Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: Doris_Pinks on March 29, 2008, 13:47:36
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We all read about what we can grow, but year after year I have failures with the same stuff, and year after year I keep trying!!
The things that I cannot seem to grow, but am trying yet again this year are:
Spring Onions(tried sowing direct, in modules etc. etc.)
Florence Fennel (we love it!)
Pak Choi and it seems all other chinese greens
Celery (have finally given up on this one!)
Cabbages (Club root)
How about you?
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Last year was our first season on the allotment, but we had problems with:
Carrots (carrot fly)
Parsnips (poor germination)
Swedes and Winter Brassicas (took the net off too soon and they became pigeon dinner)
Butternut Squash (did germinate, but wasn't warm enough to get a long enough season)
Sweetcorn (planted direct to late so again, not a long enough growing season)
I know the mistakes we made with these, so we are trying to rectify these for these season!
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celery (gave up)
capsicum (always small and hard)
cauliflower (too much trouble to even try)
celeriac (usable size first time last year)
carrot (in the ground - total failure. In pots - complete success)
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Spring onions never germinate. Gonna try again.
Cauliflowers always blow when they too are small to pick and eat.
Radish is hit and miss. (More the latter)
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i cant grow spring onions either.
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carrots ( in ground or an old bath)
cauli (just blow when small)
parsnips (treid all ways for these still no success)
we will try again this year
fingers crossed we'll get something
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Cabbage! the swede midge get em every time despite changing plots and rotating!
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My family wish I couldn't grow courgettes :-\
But I do have problems with peas - something always gets to them. I have tried protecting them with chcken wire, sharp sticks/twigs, and even plastic cloche covers. I do get crops but tends to be small.
I am going to try them on my other plot this year and sow them a little deeper and cover with aviary metal mesh which hopefully won't let mice through ::)
Fingers crossed ;D
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Brussell Sprouts - I might one or two the size of peas, and that is in a good year!!!
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Carrots. But I will not give up. >:( If I can grow other root veg I must be able to grow carrots.
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My total failures,despite trying,are
Capers and a thing called a `Horseradish Tree`
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Spring Onions - grow extra shallots now and eat the stalks.
Celery - looks like a monster when it does grow, actually glad as I hate the stuff. ;)
Swedes - never get bigger than golf ball sized.
Rocket - it just bolts.
Aubergines - trying again this year.
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Yes I have trouble with spring onions as well ,trying them in moduls this year
cauiflower,still trying
summer brocoli,one last go this year and thats it (I tell myself again)
marg
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It's carrots for me too, I'm afraid. Slugs/snails get them every time. :(
G x
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In over 20 years have never ever been able to grow a decent Swede. But I am the queen of Carrot's ;D
Sinbad
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it's celeriac for me - they just never get big enough
the seed merchants just love our determination 8)
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Basil and-you won't believe this- Buddleia.
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Parsnips >:(
And I love them, but still persevere with different methods every year!
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Gosh, you should really really really hide this thread from us newbies.. its scaring me half to death lol. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
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Carrot fly always attack mine but I get plenty so I get some to eat, germination's my problem with peppers and celery. :'( ;D ;D ;D
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celeriac..... my nemesis!
not too great at beetroot or spring onions either.
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and-you won't believe this- Buddleia.
Theone, that is an achievement to be proud of ;D ;D
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Swede
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SBG, don't be put off by what others cannot grow. Each person's soil conditions and regions (weather) etc differ. Even across an allotment site conditions differ.
Remember, quitters never win and winners never quit.
Sow, sow, sow and who knows what you might be sucessful at growing. ;D
Lauren :)
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Swede
In over 20 years have never ever been able to grow a decent Swede.
Swedes - never get bigger than golf ball sized.
My swedes were always average to poor. Last year I was given some that had been started off in seed module trays. Everyone came true. So I will be using this method for swede permanent.
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parsnips - well I can if I can get the ******** seed to germinate.
I seem to have the same trouble with peppers.
Up until this year I haven't managed to get my salsify to germinate but I'm now inundated.
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Spinach, but still trying ;) Have some module sown babies that are doing well - it starts going wrong when they go in the ground.
Swede but I think getting better; first year nothing at all, last year more carrot shaped but swede tasting!
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Peas and courgettes - in fact anything labelled as being easy >:( and swede.
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Cabbages, the go to seed! or pigeons or a rabbit gets them! Coliflower didnt have any coliflowers on them last year,we waited and waited but no sign
;D
Pauline
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spinach, the proper stuff not the perpetual. Always get seed leaves, 1st pair of true leaves.....then it goes to seed ::) such a shame cos I love spinach & have to buy it. :'(
spring onions for years and years, then someone one year, Tim I think, showed some he started off in modules, so I tried that. SUCCESS! 8)
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Lish, if your spinach is bolting, look up Tyee on the web. This one will stand longer in the heat than most. I manage it in all but the screaming hot days. XX Jeannine
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I found spinach beet was more heat tolerant as well and just as nice........and you get to pick early spring as well if you cloche it (though I didnt and we still got young spinach in Dec, Jan and Feb)
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Spinach beet (perpetual spinach?) is lovely Star, and that's what I grow.BUT....it's not 'proper' spinach..... :-\
However, the Cavalry to the Rescue......THANK YOU JEANNINE - you're a Star *
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Due to flea beetles: eggplant, potatoes
Due to cabbage worms: broccoli
Due to miners of different types: turnip, spinach
Peppers turn out very thin-walled shrimps maybe due to soil chemistry? but trying again this year however didn't buy seed, just planted some from a pepper we ate
On the other hand this year is going to be terrific! The best recommendation came from this forum (thank you all :D) which was to pre-germinate things indoors then pop them in the ground- This worked and the peas and snowpeas and sweet peas are looking fine!
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I can grow anything if I start them off in greenhouse in pots..but sowing straight into ground...not a change...everything gets eaten,chewed, shreded...name it. If it not pigeons, foxes, insects...it is my hubby >:(, with his bl...y wheelbarrow.
Some time I think we have flock of native elephants landing on my newly emerged seedling >:( >:( >:(
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Well if you define what can't you grow that it is worth eating!
Celeriac
Florence Fennel - great herb but useless stem
Celery - not worth the effort
Turnip - it always tastes woody.
Carrot is variable. It either doesn't germinate or the carrot fly get it!
Lettuce germination can be aproblem when its too warm
Kohl Rabi
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Can't grow carrots. The heavy clay makes them fork. Also badgers and deer dig them up. Despite this I'm going to try again this year
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Also Chinese Cabbage - always bolts
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Can't grow carrots. The heavy clay makes them fork.
Try growing in containers or black buckets. ;)
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I can grow anything if I start them off in greenhouse in pots..but sowing straight into ground...not a change...everything gets eaten,chewed, shreded...name it. If it not pigeons, foxes, insects...it is my hubby >:(, with his bl...y wheelbarrow.
Some time I think we have flock of native elephants landing on my newly emerged seedling >:( >:( >:(
LOL! I can relate. The fence around the veg garden is to keep my husband OUT! ;D
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can someone start a post "Something Lovely I Grew For The Fisrt Time Last Year", and cheer us all up? Can't start it meself cus there wasn't anything
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Chinese cabbage has it's own rules, don't grow it like our cabbage, it grows best planted very late for the fall XX Jeannine
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It was always carrots... but cracked that so well that we still have two rows of Autumn King in the ground!!!
Now it has to be proper sized Swede and Celeriac...
:-[
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Nice to know I am not alone!
After 8 years of not being able to grow carrots I won last year with suggestions from this forum.
So now I broadcast sow on the top of the soil, then sprinkle with compost, and cover with fleece. Fleece stays on all the time, and I got carrots last year much to my disbelief! ;D
Sowed spring onions yet again yesterday, in modules like I do every year........maybe this will be the year of the spring onion!! ;D
At least we all persevere, and like my carrots last year, it feels great when you actually win! ;)
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Marijuana ::)
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That's dead easy, I grew it one year, I found a tiny plant in the border at a house we had just moved into, it was so pretty and lacy, I decided to mother it a bit. I moved it into a sunnier location,gave it some feed and water and some compost around it and pretty soon it started to grow. I was so proud of it. It was about 4 feet when my son popped by and nearly flipped. He told me what it was!!!
He nearly flipped when I tore it to shreds and flushed it!!
XX Jeannine
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It ain't called weed for nothing ;D
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I didn't say I couldn't grow it, just not allowed to.
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Cant grow : swedes bigger than a golf ball
cauliflower bigger than a tennis ball
spinach that doesnt go to seed
parsnips without canker
outdoor toms without blight
But this year we're gonna crack it ! ;D
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SBG, don't be put off by what others cannot grow. Each person's soil conditions and regions (weather) etc differ. Even across an allotment site conditions differ.
Remember, quitters never win and winners never quit.
Sow, sow, sow and who knows what you might be sucessful at growing. ;D
Lauren :)
I totally agree, some of the stuff people have been posting in this thread have been my biggest successes! Spring Onions and Parsnips are one of my biggest crops! ;D
I can't grow carrots or strawberries, but am trying again this year. I also have given up with all the Brassica's. I grew broccoli my first year and all it did was attract bleedin' caterpillars! Never again!
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I can't grow spring onions. I might copy DP's method of starting them off in modules. I wonder why so many of us cannot grow them? I have bought reduced ones from the supermarket and stuck them in the ground and they have grown new roots and been a great success but i would really love to be able to grow my own from seed.
I have very little success with the brassica family. My late neighbour who had lived in the village for 60 years, gave up on them years ago.
My carrots aren't very good unless I grow them in the greenhouse. Parsnips get carrotfly and divided roots because of our stony soil so some are going in a large pot this year.
My aubergines do not grow very big and peppers are non existent so this year I have taken Jeannine's advice and started them off really early.
I don't think it helps that we have gone off to France every June for 2½ weeks. This year we are going much later in the year and will just have 1 week in the UK in June. I might get on top of the weeds this year. :D
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I'm only in my first year on the plot after a trial year in the back garden in 2007 so I've not had much chance to fail time after time at anything. However, I've had three separate goes at Basil and failed each time (seedlings grew to about an inch tall then died) to the point where OH has now taken over the herbs.
Other than that my over winter spinach and onions failed but then I think that may have been as much to do with our new kittens 'playing with them' as the veg themselves.
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In a word...melons!
Trying again this year, different varieties, in a greenhouse...sigh! ::)
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Celeriac.. but am going again this year and it doesnt help that Lidl sell them for 40p but does help when waitrose sell them for £1.50
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1st year 2007. carrots rubbish. Cauliflowers started then blew . still waiting for winter Cauliflowers to produce heads? onions small. hopefully better this year dug over beds and manured. going to put carrots in a raised bed in compost/john innes/sharp sand and cover with fleece.
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i tried sweetcorn we all love em but got no where told hubby wasn't gonna beat me so i've got about 5 packet this year, i will win....
carrotts well the kids didn't let them get big enough they picked them and washed them under the tap at lotty, and eat them, none left for us more going in this year, kids can have one lot we'll have the other. lol
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THANK YOU JEANNINE :-*
As a response to my "can't grow spinach" lament, I've received seeds of Olympia and Tygee today from her 8)
Right then! Only needs the snow and rain to disappear, the soil to warm up and then.....YIPPEE!! My failure's going to turn into success?
Many thanks again, J,
Lishka x
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i tried to grow rocket in a pot last yr and it bolted i think, it was rather, er, skinny looking... the toms i didnt "stop" so they grew small and green (but dont know the sort so couldve meant to have been small?? didnt ripen tho) and that was just in the garden, anything i turned my hand to got knocked over by the cats in the house or eaten by slugs etc in the garden, gutted!
so weve got an allotment this yr and hoping we grow something on a wing and a prayer! so far the onion sets look promising and am hoping potatoes are bomb proof... the kids are desperate to get some carrots out of the ground :S doesnt look promising going on what u guys are saying!! i dont mind getting funny shaped carrots... my kids are 2 and 4 so itd be a huuuuge novelty for them!! fingers crossed we all do ok this yr, weathers meant to be wet again but also hot no idea what that means for the lottie?
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don't panic, loopyloulou, we all get some sort of harvest, some years we do better on certain things than on others, our squash and courgettes were lousy last year BUT
we got masses of potatoes, onions, apples, strawberries, beans, lettuce, carrots and parsnips so, if you count the good against the bad, we definitely come out on the plus side ;D
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Hello Loops! It won't really matter if you don't grow much...the children will still have fun and you can always scrump Shirl's lottie ;D Hope to see you over there next month - :)