[AlaninCarlisle]

My other "never again" is to never again start seeds off in February in the heated propagator. By the end of March I had a greenhouse full of healthy young plants (tomatoes in particular). The cold April and May meant my time and energy were wasted

[Mrs Bee]

My other "never again" is to never again start seeds off in February in the heated propagator. By the end of March I had a greenhouse full of healthy young plants (tomatoes in particular). The cold April and May meant my time and energy were wasted

Oh, yes that one is on my list too

[AlaninCarlisle]

I bet we will forget all about that resolution by next spring. As usual, we'll be so fed up with winter that we'll take a chance on it once the sun shines:)

[gremlin]

.....will I order everything from the Autumn seed catalogue that looks interesting, different or fun. If I sowed everything I bought, plus what I have saved unused from last year, I would need a farm, not an allotment
 
But seed catalogues are such fun , aren't they?

[Madame Cholet]

beter than lots of novels i'm hooked with the online ones.

[Lulu]

every year I think or even say out loud I will not grow so many beans - bumper harvest so far this year!!! . Next year I will also only grow 2 courgette plants at the most -  bumper crop of them as well 

ah well 

[Madame Cholet]

every year I think or even say out loud I will not grow so many beans - bumper harvest so far this year!!! . Next year I will also only grow 2 courgette plants at the most -  bumper crop of them as well 

ah well 

mine 4 are only producing 2 aweek so far glutts are good unless you need the room for something else

[Kirpi]

another never will be never to grow beans in the sweetcorn bed again - they seem to have climbed the sweetcorn stalks and prevented the pollen from falling onto the cob silks so my cobs have not been pollinated.

[angelavdavis]

This years never again will be not to plant all my old bits of tomato seed packets.  I must have had 300 plants germinate!  I am just not ruthless enough, grew on probably half of these and gave them to the children's nursery, plant sale, etc but actually I should have been tough and got rid of them!

[sunshineband]

I will never again nurture aubergine plants from seed, only to find that despite vast loving care I have one fruit, and that had a slug scrape on it 

[Madame Cholet]

peppers are a waste of time outside here.

[lazza]

I'm sure I'll go back on these resolutions, but at the moment:

- no more potatoes: despite my best efforts to grow them in bags, keeping them fed and watered, I still got a really poor yield. I try to grow unusual varieties (which may be the problem, I guess) as "normal" spuds are just too cheap to warrant taking up space.

- no more courgettes: 3rd year running I have got nothing from my plants    I get loads of foliage and male flowers, and a good number of female buds which just drop off.

- forget carrots: I said this last year because I suffered from carrot fly, but I still tried again...and although I have avoided pests this year by nailing my pots half way up a fence, the results are still disappointing - small carrots which took a long time to form and which are rather bitter

- onions: take up too much room (and this year have mostly rotted) and just not worth the space when they cost so little.

What I will be expanding next year:

- peppers and chillis seem to work wonderfully in our little lean-to and cold frame, so I'm looking to expand on the varieties I grow.

- tomatoes: might give some of the heritage varieties a miss as they haven't been very productive so far, but will stick with the good ones (alicante, gardener's delight, golden sunrise) and add some more (suggestions welcome!)

[Springlands]

I'm sure I'll go back on these resolutions, but at the moment:


- tomatoes: might give some of the heritage varieties a miss as they haven't been very productive so far, but will stick with the good ones (alicante, gardener's delight, golden sunrise) and add some more (suggestions welcome!)

JayG's tomato popularity pole might help you decide on which tomatoes to try next year - I have attached the link below.

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?board=51.0

[DD.]

If you do look at the poll, please bear in mind that the results took a few of us that have grown many different varieties of tomatoes of many years, by surprise. We suspect that a lot of members taking part in the poll had not previously grown many varieties to compare them with.

Look for instance at where "Moneymaker" is placed in the poll. OK, better than most supermarket varieties, but better than a lot of those below it? Surely not.

[GrannieAnnie]

Moneymaker is the top of Brian's poll!     He prefers 'ordinary' tomatoes to the ones I like!

I don't usually grow potatoes any more, because they are so cheap up here, especially when Tony down the road brings us a 25kg bag several times a year! lol

I don't bother with onions any more for the same reason, but I still grow shallots for pickling.

Next year I will again try some of my aubergines outside, as my 9 plants in the greenhouse have produced lots of flowers but no fruit.

I will stick to 3 courgette plants, as I am freezing them chopped up in bags for soups etc over the winter.

And I will make sure Brian takes all his wood, table saw and other bits out of my polytunnel so I can get more of my tomatoes in there again! I had more toms outside this year, but they don't do as well as the indoor ones, and I want to give my roma and inca more room to spread out!