Biggest success this year

[kitty12345]

Thought it would be nice if we all shared our biggest successes this growing year.

For me it is tasty sprouting calabrese... Yum yum only four plants but really delicious. Definitely growing more next year.

Grown squash for the first time and loving the cute uchiki kuri... Only one from one plant but note to self to grow them earlier next year!



What are your biggest successes this year?

[Aberdeenplotter]

I planted what I expected to be calabrese with the big green curd similar to a cauliflower but they turned out to be the sprouting variety. Still delish but not what I wanted.

However, the crop giving me most satisfaction this year is my sprouts . Last year the sprout embryos were all eaten by mice and we didn't have any . However when I looked today, we are going to have a super crop on both the varieties I sowed.

Excellent topic btw

[chillithyme]

Best year for tomatoes all grown outdoors.
Sweetcorn swift, multiple sweet cobs per plant

[Penellype]

Quite a few big successes really, mostly at the allotment.
Spinach sown in spring in the hotbed was unbelievable, with huge leaves, some as big as A4 paper.
Beetroot was the best I have ever grown.
Potato crops were mostly huge, particularly the Nicola and Desiree at the allotment.
The tomato crops were simply ridiculous, at the allotment, at home and in my friend's greenhouse.
Turnips, kohlrabi and savoy cabbage have all done better than expected.
Lettuce is much better than expected at the allotment
The raspberries also far outperformed expectations in their first year.

Not so good have been PSB (bolted), carrots (slugs eliminated them at the allotment, problems with silver Y moth eating the leaves at home), calabrese (usually reliable but problems with various caterpillars and aphids getting inside the flower heads), fennel (bolted), perpetual strawberries (eaten by wasps) and gooseberries (very tough skins, probably due to hot dry weather).

[Runtpuppy]

Chard, beetroot bolthardy, and tomatoes. All did very well... much better than expected.

Another surprise was the habanero bush. I got it from the local garden centre and kept it in a small pot (kept forgetting to re-pot it / too lazy). It's barely 12"-15" high, but last week, it was lit up like a Ch******s tree with orange baubles. I picked all the orange ones and left the green ones. Today, most of the ones I left are bright orange as well. Now I need to find the energy to pick them. :\

You would assume (from how much effort it seems to be to pick them) that the bush is far away from the house, making it a long walk. But no, I got it inside last month and it has been sitting on the kitchen windowsill all this while.

[chris_m]

For me, just about everything counts as a success. I didn't do too well last year but a lot of work last autumn making my semi-raised beds with plenty of manure, etc added and fitting decent netting has paid dividends. Also, buying a growlight and changing my compost for seed sowing worked wonders. I had hardly any success growing from seed last year and had to resort to buying plants. This year I haven't bought any plants, everything has come from seed.

I have had a few failures;
I haven't had a single decent cauliflower, all the heads broke up before even getting near to a decent size. I think that was down to a cold snap that we had shortly after planting them out stressing the plants. The first planting calabrese did the same, however some calabrese that had to be potted on in the greenhouse for another month until their spaces became vacant produced superb heads, as have later sowings. Next year I'll be sowing them all later and potting on for a month or so.

Very little joy from squashes either - the turks turban started to grow a fruit, then died, although I do have a butternut still growing. Don't think I'll bother next year.

The biggest success I'd say is the runner beans that I didn't originally intend to grow where I did - I had intended to do a three sisters patch but the beans grew much faster than the corn so I had to find somewhere else to put them, which ended up being in a rather shaded spot between the back fence and the greenhouse and a few scattered around the patio planters - the darned things didn't seem to know when to stop producing, I've been picking for weeks. Good job I like runner beans

Parsnips seem to be good too. Very little success from seed last year, compounded by the mistake of buying seedlings - I've never seen such a cats cradle of roots as those produced. This year I prodded a decent 'snip-sized hole in each location, filled with decent compost and sowed the seeds. Those I've pulled so far have been lovely and straight, decent length and very tasty.

Overall, no complaints considering it's only my second year and I've got a few more lessons learnt and alterations in method/timing to apply next year.

[Baldy]

Toms and chillis - outdoor especially good.
Don't think I've been modded this year either (few months to go till that one is a slam dunk)

[jackarmy]

Pride of place was my first (and only so far) decent cauli, calabrese was a joy. beans did really well as did the spuds and toms and peppers and chillis.
Best though had nowt to do with growing, after several years out of work due to health issues im back into work as as a support worker and loving life again big time.At the age of 54, that was a hard thing to do , getting the chance and getting into the groove but happy days .

[Scarlet]

Toms and chillis - outdoor especially good.
Don't think I've been modded this year either (few months to go till that one is a slam dunk)

Plenty of time yet


.......where’s VC and that pointy stick

[Scarlet]

Pride of place was my first (and only so far) decent cauli, calabrese was a joy. beans did really well as did the spuds and toms and peppers and chillis.
Best though had nowt to do with growing, after several years out of work due to health issues im back into work as as a support worker and loving life again big time.At the age of 54, that was a hard thing to do , getting the chance and getting into the groove but happy days .

OMG! Well done Jack that is fabulous!!

[Scarlet]

I had a tough start to the year... went on hols and my ****** teenage son, moved my early toms and chillies away from the window so he didn’t have to open the door for the dog.
Needless to say I lost several months growing!!
My successes though were my chill swap plants....I love a bit of swapping and I’m really chuffed with my peach hab and Dorset naga from SP. fabulous idea and they’ve thrived.....non veg has been my roses

[veggiechicken]

Well done Jack, that's great to hear.
I'm so happy for you

[lottie dolly]

how about these for BIG ones,butternut was grown on sons plotsplus there are more of the same size.
the beetroot picked tonight is crapodine,the jar is for size comparison,grown at home,
tomatoes grown in home green house were beefmaster F1,
all had no special treatment or food,

[kitty12345]

Well done and really pleased for you

For me, growing this year has been really important as I had quite a few bad/ sad things happen and it really helped me to take my mind off things and keep busy.

[4Shoes]

The wild strawberries were looking unhappy outside, not giving much fruit.

Took them into polly and potted into a hanging basket. They have been fruiting ever since. Wild strawberries in October Think it is because they can't grow runners, so each runner ends up with flowers and then fruit. They are still flowering and producing fruit.


Going to dig up more next spring for another basket.