[diospyros]

On my plot, potatoes, garlic and broad beans are doing extremely well, also rocket and radish.  However shallot seeds, brassicas and parsnips were an almost total fail.  From two packets of pot marigold seeds sown in various places round the plot I have three plants. 

Some of my neighbours practice "fortress growing" where every seed or plant is protected by some sort of structure with fleece, net, plastic, containers, slug pellets, fence etc.  It seems an awful lot of hassle, looks horrible, generates amounts of non-recyclable waste, and seems to me must inhibit predators.  Before, I grew veg in my back garden and didn't have many problems with pests.  Maybe growing as part of huge block of similar habitat, pests inevitably become more of a problem.

Also I have limited time and am not very good at looking after seeds or young plants at home, I can do a bit of this but the slugs have been even worse here than up the plot.  I have this idyllic dream of a plot where there is enough biomass that everything lives in harmony and balance.  I'm not giving up yet.  I'm leaning towards growing quite a bit of perennials/fruit (will accept the need to net this temporarily) but this takes time to establish.

So what, in your experience, are the most pest-proof crops to just "sow and go"?

[Ma Lowe]

I have just read about a fella Terry Walton in Wales who has had his allotment for over 50 yrs and he was saying that years ago there was no need for netting or barriers, pellets and some sprays you just grew things and had little damage but everything has changed and the need for netting etc is mandatory for some things like brassicas. There are natural remedies you can use but wether they actually work is something I want to find out. I am afraid that today's allotments are a never ending battle between us and the pests and also the weeds. It may have something to do with the climate control as our weather is changing we are seeing lots and lots more pests.

[Headgardener22]

I find that most things manage to grow without much protection, it all depends what you're prepared to accept in terms of quality.

The exception is brassicas which (whilst young) need protecting from the birds.

Most pest proof? Sweetcorn for me.

I grow both at the allotment and at home and a major difference I've found is "frequency". In the garden, I'm there most days and can catch problems early. The allotment is half an hour away so I tend to go for a few hours once or twice a week so problems will have multiplied by the time I get to see them.

[dugless]

Wood pigeons are my problem they do not seem to bother leeks onions carrots broad and runner beans though.

[Natasha]

We've just got an allotment after lots of veg growing at home and we are having to adapt to an entirely different set of pests.  Never had crows dig up my seed potatoes in the veg garden, for example - we've had to fleece the small plants at the lottie.  After about six inches big and bushing out, they seem to be safe.

Onions, shallots and garlic have been sampled but not liked, so they're fine.  Same with beetroot and celeriac - a couple of plants have been chewed (slugs?) or nipped cleanly out and left on the ground,   but no further damage.  Red mustard, rocket and mizuna have made it through as well. These are all quite peppery so maybe nothing likes the taste.  I have some red-leaved lettuce to take up, which I hear is disliked by slugs. 

Don't know about brassicas yet.  They are not touched by pigeons in our garden, but the allotment may be very different! I've got baby turnips, cabbage, swede and kale to put in, and also some Shiraz peas (hoping that purple mangetouts may confuse the resident  pests just long enough that we get them first).

Fingers crossed...!

Natasha

[Nobbie]

We have rabbits all around our site, and without good fencing they will eat most things, even rhubarb leaves and what they don't eat, they'll dig up, such as a bed of strawberries I carefully planted out. Sweetcorn will be eaten to the ground and if it survives to crop, then the badgers will eat the cobs. Good fences make for happy neighbours . Also need nets over the top of brassica for the pigeons. Once you know what your up against it's ok.

[Mattgregory27]

Its the destructive pigeons on my plot that are the worst thing for me. They seem to destroy everything they can get at!!!

[loafboy]

I protect brassicas and strawberry but that's all everything else seems to fine

[Lardman]

I haven't found anything I can grow here without either a physical barrier or chemical control and I think I've just about tried most things, I have every pest you can think of from slugs to muntjacs.

[RJR_38]

I haven't found anything I can grow here without either a physical barrier or chemical control and I think I've just about tried most things, I have every pest you can think of from slugs to muntjacs.

Snap! Last year I caught a squirrel eating my prize squash I was going to pick that day I also have deer, oats and lots of birds (I border a woodland), cabbage whites, badgers, slugs, ducks and now it seems pea weevil as well!

[heygrow]

I have just read about a fella Terry Walton in Wales who has had his allotment for overurbanisation he was saying that years ago there was no need for netting or barriers, pellets and some sprays you just grew things and had little damage but everything has changed and the need for netting etc is mandatory for some things like brassicas. There are natural remedies you can use but wether they actually work is something I want to find out. I am afraid that today's allotments are a never ending battle between us and the pests and also the weeds. It may have something to do with the climate control as our weather is changing we are seeing lots and lots more pests.

So why did they not have problems with cabbage whites, pigeons, slugs etc? Surely there were plenty of these around years ago, or was there more vegitation and less ubanisation so that there was more options for the pests to feast on rather that allotments?
what do you think?

[Beetroot Queen]

No protection on any fruit from currants to strawberries but veg forget it.  bring on the barriers

[Ivor Backache]

The problems were just the same. They just used soot, Jeyes fluid, a mixture of pesticides and one I remember was bromo something for carrot root fly. When I started gardening there were a lot of different chemicals on offer. They are all banned now for gardeners.

[JayG]

Some common 'enemies' these days were much rarer 50 years ago when I first started helping my mum to grow veg (wood pigeons probably, muntjacs certainly!)

For many years we also puffed and sprayed merrily away at anything that looked even vaguely threatening with a veritable arsenal of chemical products, almost all of which are now banned, and some of which sounded a bit alarming even then - for instance, gamma-BHC sounds like something from a 50's sci-fi movie which could result in you growing two green heads each with its own wibbly-wobbly antennae, and for all I know it did. 

Non-organic commercial growers still have access to very potent chemical pesticides and herbicides, which is why many home growers are happy to try to manage without them (not entirely happy of course, but hopefully you know what I mean.)

[dugless]

The problems were just the same. They just used soot, Jeyes fluid, a mixture of pesticides and one I remember was bromo something for carrot root fly. When I started gardening there were a lot of different chemicals on offer. They are all banned now for gardeners.

I remember a successful  product that was produced in Belper  before the EU cannot remember exactly  what it did but he had to have it tested to be accepted by the EU the cost ran into thousands  so he stopped making it.