Hi All,
Between the cats and the weather i have had very poor germination/survival rate even the little pumpkin tree i managed to germinate got it in the end with a silly black and white cat :(
My germination rate has only been about 20% and i am wondering if some of my seed is just not viable any more and next year i need to be more cat unfriendly !
Has anyone else had a bad year?
I am disappointed as amongst the failures where the last of the pumpkin/squash seeds from supersprout which i was hoping to save some seed from.
I am also now wondering out of the many packets of seeds i have lovingly collected if some are past there best :(
Has anyone i have sent seed to this year had problems?
Is it me?
Cam
Me too Louise! Mainly because I was too busy to deal with my plot for most of May and June and half of July. Plus the weather has been awful - turns to rain if you blink - and I just can't face it all at the moment. Seed germination was OK mind you but then no time for pricking out and potting on.
Ah well there's always next year, although, at the moment, I don't even know if I can be bothered!!
Louise, which seeds did Supersprout send you, I have a few she sent me .Might just be the ones you wanted.
XX Jeannine
Don't worry, I think a lot of us have had a pretty weird year - I know I have - seeds not sprouting or just dying off. Thre's always next year though - that's the best thing about gardening. Didn't help with hot days and freezing cold nights and no flaming rain. Its like digging the Gobi desert on my plot and in the garden.
me too.
was going great guns until I had both parenta criticcally ill and through thier local hospitals rescussitation unit, thier local being 40 miles from me in another county and across the Thames.
This was swiftly followed by 3 weeks quarantine when the boys had chicken pox.
Up to that point I had great expectations of this year but it really has all gone to pot.
Ive had soem things grow good despite hte hitches and im having a great harvest of beans courgettes tomatoes etc at the minute.
I guess I can only do the best for this year and look to the new year as a new start and better things to come next year, and hope the weather is kind to us.
I think everybody has had a bad year this time.Funny weather lots of rain, cool at night the list goes on. I am disappointed with a lot of stuff this year , tomatoes done nothing lots of flowers but little germination. BUT plenty of cucumbers, good crop of potatoes, beans still no signs of setting. Given up now only go to my plot to water indoors cannot get motivated again. Never mind next year.....
Not to good here either. First lot of beans didn't germinate because of poor compost, 2nd lot not brilliant but had enough to plant out. Courgettes & squash plants eaten by something, they just vanished. As other have said, cold nights, plenty of rain & little sun where we are. Potatoes were/are good. So far it's been a strange year all round ::).
All of mine died on the one plot but are ok on the other one that has sunshine all day. Trouble is that they are a mixture of varieties instead of what I ordered namely waltham butternut.
Feeling a little downcast: me too. I have had very poor germination from a wave of sowing in July/August of spinach, oriental greens (none!), rabbits have nibbled my second sowing of beans away to nothing (first time on that site) and even radishes and spring onions have either not appeared or have disappeared since. Very discouraging.
My conclusion is that I should do what I normally do in early spring: chit the seeds in damp paper, transfer to a gutter to grow on, then transplant, water and protect. Harder work, but more productive than sowing in situ in the East Sussex desert. JUST time to do some more now.....
Yes, I have good climbing and broad beans, courgettes, potatoes, lettuces and quite a lot of other things (millions of raspberries!), but not the quantities and beauty and controlled, clean beds that I had hoped for this year. Thank goodness there is always next year.
Brown Owl, much sympathy over your parents' illnesses. My distractions have not been so serious but a combination of minor illnesses, sore back (my fault), being away from home, and having grandchildren flocking here to stay in their halfterms and school holidays has really limited my time at the plots.
I think everybody has had a bad year this time.Funny weather lots of rain, cool at night the list goes on
Talking about funny...we haven't had rain..hardly at all for whole summer!! DRY,DRY,DRY
This must be the worst growing year I've had for 18 yrs.
Some losses are my own fault.. ::)..only some..but majority is due for the weather...compost..etc.
So Cam..if it makes you feel any better..one to join 'your club'.. ::)
But I do try not to think the lost causes..and look for the successes.. ;) What's gone is gone and I can't do anything about it..I'll enjoy my apples instead.. ;D ;D
I grow all my tomato plants outside and after a huge crop last year, all I have this year is little green fruits on my plants. There just hasn't been enough sun and warmth.
Only half my runner and French beans survived but as I always plant too many I have enough to keep me going. They are very late though and I picked my first ones earlier in the week.
Squash plants haven't grown, though my Cavali courgette has produced plenty of fruit. The moth got in all my peas and broad beans were not as good as last year.
Potatoes have been really good though and the garlic has done really well. Onions weren't too bad either.
It's been a funny old year weather wise but there is always that hope that next year will be better.
Sorry to hear about your parents Brownowl and hope they are now well.
WoW, I feel a lot better knowing i was not the only one although barnowl i do hope you have a better year next year and your parents are better...
Jeannine the seeds i had were Futusu, Japanese Dumpling & Ahmeds Bosnian Pumpkin if you have any please let me pay you the postage at least :)
I have been offered the services of a architect to get the plans into the council to get my greenhouse planning permission so i am hoping for better things next year.
Husband suggested that i print off a calendar for next year and pop on what i need to do and when so might just do that and add some time to chitting the seeds 1st :)
Anything anyone might do differently next year?
Cam, I will have a look.. and yes I am planning a "do it now" calender for next year.
XX Jeannine
Cam, I have been doing a bit of scrooting.
I have Futsu, starts green, goes to black then turns deep burnt orange in storage.
I have Sweet Dumpling which is Japanese , small white/green striped chubby shape.
Re the Bosnian Pumpkin ..no.. but..
If my memory serves me correctly Trixiebelle distributed squash seeds that she had from Sarah's stock after Sarah died and among them was pumpkin seed from her next door neighbour Ahmed, now he wasn't from Bosnia he was from Pakistan I think but the connection may be there.
The only Bosnian squash I know personally is a summer squash.
I would check on a few of trixiebelles posts and perhaps Sarah's too, you mat get a clue to who else got seeds via Trixiebelle in Mrach of that year.I think it was 2007.
Let me know if you still want the seeds, I have grown the two types named above for years and truthfully I don't know if they were directly from Sarah or not..they could have been if I ran out, she may have sent them, i did have others from her so it is possible I had none at the time and she offered. The ones I have now |I have been growing for some time.
XX Jeannine
sorry to hear about the lows of your gardening year.
re the calendar thingy, if you use Outlook you can keep a diary in there for your gardening stuff - reminders of when to sow and plant, and any notes you want to add about when you actually got round to planting. I've found it useful, although like others I may get round to sowing some things, but as and when they actually get potted on or planted is another matter!
If you need Futsu, I have some, and you would be welcome to share
If it makes you feel any better to know you're not along - all my squash failed completely this year. the only thing growing in the squash bed this year is weeds and a lone achocha. >:(
Yep - frustrating year here too.....
Good job we're all optimists about next year ;D
Alison x
Sorry for the delay in posting planning a surprise 40th for hubbie for sunday :)
Tai Haku & Alimo - hugs xx
Jeannine thanks for the offer if i can get back to you in the next week or two as i am going to have a bit of a sort though and see what i need :)
Will also go though the posts and see what was posted by trixiebell re sarahs seeds..
Got 30 people comming sunday so will check in around tuesday when i recover :)
This might get under the wire, but then again. . . .
Life is like a pubic hair on a urinal rim, someday you just get p**d off. ;D Cheers, Tony.
I have three butternut squashes which have no fruit on them.) I have six courgettes in and am not even getting three fruit a day. Last year we were over run with them. The only thing I have done well with this year is lettuce, broad beans, carrots and dwarf beans. But this year is the first year we have had tomatoes in our polytunnel without blight yipee.
Our sweet peas have been a disaster this year, :(
We've all had problems this year and apparently butternut squashes are the hardest ones in this country.
But next year WILL be better :D
I am feeling stressed at the moment because I have too much lettuce, too much turnips, to much watercress which has now gone to seed. What do I do with too many aubergines and courgettes. My freezer is full and my neighbours are getting midnight parcels on their doorsteps. So much waste. I can't stand waste. I know my compost bins will benefit but with so many starving people in this world it seems such a shame. Have any of you any solutions to your excess crops and do they cause you stress.
Quote from: queenbee on August 25, 2011, 22:49:41
I am feeling stressed at the moment because I have too much lettuce, too much turnips, to much watercress which has now gone to seed. What do I do with too many aubergines and courgettes. My freezer is full and my neighbours are getting midnight parcels on their doorsteps. So much waste. I can't stand waste. I know my compost bins will benefit but with so many starving people in this world it seems such a shame. Have any of you any solutions to your excess crops and do they cause you stress.
If you have a sikh temple nearby they will almost certainly run a non-proselytising food kitchen for the poor/needy.
Brilliant idea, chriscross, but how many people have a convenient Sikh temple nearby?
I join in because I have been to 2 Sikh weddings in Singapore, and the family (including me) had to spend 2 or 3 hours in the temple kitchens chopping onions (quite mouldy, sack after sack), very long beans, garlic and so forth, as part of their tradition that no-one is too rich or grand that they don't spend time on humble tasks for the benefit of their fellow men and women. Poor or not.
One day I crossed the Straits of Singapore into Malaysia for a day, went to the nearest Sikh temple, and EXACTLY the same ideals were carried out. Except I was not family there, so they fed me.
Same here, first year without a lottie and we are growing at home but hubbys health has ment the raised beds are slow to get made and i have plants sat waiting to go in way to long.
Put tomatoes outside as i could not lift the bench out off the greenhouse to make room for them, just done that today and dragged the sad plants inside. The beans are just setting at long last and radish and beetroot are ok ish, feel down about it all but have a week off and made a start sorting the place out in the vain hope to be ready for next year ;D
I sympathise.
I think everyone, if they're honnest, has downcast days. This year has been excellent for them. ;D
I know we all moan about it's too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry but it really has been a stinker of a year all over the country it seems.
We had very hot days in May but still very chilly nights. I decided to wait before planting out. Big mistake....the weather didn't improve. Weeks of no rain and little sunshine followed. When it did warm up a bit we had nothing but drab, grey skies and then it rained...continuously.
I've not had the best of growing season but there have been some successes more by luck than judgement.
Lots of failures too. ::)
(Time has been short as I'm a carer for my two 90+ year old parents so allotmenting has to fit into short fleeting visits between showers of rain. ::))
Queenbee- our local hospice will also use fresh food for the patients :)
Queenbee..you could also leave box of veg near your house with sign "all fresh produce and free. I've grown too much and its shame if it goes waste..as long as you take what you will use, help yourself.." ;D
Shall we take bets how long it will stay full?.. ;)