Topic: successes and failures

[calendula]

I am always interested in the national differences or similarities of successes and even more so in failures of fruit and/or veg

This year I cannot get bulb fennel to germinate well; 2 sowings of parsnips yielded just a few plants (not too uncommon I know); for some reason coriander has been dreadful; swede has been a no show (but might try another late sowing) and calabrese took 2 sowings to get a good yield.

What have been your unusual failings so far and would you name your location  :)

PS I am in the north west

[saddad]

Direct sown Parsnips and Carrots as usual... out in the rain last night resowing the rows..  :-\

[davyw1]

I live in the North east and we have the coldest allotments in England, so far every thing has been a success, had a few misses with carrots but some more seeds were sown, other than that all i have planted has come well.

[posie]

Don't know about unusual failings, but so far this year, I've had no luck with 3 sowings of carrots and parsnips been a bit dodgy too. Broad beans attacked by slugs and black fly.  Everything else seems to be getting there though.  I'm in South East Wales.

[Georgie]

Here in Enfield, North London, my Coriander is also struggling, the Basil is slow and I still don't have any pods on my broadies.  Other than that every thing else seems to be thriving.

G x

[betula]

My plot is in Meriden .Our claim to fame is we are the exact centre of England.
Potatoes,lost quite a few first earlies,literally no potatoes under the ground.Harvested some and they were very nice.Arron Pilot?something like that.

My PFA seem OK,Main crop forget the name seems OK.These are in a raised bed.

Garlic seems to be doing well.

Broad beans covered in black fly and not had the time to try and sort out,so no joy there.

Runner beans looking sad,still alive but disappointing after a brilliant run last year.

Carrots slow to germinate but on the way now,

Cucumber,yay one full size,lots of little Babbie's.

Tumbling toms all doing OK.

JA OK

Courgettes OK but small.

Butternut squash still waiting for something to happen.

Onions disappeared after lots of rain,badly drained bed.Really fed up about that as did well last year.

Beetroot and radish coming on,had aproblem earlier with something rooting round the bed.

Roses clematis and sweet pea all looking OK.

Everything this season has seemed hard to get going........ :)

[jonny211]

Early Swift potatoes suffered a slight blackening due to frost. Also some plants were stripped of their top growth by slugs and came to nothing, and some never broke the surface at all. Not sure if I'll do first earlies that early again!

Resowed carrots as first two rows failed due to snow/frost. After that new rows were fine.

Peas grew too tall above their netting and were blown over and broken by high winds in June(!!??).

Onions are quite small as some were planted late (as sets). We also have had a bad attack of Downy Mildew on onions, all plots seem to have it.

Courgettes in greenhouse rotted on the plant.

I'm in Newbury, down saaarf.

[littlebabybird]

my first year and I'm in sunny surrey
successes 
 okra yay loads of it (i had never tried it before and um i dont like it)
 courgettes  like these but i think one plant would have done instead of the 6 i have lol
 peas result :) :) very happy
 spinach (needed to grow a lot more)
 garlic
asparagus  (hmm i didnt plant it, does that make it a weed, it just appeared in the sweetcorn bed)
tomatoes have tonnes of baby fruit on them
 potatoes well i hope they are ok the tops look great
beetroots  white ones and striped ones


failiures

radishes full of little yucky worm things
sweetcorn hmm just didnt grow
beans grew then stopped then died
purple wight garlic  i grew 9 different sorts and they were all brilliand except this one hat went mushy after it was lifted
cuecumbers  loads of flowers but they are all boys :(
sunflowers they are tiny aout 2 ft tall and small heads meant to be giants
brassicas what the birds  didnt have the slugs finished off
carrots cant find them ditto
parsnips

lbb

[joie]

here up in "sunny warm dry" durham (ha ha) we`ve lost three sowings of runner beans. Yet the board beans have been an over whelming success. Shame none of like them
joie

[Chris Graham]

Here in Stirling its been so far so good.

Greenhouse-
Loads of tomatoes in the greenhouse with some beginning to ripen.
Many sweet peppers setting have around 10 so far.

Outside-
Runner beans now flowering and looking strong
Been lifting potatoes since start of June and have hundreds all from buckets
Plot potatoes look great Kestrel and Arron Pilot should be ready in a month or two.
Beetroot so far every year has been a failure due to being attacked by mangold fly.
Peas, amazing!
Carrots are a bit slow, lifted a purple one but didn't taste that great.
Little Gems are doing really well had one and its the best yet.
Broad Beans doing well, slow to start but not as many pods setting as I would have hoped.
Tomato Tumblers (Red) doing really well but the yellow ones seem slow.

Chris

[Crystalmoon]

Hi Im in Kent & its my first year & Im a total novice so my losses/failures may be down to ignorance LOL

Failures - carrots lots of sowings direct on plot germinated badly so gave up & sown in tubs which are doing ok. Spinach & chard direct sowings stripped by pigeons! Sown again in pots kept at home & doing great. Nasturtiums swamped by black fly so had to discard. Blackfly also murdered my Globe artichoke.
Spring onions sown direct failed but ok in pots. Leeks have been very disappointing, lost loads in the bad weather.

Success - courgettes, sugar snap peas, strawberries (even though it was their 1st year loads of fruit), my coriander has been amazing (Basil slow), all the different lettuces & other salad leaves have been great, potatoes are scrummy with about 10 per plant (I have been lifting them quite early), radish grew huge, cylindrical beetroot (yellow variety) growing really well & have been using the foilage like chard.

Have just transplanted butternut & summer squash so not sure how they will do. Sweetcorn seems to be doing fine as are the cabbages.

[keef]

Carrots hav'nt germinated very well, maybe 50%.

Outdoor tomatos dont like the wind, very yellow.

Spuds are excellant so far, even though a late frost burnt them a bit.

Managed to get a full row of peas for the first time in a few years, although the winds been giving them a hard time.

No white rot on onions or shallots yet - thouch wood.

More importantly the number of weeds is noticably down on last year.. ;D

I'm in West Berks.

[calendula]

when we look at our failures we can often tell why it has happened - soil not good enough, the weather, bad timing, pests and disease etc but sometimes failures are inexplicable - they are the ones that irritate me, when you think you've done everything right  ::)

[gonz]

We are in Liverpool and like crystalmoon are trying our first year.

Failures:  Peas, got about 6 pods from lots of plants, then they died!  lost more than half of my Dwarf green beans , caulis were attacked by something (havent a clue what), my turnips were eaten by birds and my spring onions are very scarce.

Successes:  Loads of raspberrys & strawberry's starting to ripen, monstrous broad beans, good sweetcorn, huge pak choi, most of my cabbage, sprouts, kale and other caulis are doing fine (so far so good), sweet peas, potatoes look good but havent tried any yet and carrots seem to be a bit hit and miss, but generally ok.

Quite pleased with our first attempts but have learned a lot for next year so hopefully we wont make as many mistakes (bet we do though!!).

[caroline7758]

It's a bit early to say yet, but my French beans ans sweetcorn are looking pretty weedy. Although I've had my first cucumbers ever, I lost most of them, and i think some of my toms have got a virus.

On the positive side I've had some lovely early spuds, the brassicas are all looking good, the courgettes and pumpkins are just starting to swell, and I'm going to get some carrots this year!

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

tall peas (Telephon) very poor. 3 germinated from the first packet. Second packet germination about 20%. Normal peas are great - on third sowing

carrot in ground under cover very poor germination. In pots starting in Jan, great, though just got a tiny amount of carrot fly (4ft off ground)

climbing beans in tubs at home - great. First beans today!

tomatoes - too early to say. Complete failure last year

squashes romping away like mad, which is good because i've 24 plants. Near total failure last year

new turnip this year - very poor. Enormous leaves, gone to seed

fennel - just going to seed now (as usual)> Still time to sow more

beans and potatoes all good

more pests and disease this year I think

[GodfreyRob]

Good:
Tomatoes (Maskotka)
Fennel
Broad Beans
Peas (mange tout)
Early Spuds Yukon Gold (actually 2nd earlies ready before first).
Spinach
Kohl Rabi
Cos Lettuce
Broccoli raab

Bad:
Aubergines - still sulking, skinny and poorly looking.
Calabresse - started off ok but then turned blue and died

Rusty onins and garlic - but the garlic has been great roasted!

[labrat]

From the North East of Scotland everything has been good (carrots, parsnips, onions, swede, beetroot, peas, broad beans, cabbages, runner beans, broccoli, leeks) except tatties which look a bit weak because of the cold weather the last few weeks and also spinach which I never seem able to grow properly - it just bolts straight away.

cheers

[hopalong]

Here in East Finchley, my broad beans have been disappointing, the french beans and sweet potatoes were slow to get going (but now doing fine) and the first earlies (Red Duke of York) aren't as prolific as I had hoped.  Pear tree has "pear trellis rust" but is fruiting well. Plums and gages are not fruiting as well as last year. Currants are new bushes so I'm not expecting much this year. Gooseberry crop has been moderate. Otherwise, everything is or has been great. Tomatoes, onions, courgettes, beetroot, squashes, cabbages, peas, carrots, kale, garlic, salad leaves and lettuces, herbs etc. are all doing well. :)

[KathrynH]

From looking at the earlier replies it sems that successes or failures have nothing to do with which part of the country it is. This year my over wintering onions have been fantastic whereas the spring planted sets are not doing very well at all. Broad beans planted in November gave a great crop and I managed to get most of them picked before the blackfly arrived. French beans are already producing loads but the runners are not doing nearly so well. The first potatoes I have dug up are looking good but there is no sign at all of any parsnips. I had a good crop of strawberries but they only lasted a couple of weeks although the raspberries are now making up for it.

The only variable is the weather. I do everything else the same but the results are different every year.