growing veg wrt the weather

D&DD

Kittie I posted somewhere, possibly on the SHTF thread about potatoes.I wanted to try Lady Crystal this year but couldn't find any seed then read there was a shortage as the stored tubers had been rotting in cold storage so I avoided them.

I'm finding even this years new potatoes are terrible (shop bought) and I think it's all to do with the crops being so badly affected by the excess water last year..what this will mean for next years crop I don't know as,if this years crop is still bad the seed saved will surely be bad again next year..or do they grow seed potatoes on a different way??

Light levels here are appalling but my fruit is absolutely loaded too
Peppers and toms are half the usual height as are the cukes.

[Deleted User]

D&#8517 wrote: »

Kittie.I wanted to try Lady Crystal this year but couldn't find any seed then read there was a shortage as the stored tubers had been rotting in cold storage so I avoided them.
.

mine are all lady christl from tuckers. They taste lovely, like butter and I grew them successfully last year. I have already given a few away and will give more away this weekend as I want them up and out. I am very disappointed to say the least, they still taste buttery but don`t have the same texture. I have bought my green manure seeds and want to get sowing as soon as any crop is cleared
Dh bought some new jerseys in sainsbury a couple of weeks ago, already bagged and they had no taste at all and were also textureless. I am doing a complete re think re potatoes.

Agree re the fruit. I started picking gooseberries and they are so productive that I ordered 3 new ones called hinnanmaki red. They were bushy plants and I actually found 5 plants in the 3 pots, so they are re-potted at home for now and I have given them a good pruning ie to get a leg and goblet shape. I did that to my present ones and 2 years later the bushes are laden and very healthy. Others on the allotment didn`t prune and have no fruit on their massively green and bushy bushes.

I decided to change my fruit production a bit and took all the strawberries off the ground, onto table tops at home, with good results and I can cover with polythene if needs be. Fruit on the allotment to date include, invicta laden, loch ness blackberries also laden, ben sarek blackcurrants laden, new polka raspberries fingers crossed as new last autumn, rare apples from wales ie bardsey 15 apples on 2 year old but I have thinned to two as plant is too young for 15, pigs skin one apple, trwyn mochyn baker none. Good and healthy trees that need no pesticides and look promising for bad weather growing in the future

Bad weather veg are doing fine: beetroot, swedes, parsnips, cabbages. Runners look reasonable fingers crossed for pollination as with courgettes. The best alliums on site are the shallots and garlic. I don`t grow peas but other people`s look good. Lots of broad beans but they need to fill.

There is less than 1/3 of summer next month, lots of rain. Worrying