[beesrus]

I grow many of my runner beans to eat in the way you would eat broad beans, without the pods. They are also very pretty and iconic plants that make me happy watching them grow.
Am thinking of not growing strawberries as I don't have much luck with them. Raspberries are available and a whole lot easier.
Don't much care for eating aubergines, thick skinned tubs of nothingness, and don't like that Greek dish that uses them. So none of them in my greenhouse and also no asparagus growing as they remind me of thrown together 1970s pub meals and Berni Inns.
Am going to steer clear of beefsteak tomatoes next year, texture and taste of cardboard, and look gross.
I am sticking with garlic for another year even though I actually quite like the shop "lazy garlics".

Apart from lovely butternuts that I will grow for ever, I find myself falling out of love with squashes/cucurbits, so no pumpkins with silly faces.

[colin120]

Potatoes never works out for me

[Headgardener22]

Am going to steer clear of beefsteak tomatoes next year, texture and taste of cardboard, and look gross.

Which did you grow? If you choose the right ones, Summer Cider & Marvel Stripes for example, I think you will find they give the best flavours, much better than ones like Costoluto Fiorentino. However, you do have to let them ripen, I'm only just beginning to pick my beefsteaks and will probably go on until early November.

[beesrus]

Which [beefsteak toms] did you grow? If you choose the right ones, Summer Cider & Marvel Stripes for example, I think you will find they give the best flavours, much better than ones like Costoluto Fiorentino. However, you do have to let them ripen, I'm only just beginning to pick my beefsteaks and will probably go on until early November.

I've noted those varieties you've mentioned. You're right re the fruition period and that's probably part of the problem, as I have an attention span problem when it comes to tomatoes, given that they take so much effort to get up and running in the first place. I want those that do it easily and quickly, as disease is always just a week away with the late season slow burners. I'm happy to let the months go by, waiting for my PSB, parsnips or Brussels, but they're more resilient and suited to the task. I guess tomatoes taking an age to blush doesn't make sense to me.

[kirpi]

1. I'll be avoiding large tomatoes next year as the longer ripening time leaves them open to attack by caterpillars, slugs and blight. We do prefer cherry toms anyway.
2. Sweetcorn will be grown on its own next year and none of this three Sisters nonsense because the leaves from the squashes and bean vines prevent a full pollination through the sweetcorn stand and I'm pretty sure the hungry sweetcorn are in competition with the other plants and suffer for it. I will still grow a squash at each end but make sure the vines ramble along the sides of the bed rather than through it. No beans though.
3. No swedes until much later in the year - its a winter vegetable.
4. No ground planted strawberries - they will be grown in hanging baskets, troughs and guttering on wall brackets where slugs can be controlled and the fruits can hang over and ripen better and cleaner.

[BabbyAnn]

2. Sweetcorn will be grown on its own next year and none of this three Sisters nonsense because the leaves from the squashes and bean vines prevent a full pollination through the sweetcorn stand and I'm pretty sure the hungry sweetcorn are in competition with the other plants and suffer for it. I will still grow a squash at each end but make sure the vines ramble along the sides of the bed rather than through it. No beans though.

The 3 Sisters idea was poached from Native American cultivation but on a field size not a single bed in the garden.  The corn was spaced well apart to give ground growing squashes plenty of light and avoid the need to climb up, and all 3 different plants died off and then harvested for storing dried crops over winter (corn to make bread, not freshly picked supersweet sweetcorn like we prefer, and beans not green beans) which is why the 3 sisters approach would never really work the same without some modification   

cor, bit of a doom and  gloom, thread,
my first year with an allotment, grown everything and too much,
loved it all, looking forward to next year.

Well done on your first year Sam    You might find that each year the weather presents different problems and gradually you learn from experience which do best in your location and what is worth growing and what are too much effort given the end result.  I don't think this thread is about doom and gloom but just the opinions of various gardeners who have found certain crops have not turned out as expected - some of it is down to inexperience, some of it is the soil type (my brassica crops on heavy clay this year have done exceptionally well but those with sandy soil might say otherwise), some are down to choosing varieties best suited to your plot.  And then there's always those new weird and wonderful crops that appear on television or in seed catalogues that look interesting and become a must have but then are not as great as they look. 

[surbie100]

I don't think this thread is about doom and gloom but just the opinions of various gardeners who have found certain crops have not turned out as expected - some of it is down to inexperience, some of it is the soil type (my brassica crops on heavy clay this year have done exceptionally well but those with sandy soil might say otherwise), some are down to choosing varieties best suited to your plot.  And then there's always those new weird and wonderful crops that appear on television or in seed catalogues that look interesting and become a must have but then are not as great as they look.

Very good point. On that note, I am adding salsola and chervil roots to the veggie Room 101!

On the other hand achocha is a complete hit and will now be a regular thing. Am hoping oca will turn out to be the same. 

[New shoot]

Very good point. On that note, I am adding salsola and chervil roots to the veggie Room 101!

Did you get the salsola growing in the end ?

Mine is doing well, but its very slow growing.  Its a crunchy, sweet texture, like some of the oriental greens, but they are fast and you get so much more crop, I am dropping the salsola and going back to more of these next year.

I always assume only about 50% of anything new I try will make the cut the following year, but the successes are worth it 

[Kristen]

I don't think this thread is about doom and gloom but just the opinions of various gardeners who have found certain crops have not turned out as expected

Seconded   I am happy to report that 99% (well ... some high number at least!) of everything I grew in the veg patch was productive and turned out as I expect.

That tends not to make the news headlines though, whereas "Blight" and "Grew new fangled thing X and it was a disaster" are often mentioned and talked about

I'm slow to adopt new-fangled - Cucamelons and Tomtatos had much hype at the start of this year, I need to hear people championing them for a year or two before I want to have a go, so I find these "what not to grow" threads informative.

But, as the old saying goes, "Ask two gardeners and get three opinions"

[Kristen]

I always assume only about 50% of anything new I try will make the cut the following year, but the successes are worth it 

I think 50% is an incredible strike rate, well done! We grow perhaps 10 new varieties a year, alongside Old Favourites by way of comparison.  I doubt there are many years where we adopt more than one.  (Although in fairness some are judged a dead heat [i.e. in one of our Taste Tests], and we then stick with the old favourite)

[AnneB]

Perhaps I was late getting them out but my first go at achochas and tomatillos is yet to be called a success.   The tomatillos are covered in flowers, but nothing to eat yet.  I have had one achocha, with 2 more nearly the right size and lots of small buds so far.   Not enough for me by mid September.   So will try and set them off earlier next year.

My aubergines have produced lots of flowers that turned to fruit, all of which rotted off.   Possibly my fault for squeezing too many things into too small a space.  So I will give them yet another last chance next year.

I have actually managed to produce a celeriac this year, it's still growing.   I say one, as the other ones sown from a packet free with a magazine turned out to be celery.  However, they're doing better than the celery I planted intentionally, which is this year's disaster.   Only about 5" high. 

On the other hand kohlrabi a great success (Purple Azur).   I grow fennel, and I like it, but I might not bother again as I am the only one that does at home unless I disguise it in ratatouille.

I also tried salsola this year.   I have 12 small twigs, very slow growing.   Might not repeat that.

[Kristen]

I want to grow fewer slugs next year - they have been a disastrously successful crop this year

[ptarmigan]

Slugs - yes, quite.

I do try and give things a couple of years before booting them out completely.  For example my first year the PSB was fantastic and so I eagerly planted lots the next year and they were a complete disaster. If that had been my first year I'd have probably never tried them again.  This year all the brassicas (apart from some sad CWB attacked sprouts) have been brilliant. 

Same with French beans - for some reason this year hasn't been particularly prolific - last year was fantastic. 

[Comfr3y]

Almost noone grows tomatoes in our allotment anymore because its disease central, luckily I have a small garden. shame really, I've never really looked into why it's so bad maybe because its relatively small (45 plots) and surrounded by trees.

[Headgardener22]

Horseradish. How does one get rid of it? I planted some three years ago and have tried to dig it up every year since but its getting larger and more invasive!