Successes and failures 2010

RHYSDAD

Right you lot, it's now generally harvest time (or nearing it) for lots of our home grown fruit and veg and i want your tales of successes and failures you've had this year.

What will you grow more of, and what would you give up on for next year?

What did you find a doddle growing, and which a muddle?

Let me know! :j

funkymonkey849

This is our first year growing, we moved into out house halfway through April and had to dig up the whole garden before we started so by the time we got everything sorted we were a bit late in planting things.

We have learned A LOT!!!

Successes:
Courgette (Only got one plant and had 2 so far but hopefully will have more as plant is maseev)
Little gems - yum. Gonna grow millions of these next year
Radishes (apart from the root maggots, know to cover them now)
Basil (lol)

Failures
Tomatoes - planted too late and then mini greenhouse fell over in the wind and they all got squashed
Spring onions - just didn't grow!
Watermelon - no idea why OH bought this, it was never gonna work!!

Not sure yets:
Potatoes - went in quite late (were given to us by neighbours) but seem to be growing ok
Pumpkins - plants seem to be ok, except one which had its stalk nearly entirely eaten by a slug but somehow still seems to be surviving, no idea how!!
Carrots - very small at present but hopefully will get something from them

Money_maker

Successes so far:

Fruit - most has performed really well and loved the heatwave we've had in the SE.
Peas - Have been pleasantly surprised by these (DD 'planted' them - ie. thrown on ground) so will be doing lots more next year.
Overwintering Onions - most have tried to flower but not a bad size on pulling and the spring ones aren't looking too bad either.
Tomatoes - mine seem to be earlier than most other peoples so have been giving them away right, left and centre!
Mini Cucumber - the big seed merchants seemed to sell about 5 or 6 seeds in a pack for £3-£4 but found Johnsons Beth Alpha from their world kitchen range - 40 seeds for £1.89. Delicious mini cucumbers with a steady supply from 3/4 plants. So pleased.

Failures so far:

Potatoes - very small return from some of my potato bags. Think they got too hot and dry. Try again next year.
Runner Beans - the Hestia in a big pot are doing fine (despite the sparrows trying to strip the red flowers) but the ones in the ground just aren't going to produce. Think its down to the dry weather again so will have to do a bit more preparation next year.
Squash/pumpkins/courgettes - all fighting to stay alive in the dry weather. Normally the courgettes would be well away by now but very slow. Mind you, I only grow courgettes for my hens to eat anyway.

And its just started raining here - how badly do we need this!!

snowdogg

Successes:

Tomatoes - had a massive yield on the cherry tomatoes and now about 1 week away from ripening. Plum tomatoes not doing so well with only 2 or 3 fruit on each plant.

Beans - we've been harvesting beans every night for weeks now with new growth all the time.

Rocket - 2 plants have kept us in lettuce leaves all summer so far but its going to seed fairly soon so will have to harvest the lot.

Basil, Chives, Lavender, Mint - Triffids!

Dont know yet:

Pumpkin - first time trying at pumpkin and the vine is around 7-8ft long now. First couple of gourds were munched by slugs but 2 more have since appeared.

Sweetcorn - again first try, shot up to about 2 1/2 ft then have stopped, possibly because we only have shallow beds in our garden however there do seem to be ears developing

Radishes - Only planted last week but already losing their baby leaves

Broccoli - Planted late so not sure if will mature in time

Failures

Sprouts - Most didnt germinate, the ones that did are looking quite lacklustre

Strawberries - Grew and produced fruit but weren't very nice

SingleMumAndProud

Success:
Corgettes: loads growing. Have 3 plants producing and one smaller one that is getting there. Have had about 10 corgettes so far that have been great and loads more coming.
Strawberries - didn't produce enough for our needs but still had a fair few. Think I would need a whole garden full to meet our fruit needs though to be air.
Strawberries from seed - didn't do a thing!

Failures:
Tomatoes - they are still alive but not fruit yet and they arn't looking too healthy. Forgot to use tomatoe feed though and I have been a bit lax with watering since my outdoor tap stopped working properly! They might still recover though!
Beans - same as tomatoes!

Not sure yet:
Potatoes. Lots of greenery but haven't harvested any yet
Butternut squash
Blackberries - they are looking good so far!!
Sweetcorn

floyd

Success:
Lettuce (Tintin)
Lettuce (mixed salad leaves)
Beetroot (Pablo F1)
Potatoes (Rocket)
Potatoes (Pink Fir Apple)
Raspberries (Autumn Bliss)
Fig (Brown Turkey from a cutting but too small to crop yet)
Asparagus (not sure of variety, given some crowns by a work colleague, all of them have taken and sent up massive fronds so hopefully in a few years they will produce)

All of the above were a doddle as I grew in containers except the raspberries which took care of themselves

Failures:
Cauliflower (Avalanche, all seeds suffered damping off)
Beans (Hestia, didn't even sprout)
Apple (no idea of the variety, last year it produced bucketloads of apples, all of which were riddled withg codling moth. So we treated it organically and this year we have 5 apples!)

Think I might try courgettes next year as they seem straightforward, I like things that don't need regular attention as I work really long hours so anything that needs pinching out, thinning, multiple specialist feeds doesn't make the cut for me. FIL supplies all the complex things like that!

gozaimasu

Sigh, all my plants from seed have been failure! Except BASIL. Good old basil, it's looking lovely.

FAILS = Pak choi, bird's eye chillies, salad leaves (they flowered?!)

NOT SURE = carrots...leaves are looking ok, let's hope I get a carrot soon. Garlic - started off fab, could be good when I harvest it. Red Peppers = great leaves, just waiting for some peppers to appear!

I'm annoyed at the salad leaves! I had no idea they flowered and thought they were super easy to grow.

Plus I've had a major whitefly infestation which is horrible. Completely killed my amazing chives (although those weren't from seed) Apparently spraying with black liquid soap gets rid of them, but I can't find any. Also got another tip that soaking garlic papers and spraying that over works too since the flies can't stand garlic?

Pigeonpoo

Our first year growing and started a little late

Success

Radish - we didn't like raddish but we do now we've grown them!

Salad leaves and rocket - we're starting to look like rabbits.:D

Courgettes

Spinach

Runner beans look as though they will give a good crop.

Disaster

Tomatoes - very few little green ones - lucky the neighbours are sharing their cop. I think that our plastic greenhouse is not getting enough sun.

Cucumber - rotting at the flower end each time.

Basil bolted and mouldy.

Maybe

Mangetout and fines beans still waiting for flowers.

Carrots very skinny, time will tell.

Spring onions taking forever to grow.

is76

Location: Edinburgh
Experience: 1st year

Success

Salad leaf tape planted in strips in a £1 grow bag - lots of leaves
lettuces seedling
onions
runners beans from seed
courgettes from seed
cherry tree - lots
chilli plant - looking goos
turnip
cauliflower
celery
cabbage

fails
strawberries
herbs
spinach - sent to seed
rocket - went to seed
pak choi -really easy but went to seed, should have eaten more!!
no covering seedlings with net when they were babies, eaten by birds but came back strong!

irishwexford

Strawberries very good crop.
Early Raspberries poor crop but lates are looking better
Caulies. Grow too many so had to freeze
Runner Beans going well.
Broc. All matured at once like caulies.
Courgettes. We have so many am busy freezing soup
Squashes trailing all over with lots of small squashes growing. Am keeping these well watered
Onions and potatoes doing very well.
Sweetcorn doing well.
Lettues and beetroot. We feel like rabbits as well.
Good crop of sugersnap peas.
Winter cabbages and sprouts doing well.
Two beds of leeks growing.
Overall very happy with crops but the watering is getting me down. Really hoping for rain.

unhappy_shopper

Black Beauty Courgettes: loads of them, have been distributing them to colleagues, neighbours as we get atleast 5/6 every week from 4 plants.
Loran Strawberries - Got these plants for 5p each from B&Q, fruits started ripening only this week, have already picked a punnet.
Tomatoes - Planted Gardener's Delight and Gartenperle varieties, tomatoes now the size of cherries.Hope they ripen soon.
Blue Lake French Beans - picked around 10 beans from a plant. Other 3 plants have started getting flowers.
Parsley - Bolted in the hot weather during the first week of July.
Chilli de Cayenne - plants have lot of growth, but no flowers yet.
Potatoes - supermarket ones - forgot to note down the names of the varieties - have lot of foliage and purple/yellow, white/yellow flowers.

Conference Pear - T&M £20 - only planted this year.
Morello Cherry - Lidl £4.99 - tree planted last year - had about 30 cherries.
James Grieve apple - Instore £4.99 - tree planted 2 years back, about 30 lemon-sized apples on the tree.
Bramley apple - B&Q £9.99 - tree planted 2 years back, loads of apples and the branches are drooping due to weight of the apples, guess they will be ready for picking soon, as they are already the size of a tennis ball. Last year had only about 10 apples.

Please someone tell me how to know that the Bramley apples are ready for picking?