What were you vegetable garden failures in 2008? How do you plan on preventing the same problems in 2009?
Cucumbers.
Not buying seeds from Liddl this year.
Sinbad
Tomato and leeks prevention i wont be putting stray in my trenches this year
Tomatoes again!! All outdoor ones and 30 or more plants all got blight!! :'( Lots of green tomato chutney for us.
On the flip side the best thing was my chilli plant that I bought for £1 and it went MAD producing at least 50 (prob more) good sized chillies which have now been dried for storage. First time I have grown chilli.
Problem: Chinese cabbage. Grew beautifully, but were constantly munched by sugs.
Solution: Not growing them again.
Cucumbers- don't rely on neighbours watering them while youron your hols.
Maris pipers- treat the soil against wireworm.
Chinese cabbage- plant later to prevent bolting.
What about you tgg any failures. ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: medicinejack on January 08, 2009, 20:03:10
Problem: Chinese cabbage. Grew beautifully, but were constantly munched by sugs.
Solution: Not growing them again.
was that sugs from the group 'madness' ? ;D ;D
A stuck 'l', too late did I notice. I wish the slugs were stuck in 'ell. I'm sure Suggs would agree.
leeks same as every year,going to keep em covered all the time this year.Oh and the money tree !!!
Carrots - Autumn King 2 and Cauliflowers - Deakin. I only had a 10 day window to sow them and this was 4-5 weeks later than the instructions suggested.
Cauliflower and calabrese. They just didn't produce proper heads. Think they were planted a bit late in the season as they did well the year before.
Brussel sprouts - just don't think I will bother this year.
Although our Chinese cabbage were regularly slugged we still got several very good hearts out of the row before the pigeons finished them off!
The sprouts were great too, for the first time really... lots of muck. A late sowing of carrots never really got going and we can't get Swede to grow at all!!
::)
Maincrop spuds, planted late and wiped out by blight. Toms, wiped out by blight. Trail of Tears beans; they sulked and eventually got slugged while Cosse Violette right next to them flourished. Some squashes. The ones in full sun did OK, while anything which got any shade at all sulked. I had a lot of back trouble, which made it hard to keep going at times.
Big successes were peas and sweet corn.
Honey production was pathetic, and it's too early to say what the winter losses are going to be. I've lost one colony, but I never rated the chance of getting that one through very highly. If the remaining five all come through, then I'll be well placed for next year, and meanwhile two bad summers and a long wet winter should have eliminated a lot of unsuitable genes from the population.
Italian 'yard long' beans. Subsequent research showed they need a lot of warmth preferably a GH or Poly.
Cucumbers and aubergines- again! >:(
Sweet potatoes pathetic, but will try again. Brussels sprouts - mixed results. Broad beans a bit disappointing too - lots of chocolate spot. Against that, the successes make it all worthwhile.
leeks got nearly wiped out by moths, as rotations progress, I'm finding a lot of my plot has clubroot, apart from that, WE HAPPY!!
Everything produced well, it was after that was the problem. All of my garlic has turned black and rotted. The butternut's didn't ripen properly so I cut them and and kept them in a frost free conservatory. The ripened but now they are going furry around the stem neck. :'(
ALL THE RABBITS GOT IN AND HAVE A FIELD DAY so now hate them :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
and my runner did do a RUNNER down under .so this look out all bunnys ......!!!!!! going to sleep there :D ;) :) :) :)
Aubergines - again, this time they got blight I think.
Celery - a stalk thicker than a drinking straw would be soo nice, then again I dont actually like Celery but its a battle ;D
in the garden it was deffo my tomatoes total disaster only gonna grow 3 or 4 plants this year, however most of my other disasters came due to dampening off, lost lots of seedlings however pumpkins and squash over all did really well but lost all my butternut squash plants and they are what i love most
Parnips!!!
only got one decent long one all the rest were stumpy little with tendril roots !!
Duke >:(
My butternut squashes disappeared under a mass of weeds. I had dug out the couch, put down pellets and protected them with netting (they were next to my peas) and either they died or the weeds overtook them.
On a positive front I was pleased with my strawberries, rocket, radishes, courgettes, pumpkins, sugar snap peas and will be planting those again.
oh yeah i forgot parsnips ???
squash did nothing this year except for Queensland blue, tomatoes got off to a great start but didnt fruit well and then got blight. Parsnips bad but last few years they have been so good I may be hoping for too much. Carrots got fly. A lot of bolted leeks but I grow too many so it wasnt a problem
Spuds, broad bens, peas & runners best Ive ever had
>:( >:( tomatos due to the ******** blight, just growing a few in the G/H this year. ;D peppers were great though.
P.S. HOPE YOU ALL HAD A NICE CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR>
No parsnips whatsoever. This year I'll do exactly the same though as they year before they were great - no explanation for that at all!
I think most of the "failures" were down to the lack of tme I was able to devote to the plot, despite my fantastic neighbours watering and generally looking afte things for me during the week. This year I will really try to devote a bit more time to it.
On a more positive note though, I'm still using stored onions and potatoes, have a freezer full of raspberries, black and red currants, broad and runner beans and if the ground wasn't so frozen I'l be digging up leeks.
cabbages, i'm new to this and didn't know it was best to keep them netted catterpillers and pigeons ruined the lot >:(
I don't seem to be able to get the hang of squashes, but I'm going to keep trying! I reckon last summer's weather was mostly to blame.
My chillis weren't too good, but better than last year so must be doing something right. I think I will try one or two in the polytunnel this year.
Other than that I just seem to grow far too much of some things and not nearly enough of others. This year I want to grow too much of everything and put my river cottage preserve book to good use ;D
Parsnips, carrots, and beetroot all failed to germinate in one of my raised beds - two sowings. Not sure if it was the bed that was the problem, the weather conditions (they went in at approximately the right time), or the seeds.
There were other disappointments but those I can put down to 'poor management'!
Still, I'll try again this year - such is the mentality of the allotmenteer!
ALL YEAR ROUND CAULIS, grew fantastic and then 2 rows blew within a week, never mind tho, they have made good compost lol
Climbing french beans. Didn't manage a decent salad Nicoise. ;D
valmarg
tomatos due to the ******** blight here as well
I've tried to grow aubergines out doors now for 3 yrs, absolute rubbish! I get 1 or 2 fruit per plant but the 'molly coddling' (is that a real word?) I recon each fruit must have cost me a tenner :'(
But the one that surprises me is the butternut squash, This year I did get some fruit but then stupidly I left them out to long and the first frost hit them, so no good for storing, but I go through the motion of doing all the right things then the guy on the next plot bungs em in and forgets them and they do fabulous - jealous you bet!!!
Onions leeks and garlic all succumbed to the dreaded moth. This year the are all growing under enviromesh. I won't be growing any outdoor tomatoes either cos just as they were looking great the blight got them again.
I grew my toms in the back garden last year :) as the year before was wiped out with blight. :'( ;D ;D ;D
Many of my toms were hit by blight too. It was a terrible year for it, because of the damp weather I suppose. Some allotment friends escaped by spraying early with Bordeaux Mixture, so I thought I'd try that this year rather than giving up. Have others out there found this an effective remedy?
Parsnips .... not one germinated ... will be doing them on damp kitchen roll tihis year! And red onions - most bolted or failed to grow. Trying seeds instead of sets this year.
Mixed results with tomatoes - the ones at the lottie failed with blight but the ones at home in the shelterd back garden survived it so there are some advantages to an 8 foot leylandii hedge you keep forgetting to clip!!
Bordeaux mix is a preventive not a remedy. you have to keep putting it on regularly if it's going to achieve anything. Get the blight reports (I'm on a laptop, and don't have the URL), and don't worry about the odd Smith period. As soon as they start coming regularly, start spraying.
http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Home.asp
that one? robert ;)
That's it, thanks.
Only got 2 cucumbers from 3 plants :(