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I was wondering whether anybody else out there was experiencing the same kinds of problems I am having at the moment? I am somewhat bemused as a lot of my plants seem to be in a poor state and am wondering whether it has anything to do with the warm spring we had. In summary the problems I have had are:
1) Garlic was a disaster; I have harvested it all as it was going moldy. Last year my garlic was amazing; I planted it at the same time this and last year.
2) Half of my onions are looking very sad and I think going the same way as the garlic; i.e. little growth and mould starting to set in. I am not sure to leave them in or get them out.
3) Broad beans; a fifth of my plants are dying and appear to have rotten roots plus there are not many beans on the plants that are still healthy
4) Potatoes; about a quarter are going yellow and appear to be dying.
Any help or ideas would really be appreciated, if only so I can understand what is going on.
Christian

Onions and garlic look disappointing.  We hven't done anytrhing different this year from any other year.  Broadies got blown horizontal in the last wind we had, but are just producing pods now.  Strawberries are sad, but tasty, sweetcorn a disaster.  Beans are doing OK, though, though the runners took a while to get going.  I am sure it was the hot dry April followed by the cold wet May.  They just got confused.

our garlic's covered with rust and very little of it has cloves, some of the onions have gone rotten but the spuds , so far, are fine  :)

Our spuds are the healthiest on the site, they always seem to be.  My son grows them (that's his responsibility) and he treats them too well.  Therefore they reward him.

My veg seem to be slower than most, (is this anything to do with the straw mulch, I wonder?) but so far not too bad. Rust on garlic like a lot of others, and bolting onions and cauli. Sorry to hear about your poorly plot haselwimmer, hopefully someone who has some ideas will be along shortly......... ;D

our broad beans are  a write off...
are you sure you don't have white rot?
???

this is what our garlic looks like, this is the overwinter, the spring sown ones aren't half as bad

Aren't they supposed to look like that???  The overwintered ones should soon be ready to dig up and the top growth dies down.

maybe it doesn't show it properly, there's lots of rust on it and it has curly seed heads, I've taken them off but the bulbs aren't that big, will they still swell at this stage?

My garlic looked like that too dug it up on Friday. Got a few big bulbs it did ok. Got worried that with all the rain it might rot.

Hi Manicscousers,

I was told recently that garlic will not develop any further once it has rust. As soon as we get a few dry days I'll be lifting mine, hope there's something worth having!!

Good luck with yours.

thanks, belinda, will dig it up a.s.a.p.  :)

Is this the case? Bummer >:(

On our site, no-one's had a decent crop of garlic this year. I dug some of mine up yesterday and - although is seems sound - it's only half the size it normally is. I assume that the warm weather in April fooled the plants into thinking it was time to stop growing & start ripening. Yet the elephant garlic (in the same bed) is huge!

This year has been like most others - a disaster with some crops and others are been great. Looks like I will get loads and loads of fruit - apples, plums, loganberries etc etc.

Disasters include - celery (eaten by slugs and deer), broad beans but most importantly, cabbage and all things brassica.

I have written down some New Years Resoultions already which I hope will fix this:

1. Sow all plants earlier, at home and then transfer to my greenhouse. Typically cabbage and broad beans in Feb.

2. Ensure new seedlings planted out are watered properly.

3. Only plant out cabbage seedlings when they are much, much too big for the seed trays.

4. Potting compost hasn't got enough nutrients for the plants - either spray with feed or mix in some compost from the heap.

5. Protect beans, in particular, from deer which like to eat their tops off.

6. Protect courgettes and cucumber from badgers that like dig their roots up.

7. Grow a smaller range of vegetables.

8. Grow only one or two varities of cabbage; abandon all hope of cauli's, broccolli etc.

9. Even growing immense broccolli only gets you a small amount of produce - waste of time and space.

10. Never sow any sort of large seed directly into the ground - beans of all sorts, sunflowers and potatoes - these are just food for animals - deer, mice, rabbits and badgers.

.......and hope that the weather is more reasonable next year.

My garlic is covered in rust, but the earlies, which I lifted last weekend, are massive.

Yep- garlic a disaster, overwintered onions the same- think it's rot so that's a bummer. Potatoes disappointing.

On the plus side, asparagus and artichokes have been great- I guess perennials have a better chance in strange weather?