Why does my garden seem so erratic?

[where2start]

So we have three raised beds, and one large veg boarder. It was all new ground this year.

The first raised bed was planted with spuds and thats doing fine.

The second raised bed that was completed had a bag of compost dug in, and i planted 2 rows of pickling onions seeds and 4 rows of carrots. This one is very slow, the carrots are still look like seedlings.

The third raised bed was dug over and nothing was included to enrich the soil, this one has beets, a few carrots, a few cabbage, some lettuce basically bits and bobs. This one is doing ok but still slow, thought the carrots (started at the same time are twice the size of the second).

The veg boarder....well what a disaster. I planted onion sets VERY slow growing, actually i think they have even stopped growing. I planted 7 pumpkin plants lost 6. The last one is starting to flower, i pollinated the ripe female flower with the male. It was doing ok, went out the check it the other day the the pumpkin had gone rotten.

In addition to this i also have beets, garlic, onion sets and peas growing in bags filled with potting compost they are all doing really well.

Does it just sound like poor soil conditions, and if so will this improve over the years with care?

[Socks]

Hi Where2Start!

What would be really helpful here would be to know where exactly you are in your growing season, being from 'Down South' so to speak.

If im right, you in your summer down there? if so then how much sunlight do you get?

These things aside, you may want to pep up your virgin boarders with a good NPK fertilizer, now you've planted you may not be able to get good organic matter into the beds to bolster them (mulch with sheep poo perhaps? plenty of that down there!)

The quality of the soil, good weather conditions and frequent rain/watering all go to ensure even the most difficult to grow veggies get going. And seeing as your growbags are doing well it may well be that your soil is poor at the mo (this will improve with good soil husbandry over the next few years)

See if you can get hold of some chicken poo pellets, or a general purpose granular feed at least and you may get some of the crops going.

Im no expert myself, but i think the steps outlined may go some way to solving your crisis.

Regards

Socks

[Socks]

Just another thought on this, it may be worth checking your PH of the soil, it may be overly acidic/alkaline.

Socks

[lynda66]

when you've pollinated the pumpkins and the flower dies back break it off, i found if you leave the flower on, they sometimes go rotten, also put some straw underneath so it's not on the ground

my onions i planted in june last year, still look like spring onions, my carrots form august are still only a couple of inches long, they do seem to take ages to grow

mind you i didn't add anything to the soil either, just a bit of compost on top of the seeds.

[RedThorn]

You should be at the height of your growing season right now, your punpkins should be going mad! Would check your PH. What kind of soil do you have? is it very sandy? In June/July, Get a load of manure dug in to start improving the soil. For now, the best I can suggest is liquid/granular fertiliser....
I'm jealous, still waiting for the seasons to turn here so I can get going! Starting to get very itchy fingers and I know that I'm gonna start off too soon - working real hard to supress the urge! :P