I thought id run through our planted list and see which things didnt work and put them out there to see
who and where they did work for you.
OKRA/ CAJUN DELIGHT
Grown from seed in GH,but plant never took off and certainly no fruits on it.
CANTELOUPE MELON/F1 SWEETHEART
Grown in growbag within coldframe loads of foliage and a few flowers that turned to fruit but only small.
SWEETCORN/F1 HYBRID
30 grown in square,but only grew about 3/4 feet tall and 1 small corn from each
CELERIAC/MONARCH F1 HYBRID
Grown from seed in shallow ground but never saw growth from any of em.
MUSHROOM/APARIGUS DRY SPAWN
Followed instructions religiously but didnt have any growth what so ever.
FENNELL/VICTORIA F1 HYBRID
Grown from seed in shallow ground,but no show whatsoever.
AUBERGINE/BLACK BEAUTY
Grown from seed in GH,very small plants that never grew any fruits.
CAULIFLOWER/SNOWBALL A
Grown from seed,very small heads that felt mushy and not firm to the touch.
OK !!!!!!!!!!when I think of all our successes from our 1st season these are but a few dissappointments but its always interesting to read about the same veg grown well by others and if we are doing things wrong.
Cheers
Gazza
My chillies and peppers didn't do anything at all despite promising start they had..but I suspect there was some 'not so nice' part to play from my lottie neighbour involving weedkiller.. >:(
Sweetcorn didn't do well..first time ever..but what ever I managed to grow, my chickens have been enjoying to eat last few weeks.
Melons and majority of my cucumbers got red spider mite on them while still young plants..they never recovered from it... >:(
Other than that..can't complain.. ;D
Oh..my mushrooms logs that I did year ago..those produced 3 oyster mushrooms.. ::)..not even a meal out of them.. ::)
I've tried and tried making mushroom logs to produce..and yet again..no success..
I don't seem to able to keep them moist enough for proper growth. They always look very promising while in plastic sacks but when they've been 'unveiled'..that's it..nothing. Perharps I should keep them permanently under cover and maybe cut few holes into plastic for 'fruiting'... :-\..but they don't look nice like that..well..suppose one just have to try again. I WILL find way for success with mushroom growing.. ::)
I got some corn, but it was pretty pathetic, no doubt due to the drought. Lots of stuff didn't do well for that reason, and there was a lot of poor pollination. I messed up planting TPS in May. On the other hand, the bees did extremely well.
Butternut squash, it ran riot over the allotment and then promptly died.
Fennel - that was my fault planted the wrong seeds
Pumpkin - promising start then died, no warning one minute looking fab next minute dead??
Shallots - the only reason for this was they had the wrong label ???, but I did grow some fantastic brown onions which we are still enjoying in their place.. :)
Carrots, once again germinated but never actually grew past something the size of a baby radish.
Parsnips planted too late, didn't grow properly.
Aubergines didn't fruit properly.
Broccoli - didn't seem to grow
Beetroot all got eaten by voles.
Tomatoes got blight.
Gadget, did your squash get powdery mildew? That makes them go very grey and sick.
actually come to think of it there was a powdery substance to them, all the fruit just turned to mush, may look into that before next year, thanks Antipodes :)
My failures this year were yellow beetroot looked ok but the roots were the size of large marbles. Rhubarb seeds, germinated well and then simply disappeared. Leeks did very well and then also suddenly disappeared.
Sweet corn did well but only got chest high rather than head height. Only one good cob per plant. I do recommend putting them in bottle cloches until they grow out of the top.
Last sowing of beans did not take off - far too dry.
Carrots bit poor the deer/voles are nibbling them.
Still something of a lack of goji berries.
One sowing of parsnips only produced two plants though one of them grew huge.
Runner beans did not taste very good, pods rather dry and stringy.
Plenty of successes to balance the failure.
Lost my onions and shallots to white rot, dug another bed the other side of the house just for alliums, grew some smashing-looking leeks in there - till last week when I find, yes you've guessed, white rot....
For saying we had no rain all summer, though, most stuff was OK - though last year's wonderful caulis were a one-hit wonder, this year's were about a tenth the size...
Gadget there is a good article on squash ailments here with pictures (scroll right down)
http://www.onthegreenfarms.com/fruit-vegetable/how-to-grow-organic-pumpkins/ (http://www.onthegreenfarms.com/fruit-vegetable/how-to-grow-organic-pumpkins/)
Were any of these diseases like what you got? Powdery mildew hits the leaves, from oldest to youngest and works its way up the vine. You can slow it with Bordeaux mix or milk sprays, but it never really goes away. However on big squash plants, I have found that it doesn't affect the fruit much (it's more of a problem on cukes or courgettes) so I am not sure that this is what made your fruit rot. Usually the whole vine would be dead before it hits the fruit.
Someone PM'ed me a good link about squash diseases:
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Cucurbit_FrtRots.htm
Sweetcorn - sown in root trainers - carefully planted out and watered well. Grew to about 4 foot, the flowered and only 1 piddly corn per plant, and, just to add insult to injury, just as those piddly corns were almost ready to pick, a squirrel had the lot!
Parsnips - 2 rows sown - 6 germinated! And to top that, they are cankery. Shame.
Celeriac - number one daughter brought a tray of young plants from the garden centre and planted them lovingly and watered them well. Followed Monty Don's instructions, and over half have flowered. Out of the 12 planted, I think there will be 3 usable roots.
Quote from: Mrs Ava on November 24, 2011, 22:11:17
Celeriac - number one daughter brought a tray of young plants from the garden centre and planted them lovingly and watered them well. Followed Monty Don's instructions, and over half have flowered. Out of the 12 planted, I think there will be 3 usable roots.
One usuable root is success with those darned things ;D ;D
Loads of successes but:
- Raspberries = very disappointing after some bumper crops in the past. I guess they were too dry after being transplanted the autumn before.
- Butternut squash = some success but not a patch on the previous year so we will be buying them from the supermarket before next Spring :(
Other than that... not a bad harvest considering how short of time I've been and how cool the summer was once May had baked everything. ::)
Next year will be different..one way or another. :D
Not to bad this year.
Our poor old sweetcorn struggled and was really short and did not produce much.
For some reason the white carrots sown earlier decided to produce pretty flowers.
Our obviously misguided attempt to grow a second lot of peas met with confusing weather and decided to not bother too much.
This was really minor and only our second allotment year. So we are looking at the full freezer and the rows of usefull jars in the larder and enjoying the happy feeling.
We had good cab, cawli, brussels,but carrots rotten with carrot fly ,poor tomatoes in the greenhouse and out,celery rubbish,leeks had the dreaded moth,melons set little ones then wilted boohoo!but never say die soon we'll be setting seed with hearts full of hope saying IT'LL BE BETTER NEXT YEAR bring it on MOTHER NATURE ;D
Complet failure with Potatoes and carrots no great shallots either. Mostly baming the odd weather & only having the lottie since april.
I grew some good corn last year and tried to increase the numbers this year, but got almost no growth at all.
Last year I had so many potatoes that some were wasted when the new ones became ready, but this year, although I planted a similar number, we are just about to run out and have to buy them, for the first time in three years.
Virtually no tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chillis.
Not enough big onions, though still have a few shallots. Only two butternuts, and quite a few winter squashes though not as many as there should have been.
Last sowing of climbing beans germinated well but were eaten to stumps by something
I really should learn but its the feb hopes for summer that makes me hopefully plant aubergines that have never ever given me a single fruit despite lots of loving care in the greenhouse. This is year four and ive had it So I'm binning the seeds from the suitcase so I never devote planting space to them again.
My carrots were rubbish again this year however seem to have a reasonable crop in pots in the greenhouse right now.
My water melons were only the size of oranges but since they are a climber and didnt take up much space they can stay.
But the GH tomotoes were fab this year, the first year we made it all the way to October without loosing them to the blight. Still eating roast tomotoes that i bottled in july. Fab
Onwards and upwards.
x Sunloving
First season on the plot.
The old boys said Cauliflowers don't grow and they were correct.
They said tomatoes get blight and they were right.
The kohlrabi has been poor too but that is probably due to planting them too late.
But the successes made up for this.
Hmmm!
Parsnips, carrots, turnips and beetroots did not germinate well.
Onions overwinter did not all manage to reach spring.
Onion sets survived but dough bake here cooked them in the mini greenhouse, saved a few.
Runner beans did not run anywhere.
Blackcurrents did not make an appearance.
Toms met blight and collapsed.
I have brilliant pink fir apple potates that i am still digging :o))))
Bill
My climbing beans took ages to get going, with a cold June, repeated frosts, and the slugs rampant. They ran in the end, but I had them fleeced for ages, and I lost a lot.
Onions, shallots lost to white rot
Turnips didn't get one
Swede got 3 out of a whole row
Broccoli and sprouting was OK but went on holiday when they were at their best
Radish rubbish and beetroot was not very good
Tomatoes badly blighted but got quite a few
Also my sweet potato experiment failed
Sweetcorn also not too good.
But loads of lettuce, beans of all kinds and carrots with some winter kale and sprouting coming along nicely with still a few parsnips to pull.
There's always next year :D
Quote from: boydzfish on November 26, 2011, 23:27:44
Onions, shallots lost to white rot
Turnips didn't get one
Swede got 3 out of a whole row
Broccoli and sprouting was OK but went on holiday when they were at their best
Radish rubbish and beetroot was not very good
Tomatoes badly blighted but got quite a few
Also my sweet potato experiment failed
Sweetcorn also not too good.
But loads of lettuce, beans of all kinds and carrots with some winter kale and sprouting coming along nicely with still a few parsnips to pull.
There's always next year :D
Here's wishing you good luck for next year.
I think many of us are hoping for a better one!
Was happy with spuds, cauliflowers, garlic, shallots, onions and salad stuffs various. However, sprouts were a disaster (over watering?) and just discovered that half my swedes are deformed (look like an out-take from a Blackadder sketch).
Swede - years ago i tried direct sowing swede and results were abysmal so i switched to sowing and transplanting from seed tray modules. Success was great. The past 2 years other plotholders had started having success with direct sowing so i tried that again this year..... and got nothing. Back to modules from next year and will be sticking with it.
I'm with you KT. Modules for my turnips and beetroot have produced an abundance. Will do the same with swede next year, and just about everything else!!
I find modules work for me!
Taken years to get good turnips but did well this year.
As a first time plotholder I was surprised that every thing I grow did well. The only thing that did not do well was our carrots. They was disformed. But my mums rabbit had them. And she said that the rabbit looked at them and wounded what they was.
Im intrigued on the modules Pumpkinlover,as we had read that a lot of sub soil veggies cant take transplanting
from mods so therefore just dig the seeds straight in.
If I thought Turnips ,carrots ,Beetroots,swedes etc tolerated it I would try it again this season if the success rates
are worth the effort...or is it just particular "strong" varieties you have found worked.
apols for taking my own Question off at a tangent !!!!!!!! :P
Gazza
I am also interested in growing roots in modules, I did not do very well with beetroot this year. I do not see this as off at a tangent, after all what is the point in a thread on failures if there are no solutions?
I have had a lot of problems in the past with carrot germination but now I put about an inch deep lay of recycled compost and sow on top with just a light sprinkily to cover. Had brilliant germination. I do not think the slugs travel well over it.
I do not think that it is worth the bother of sowing in modules for root crops, as the roots can be damaged if you leave them in the modules too long.
Most of the failures in germination of root crops are probably due to either duff seed, soil too cold, bed not kept moist or slug and snail damage. I always have slug protection down from the start.
Quote from: Digeroo on November 28, 2011, 11:32:39
I am also interested in growing roots in modules, I did not do very well with beetroot this year. I do not see this as off at a tangent, after all what is the point in a thread on failures if there are no solutions?
I have had a lot of problems in the past with carrot germination but now I put about an inch deep lay of recycled compost and sow on top with just a light sprinkily to cover. Had brilliant germination. I do not think the slugs travel well over it.
I've only ever tried carrots straight in the ground - need lots of tlc (watering) until they're established. Beetroot on the otherhand works very well in modules. Advantages are I plant them out exactly where I want them, none are wasted and it's so much easier to sow successionally to get a worthwhile crop over a long period of time from just two or three lots of modules. No fiddly thinning out and weeding is easier if they are well spaced.
It's strange. I have never grown swedes because they are dirt cheap anywhere.
But on my first husband's farm, we grew them for the sheep, and on Christmas Day my job was to peel, cook and mash some swedes for Christmas Dinner. We had MASSES to choose from.
Is it a question of scale? If we grow a short row on an allotment we may have failures and gaps, but if we grow an acre or two, we and the sheep will have plenty to share? I don't remember that we took much care of the land apart from spreading pig muck.
Our best this year were sowed in a seed bed then transplanted :)
Gazza- every book I read says not to transplant root crops ;D
I started doing it to get the earlier crops going and find it works. Later easy crops I may sow on a seed bed but I generally like my modules. I try and get the roots pointing down by using a dibber to plant. Another advantage is I just plant out what I need, and can give away the rest.
Unbelievably my parsnips are rubbish [back to gladiator next yr], the overwintering onions failed because i intercropped with sprouts- how stupid was that..... ::)
The runners eventually set but the site was too dry- big ditch of compost next year. ;)
No melons coz i planted 2 lots of cue seed [That's wot happens when you get old and stupid ???].
No blackcurrants coz the pigeons got them..hmm, one pigeon is pie we'll get the others next yr.
Some leeks off to seed coz I sowed too early.
But carrots are brill, toms still delivering in poly but slowing now, pots v.good and next yrs challenge is TPS [ if I've saved it ok] and onions from seed ;D
Isn't gardening great!!