[scabs]

Cauliflower (disaster)

Tomato Paul Robeson (big disappointment, lovely fruit but very watery)

[JayG]

Any "cut and come again" salad leaf mix which includes the words "spicy" or "oriental".

Seem to contain more than their fair share of mustardy, brassica-ry varieties which are either attacked by the sky-rats or go straight to seed without producing any edible leaves worth mentioning.

[goodegg]

growing less beans to many this year but filling the compost bin with them hope they make good compost not growing artichoke globe grew to about eight feet overnight gales flattened the lot good crops of peas kelvedon wonder still picking cabbage very good in raised bed covered with netting .collies covered witth netting till weeds grew so cabbage whites can get to roots and doing fine. less onions ,kohl rabi not sure yet. definately more spuds,home guard more beetroot boltardy. no more dwarf beans to much for the back

[Kristen]

Interesting discussion - "different strokes for different folks" of course.

Runners are out here (sorry runner-lovers!). Have to pick very often to keep them "small" and more preparation than climbing French beans. Whilst we want fresh produce and no stocking ready-meals, we both work ...

Summer Cabbage - what was I thinking?  Lots of veg at that time, and we had no desire for Cabbage.

My biggest thing for next year is to improve on timing.  Lots of planned sowings didn't happen on time and were a couple of weeks late, and that mucked up the continuity.

Too much too early on, not enough during the entertaining season! Our Sweetcorn was finished by beginning of August, need some later sowings next year (I thought Sweetcorn struggled to get done in an English Summer - not so "Swift F1")

We've struggled with Lettuce.  A whole one goes mostly to waste (and the rest of the row go straight to waste ), but picking a couple of leaves first thing in the morning to make a sarnie for work doesn't happen in practice (its not far to the veg patch ... BUT!)

My DW says I should grow the lettuce in pots - "Like the Supermarket do" - I have resisted, but maybe that's the answer?

Surprising we've had too many early spuds.  But I have a record of how many plants we used, so will aim for that next year. I will successional-plant the First Earlies to have "new" potatoes for longer.

[Elaine G]

Interesting comment re the sweetcorn Kristen.
I held back half of mine and sowed/planted out a month later. They caught up with the first lot and seem to be all ready about the same time!
No fooling these plants
Elaine

[Kristen]

I held back half of mine and sowed/planted out a month later. They caught up with the first lot and seem to be all ready about the same time!

I grew some in the greenhouse, and two batches outside. The early batch was much shorter than the later batch:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=41968.msg494905#msg494905

[Simalot]

We have been very fortunate in our very first year on the allotment and have had success with almost everything. It really has been a great experience. Not only has it been very rewarding but the allotment has saved us an awful lot of money on fruit and veg. However, next year I think we will probably aim to grow runner beans instead of french beans, definitely more sweetcorn but less courgettes. Even though we had a huge crop of main crop potatoes, these took up a lot of space so we will probably just grow first and second earlies next year. We won't be growing turnips even though we had a decent crop as nearly all the roots had some kind of insect damage. The peas were the only crop which we didn't have any success with mainly due to damage from pigeons so we probably wont bother with them next year.

[farmersue]

I'm def giving up on pak-choi. I've tried it for 2 years and not had one to eat - they all look fine until i turn my back - then they bolt.
Patty Pan courgette is another no no for me next year. Huge plant, taking up loads of room, flowering like mad but the fruits rot and fall off before they reach an edible size.
Nearly didn't bother with outdoor toms this year as lost them all to blight last year, but so far i've been lucky and have had quite a lot.
Jury is out on butternut squash - last year managed about 3 fruit from 3 plants, this year looks as though i'll be lucky to get two weeny ones from about 6 plants which have taken up LOADS of room. But i really love butternut and they were my late partner's favourite veg.......
Not sure about cabbages and calabrese - they seem to take up a lot of room for actually fairly small yield. I like cut and come again crops like runners!
Reading back through all of the above, i've decided i'm being ridiculously hard to please! 

[farmersue]

Oh and my red onions aren't keeping at all well so might try a white type instead  next year as i've heard they keep better.  Although the red ones have been fab - i didn't realise how even onions can taste so much nicer when you've grown them yourself! 

[Quetzal]

wow at everyone dropping the french beans. We're going to try to take on a second half-plot, mainly because I want to grow more types and more volume of the french beans. (This year we've grown cherokee/trail of tears and love it - great volumes despite the plants being very weak to begin with)

But kohl rabi is out next year - we haven't found anything to do with it really, and we need to find an easier way of growing cabbage (we use debris netting, coffee grounds and beer traps, but cleaning the traps out is beyond disgusting) if it's going to stay around.

Carrots are a maybe - they're a pain to keep free of carrot fly, and tbh, this year they've not been that tasty.

But really, more of EVERYTHING.

[Kagganz]

Won't be growing Red Cherry tomatoes, loads of them but too tart for me.  No mini pop sweetcorn either, take up too much space for little reward.

Will deffo grow butternut squash again, I have three of them and at least 3 squash on each already,  I was worried about them because of them taking up space and not producing but they've been brill.


XXX

[Faz]

No turnips - in fact I have given my seed away.
No beetroot - we haven't finished last years pickled beetroot yet and this year we gave most of what we grew away to friends
I am considering only growing tasty varieties of spuds for salads rather than a proper maincrop as they take up a lot of room and spuds are pretty cheap in the shops
Only some broccoli from the brassicas next year too. We have had such problems with caterpillars on the cabbages that I can't be fussed next year, and they take up a lot of room too. Our calabrese grew a head about the sizer of a 50p then bolted so thats probably a gonner too!


And next year I won't be growing my sweetcorn and courgettes together - I haven't had a single courgette so far!

Edited to add some more stuff - the joys of having a brain like a sieve!

[titch]

no lettuce - only three of us eat it and not in quantity, so they all went to ...................(insert your own choice of word here  )

[DD.]

Marrows.

On what the heck - I end up with them every year anyway!

[Parsnip]

Marrows.

On what the heck - I end up with them every year anyway!

I don't like marrow, neither does my plot neighbour. But she grows them anyway and can't give them away...