Allotments 4 All

What veg Are you total failure at this season?
Lets hear some more tales of failure.
Maybe you will learn what not  to do by reading all the tales of woe.

What a novel notion! Why don't you start?

I'd like to welcome you on board this great informative site but I'm having problems getting my head around your name? Wish or promise??  ;D ;D :P

Anyway my failure this season was my swedes. Planted too early, got too hot and bolted. Not too serious: I can live without them given all te other great produce. Actually this has been a bit of a bumper year otherwise. 8)

my first season on my (our!) allotment, cauli's were a serious failure, kolh rabi didn't appear (poor germination?) onions were OK..ish I won't overwinter them again (too wet). Apart from that lots to learn but chuffed to bits!   ;D

Tomatoes (like most people), however to add insult to injury, came down this morning to find that  the few remaining san marzanoes were savaged in their bowl by our newest residents (mice)!

For the first time at growing anything i am very pleased with the "general", outcome although my onions were a total loss, really small, I let the weeds get out of control while getting the lottie up and running while also trying to plant as much as possible. So I have learned the valuable lesson. WEED WEED WEED WEED.

I got my allotment in March and have been working on it hard most weekends. I didn't think I would get any vegetables in this year but I managed to grow quite a few.

My biggest failure were the tomatoes~I lost them to blight. I had to dig them up. I picked the green ones off and I am still waiting to see how they fair.
My other failure was rocket. The seedlings appeared and faded away and I dont really know why. I think I might get three parnips if I am lucky.

The successes have outweighed the failures and I have learnt so much during this first year on my new allotment.

Duke

Fennel - all bolted so far have a few in the wings, so may still get some, fingers crossed.

Garlic - don't know what happened the leaves simply started dieing two weeks after planting out no signs of disease, they still formed cloves but got no bigger than a large marble very strange :-\. I will plant more in November so hope to have a harvest next summer.

Chinese leaves - was a major learning curve probably got 3 good heads, but didn't realise they were such a pest magnet, first the slugs and then the caterpillars. Cleaning them to cook was so gross full of pests and their sh*t :-X, so next year plan to use the coffee 'tea' brew i learned here to clear the ground of slugs and also grow under netting, to keep the butterflies off.

Here is the link to the coffee brew slug clearer in case anyone wants to check it out:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,4440.0.html

Welcome to the site nbg  :)

Worst two failures were losing my outside plum tomatoes to blight for the second year on the trot. Swore I would never grow toms outside again but a little voice from my son said "but I gave you a passata machine for Christmas".  Oh dear, plan B.

The other was that during the last couple of weeks we were all too busy to look closely at the brassicas - only to find that most of the sprouts and all the kale had been stripped to skeletons by the caterpillars.

Oh yes, and the fruit trees didn't do at all well either.

Otherwise, no complaints, it's been a pretty good year in other respects.  :) :)

What about you, nbg, any disasters this year  ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

actually, no failures this year. Course I don't grow caulis, and I'm not silly enough to try Celery any more, and the Celeriac doesn't count, as i've got it on someone elses plot, and there's the Fennel, which can still go either way

It is very reassuring to know that I'm not the only one to preside over allotment disasters! I got my teeny tiny plot in March and most things have grown well (despite me mucking about with them), with the exception of my onions, which just sat there and produced nothing but an inch of green on each, my 12 PSB have been turned to skeletons by the horrid caterpillars and the rocket that I planted mysteriously turned into some very nice red lettuce.

TOMATOES!

welcome nbg
winter onions, really great last year total rubbish this
carrots 1st lot got at by (rabbits??)
beetroot didn,t grow past baby ones (just seem to give up)
beans were very slow but have turned up trumps
parsnip and swedes are looking very good
cauli,s terrible but they never do well on our site
brassicas holding their own against most pests so far! I have found most winter brassicas get over pest damage once the frost kills the pests off so don,t give up on the sprouts yet
marg

Tomatoes, cleared the plants yesterday after coming back from a weekend away to find that blight had hit.
:( :(

1)  Cherry Tomatoes are not too bad but main toms are almost non existant. 
2)  Overwintering garlic produced one bulb about the size of a pickled onion from 8 sown.
3)  No apples on one of the trees.  The other has tons.

I was home last week for 11 days and everything else was doing well,  my OH & kids have been eating stuff as it was ready.  Will see about the rest when I get back at Christmas though everything else seemed to be doing OK..... so far.

lost our gladiis to thrip,tomatoes to blight,otherwise we seem to have done pretty good,given that its our first year! enjoyed huge caulis,beetroot,spuds,rocket,dahlia,sunflowers were giants! rocket still going strong,as are cabbages,got tons of spuds,onions,pumpkins going great,shall i go on? x

Quote from: ktlawson on September 02, 2008, 12:03:00
I was home last week for 11 days

I know things are bad, but when did the government bring in an 11 day week?  :D

Hugely expensive Carmen F1 cucumber seeds (actually I got them as the free packet with any ten other packets) - germinated 4 seeds (100%), 100% damped off. The only seedlings to damp off this year!  ???

Could be worse  - I might have paid a fiver for them  :)

Main failure has been not acting quickly enough to prevent bindweed damaging the raspberries.

Quote from: Barnowl on September 02, 2008, 12:30:04
Hugely expensive Carmen F1 cucumber seeds  germinated 4 seeds (100%), 100% damped off. The only seedlings to damp off this year!  ???

2 of my Carmen died but the one that survived did really well.  I will definitley be planting them again.  (£4.50 for 5 seeds from Exhibition Seeds as opposed to everywhere else who charges around £8)

Quote from: Rhubarb Thrasher on September 02, 2008, 12:28:10
I know things are bad, but when did the government bring in an 11 day week?  :D

You know how it is.  Every job has its perks ;D

I don't think I would 'over winter' onions again, way too small, but still usable. Plus would plant proper garlic cloves, still I did get usable sizes, enough for two  ;D
Three packets later, and still only have three parsnips to fight over at Christmas  ::)

Hi Lauren,  it's interesting what you say about the onions being small as mine are too and this is the first time I have over-wintered them.  The chap on the next door allotment has the most wonderful big onions, he grew them from Stuttgart Giant, I am going to look out for them next year.

And you have beaten me with the parsnips, I've only got two!  Still have loads in the freezer from last year but I would have liked to be able to freeze some more....

T.