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

carinjo

Ms C harvested red gooseberries, our first purple climbing beans and a handful of blackberries.
I tied up the tomatoes, covered the potatoes with hay and gave everything a good soak. 2 of allotment neighbours on holiday, so getting my steps in watering their plots too!

baser999

Apologies if this may have been answered already but there’s 51 pages of entries I’d need to look through. 

We’ve planted Wilja potatoes in potato sacks this year, topping up the soil to probably 6in off the top. The growth has been phenomenal sprouting everywhere. Am I right to believe we can start harvesting when the flowers die back? 

Suffolk_lass

baser999 said:

Apologies if this may have been answered already but there’s 51 pages of entries I’d need to look through. 

We’ve planted Wilja potatoes in potato sacks this year, topping up the soil to probably 6in off the top. The growth has been phenomenal sprouting everywhere. Am I right to believe we can start harvesting when the flowers die back? 

Yes @baser999 or earlier if the foliage suddenly collapses (a sign of blight, for future reference, you can save them if you get them out quickly if this happens). You could also remove all the foliage and leave them in the bag until you want to dig them out, harvesting as you go

baser999

Suffolk_lass said:

baser999 said:

Apologies if this may have been answered already but there’s 51 pages of entries I’d need to look through. 

We’ve planted Wilja potatoes in potato sacks this year, topping up the soil to probably 6in off the top. The growth has been phenomenal sprouting everywhere. Am I right to believe we can start harvesting when the flowers die back? 

Yes @baser999 or earlier if the foliage suddenly collapses (a sign of blight, for future reference, you can save them if you get them out quickly if this happens). You could also remove all the foliage and leave them in the bag until you want to dig them out, harvesting as you go

No indication of blight - think the foliage has simply gone over under its own weight or due to the rain. Will thin it out a bit - cats won’t be too happy as it provided some shade in recent hot spell. Thanks

Suffolk_lass

I have snipped the teeny-tiny courgettes that have been sitting doing nothing, despite rain, in an effort to stimulate more normal sized courgettes. We did not sow seed until the start of May, but they are so late getting going that I am wondering if my compost (usual brand, but bought in large bags from a builders' merchant) is old or contaminated. We certainly have some sort of grass proliferating in beds we top dressed before planting out the squashes, but everything is really slow and unproductive this year so far.

Glittering_M

Suffolk_lass said:

 everything is really slow and unproductive this year so far.

We have the same problem with flowers and veg this year. Slow to do anything! The Thai basil just fizzled out, our aubergine and squash our in their final beds but haven't really done much. Only thing that is doing well is our Savoy cabbages. Not grown them before and I'll definitely grow them again (taste dependent). I didn't realise they take up as much room as they do though so I'll have to remember that next year.

KajiKita

Yup, slow and unproductive here too. 

KK

toshvaldo

Having lifted onions and cleared beds of potatoes, I have 3 empty raised beds. I have never been very good at succession planting - am I too late for leeks do you think? I haven't sown any but thought I might be able to get some starters from the GC. Good idea or should I leave it for this year and plant something else instead?

Also, I've had incredible raspberries this year but terrible strawberries. I've had a punnet if that and I've got a small bed and 5 hanging baskets at home, and a raised bed at my allotment. Just had no luck whatsoever. I'm planning on making a full ground-based strawberry patch at the allotment next year. Should I buy new plants or use this year's runners planted on over winter? 

Thanks in advance. 

Suffolk_lass

toshvaldo said:

Having lifted onions and cleared beds of potatoes, I have 3 empty raised beds. I have never been very good at succession planting - am I too late for leeks do you think? I haven't sown any but thought I might be able to get some starters from the GC. Good idea or should I leave it for this year and plant something else instead?

Also, I've had incredible raspberries this year but terrible strawberries. I've had a punnet if that and I've got a small bed and 5 hanging baskets at home, and a raised bed at my allotment. Just had no luck whatsoever. I'm planning on making a full ground-based strawberry patch at the allotment next year. Should I buy new plants or use this year's runners planted on over winter? 

Thanks in advance. 

I'm about to use the space created by lifting my onions to move all my strawberries into the much bigger bed, then I can control the runners. Last year's runners will be better in 2025 for fruit but you (@toshvaldo) might find this your weak plants crop better in year two. I keep a succession of strawberries with the three year old plants being composted after they have produced their runners. I have some radish and lettuce seeds, along with some old chard and kale I am going to sprinkle in the soon-to-be-empty, strawberry beds as a quick August/early September crop (salad) and winter snipping for hm pesto for the chard and kale - these are before I plant things for next spring in October, things like garlic and broad beans that will get going for earlier 2024 crops. 

Other than than, hoping the rain has got my static beans and courgettes going a bit better. Still plenty of blackcurrants to harvest, and the autumn raspberries are starting now

Glittering_M

Last week I sowed some kale, perpetual spinach and fenugreek seeds. Probably a bit late but I thought I might as well. Fenugreek is starting to come up. It's just from the seeds you buy at the supermarket so nothing fancy. I've had success this way with fenugreek once before when I tried it last year but I keep forgetting to try it again. 

Neighbours have grown some similar plants to me in their greenhouse whilst I've grown outside and the difference is huge. We are saving for other things though so a green house is way down the list. I've got a cheap A1di plasticy one which I had thought would do the trip when I got it but it is useful for helping to acclimatise plants from indoors to out.

I've got some tender perennials that I got in excitement and now have the worry about where they actually are going to go inside! They aren't that big yet so should be ok this year but when they properly establish it may be a bit different as again the plastic greenhouse won't be warm enough. 

I have had the disappointment of growing some weeds! Not deliberately but when I've potted things on, the original seedlings must have died and the weeds taken over without realising or maybe even before that and I potted on weeds!

Definitely need to get better with labelling next year, I've got a few plants and they could be one of 4 things! Unfortunately they aren't big or doing enough to tell them apart yet.