Topic: What's going right?

[terrace max]

Cheer me up!

Elsewhere on this forum we've got dismal leeks, broad beans with no beans inside, stunted aubergines, bolting onions...

I lost all my cucumbers, courgettes and french beans to frost this week...

Anything going well out there? Apart from radishes??

[honeybee]

Well i am a newbie to sprouts and sweetcorn and although i think ive planted them a bit too close together and i dont know what effect that will have on them, they are looking good so far  ;)  *ssshhhh*

[wivvles]

Cheer me up!

Elsewhere on this forum we've got dismal leeks, broad beans with no beans inside, stunted aubergines, bolting onions...

I lost all my cucumbers, courgettes and french beans to frost this week...

Anything going well out there? Apart from radishes??

I'm not saying - I don't want to tempt fate!  I'll get down there tonight and find out that all my onions have died or something!

DOH!

[aquilegia]

No no no. I'll tell you and my one and only successful crop will suddenly get white rot, even though it's not an allium, or something.

I've had some pretty big and tasty radishes (as long as you cut off the slug nibbles and ignore the flea beetled-leaves.

I have stunted peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, (the ones that the slugs have left me), lost half my courgettes and butternuts and all my patty pans to slugs, ditto the dwarf french beans, the other french beans are stunted (learn patience!) my leeks are scranny, my carrots have mostly been eaten by slugs, the parsnips seem to have failed.

But there are at least (so far) only to problems - my impatience and slugs. I can probably do more about the latter than the former!

edit - how could I forget - my autumn sown broad beans are delicious. Hope the rest on the plants are still ok.

[jammyd]

Hi all, I've had a bit of a below average start to the year too - the only things that are doing really well are the fruits. Will have plenty of Blackcurrants, Raspberries and Loganberries! Oh, and the taters are doing nicely now they've recovered from frostbite  ;D

[FloBen]

Hello,

this is our first year allotmenting, so we're trying lots of things out - some look like they've worked, others don't. Successes so far are:
radishes
rocket
Broad Beans - I really can't believe how tastey these are - raw from the pod or boiled for a minute or two - lovely
Jerusalem artichokes look like they're growing well, as do the potatoes

Not so sure about the parsnips, leeks, french and runner beans etc, but so far anything that's grown/been harvested has provided so much excitment it's made up for the dissapointments and we're really enjoing just being out on the plot!

flo x

[Plottie]

Well.....earlier this week we harvested a bumper crop of autumn planted garlic and I am SO made up as it's our first year at this allotmenteering lark....and....my new goosegog bushes (8 of them all planted this spring) have produced(between them) about 12 berries.....oh yes and we've had a lovely crop of spring cabbage, so all in all I'm a happy plotter!
 ;D ;D

[terrace max]

Good work you lot! Feel better already...

I must say I've learnt a lot more this year when the going has been harder than last year when it was easy. But now I'd like to stop learning and start eating.

BTW FloBen - I agree about broad beans but don't eat too many raw ones - I heard they're a bit toxic...

[aquilegia]

that's the thing terrence - you always learn more when things go wrong. and there always something else to blame. This is my third year of serious gardening and my third year of growing tomatoes from seed.

year 1 - everything went fairly well. I learnt - don't put three tomato plants in a 12 in pot!

year 2 - lost virtually everything to blight. I blame the weather.

year 3 - potted everything on too early and it's all got stunted. lesson - be more patient/lazy and let things grow a bit first.

[moonbells]

carrots.

Three rows: early nantes, autumn king 1 and autumn king 2. Sowed March, early May and late May. All in deep compost drills.
Bout the only thing...

cabbages - fleece blew off and pigeons got them
broccoli - again failed to germinate or thrive
sweetcorn - germination problems
Beans - likewise - had to resort to chitting
spuds - frosted after fleece blew off
beetroot - poor germination
summer onions - sorry looking
garlic - bit small compared to everyone else's
courgettes -  all I can say is better than last year!

moonbells

[clairenpaul]

Daren't speak too soon as we've not actually grown anything we can eat yet! A couple of days ago someone said how healthy our squashes looked - fatal, we went last night and despite keeping them watered well 2 were looking very sad  :(.

Next year we'll have to be a bit more patient - I think we've planted everything too early. Still with a bit of luck there should be something edible before long  :)

[FloBen]

oh dear, thanks for the warning! will lay off the raw beans a bit....

[Marianne]

Well, second lot of radishes are in, waiting for them to germinate.  ::)

Lettuces looking marvellous, fingers crossed.  :)
Parsley looking good.  ;)
Coriander is nice too.  ;)
Broad beans are coming up but started being attacked by snails -----> got out the blue pellets and snails now deceased.   ;)
Onion (note the singular as doggy has eaten the rest !  ;D) doing OK

I just hope they can reach their due date and be picked safe and sound !  ;D

[Svea]

lol marianne ;D

things doing well: actually, i have been lucky, and most things are doing well. problems with germination of spinach (i think i wont try any more - 4 attempts have resulted in 3 plants!), two of my brassicas looked like they have had their stem severed by slugs/ants/other critters -> replaced but will they be ok? some grey aphids also on the brassicas. plenty of flea bettle on the rocket but then i sowed too much anyways :). parsnips slow and erratic germination. one squash looking a bit pale and something had nibbled on the stem (i suspect slugs). some blue pellets later it seems to prk up again.

but: second (indoor) sowings of cucs and squashes seems to have failed - why did we have a problem germinating squashes this year? oh, and french beans too - but i have enough plants up now to hopefully keep me in beans for the season  - lol :D
fingers crossed all round :)

svea

[beejay]

We're doing well on bindweed.................. No really the fruit is looking excellent tho' not as many goosegobs as last year. I hope I'm not tempting fate but the blackberries (Helen) are going to be brill. The broad beans have been spot on. Nearly finished harvesting & only a tiny bit of blackfly. I eat lots of raw ones - but perhaps that explains alot! Otherwise will just have to wait & see. Have learnt that you just never know.

[Marianne]

Tonight, was sat on the patio, as you do, with a glass of delectable Shiraz and noticed this black stuff on my broad beans!  :o ::)

Ran to the plant to inspect and saw ants walking up and down the plant to milk those d**n blackfly. :o

Ran into kitchen to collect a squeezer full of warm water and fingered the broad beans !  8)

Glad to report all blackfly (and ants) now defunct  :P ;).

Must remember to keep an  eye on BBs.  ;D

[Debs]

Won't say anything about my crops so far - you lot might be the

kiss of death ;D

Debs