Vegetable success's and failures ?

Gardening to 'grow your own food' from square foot to half an acre !!
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Richard
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Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by Richard »

My success's..

Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Runner Beans
Chilli
Squash

Failures...

Courgettes, bordering on pathetic ! First bad year ever.
Mange Tout, nowhere near the last two years
Pumpkins (first effort) failure

Part of the failure may be, due to being confined to barracks and little physical work, lack of attention at crucial times.
I haven't done anywhere near the clearing of weeds and general forking around the plants to store water better in the rain, all be it we had little rain in June.

What are your ups and downs plus can you pinpoint any reasons for both sides ?

Richard )t'
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lancashire lass
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by lancashire lass »

the mange tout might have been affected by the heatwave and been too hot (especially if the flowers were out during that period, the pollen might have been cooked so the pods wouldn't develop) or the soil got a touch too dry (I noticed pea plants fail to thrive if their roots get dry especially during hot weather - you might have rescued them in time but they always seem to go downhill after that regardless of keeping on top of the watering)

Were your successes under glass or outdoor? I might have suggested the warm dry spring was good for early fruit set and rain followed on was much needed water for outdoor crops. Chillies are surprisingly hardier than you think, easy to grow and usually do well, some varieties have higher yields than others.

As you had successful squash, but unsuccessful courgette and pumpkin, it's clearly not the environment as they are more or less the same thing (cucurbits) unless they were growing in very different conditions. All cucurbits like good fertile soil, strong sunshine and warmth, and once growing, no holding them back and keep them watered during hot weather with plenty of pollinating insects when in flower. One year I had poor fruit set and discovered a sort of wasp hiding in the flowers and were attacking the poor bumblebees that visited. If it was raining heavily when the flowers were out, it is unlikely fruit will have set and often the embryonic fruit will just rot and drop off the stem. Another reason could be if they were sown too early - they do well when spring has hot sunshine and once germinated, should grow really quickly. If there is a cold snap (not a frost cold enough to kill but long drawn out cool weather) soon after germinating, the seedlings tend to sulk and be on the sickly side even when the weather picks up.

For courgette, try growing a parthenon type alongside your usual - seeds are more expensive but you are guaranteed courgettes as they will still develop fruit whether they get pollinated or not! I used to grow Cavili F1 but the most popular one you can find seeds for is Parthenon F1 - worth a Google and shop around different seed sites rather than the first one you see. As they don't need pollinating, parthinocarpic types can be grown in a greenhouse for early cropping - so a good reason to grow different types of courgette to maximise your harvest. With a courgette famine this year you'll really appreciate and look forward to the glut next year )run(
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KarenE
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by KarenE »

LL really knows her stuff )t'

Sucessful withg the tumbling toms, and the roma and moneymaker look okay too. Aubergines are doing well even in tubs, although the fruit are smaller which suits me fine. Swetcorn very successful, green beans (and yellow and purple) always a success. Litle gem lettuce grown well, and the sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli are lookinmg healthy. My butternut squash, germinated from seed, are looking fantastic with lots of little fruits on them and its the first time I've ever had success, so good there )t' A good crop of red gooseberries, more than I thought there would be after last year's awful showing.

My cucumbers always do less successfully, and this year 1 plant with 1 fruit which is dying back already. I grow it in the greenhouse, next year I might try an outdoor variety. My melons also unsuccessful but that's because I haven't bothered with manual pollination and I may not bnother at all next year. Strawberries this year were also rubbish with fruit but have set lots of runners so maybe they are nearing the end - hopefully the runners will mean a good crop going forward. Raspberries not great but I suspected that as I hadn't pruned them over winter (they are autumn ones)

And finally my pumpkins - I had a bad year with germinaing them, even when new seeds bought this year. In the end I had 1 survive, and I bought 2 plants. They are doing well on the allotment and one - a miniature pumpkin - is starting to set little fruits that look like paty pans. The other is setting fruit nicely and the third has a massive fruit on it which looks suspiciously like a massive yellow courgette! But no others on it, so I really don't know what it is. Unfortunately I can't remember which is the one I grew and which I bought!

Fairly successful year, all things considered.
Karen
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by wildlifemad »

We've had a pretty good year for saying the weather has been rather strange! The thing that we have noticed is a lot of things have gone over early. Cucumbers, Courgettes have been great but now finished.Tomatoes great but only got Cooking Plum left ripening & these have been a fantastic crop. Runner & French beans great (French nearly over now). Beetroot really good year as was Garlic & Onions although we lost a few onions early on. Good crops of Potatoes & still have some in the ground to dig up! The Apple trees got hit by frost after the blossom came out so no Apples this year (they were on the plot when we took it over & although we're not keen on Apples we keep them for the birds!). The Asparagus was good but finished early. So all in all not a bad year.
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by Gwenoakes »

Cabbage, curly kale, rhubarb, gooseberries, peas, lettuce all good.
Dwarf runner beans rubbish.
It's our first year of gardening in raised beds, but have beetroot, leeks, brussels in and will have more cabbage very soon.
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by gammidose2 »

Hello, I am a newbie when it comes to gardening. I am planning to set up a small vegetable garden in my backyard. Any ideas of what types of vegetables to plant this season? Thanks in advance. :)
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lancashire lass
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by lancashire lass »

gammidose2 wrote:Any ideas of what types of vegetables to plant this season?


Autumn in the northern hemisphere is a time to plant garlic (cloves) and overwintering onion types (Japanese type such as Senshyu - onion sets should be available but they will quickly sell out so get them in now) and sow overwintering broad beans.

Normally this is the time to prepare the soil for spring sowing and summer growing - clear out the weeds, turn over the soil and dig in lots of well rotted manure (not fresh) and / or compost. These will break down in the soil making it fertile over winter.
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Mo
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by Mo »

Probably not too late to plant broad beans - there are 2 sorts (white & green, I think) and one is recommended for planting before winter to get an early crop and beat the whitefly. The other is more tender but better flavour
I didn't think I liked the bitter taste of broad beans but a friend said when she shelled them she didn't just take off the pod, but for older beans the tough skin round each bean too. Fiddly job but makes a difference to the taste.

Ah, LL got there first, I didn't read it properly
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lancashire lass
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Re: Vegetable success's and failures ?

Post by lancashire lass »

Mo wrote:Ah, LL got there first, I didn't read it properly


)t'

if sowing overwintering broad beans - choose a sheltered location, if necessary, erect wind breaks. If we have a mild autumn and the plants germinate and grow too big, winter storms will thrash them about and damage their stems which invite bacterial and fungal diseases. The other problem is a fungal disease called "Chocolate Spot" which only affects broad beans - usually due to overcrowding and damp conditions (typical British winter) more information on this RHS link

Personally I don't bother with broad beans over winter - I've had more failures than successes - one year (2010?) when we had lying snow for weeks on end, it completely decimated the lot. Of course, the year I decided not to grow any and everyone was hailing what a good crop they had got ....
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