Growing Season Summary

[BAK]

I know that there was a brief review of the growing year around the end of August and that Tee Gee has recently produced his slide show but I thought that it might be time for more reviews, especially now that colder nights are forecast.

Here is the general consensus (as far as I can gather) from our site.

http://www.sunningdaleallotments.org/GrowingSeasonRetrospectiveV2.html

What about your year?

[BAK]

[calendula]

seems a long time ago when the gales hit hard, losing a lot of greenhouse glass but we recovered - then, when things were looking good the rest of the dreadful weather hit us - but, at this point in time all i can say is that it has been great, mainly because as failures became apparent I rapidly culled and filled with other crops and that has been a life saver - for example, rather than painfully watch my dwarf beans wither away any more I pulled them and planted loads of chicories and I lovingly look forward to those, or sowing extra carrots - I had to think on my feet but it is now paying dividends

overall the strawbs and rasps were 50% down, the greenhouse produce was poor in comparison, and, as I said the beans were !!!!, the sprouts should make it and everything else has been fabulous  :D

[tim]

That's an interesting spiel. (EDIT - BAK'S!)

I was just looking for somewhere to moan about my Cucumbers. All indoors. 83 Burpless type & 149 Mimi Munch - as against at least 400 typical total. Back to good old Passandra next year!

1. Leeks. First year ever with RUST.
2. Potatoes.  Apart from Colleen, early, disaster with BLIGHT.
3. Cougettes, Squash - enough but pitiful plants & no surplus.
4. Outdoor Cucumbers. Disaster.
5. Garlic in raised bed - excellent. Shallots good.
6. Runner Beans - lost the early ones in the gales. Never short of beans but little to spare.
7. Beetroot & Carrots - raised beds - best ever.
8. Salads. Great start  - with continuity - but suddenly they are all rotting.
9. Sprouts - best ever. Bad Whitefly for first time.
10. Toms, Aubs & Peppers indoors - all poor compared with average. But we have not ever been without.
Bad Whtefly for first year in over 45. Best were Gypsy & Farmers Long (Aubs).
11. Parsley. First year with a problem. Several sowings failed so ended up with great show from a Tesco pot. Sage - another problem until the last bought-in plants took over the whole bed.
12. Brassica - mainly good, but Bordeaux PSB started well & then got seedy; Calabrese same but then got browny bits;  Savoys same but didn't 'hold'; as with Romanesco; Kale all too soon; Chard fine; Sweet Corn good but late; French  Beans sparse - the dwarfs doing nothing;

[cornykev]

Tatties:       Earlies very big the rest did all right still some to dig.
Tommies:   All gone due to blight but garden ones are still producing, Cheers Alisha for the Tigerella's.
Shallots:     Hardly grew
Onion Sets:      Small but very edible, the seed version were a no show.
Carrots:      Are plenty but some with carrot fly.
Runners;      Late going in but did OK.
Parsnips:     Look OK but will leave until after frosts.
Leeks:          Look healthy.
Savoys:       Eating them now they turned out very well.
Cauli's:         Had about four, the rest went off very quickly.
Peas:           Didn't do too bad, will put more in next year.
JA's:              Still in the ground,  Thanks for them Jenny M.
Peppers:      Went to pot ;D.
Beetroot:        Still cropping. 
Courgettes:    Only had a three or four but were pretty big.
Sweetcorn:     Did OK the rats loved it.
Lemon Cucumbers:   Had a few but disappointing.
Broadies:         Did OK.
Pumpkins:         Hoping they get a bit bigger and turn yellow.
PSB:                 Only got two plants left.
Dwarf Beans:   Slugs killed them off.
Celery:            Two year old tipped them over and they never recovered.
Spring Onions:  Only a few came up.

I did OK I suppose considering the weather,no early frosts to break up the ground,a very hot April with no rain, very high winds and then the rain luckily for me no floods but badly affected a lot of people, more wind, more rain, not a lot of sun, blight, the slugs the bloody slugs everywhere, lets hope for better weather next year. I suppose I'll be collecting leaves soon, now what shall I do with last years leaves.  ;D ;D ;D

[Sparkly]

This is our first season on the plot so I don't have much to compare to, but here goes:

*spuds - got blight, but wasn't as disasterous as I thought because we still seemed to get an okay crop
*toms - lost all to blight!
*carrots - lost nearly all to carrot fly
*beans - runners and french did well, broad beans got rust but we still got a reasonable crop
*rhubarb - went mental!
*summer brassicas - all excellent, except the brocolli that were not completely covered by netting and were attacked by pigeons

*summer squash - good, winter squash - only got a few plants after the frost got to them :(
*peas - early were good, later sowings rubbish
*goosberries and jostaberries by the million
*shallots - looked great but quite a few had thick necks and didn't store well
*beetroot - excellent
*apples - bramley - very good cropping and early too
*chillies - indoor good, outdoor - not brilliant - not enough sun
*outdoor cucumbers - disasterous
*rasberries - autumn - rubbish
*summer lettuce - little gem - very good
*summer radish - again good
*spring onions - in pots at home very good, on the plot - rubbish - they seemed to go into globes too early on (lisbon?)
*pak choi - very good, planted quite late in the season, very good germination, pigeons got a few though
*spinach - tasted great as baby spinach but seemed to bolt in about 30 seconds
*sowings of spring cabbage and cauli are looking good so far, brussels don't look good and are still in, late sowing of swede is looking healthy but may be too late to get anythingabout mini-swedes, endive looking good too (from saddad)

[saddad]

Pleased to hear about the endive Sparkly mine has mostly bolted but still have loads of late salads. Some of my late Swede are now a very good size so I expect yours will come good too...
Still waiting on the Oca nad Sweet Potatoes!!!
;D

[Hyacinth]

Nothing much to contribute here (but when did that ever stop a womman talkin'?) ::)

This past growing season, tho I'd got all my seeds in advance and had a planting plan, circs. changed & I realized I wouldn't be here to plant, nurture & grow on crops....

1st off....Lorna and others had some surplus tom. seeds & I'm really pleased to have feed-back of the results. Some were new-to-me beef toms, so'z I'm specially keen to get them going next year.

I could only grow the few things I could in my garden plottie which I thought I could a) grow in the alloted space and b) wouldn't need a minute of extra care...

garlic = planted last Nov....excellent & took a few to Rosebud bout August for a prezzie.

elephant garlic....always excellent...

red onions (Electra).....50 sets in, none lost, great crop.

Walking Onions......did their stuff & hopefully are still on the march over lotties hither and yon :P

Potatoes.....red Desiree, Cara and ANothers whose names don't easily spring to mind.....good crop in that no slug etc. damage, but oh! toooooo few!!

'soft' herbs in the open.....flat-leaf parsley = still going like a train &  a clear winner.

PSB.....apart from cloud of fly atm, all plants sturdy & promising for next spring.

Sprouts....those plants I cut down to ground level last yr have now grown & are producing tender 'sprout tops'.....the whitefly an added bonus!!!!
This year's sprout plants......coming on well.

Swiss chard....a staple I love and which never lets me down......this year, despite the extraordinary weather conds., kept to form.

Leeks.......hmm.....long time ago since I harvested the last of my last year's leeks, but those I've been sent by a 'Lotmenteer here? All babes goin'  well an growin up fast 8)

Tell you what, tho......reading your lists, your failures coz of weather & surely weather-related conditions?......think that, if there was a year to have a 'sabbbatical' from my garden plottie, this was it.......but oh heck! adverse conditions or wott......next year..... bring it on!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Complete rubbish! Between blight and waterlogging all my tender veg, which are the ones my family go for, either got wiped out or started growing too late to produce anything. The fruit have been OK, but that's the best I can say.

[silverbirch]

Well, my two penn'orth from soggy Hertfordshire

Potatoes - early Belle de Fontenay were gorgeous, lates (King Edward and Pink Fir Apple) suffered a bit with blight, but the slugs loved them. Hopefully, whats left will get us to Christmas.

Tomatoes - blight got all but two (fruits, not plants).   Greenhouse ones were late, but are still going strong.

Carrots - sown and never seen again

Runners and Climbing French were the best ever.  Dwarf were poor to dead.

Cabbages so so

Broccoli plentiful and still going.

Veg spaghetti.  We got sick of eating it.  Winter squashes are small and rare.

Courgettes - see veg spaghetti.  Best year ever.

Alliums in general were a disaster - garlic all rotted, shallots and onions are tiny

Sweetcorn was late but tasty, and the cobs were quite well filled.  Mini sweetcorn was excellent.

In the green house chillies (25 on one plant) and peppers were a major success, but the cues just never grew, and I didn't get a single fruit.  The aubergines just sulked all year.

i didn't get a single dahlia on the bench all year, major disappointment.

I haven't started on the winter stuff yet, but the celeriac seems to be doing well and swedes are starting to swell.  Leeks are looking good but small.  The parsnips seem to be thriving.
Winter cabbages are racing ahead, and the sprouts are starting to bud.  Sprouting broccoli is growing well, as are the caulis.

Next year must be better, mustn't it?  Please?

[manicscousers]

our spuds an tomatoes were great, read an article, must find it, they said plant all spuds together to miss the blight
beans, fantastic, cucs lots, leeks are really fat now, cabbage and broccoli lots this year, not lots of squash but they were nice..
strawberries, tons, tree fruit wonderful, soft fruit in summer, lousy, went mouldy as it ripened but the autumn raspberries were great, lots of onions, early. good garlic, maybe not as big as usual but it's keeping well
carrots and parsnips and beetroot, lots of good sized roots, some parsnips had canker, will grow a resistant variety next year..we still ate yhem, just cut the bad bits out
now for the downers, melons 2, both fit on the palm of my hand together, courgettes  ???
lots of lettuce and chinese veggies either eaten by slugs or bolted and the sprouts are full of whitefly !  ;D

[antipodes]

Yes my first year too so it won't be comparative - I have tried to estimate the total yield in brackets afterwards. Here in Southern Britanny we had cold wet March, hot dry April, almost constant rain and cold from May onwards, till late August, then September and October mild but dry. (sigh)

garlic (ordinary white): grew OK but bulbs tiny (spring planted) (0 usable)
onions: one of the better results (5kg for 500g planted)
potato: Roseval and Sirtema - plants ok, but got sick, poor yield (about 5 kgs in all for 2 kgs planted :(
strawberries: best crop, Mara des Bois and Cijoree, (lost count, several kilos I would say for 15 plants from May to now)
gooseberry: first year, no crop
raspberry: lates, ok, first year (about 1kg I would say)
peas: spring crop failed, AUgust planted cropping now (about 30 pods)
dwarf beans: first crop failed, 2nd crop good (3 kgs)
peppers: lost all
tomatoes: lost all but one plant of miniatures
melon: lost all
pumpkin: lost all
gherkins: just cropped about 10 huge cucumber type things
courgette:  got mildew (6 fruits from 2 plants)
lettuce: I can't yet figure out how to grow these properly (6 lettuces in all)
radish: hopeless, some inedible as too hot (3 bunches all season)
parsnips: best crop, (10 so far)
sunflowers: good, about 6 giant heads for seeds
cabbage: good (round head) (2 eaten but 13 still growing)
kale: good (not cropped yet)
carrots: wouldn't come up (6 carrots)
beets: grow but fruit small (8 so far)
thyme, parsley ok constant supply
rocket: terrific, still self seeding
leeks: going yellow! but taste good, nice size (4 eaten so far)
broccoli: went straight to flower  >:(
rhubarb growing well but I didn't crop it as it is first year.

The others on my site say it is the worst year they have ever seen, for the most part. even those who spend all day every day down there had little to show for it.
hmm looking back I can see that really I got almost no crop at all, which makes the 50£ I paid for the year pretty expensive  :(
Still I live in hope of a better season next year, especially as I will be able to better prepare the plot for 2008 and not just spend all my time digging it over and weeding. I will try growing under plastic and cloches to extend the season  ;)

[Biscombe]

A great year!

1. Kale and Chard, a slow start but still cropping! catapillars have discovered it now though!  >:(
2. Tomatoes, still picking late sown toms, in July we couldnt pick em fast enough!
3. Peppers, Wish I had planted more bell peppers, but most of them did well, some plants were killed by mole crickets, but I planted extra, favourite was white ceci ceci.
4. Aubergines, talk about glut, been picking them from June, still cropping but slowed down, I love Rosa Bianca, and the white ones look really pretty, black beauty usually a big cropper but was a bit dissapointing this year!
5. Spuds, favourits food of mole crickets  >:( but not bad this year
6. Chilis Had that many that I've started selling Thai Chili Sauce in my local!
7. Carrots Alwas a failure! I need to sive the soil and water more!
8. Broccoli despite having planted out loads we only ended up with one meal! swede midge problems  >:(
9. Cauliflower great, scofed loads of these!
10. Cabbage Again swede midge attacked these
11. Summer Squash Not gluts like everyone else due to powdery mildew, but yellow ones were better
12. Winter Squash Brilliant, Waltham Butternut by far the best, got loads hanging in tights, even made some wine out of some!
13. Kohl Rabi First time I've tried these, am impressed
14. Pac Choi All bolted! must sow later!
15. Broad Beans Mega harvest!
16. Green Beans Picking a carrier bag a day!
17. Almonds Good harvest
18. Sharon Fruit Cant eat enough! making wine this weekend
19. Lettuce Early summer good, was lazy and bought lots of plug plants
20. Tayberries Good early cropper
21. Grapes Not as good as last year, but made nice wine
22. Garlic Got enough for the year!
23. Onions Poor, can't seem to get this right!
24. peas PM again! will not bother again
25. Cucumber Marketmore winners again, late sown Carmen will be picking soon


WOW makes you realise how much you have got going on the garden when you type it out!!

[cornykev]

Is the sun still shining over there Bis.  8) 8) 8)   ;D ;D ;D

[RosieMcPosie]

wow Rosie, almonds and sharon fruit!? am so envious!

[Biscombe]

Getting a bit damp! nearly ready to get the quilt out and light the fire!  ;)

[real food]

Here in Glasgow, almost everything has been good and almost up to the long term average. Figures show that the rainfall over the growing season is only slightly up on average, which is probably why we have done much better than many places down South.
The only failures that I can think of are melons and watermelons, which I grew last year, but failed me this year.
My allotment is still full of food. Today I picked about 7 lb of red and white currants, absolutely the last of the crop. the rest was picked mid August, but these have stayed in good condition on the bushes, although  the leaves have fallen off. Strawberries, raspberries, grapes still producing. Picked the last of the courgettes today. Still got mangetout peas and young runner beans, broad beans, carrots, beetroot, celery, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, potatoes, salad crops, kale, leeks, tomatoes. So I will not starve over the winter!!
Best of all were the plums. Gigantic crops of the most sweet and succulent plums.

[Blue Bird]

Hi my first year at my allotment

1. Onions - had to lift early as they were getting soggy bottoms but Small and storing well
2. Garlic - small but due to planting the ones from the supermarket (bought one from the Southport Flower Show this year)
3.Carrots - did very well thanks to all who sent seeds for my trail  ;) I am still harvesting
4. Turnip - small and got to by the slugs
5.Parsnips doing very well leaving it as along as possible to sweeten up
6.Swede - planted late but doing OK
7[b].Sweet potatoes[/b] - lost
8.Potatoes - all not good !! Tried 4 types not sure what went wrong but all the plots had similar problems
9.Tomates - all outside did OK money makes and tigerella
10. Sweetcorn - did great very pleased with result
11. J Artichoke - doing well
12.Courgette - doing fine cropping well until last cold spell
13. Pumpkins - poor all very small
14. spring onion - poor
15. llettuce all types did well as cut and come again
16.chives - really good only got 1 pot from lidl for 25p and split into 6 plants
17. Fennel - good
18 rhubarb - have not harvested as first year
19. bramley apple tree - doing OK got from Lidl £3.99
20. cabbage - savoy and primo doing fine
21.Cauliflower - disaster
22.Broccoli - as above !!!
23. Beans - all did very well runner / french/ broad
24. All fruit trees doing OK no fruit as first year
25. Leeks - all healthy

It seems that all the plot holders saying bad year so feel that I am doing OK

[artichoke]

I'm indescribably proud of my onions - I have never before grown so many, so large, so beautiful! Apples also best ever (said to be Cox).

Disappointed in crystal lemon cucumbers, or whatever they are called. Tiny round yellow balls, tough prickly skin, surprisingly cucumberlike inside, but not wonderful. Tomatoes a disaster. Only one butternut squash and no pattypans. Garlic tiny (dug early because of white mould) but tasty and storing well (so far).

Potatoes got blight, but the tubers are numerous, tasty and storing well (so far). Beans good (especially gigandes!)

Sweet potatoes: about to dig because we had a frost last night, but first gropings underground a week or two ago were encouraging.

Not a terrible year, but I've been abroad a lot so difficult to keep on top of weeds. Back now and enjoying tidying up.