The ups, the downs and the insides out of growing your own in 2025!

Suffolk_lass

My greenhouse tomatoes have been much less prolific this year. I have made about a dozen jars of passata so far but was hoping for more like double that. In discussion with another forumite we think the hot dry spring here in the East, caused everything to stall. It got so hot, so early, that growth just stopped for ages, resulting in poor cropping for everything started in there. And everything is finishing so early!

By the way, in terms of preserving our summer produce... a friend put me on to roasting squash (seasoned as you prefer) then processing it (liquidiser/food processor) with enough water to mix, fill your jars, put the tops on and put them on a tray into an oven at 115 until the tops pop. Then you have a preserved jar of soup or stew mix that is low carb, and full of summer nutrients. And unlike freezing, you are not paying to store it!

greenbee

My greenhouse tomatoes have been disappointing… and having followed advice to grow fewer plants and not bother with outside toms, I don’t have many! Enough for myself, but no tomato sauce or tarts in the freezer this year. 

Kantankrus_Mare

Ive had my best year ever for cherry tomatoes......not even sure what they are called as I nabbed the seeds from a fellow allotment holder last year, but will be saving seed again this year.

On the other hand I havent had one blueberry off five bushes which did well last year and Im still sulking about my poor onion harvest. Ive been growing for nearly twenty years and this is the first year I havent got lots of onions hung in my shed to use throughout the year.

droopsnoot

Silvertabby said:

droopsnoot said:

Silvertabby said:

droopsnoot said:

I expect I'll be binning some of the tomato and chilli plants soon - I have some that are flowering but no sign of fruits, so I doubt there's enough time for them to develop and ripen. I have quite a few green tomatoes, so I'll leave those plants to run in the hope they might ripen. 

Snip off the top shoots and all the flowers - they won't have time to fruit, and getting rid should encourage your green tomatoes to ripen.

Greenhouse or outdoors?  Mine are in my greenhouse, but have been shy to ripen this year for some reason.  Have been picking enough for us, but not enough to supply more than one neighbour as well.  Will get rid of the tomato plants at the end of this month, but the chillies should be ok until mid October.  I grow mostly the long, thin, hot chillies which freeze well - should have enough to keep us going until next year's crop starts to ripen.   

I'll have a go at that, thanks.

They're in a lean-to greenhouse on the back of the house, but I wonder if the surrounding trees are blocking too much. The chillies are in a separate greenhouse. I tried transplanting one tomato outside but it was really suffering after a couple of days so I put it back in a pot. One tomato eaten so far, two red on the plant, maybe one a bit orange-y if I squint. That's out of about ten or eleven plants. I may move a few into the porch on the front of the house as it gets the sun as it comes up in the morning.

A lot of plants, but fruits in single figures ?  Did you grow them from seed, in which case you may have started too late?

Oddly enough, although I grow chillies from seed (late Feb)  I seem to struggle with tomatoes, so I buy mine as plants from our local garden centre.  

P.S.  Be wary of bringing the plants indoors if you have cats - if they are chewers, the leaves are toxic.  Once my chilli seedlings are out of the heated propagator, they go onto the study windowsill with active measures taken to keep the cat out.  

I grew them from seed, I can't remember when I started them off but I just left it until it started to not be quite as cold, I should make more notes on these things but I probably went by the notes on the packet. I did have some in the bottom of the airing cupboard to start them off, but I can't remember whether that was just the chilli plants, or the toms as well. I've picked another two tomatoes yesterday, there are a couple of plants that have maybe five or six fruit on them, but they're very green. One chilli plant has two fruit, another (a scotch bonnet from the seed out of a supermarket chilli) has one. I can see some starting on a couple of the other plants, which I have moved inside.

I don't have a cat so I don't need to worry about that. The only cat activity is when they use the vegetable patch as a toilet. I am thinking of just forgetting about using it for anything other than perhaps sticking an apple tree in the centre, though I have had some reasonable results with lettuce this year. 

While I quite enjoy trying to grow this stuff, part of it is because my parents used to do the same. I've got loads of pots and the two greenhouses, so really the only thing I have to buy is a bag of compost at the start of the season, and some seeds from time to time. I'm very much on the casual end of the scale, I think if the only way I could make it work is to be buying heated propagators (and paying to run them) and that sort of stuff, I just wouldn't bother, and spend the money on buying nicer ones from a shop. I know home-grown is "better", and the one I ate last week was very nice, but it's just a minor thing for me. It's just frustrating that I have been going through some of my Mum's old photos recently, and finding photos of her tomato plants, grown in the same place (albeit with smaller trees surrounding the garden) and with massive clumps of fruit on them.

I did move some tomatoes into the front porch, so I'll see if that gets them going a bit. They're all ones that have green fruit on them, I'd just like them to go red enough to eat. I've trimmed a few top shoots off, I have some plants that are only flowers so far, which I expect might just as well be thrown out now. Try again next year.

fionaandphil

If the tomatoes are starting to ripen the best but very slowly, pick them and stick them in a dark drawer in the kitchen, they should ripen within a day or two.  Mine are ripening outside but I'm finding that picking some of the paler ones means that the plant can then put the energy into ripening what is left.  I did cut the tops yesterday to try and encourage them.  I'm still picking 6 - 8 per day from 3 plants and also got 2 more cucumbers yesterday, just little mini munch ones.

If you're not too bothered about doing too much @droopsnoot what about some fruit like rhubarb, strawberries or raspberries?  They all pretty much look after themselves and just need cut back once a year.  I have two beds just like that and they produce more than enough for our family.  The only other things I would definitely plant is lettuce.  Our seeds were rubbish this year and I bought a 'trio' from L1dl with a root on it and put them in separately.  They have supplied us for months and a good mix of leaves.

It has been a strange year with things that normally do well in our garden not taking off and things which I struggle with being abundant for a change.  I've just planted some beans to over winter and I'm hoping they will be ready in spring as an early crop.

Our apples have done great this year though I did have to water them when it was very hot so I am hoping to pick them all in the next few weeks and get them stored in the garage for winter puddings.

Makingabobor2

Talking of rhubarb...it is my first time growing it. Bought the plant earlier in the year and it is looking very healthy, but I am not sure what to do with it over the winter?  Some things I have read suggest doing nothing and just leaving it. Then I also read that you should cut off any dead leaves and just twist off the stalk and that makes room for more healthy ones for next year?  It is growing really well, and I want to do the right thing so there is lots of healthy harvest in the spring next year. 

Suffolk_lass

Kantankrus_Mare said:

Ive had my best year ever for cherry tomatoes......not even sure what they are called as I nabbed the seeds from a fellow allotment holder last year, but will be saving seed again this year.

On the other hand I havent had one blueberry off five bushes which did well last year and Im still sulking about my poor onion harvest. Ive been growing for nearly twenty years and this is the first year I havent got lots of onions hung in my shed to use throughout the year.

Oh, me too! shallots have barely grown either

carinjo

@Makingabobor2, i leave the healthy leaves and stalks on the rhubarb, since that feeds it for next season. Remove dead ones throughout the year. I've never removed the end of year's, just because i tend to not go to the allotment in winter, except for pruning. If you have some food like blood, fish & bone/ well rotted manure, can feed the rhubarb autumn time, but feed around the crown, don't cover it. All of this advice is what i learned on this group, just paying it forward.

droopsnoot

fionaandphil said:

If the tomatoes are starting to ripen the best but very slowly, pick them and stick them in a dark drawer in the kitchen, they should ripen within a day or two.  Mine are ripening outside but I'm finding that picking some of the paler ones means that the plant can then put the energy into ripening what is left.  I did cut the tops yesterday to try and encourage them.  I'm still picking 6 - 8 per day from 3 plants and also got 2 more cucumbers yesterday, just little mini munch ones.

If you're not too bothered about doing too much @droopsnoot what about some fruit like rhubarb, strawberries or raspberries?  They all pretty much look after themselves and just need cut back once a year.  I have two beds just like that and they produce more than enough for our family.  The only other things I would definitely plant is lettuce.  Our seeds were rubbish this year and I bought a 'trio' from L1dl with a root on it and put them in separately.  They have supplied us for months and a good mix of leaves.

It has been a strange year with things that normally do well in our garden not taking off and things which I struggle with being abundant for a change.  I've just planted some beans to over winter and I'm hoping they will be ready in spring as an early crop.

Our apples have done great this year though I did have to water them when it was very hot so I am hoping to pick them all in the next few weeks and get them stored in the garage for winter puddings.

Cheers, I will have a go with sticking some in a drawer and see what happens - the way they're going, there's nothing to lose. I have put some in a bowl of supermarket tomatoes on the kitchen window sill before as I'd heard that could help, but I can't say it made much difference. It seems counter-intuitive to put them in the dark to help them ripen. I do need to trim the plants back some more so they can concentrate on the fruit. I have one or two that only have flowers on them, and one that hasn't even got that far yet, I'll leave them for a bit but I'm not expecting anything.

We used to grow strawberries, and in fact I've got plants that look like them all over the place, but they only produce very tiny fruit. The main area they're in has a couple of trees that have grown up from nowhere, which I'm intending to remove so I'm not sure whether they will get better, or I'll just clear them out and put it back to flowers. I do recall the hassle of putting the netting over them to try to stop the birds grabbing them all. I don't really do much cooking, so rhubarb wouldn't be much use. I have some potatoes in, though that's mainly because however well I clear the patch there are always some left over. Lettuce has gone reasonably well this year so I'll probably do that again next time, I think they're just about done now.

I've been very grateful to various locals for putting boxes of excess stuff at the end of their driveways. I've had some plums and apples, and picked another back of blackberries the other day and noticed there are quite a lot more still on the hedges in some spots. I've frozen quite a few in single portion sizes, so I think I've picked enough. I've been sticking the apples in the fridge thinking that would help them keep better, by the sound of it I don't need to do that. I just eat one after lunch, again I don't do cooking. 

Suffolk_lass

carinjo said:

@Makingabobor2, i leave the healthy leaves and stalks on the rhubarb, since that feeds it for next season. Remove dead ones throughout the year. I've never removed the end of year's, just because i tend to not go to the allotment in winter, except for pruning. If you have some food like blood, fish & bone/ well rotted manure, can feed the rhubarb autumn time, but feed around the crown, don't cover it. All of this advice is what i learned on this group, just paying it forward.

I don't feed until I see how big the crown is in January (they spread) but otherwise I agree!