2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

MissRikkiC

Our kitchen garden has gone mad in the rain. Beans are doing well (I definitely grew too many!) and courgettes have already started to produce. Raspberries are being picked daily and the strawberries are likely done now unless they flower again. 

Tomatoes are slowly coming on but some are really behind. Hope they catch up. Aubergines. Squash. Cucumber. They’re all really slow too! I don’t feel like we were behind but trying to think back to the lady at the GC who said we are a fortnight behind. 

My recently purchased watering can, the rose has snapped off which I’m upset about. It’s a nice one from the local GC so I’ll take it back and ask for an exchange. 

The one thing I wanted to ask here was about straggly flower heads/petals. Does anyone know why this would happen? 

We have 2 types of daisy type flowers, I’ll probably spell these wrong but Enchinea and another more typical daisy like (white petals and yellow middles) and they’re both quite beat up looking how they’ve flowered. I thought maybe it was poor soil or under fed as they’re in the coffin but I’ve got rudbeckia as well which has done amazing in a pot, but now it’s about to flower the petals look really battered. Anyone got any ideas? 

KajiKita

@MissRikkiC, your flowers might have been beaten up by the heavy rain? It’s a bit hard to diagnose without pictures. Have they opened from bud like this or gone like this after opening? 

KK

Suffolk_lass

KajiKita said:

@MissRikkiC, your flowers might have been beaten up by the heavy rain? It’s a bit hard to diagnose without pictures. Have they opened from bud like this or gone like this after opening? 

KK

Yes, ditto - but if they are perennials it is worth cutting the flower stalks back hard so the plant does not waste energy on making seed heads, and maybe give it a dilute liquid feed. They also don't like their feet wet - all the coneflowers (Echinacea are one) are prone to rotting stem or powdery mildew if too much water (easy in a container if not enough holes are in there - drilling a few low down on the side walls will tell you if you've over-watered). You can also prune them hard in early spring to make them more compact. Not sure if you have oxe-eye, shasta or a chrysanth style of white daisy so no comment on these

Kantankrus_Mare

Its that time of year.  Happy with my garlic that we harvested a couple of weeks ago. First time growing from Isle of Wight garlic and will buy again this year. Onions a little on the small side but a decent crop to be picked in the next few weeks. Strawberries not as good as last year but still a decent crop. Been picking raspberries everyday and picked the first two of the million courgettes Im likely to get. Cucumber plant gone mad and tomatoes just coming but no red ones yet. Had some new potatoes with more to come. Not had to buy lettuce for a couple of of months, and the thing Im most excited about is the Asparagus crowns I planted earlier in the year. Every plant has sent up a growth, some even two! I know it will still be a long time before I can actually pick some but Im just pleased its worked!

droopsnoot

I had a potato plant in the garden, waited for the flowers to come and go and dug it up yesterday. I got about four reasonable potatoes from it, and the rest from it (and a couple of other plants) look like this: 


It's as if they're already starting to grow again. Should I put them back in the ground, or just bin them and start again?

MissRikkiC

 I meant to post thèse last week when I asked about my rag doll flowers.

KajiKita

@MissRikkiC wow …. I have not seen anything like this before. Like you I think this is mechanical damage but whether caused by pests or weather I couldn’t tell you 🤷‍♀️
Sorry, no help at all!

KK

MissRikkiC

It’s such a shame @KajiKitaa they would otherwise be stunning. Rudbeckia are one of my favourites as well 😩

I have lifted 3 Candy Crush Rainbow Kale plugs I got in the spring today as they’re too young still and being overshadowed by the other brassicas not to mention scoffed by all slimy pests. I’ve put them into pots but very quickly need a plan for them as I want them in to the early winter if possible! Ive grown brassicas for the last 3 years now and we eat them a lot but they’re a royal PITA and I’m not sure I’ll grow them next year. That said I LOVE sprouting broccoli so I’d have to really weigh it all up. 

I have moved around some of the pots and attempted to see which of my tomatoes were cordon and which weren’t but alas I still can’t really tell.  You’d think by now I’d be able to. Ive made a guess and pinched out side shoots so we shall see but lots of the plants (especially the ones I’m confident are cordon) have plenty of fruit which is nice to see. Last year I lost them all to blight and was honestly going to put them all in the GH this year. I still might since they’re all in containers as it’ll probably help them ripen. 

All of the squash I planted I think were actually cucumbers so again these need moving into the GH now that I know and I’ll pin some netting for them to climb against the shed (It’s actually a lean to). 

I could do with a steer from anyone else growing Broad beans as to if we’re almost at the end of the harvest period with them. We still have some pods left but aphids did a really good job on them and now I’m not sure if they’re just almost finished or pest ridden. Any ideas anyone? 

Lastly, I have been rubbish with any successional planting. I’ve got space so really should get whatever else I can in the ground now. I pulled some potatoes recently and sowed carrots directly into the bucket. I read they like poor soil so figured they’d be fine in ‘just used compost’ but it’s soon likely to be too hot for lettuce isn’t it and I don’t really like beetroot that much. Any ideas? 

carinjo

Happy (belated) birthday to me! Ms C got me a year's subscription to a veg magazine! First one arrived today!

alicef

@MissRikkiC I'm wondering if it could be phytoplasma on the rudbeckia.  If you are an RHS member, I think you could send your photos and/or specimen to them to get a diagnosis.