Allotments 4 All

of you have one thing, that no matter what you do or try to do, just will not grow!
For me it is carrots, I have tried and tried, various methods and types, and they just never appear, if I get nothing yet again this year, then they are out of my planting for next year!
What about you all??

Carrots? Just drop some at the end of the row, in error, & they'll all germinate!

But yes, they are my bête noir!!

Sow them in soil & sand...50/50.

That certainly helps the growth, but germination??

carrots and swedes are  my problems, never harvested a swede from my current lottie in 4 years.

For me it is spring onions, hopeless at them.

This year though sown in trays and modules, good germination so far and I hope to have a crop. The first batch sown early feb are now about 5" tall!

Fingers crossed.

Jerry

Purple sprouting broccoli. Only just about my favourite veg.

I thought I'd cracked it last year after forgetting to sow in previous years. Only to go away leaving plants just about the right size for planting out and finding them shrivelled when I got back a bit too late to sow more.

I shall try *again* in a week or two.

moonbells

ps it *was* carrots though, till I hit on the compost v-trench! And I'm not very good at seed-grown onions (though leeks usually are fine).

I am hoping not to have many - but fearing I will have a few. 

I have had trouble with carrots in the past but have never grown them on a scale to call them a failure.  I now have stony soil so will be trying all the trench and cardboard tube methods.

I am sure you will soon realise if I develop a true nemesis by questions posted on this board.

Herbs from seed. They all germinate but then struggle to grow from seedlings to usable plants. I'm okay with growing herbs already at a decent size from the garden centre, but from seed, no! My coriander seedlings and parsley seedlings are looking pretty pathetic at the moment. But, my basil seedlings are looking quite healthy, so fingers crossed...

Onions - from seed. Totally beyond me...
Angelica - every year I sow it, every year I waste another £1.15

Peas

Usually they don't germinate.

If they germinate,  they usually die off.

One year they grew several feet high,  produced 3 or 4 pods and no peas.

This year more than half germinated;  half of those were eaten and the rest are 3 inches high.

Fingers (toes,  legs,  arms) crossed

erm so far...

- peas (last year they grew to 6 inches high then flowered and produced about 3 pods to the row)

- carrots (not a sign of the ones i sowed last year)

- spring onions (not one, but i did find one lurking yesterday that i must have sown last summer)

- brussels sprouts (no sprouts - lucky i like sprout tops)

hopefully i had a bad year and this year (my second full year) will shorten that list  :D

Our big failure are peas.  They germinate but then despite our precautions they get nobbled and disappear.  Had about  four attempts last year, -  rethinking our strategy for this year, but not giving up.  :D busy_lizzie

My first attempt at Spring Onions this year was a disaster, they got leggy and keeled over, having read about the failures of Peas on here so far has knocked the wind out of my sails ??? as I got some to germinate in a jam jar with damp tissue :'( I'd better not hold my breath ::)

Spinach, always bolts or comes to nothing, carrots used to be a problem but now they're not and I've no idea why, parsnips sometimes don't show up but now I sow a little later & they seem to be OK

Spring onions only started working for me when I gave up planting them outside and pricked them out into the greenhouse border. They grow really happily between the tomato plants or, as we speak, the last of the winter lettuces.

Thanks to A4A I can grow peas - especially now I've realised the first thing that appears when you pre-germinate them is a root not a shoot. I planted my first batch upside-down!

Quote from: terrace max on April 07, 2005, 09:30:39
Thanks to A4A I can grow peas - especially now I've realised the first thing that appears when you pre-germinate them is a root not a shoot. I planted my first batch upside-down!

Ooh err! I have just sown some pre-germinated peas, I must have missed that thread on whats root 'n' shoot ::) and just bunged em in :o won't they root themselves down and shoot themselves up then? ???

No worries Roy - mine did just that. Only my gardening pride suffered...

 ;D Tee hee  ;D Thanks terrace 8) (phew)

It's too soon to tell. I'm only really in my second serious season (after three years of dabbling previously). Last year - everything failed. But I blame the weather. My biggest disappointment was the parsnips. they did a grand total of nothing. And I love them. Oh and the fennel bolted. I will sow both later this year...

Swedes and turnips.  Swedes don't even bother to germinate and turnips germinate, then struggle and eventually die.  Think I pulled about 3 last year, and they were all riddled with holes!!  Carrots can be patchy but am sowing so many rows this year I HAVE to get some!  Basil germinates, then either grows like the clappers, or all dies.

Terrance, angelica I can grow!  I grew some from seed last spring and it looked wonderful in my garden.  I let it flower and set seed, which is distributed exactly where I wanted it to, and already it is a foot high and lush!

QuoteTerrance, angelica I can grow!  I grew some from seed last spring and it looked wonderful in my garden.  I let it flower and set seed, which is distributed exactly where I wanted it to, and already it is a foot high and lush!

boo hoo!

Quote from: aquilegia on April 07, 2005, 10:49:43
It's too soon to tell. I'm only really in my second serious season (after three years of dabbling previously). Last year - everything failed. But I blame the weather. My biggest disappointment was the parsnips. they did a grand total of nothing. And I love them. Oh and the fennel bolted. I will sow both later this year...

If your fennel bolted then you probably won't have to sow any more - it'll have self-sown (unless you cut off the flower heads when you saw them!) and you'll be digging it up for years!

moonbells

Glad to see it is not just me then! I had another thought, for some reason lettuces and I do not get on either!  But I too am doing the EJ method and throwing so many carrots and lettuces in, something has to turn up! ;D

How disheartening these posts are. For me it must be anythin sown in the ghouse- I leave them there and forget to water them. Although ive found mushrooms growing on my cappiliary matting ::) maybe thats a new method ??? not sure where they came from- eat em or smoke em?

Och these purists eh.  Mebbe they're not hungry enough  ;D

Onions due to white rot.
Brassica due to clubroot.
Tomatoes due to blight.

Hahahaha, what a happy lottie.

On the bright side.
Blight resistant tomatoes are doing well, they did get a little but it was manageable and I'm getting good harvests. Not like the non-resistant tomatoes where, as soon as they get infected, the blight spread like wild fire before getting hardly any harvest.
This year I'm going to try clubroot resistant broccoli. I will still take precautions like starting early in pots until they have a good sized rootball and then planting in compost with lime.

Just be patient.

It seems that at the flush of 'apparent' Spring, everyone rushes out and what do you achieve -- LITTLE or NOWT.

There's still plenty of time. I'm still digging! The ground is still cold.

HOLD HARD!

Cannot grow spinach for love nor money.  Having one last try this season...

Last year's sweetcorn was not a great success, but it just rained and rained here so maybe not a great surprise.

[ My biggest disappointment was the parsnips. they did a grand total of nothing. And I love them.

Quote

I use Dobies primed seed,never fails .....Alan