Allotments 4 All

I'm on a bit of a downer this morning! It's rained during the night and so far this morning we have a steady drizzly rain, it should be a good thing because it's been so dry up until late. But, I'm pretty sure I spotted Late Blight on the Pink Fir Apple potatoes yesterday, couple that with the weather today, not good.  Plus finding out Allium Leaf Miner has arrived in the area and been busy with my crops, I'm really feeling like jacking it all in. Just what is the point, loads of things are becoming a disaster and my plot is turning into growing under a sea of plastic. I'm now covering more things, to protect them from a multitude of birds, butterflies, moths, flies, bugs, mice – voles etc, than I can grow unprotected on the plot. I haven't even touched on the fruit! Then there is HORRID Late Blight and I really don't want to get into spraying for it. Perhaps I should just go to the supermarket and buy my veggies there because I'm not sure I can be bothered to carry on growing.

I know the feeling that it seems that things are stacked against us most of the time. However no supermarket produce is of the same standard for freshness against picking and eating from the allotment. Taste is often also a factor.

I often wonder if all the protection we do these days against wild life eating our crops works against us in the bigger picture. Maybe we should budget for wild life taking a share. It is interesting that the cherry trees I have get stripped of all the cherries at present (new trees) where as the cherries growing in the hedge just up the road provide me with a decent amount  of fruit each year.

As to the dreaded blight I get so upset when I lose my tomatoes to it but then after a while I get to think of the tomatoes I managed to pick before it ruins the plants and decide to grow yet again.

Oh jayb, I'm so sorry things aren't going to plan. But look at all the amazing breeding work you're doing, you've accomplished so much.

I really think that breeding for horizontal resistance is the way forward, but I haven't sussed out exactly how that works yet...

Jayb  sorry to hear of your problems.  I can understand how it feels.

I now say that the allotment fee is my "gym" fee and i enjoy every visit there.
I set out with plans of what I will accomplish for each visit ( I always fail) but enjoy every minute.
I say that anything I take out the allotment gates is a bonus to be enjoyed.

Besides, who wants to sit/stand around moping all day.

Enjoy the gardening

best wishes
Bill

Hug for you before I start writing ()

Yes, the day blight arrives and plants have to be destroyed is always the worst day in the garden calendar.  You know my woes with moles, voles, convulvulus, drought, wind, cold clay and of course blight only too well.  And yet ........... and yet,  when it comes to spring we will do it all again.  And again!

Because, we are growing what cannot be bought and to a standard of nutrients that cannot be bought.  And in your case the garden is an adventure and research institute, because of your exciting breeding work.

Now PFA is always prone to blight, but you bred the genes into many other varieties,  resistance will follow and you have already done so much towards breeding resistant potatoes and tomatoes, that this battle will be won.  Hopefully with PFA genes in the mix. 

Be proud of your achievements, very proud, and if you are not, we are for you    

How bad is the allium leaf miner at your place?  If we don't think twice about protecting brassica from the Cabbage White and pigeons, then covering alliums may just have to follow in similar vein.

You need another hug 

 

Jaybe,
I can understand your frustration which has led to your current feeling to 'jack it all in'. I have held the same two plots here now for 35 years and have suffered with many of the 'nasties' that you have mentioned. I have tried all sorts of remedies, many gleaned from this great website.
Some of the most effective if it helps are:-
- A debris net 'cage', 19' by 19', which keep my worst pests out i.e. flying rats & cabbage whites.
- Keep the soil fertility high which helps the plants to fight disease and encourage worms.
- Rotate crops.
I don't win all the time, but I've overcome potato blight, white onion rot, gooseberry mildew, blackfly.
I'm very fortunate in not EVER having suffered from theft or vandalism. That would finish it for me!!!
Keep your pecker up, lots of support here.

chin up jayb all i have learnt is in a bad year  there is always something that gives you a little glimmer of hope and the odds are always stacked against us  i think thats why its called growing and not harvesting lol i think all us gardeners go thru hell once in a while im sure youll find something to make you smile on the plot but if you need a chat im always here  hope this helps

Thanks all, good words, advice and much for me to think about and help give me perspective. If I'm going to have a next year I think I'll start by making a list of what I can grow unprotected and what will need covering and go from there. I don't feel very well at the moment, feeling very tired, it's tempting to give in and take the easy route. Which would mean a big bag of grass seed or maybe a wildflower mix!

I've made a start on cutting down potato haulms, mostly PFA's and any earlies. I'll wait until it stops raining again before doing any more.  The earlies should all be ok, it's just the mains which won't have much under them particularly as it's been so dry. If I have a next year I'll have to plant earlier!

It's not all doom, I've got some (hopefully) blight resistant potato varieties growing, this should give them a good testing and also I've some young plants grown from tps, there is a slim chance one might have resistance to LB.

I don't know why I should be upset at late blight, we get it every year, I guess I just keep hoping one year we won't!

Again Allium Leaf Miner can be managed with a bit of effort and planning ahead....

Thanks for the hugs, muchly appreciated

Sorry to hear that you are having a bad time with bugs n stuff. No pressure but you are an inspiration to a lot of us and we probably forget that it doesn't just happen for you as easily as you make it appear on here.
That added with not always feeling well enough to do the work, so no wonder you feel like you do sometimes. It's hard work by anyone's standard.
Here's hoping that the benefits start to outweigh the challenges. Lots of hugs coming your way.

I think it also has something to do with the time of year - at least for me there is always a dip in spirits around this time. Most of the hard work is done by this time of the year and we have all put a lot of energy and time in to our plots.  Then you see you onions go over, or the toms/spuds get blight, or the pigeons eat all you kale plants (the buggers), or beans covered in blackfly, or the new varieties we have tried not really working out, or one of dozens of other annoyances - it can be hard to keep your head up and truly believe it was all worth the effort. 

What I do is to try to remind myself that it is supposed to be fun so I plant some more seeds, enjoy my jams/chutneys etc, have a nip of blackcurrant vodka and go and take the piss out of fellow idiots on site who are all in the same boat in one way or another.

I know how you feel ... it's been a war on my plot this year ... back in January the rats ate my purple sprouting down to stumps and tunnelled the parsnips out of the ground leaving conical holes in the ground.  Then the rabbits and deer jumped and bit through the fence to massacre almost anything I planted out in March and April.  Then the blackfly set in so badly on my broad beans that they didn't even make a single pod and voles have tunnelled under everything killing plants from underneath ... and they thieved all my strawberries.

But then I look at the plot at the moment and it all looks pretty good really.  Yes my brassicas, fruit and lettuces are all under netting .. and from the sounds of it my alliums and carrots should be too ... but I've had good hauls of lettuce, asparagus, beetroot, artichokes and new potatoes and it's looking pretty lush out there now.  If there's late blight out there I'll cut the potatoes down and harvest in a few weeks ... last year I harvested in July because of blight scares and got a great haul of main crop potatoes - avoiding the slug and vole damage that people who left theirs in longer suffered!  The down side is that I will have to paint all my tomato plants blue if they're going to survive the blight.  They don't call this country Blighty for nothing!

So all in all ... it's swings and roundabouts ... I think this is a pretty bad year for most things ... but when I look at it with a bit of perspective it's still pretty good ... you just have to be prepared to lose some stuff to pests and weather.  If it all goes completely bad you can plant the whole plot up with asparagus and be the most popular person in your neighbourhood in May and June!!!

Hi Jayb,
Am late in seeing this, but I just wanted to send a hug from my corner too. Really sorry you're feeling tired and down about it all. Can you leave it for a few days to give you a chance to get your mojo back?

Late blight is why I don't grow many maincrops at all and there are only sacrificial tomatoes outside - it's heartbreaking to have to pull them up, but giving up growing altogether sounds fairly hardcore.

I live with more net than I am happy with to get the food I really want to eat but there are still lots of crops that seem to be ok though. I am currently hiding my kohlrabi from the flying rats by planting it in the squashes and popcorn - the squash one has only partially worked but the planting in the popcorn is untouched. And if I dot my tomatoes about they generally seem to escape a lot longer than others.

Hope you are feeling a bit better when you've had some rest. And possibly some cake. I find that helps a lot.