the pigeons attacked the emerging shoots; after comprehensive ground level mesh was installed they grew well, only for the pigeons to sit on the sticks and devastate the tops!
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My only real failure is tomatillos as I didn't realise you needed two plants for polination. Shame as I had the most beautiful small tree in the tunnel, with loads of pretty flowers on!
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All mostly growing very well here and generally on a par with any year for a bumper harvest.
Peas and mangetout took a lot longer to get going, but have in last few weeks grown well and the second and third sowing has almost caught up now with the early one.
The sweet peas are now flowering as they normally do at this time, but have not reached the normal heights, only a third way up the poles.
My spinach and chard took ages to get going from seed in the ground, but finally have had a spurt last few weeks and now producing well and finally up to scratch sizewise.
All my other herbs have done well, including some chervil this year for the first time, but my Parsley is not its usual bushy plant it gets to this time of year. Some of the parsley plants are quite spindly and some of the lower outer leaves have turned yellow. Luckily its just time for sowing some more seed in a cooler area of the garden.
Broad beans have been ok and just starting to wither now. Had a good crop, they did get delayed a few weeks after that March snow, but I'd say its about 3/4 yield of what I normally get. No blackfly here for a second year running.
Whats doing well is'
My Autumn raspberries are fruit setting well and leafed high up the staked area.
Having a bumper crop of Strawberries from my own runners in pots.
Gooseberries producing well.
New potatoes are cropping well too, but two new varieties I tried (foregoing one staple I've used over the years of Pentland Javelin), Foremost and Carlingford were not the best yield, only producing 3-4lb per bag. Compared to my staple Charlotte, International Kidney, Pentland javelin and Duke of York that always yield about 10-12lb per bag and have done for the ones I've emptied this year so far.
As well as my Westland Autumn Kale I have grown for years, I'm also growing a few new varieties this year, Red devil, Fizz and Dwarf Garden. The Red devil and Fizz varieties tend to suffer through the day and bends over slightly, but after a late evening water, it recovers and is upright, ready for another hot day.
Tried some already from each variety and they are great tasters and different from my staple.
Cucumbers are now producing fruit, sweetcorn now strong 4-5 foot plants, tomatoes in greenhouse and outside all doing well for this time of year and all flowering with a few setting tomatoes.
Runner beans as ever have rampaged last few weeks and are flowering well and now little beans growing.
French Cobra beans are mad as ever and first bucket of beans will be ready to pick this weekend.
Purple Queen dwarf french beans in pots have done as well as ever and flowering nicely.
I saved some seed from my first year of growing Sonesta beans and they are doing fine in pots too. Loved those yellow beans last year, very dwarf, medium cropper, but tasty. Love how easy with beans it is to save seed :)
Turnips took their time to mature but all now fattening up nicely. A second sowing a few weeks back has just started to floursish too.
Leeks just look as they normally do this time of year, sitting proud.
Grow all my carrots, Chantenay and Touchon in pots now and eat them as baby carrots late Summer through to Winter. Always need thinning out, but all lush green and just gave a few pots a thinning with the thinnings now in another pot.
Was sad to pop round to a friends allotment, who tends to just spary water all over from height and his brassicas, tomatoes and beans all have badly scorched leaves.
He waters early morning and has done it like that for a few years. A lesson learnt I think for this year and others, but especially this hot dry spell.
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Lettuce, couldn't get the seed to germinate early on, and now the later plants are shrivelling in the heat, even with a parasol to shade them.
I always grow my Lettuce in some shade, French Mix, lollo rosso and occasionally try a few other similar varieties.
I grow mine in pots on my steps outside my back door, it tends to get a good level of shade throughout the day. Good for just come again pickings.
But I also grow some in large rectangular pots at the back end of the greenhouse under some shading under shelves, where I keep up a supply of All Year round lettuce.
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Two more failures to report. I sowed 2 yellow courgettes of different varieties, plus an early straightneck summer squash and 2 romano variety courgettes. All very sturdy healthy plants coming along nicely.
Week before last 1 of the romanos collapsed and seemed to have been snapped off at the base. I put this down to Storm Hector. This week the second romano did the same thing. It seemed to have been severed at the base, but there has been not a drop of wind. My first thought is perhaps a chafer grub, but I didn't notice any culprit nearbt.
Worried about the remaining ones now happily producing in the same bed. My kind neighbour had a spare plant and I have popped that into a new bed. Never had this problem before. Feeling vexed.
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Looks like it is going to be my Setanta and Vivaldi potatoes as one by one they succumb to blackleg. T&M have confirmed the diagnosis after I sent them pictures. If you are growing these T&M potatoes I suggest that you check them over carefully.
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I am so excited to be able to announce a 100% increase in my parsnip crop. I now have four parsnips in a 30' row instead of just two!
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I am so excited to be able to announce a 100% increase in my parsnip crop. I now have four parsnips in a 30' row instead of just two!
::) :lol:
Its that kind of year isn't it Jaydig ::)
I've had sweetcorn and squash just not doing much. I've just posted in the What I Did thread to say how I've given up with some things and relegated them to the compost. There is corn going well on the plot and I have some strong plants at home I am going to try and plant today to fill gaps - assuming I can dig a hole for them ::) There are also squash growing away, but a much reduced quantity and number of types to my usual summer collection :(
I has spinach go straight to seed this year, but that's always a risk when you have a sudden leap in temperatures. Most of the rest is doing OK, but is needing a lot of watering.
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kohlrabi. Not getting enough water now I have to transport it down to the allotment in a barrel because the ones over there are completely empty.
Anton
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Growing Kohlrabi for the first time but it's looking not too bad at the mo.
Failures. Broad beans usually start in pots early and beat the blackfly but they were early too. have managed to get a few Parsnips in the end, they are still very small. Carrots. Got about half dozen with a few from (many) later sowing coming on.
Strawberries were fantastic and the courgettes (yellow and green) have started pumping out (ahh why did I plant so many ??) also loads of lettuce have started to go to seed as cannot keep up.
It has been a funny year for me as broke my wrist mid March so was no driving and one handed gardening for a while so overjoyed to have anything
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Its been a difficult year as the dry weather has caused germination problems (few carrots and parsnips) the onions are small but the biggest problem are the deer causing a lot of damage lost the swiss chard and most of the beetroots damage to the beans etc. however as its in my garden its countered by the sight of mum and young fawn comming in for a munch .
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Not a good year for me so far, and because of the heat and dryness I have now resorted to starting summer sowing in pots at home where I can water them regularly and hope that once it rains I can get them in the ground.
Having said that, my brassicas have surprised me, a!l types are dealing with the drought well.
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Went to the plot this morning, and found a stray packet of parsnip seed of a different variety and supplier from what I have already sown. Now I know it's very late in the season, but the seed won't be any good next year, so I soaked along where I had previous sowed three prior batches of parsnip seed, then made the drills in which to sow this fourth attempt. There, in the drills were all the seed I had previously sown, looking exactly as it did when I put it in. Anyway, they're sown now, and after this I really will give up for this season. If these come up at all I'll put the previous failures down to a bad batch of seed.
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Despite regular watering, every single one of my 50 Celeriac plants, lovingly raised from seed in my propagator, have bolted
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Parsnips & carrots, 1st sowings were very poor, 2nd sowing a few weeks ago of carrots are through & a lot better, I too gave the parsnips another go but have yet to spot any growth.
On talking to perefect Pete today he assures me that it’s jackdaws that have attacked the lower broad bean pods & not rats, so that’s a relief.
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Worst ever broad beans, onions not much better, parsnips and beetroot are looking fantastic
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Just about everything.
Anything sown and planted outside this year is long dead. I've lost the fruit crop from all the soft fruit, the blueberry bushes are brown and crispy, the top fruit is all but gone shared between rats, squirrels and blue jays and I'm struggling to keep the trees alive as they're now dropping their leaves.
The greenhouses were just about limping along but have been hit by a horde of tiny very hungry green caterpillars who are busy turning everything to lace.
I suspect I'll be calling time on the veg garden at the end of the season and returning it to lawn - having said that the grass is dead too ::)
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said it was a bonkers year....
Leeks... struggled to get them to germinate (3 packets in different compost) and are growing slowly
peas... only 3-4pods per plant and although the pea had swollen its hardish but 12 bags in the freezer.
Spuds... looking like the main crop will be a bad one for numbers and size.
Summer sprouting broccolli... grew well, sprouted and then flowered in days.
Chillies... biggest dissapointment, grew well at home in the grow tent, transfered to greenhouse then final potting, something then decided to munch at the roots and killed all but one plant.
The rest we will see.
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Totally bonkers year. As well as the celeriac going to seed, French and Runner Beans are poor, mangetout peas poor germination and a poor pear, black currant and plum crop.
On the positive side, discovered about 30 parsnips that I'd given up on, leeks look good as do Chiogga and red beetroot. Broad Beans are the most prolific I've ever grown as are courgettes. Spuds OK and carrots in containers are great
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Overall it's been a poor year.
My parsnips and beetroot are excellent, brassicas are looking fair. But the peas either failed to germinate or mice got them, the broad beans fared only slightly better with only half a dozen very poor plants growing.
The sweetcorn are, at the moment, looking promising.
I've put some leeks and late sown peas which seem to be holding their own at the moment.I sowed some parsnip seeds I found last week - who knows how they'll do?
The birds had all the gooseberries, which is very unusual for me, but the apple and pear trees are looking splendid. The redcurrant crop was a record, the blackcurrants and strawberries were average. The autumn raspberries aren't looking promising at the moment, but I keep threatening to grub them out and replace with new plants. The new loganberry has done wonderfully.
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Failures - broad beans (blackfly), carrots didn't germinate, not the Kohl Rabi, which was great last year. Asparagus - only two out of eight crowns have grown. Globe artichokes failed, beans not abundant and tomataoes blighted.
OK for marrows (loads), courgettes, sweetcorn, rhubarb, strawberries, hops, potatoes, cabbage and er more marrows.
New homemade polytunnel has been as you would expect incredibly hot. Tomatoes died, cucumbers all yellow, but aubergines going well.
Can't wait for next year.
Hey it's raining.
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As said earlier on the broad beans were floored by early blackfly, parsnips and carrots were a challenge but have some in fact carrots are quite big but showing inches above ground as clay earth is so hard.
have no blackberry blossom at all ! I have realised it may be because I cut them back hard in an effort to train them so they must grow on 2nd year wood Yes ?? always did get confused with pruning.
Biggest disappointment is the Lemon Crystal cues, usually overrun by them but out of the two I kept one has just keeled over limp and the other to struggling to produce male flowers ! These were from the first sowing so did another from saved seed which I gave to friends who have glorious cues!
Does anyone have a "friend" who thinks they are special ? this one will lord it over me that she knows the perfect way grr Wondering if it just didn't make a good root system in all that changeable weather??
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I've just had another bed of brassicas ravaged by what looks like caterpillers (during the one week of the year I was away), that is despite them being covered with netting since they were transplated. I am hoping the damage is not terminal, and the plants are strong enough to sprout new leaves and recover. Sigh, this is turning into another year where what I get out represents a fraction of the effort I put in. ::) :mad:
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As said earlier on the broad beans were floored by early blackfly, parsnips and carrots were a challenge but have some in fact carrots are quite big but showing inches above ground as clay earth is so hard.
have no blackberry blossom at all ! I have realised it may be because I cut them back hard in an effort to train them so they must grow on 2nd year wood Yes ?? always did get confused with pruning.
Biggest disappointment is the Lemon Crystal cues, usually overrun by them but out of the two I kept one has just keeled over limp and the other to struggling to produce male flowers ! These were from the first sowing so did another from saved seed which I gave to friends who have glorious cues!
Does anyone have a "friend" who thinks they are special ? this one will lord it over me that she knows the perfect way grr Wondering if it just didn't make a good root system in all that changeable weather??
Yes Marg, blackberries fruit on 2 yr old wood, I call giving away plants that then produce better than the kept ones “Sod’s law “
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As said earlier on the broad beans were floored by early blackfly, parsnips and carrots were a challenge but have some in fact carrots are quite big but showing inches above ground as clay earth is so hard.
have no blackberry blossom at all ! I have realised it may be because I cut them back hard in an effort to train them so they must grow on 2nd year wood Yes ?? always did get confused with pruning.
Biggest disappointment is the Lemon Crystal cues, usually overrun by them but out of the two I kept one has just keeled over limp and the other to struggling to produce male flowers ! These were from the first sowing so did another from saved seed which I gave to friends who have glorious cues!
Does anyone have a "friend" who thinks they are special ? this one will lord it over me that she knows the perfect way grr Wondering if it just didn't make a good root system in all that changeable weather??
Yes Marg, blackberries fruit on 2 yr old wood, I call giving away plants that then produce better than the kept ones “Sod’s law “
Yes indeed ! Trouble is you have to sow more then you need and us gardeners do love to share the joy don't we. "Friend to is going to bring me some of her cues tomorrow as I havn't got any and prob tell me how to grow them. ???