The even newer good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2021!

ampersand

Yes, 'fraid so, LessImpecunious.
In 2 rows of 3, dense crossover growth. I can see chewed stubs in the pics😬.
Loved seeing huge 1st pumpkin flower though😃👌

carinjo

Harvested all the onions and garlic, that and shallots drying at home.
Dug up most of broadbeans, got too hot to finish.
Harvested courgette (2 kinds), got gifted cucumber (smooth skin) from Mr D, who was very kind since those aphids on the plum tree killed his first harvest of runnerbeans aparently.
The first of the butternut have started forming on 2 plants, very excited. 

peewhyeff

Rhubarb  newbie. Planted a single rhubarb crown on its own in a 20" square raised bed. Its made fantastic growth, wish I  could pick its long, fat stems.....but I  know you shouldn't  harvest in 1st year.  My question is, what do I  do with it, and when?  Let it die down naturally?  Pull off the stems? And when?   Will be happy if it makes the same growth next year. 

LessImpecunious

ampersand said:

Yes, 'fraid so, LessImpecunious.
In 2 rows of 3, dense crossover growth. I can see chewed stubs in the pics😬.
Loved seeing huge 1st pumpkin flower though😃👌

Maybe I'm being thick but do you mean you can see the chewed stubs on the photos you posted earlier? - I just see missing flowers on the second pic?  Congrats on the pumpkin flower anyhow! hope that succeeds!

Suffolk_lass

peewhyeff said:

Rhubarb  newbie. Planted a single rhubarb crown on its own in a 20" square raised bed. Its made fantastic growth, wish I  could pick its long, fat stems.....but I  know you shouldn't  harvest in 1st year.  My question is, what do I  do with it, and when?  Let it die down naturally?  Pull off the stems? And when?   Will be happy if it makes the same growth next year. 

@peewhyeff It will die back naturally, (here in Suffolk) from late August onwards. If you have a large (terracotta preferably) pot (45+cm high) with damage, it is worth making a bottomless pot to use upside down next Spring as a rhubarb forcer (you can buy them but they are exensive). I do this when I see the first pink shoots to get my first crop about a month early - the new season stuff is the sweetest.

Other advice with rhubarb is to use well-rotted farmyard manure as a feed in late Feb/early March as they are greedy for nutrients but around and not covering the crown(s), or they rot (as I know from experience).

Traditional wisdom is to not reduce below 2 sticks on any crown and to harvest the strongest by pulling/twisting (not cutting) so it comes off at the base. You can harvest until you get red stripes in the sticks (historically until August) which means the (oxalic) acid is building up. I am sure you know that the leaves are good for composting but are not edible. They have a much higher concentration of oxalic acid and cause diarrhoea and sickness, if ingested.

carinjo

OMG! My cucumbers are making, well, cucumbers! It been teeny weeny sizes for ages and all of a sudden some just exploded in size! 

Suffolk_lass

carinjo said:

OMG! My cucumbers are making, well, cucumbers! It been teeny weeny sizes for ages and all of a sudden some just exploded in size! 

I have literally given away hundreds in the last few years. Now I grow mini ones

carinjo

It is with great sadness that i have to report that i lost all but 3 tomato plants to blight on allotment. Last year i did not even manage to get to the first set of true leaves stage, this year almost 30 plants. The one's at home still ok, so not all lost. Left the borage in place, the pretty blue flowers cheer me up.
Dug up a maris piper to see size, got a dozen baby roasties for sunday, will wait a few weeks for the rest.
Harvested a handful of runnerbeans, a few marrows and zephyr courgettes. Not sure about people's opinion on yellow courgettes, but this has been my most successful plant this year and all my neighbours are loving it.
Something got in under the netting for brassiccas, everything has got holes munched in it. Also, the gifted broccolli went to seed and there's a lot of yellow leaves from all the rain. It is the highest point on allotment and they still struggling against drowning. Hope the winter veg (kale) makes it. 
The honeydew squash finally showing , but still no sign of the patti pan.
Counted 1/2 a dozen crown prince pumpkin and butternut, just have to look after it now till harvest time, don't think can expect more to appear.
The aubergine in the zippy greenhouse all of a sudden started flowering, so will see what happens next.
Safety advice: Always have a bit of a kickabout before trimming or weeding (manual or chemical), the frogs and hedgehogs will thank you. 

-taff

That's a shame about the blight. Can you erect a greenhouse or polytunnel? I don't tend to get it in the greenhouse or at least I haven't for the last 15 years but have had it regularly when I plant the odd one outside if I can't bear to throw them away. On the plus side, tomatilloes don't get it or they haven't in the past.

I've finally dug up the International Kidney and had quite a big haul, for me that is, a purple builders bucket full [ the smaller ones, not the big ones] which is quite enough and more than enough for us two. Courgettes producing well, I'm keeping up with demand and using them in veg soup. Runners have just started and I now have a space after the potatoes ot make a strwberry bed. Kale munched by caterpillars who have gone to the big butterfly net in the sky but too late. The lovage is alive as is the phormium which didn't have any roots when I was fiven it or one or two straggly ones, the rhubarb has gone nuts, this is the first year of pciking it.

Spinach bolted pretty much straightaway, slugs ate my lettuce and snails ate my rocket seedlings and my three pumpkins.

I gave away the gooseberries and dug up the bush because I don't eat them and have decided, weirdly, since it's pretty obvious, to only grow what I like not what I can.Less stress and pressure now.

Kantankrus_Mare

Everything doing well here on the allotment except for sweetcorn???

Ive grown in the past with no problems but after planting in a sunny position this year, which I thought was the perfect spot for them, they are pathetic!  Just really stunted growth. H ave a cob growing and tassles but not likely to produce anything I can use. Considering digging up. Not sure went wrong? New seeds needed for next year.
Not had great success with spinach either. Keeps going quickly to seed and its something we use lots of.
Cucumbers are at the point of being given away and even my neighbours are sick of courgettes lol.