[sachkrimbo]

Had a really bad year with my veg patch, from decimated kohl rabi and calabrese (think by flea beatle) to non ripening tomatoes and non existant carrots.  So I'm wondering how to improve the situation for next year.  A friend has saved me a pile of chicken poo and thinks shoving that onto the patch for the winter would do some good but I'm not so sure.  Patch is tiny, 5 ft x 10 ft.  Strangely all of my crops in the hundreds of pots and grow bags I've got are doing well so I'm wondering if not enough space to properly rotate crops is an issue.   Anyone any tips??

[digalotty]

get that chicken poo in 

[radiohead]

Flea beetle was a real problem on our plot around June when the brassicas were just starting....I think the secret is to get the plants off to a flyer as quickly as possible as once they get to a reasonable size they are pretty immune.....As above,I'd dig in as much organic material....compost/well rotted manure/chicken poo.... as I could lay my hands on and things should improve next year. My O/H is always saying I dig in far to much horse manure ,which I regularly bag up at the local stables.But our heavy ground keeps on swallowing it up and the crops keep coming.

[japagow]

I would go for the poo option too and get some hay or straw in to improve the soil over winter.

The reason the grow bags and the pots do well must be becuse they've got better humus in the soil. You could cover it up with tarpaulin if you want to keep weeds off

If you're totally racked off with it I would get the soil ready for the winter and then go off and leave it alone till next spring. If you're like me you'll fiddle about trying things that won't come off like overwintering broad beans - that's hit and miss- or purple sprouting broccoli - which the pigeons will eat -  and get more and more p****d off with it all.

Go away and come back. You'll be fresh you'll hit the ground running.

[sachkrimbo]

Fab and thank you. So dig in some fresh manure now and it should be okay by next spring or should I try to get some older stuff?  and Radiohead, is there anything else you did about the flea beatle?
I just feel so disheartened by it all, have never had a year like it and been growing for at least the last 9 years. 

[rainbow1]

I've not been in the grwing game for long but I think you just get years like that. I've had a butternut squash crisis and a long list of other things that really haven't been that brilliant, probably because of the rather random weather. Don't loose heart! Shovel your poo and plan for next year. I'm sure it will be a lot better!

[sunshineband]

Don't worry Sach -- as rainbow said, there are good and bad years. Last year I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, this year, well, hardly any tbh 

Get the muck dug in, cover up the soil so it doesn't get it's structure completley ruined by heavy rainfall, or sow some green manure you can dig in next spring.

Settle back with some seed catalogues and get a plan together to grow your brassicas to a healthy size in pots or trays before planting them out (defeats the fleabeetle problem) and think how to keep the pigeons and butterflies off them next year too.

Then dream away the winter - it'll soon be planting time again 

[radiohead]

Fab and thank you. So dig in some fresh manure now and it should be okay by next spring or should I try to get some older stuff?  and Radiohead, is there anything else you did about the flea beatle?
I just feel so disheartened by it all, have never had a year like it and been growing for at least the last 9 years. 

I'd only dig in well rotted horse manure......re- flea beetles I tried the old sticky card trick,spread some prittstick glue on a card and sweep it across the ground and among the plants in the affected area,the little ******'s jump up and stick to the card!!....Caught loads but it barely dented the population. I think systemic pesticides would be effective but that would be the very last thing I would ever use....the best way is to get the plants off to a real quick start so they are big enough to be largely unaffected,you can also plant a sacrificial crop such as radishes to draw them away from your prized brassicas.

[Babstreefern]

Last year's crop was a total disaster on my plot.  I put loads of peas in but only got the equivalent of one meal only.  The spuds were a disaster, etc, etc. 

Anyway, at the end of the harvesting last October (what there was) , I completely dug (double digging) over the plot (I noticed that the previous owner only used a small tilly rotivator, which only digs the first couple of inches of ground).  I then tested the soil and found it mainly acid, so I put in lime (but not the plot where I was going to put in this year's spuds).  I then got chicken poo and bfb and put lashings of that in, and then left it for the winter.

This year, the difference is amazing .  Although the only problem I had was my onions.  I put them in where the peas were last year, and they didn't do so great.  Because it was a slightly raised bed and the water comes up pretty close to the surface, I thought the peas didn't do well because the roots didn't get into that water, and I would think the onions would do well because they don't like sitting in it.  So obviously, there's something in the soil that nothing likes to grow.  This year, I'll be transferring my goosegog bushes and so I'll see how they do

[Janeymiddlewife]

Sachkrimbo - you said your tomatoes weren't ripening - if they're outdoors then they often don't ripen until September, mine are only just starting now and I'm bringing them inside to finish on the windowsill so the blight doesn't get them - not that we'll get any this week i think (fingers crossed). I think people hope that the tomatoes will ripen in June & July, but it's only greenhouse varieties that are normally ready then, or polytunnels.
See people say beans are easy, and I just can't get a decent crop despite doing all the right things,  for the 2nd year running;  babstreefern said she can't grow peas, but I had a fantastic crop of them growing right next to my beans - work that one out!  And don't even mention the sweetcorn which has got smut so I can't grow it again for 3 years
Sometimes Mother Nature likes to have a little joke, just to remind us who's in charge 

[sachkrimbo]

Thanks all. Sometimes I think it's just me!!!  Also coz my patch is in my garden don't really have the benefit of other like minded to ask questions.   I think I've been moaning about it too much at home, OH has offered for me to go and do a day course in Rutland to booster my flagging spirits, hope they will cover ome information on this.  And thinking I might get my digging boots on next week 

[Stevens706]

This year I made up some garlic spray and used it on the Swedes when they were getting attached, seem to have worked as they recovered. Just Google for homemade garlic spray and you will get the recipe.

[potatogrower]

i have my patch in my garden so i think plenty of manure is good idea. lucky you have a small patch i have 4ft by 35ft and need plenty of it.

just out of curiousity does anyone buy the commercial manure you get from garden centres? i buy the 3 yellow bags for £7 (picture of a horse), its horse manure with mushroom compost, any good?

[paintedlady]

its horse manure with mushroom compost, any good?

perfectly fine.  From personal experience, spent mushroom compost is brilliant on heavy clay, but I understand it is also good at providing lots of trace nutrients normally absent in sandy soil.  The mix of horse manure and mushroom compost sounds ideal.

One thing I did find is that some potato varieties grown in soil with mushroom compost were a bit scabby - this is because a little bit of lime is added to the compost.  I'm not sure how this would work with the horse manure but perhaps it will have a diluted effect?

[Babstreefern]

I must admit, I don't use manure straight from the farmyard, I too buy a couple of bags from the garden centre, a bit expensive I know, but I only put it on my asparagus and rhubarb beds.