What Problems Do You Have Growing **********

[bramble]

I know this is all subjective & down to personal experience but thought if we can highlight the problems we face GYO then hopefully we may be able to combat them. So what problems do you have growing certain crops, hopefully someone may come up with an answer.

I'll kick it of with:

Sweetcorn

I always have problems growing Sweetcorn as the husks attract Earwigs.

Bigmally, this is a problem with Dahlias as well. If you put a cane in the ground beside the plant, put an upturned flowerpot on top stuffed with straw. The earwigs go into the pots among the straw. In the morning remove the pot and you should have your earwigs trapped inside in the straw.
Hope you can make sense of this.

[Baldy]

And what's your secret to growing celeriac? We really need to know. Or are you just pulling our online legs?!

Sorry Snoop - celeric just grew for me. I did nothing particularly interesting - modules I think and then in the ground. Bit of chicken pellet if they were lucky. Whoosh. I overwintered one... well forgot about one in a pot in the back garden. Foliage looks good. I'll maybe film it when I get home... Easy peasy

[spamvindaloo]

Does hair count?

[Dalrimple]

spring onions & pak choy ,i thought i'd cracked it with the springies growing them in modular trays but they just died of !
Dal

[GardenGayle]

Anything that's described as 'easy' or 'foolproof' radishes, strawberries, beetroot. Strangely things other people seem to find hard like carrots I just throw into a tub of multipurpose compost and they do fine.

I guess I'm a contradiction!

[Kirk]

With me it is onions, very rarely do they get to even ping pong ball size. Usually they remain the same as they went in - onion sets here. I get small garlics coming out bigger then the onions.

Considering that yesterday I bought 3 loose red onions at a supermarket for 21p. It really is questionable if it is worth even thinking of them in the garden. The space is better used for something else. Which is what I am doing this year - not an onion in sight.

[elleme]

Like a few others I haven't done well with pak choi, that said I've hardly ever tried it but when I did, either it was no-show or almost instant bolt. At least with other oriental veg I've had some over winter in the greenhouse before the late spring bolting.

French beans have been a disaster the couple of times I tried. They germinated easily then got munched down to nothing. This was in my snail-ridden walled back garden though. Once I tried them in a pot with copper tape all around and the buggers still sailed past to eat all the leaves. I'll try them on the plot this year but will still start them off indoors in the hope of getting them to a more resilient stage.

[Containergardener]

I do pak choi in modules and plant on into a trough of veg compost. Works for me. I don't sow direct.

Celeriac I can't get past the leaf stage , root doesn't grow into anything. I'm trying again though.

[Bacchus]

The one thing that never ever works for me is cauliflower. Every time I plant it it turns out looking like cow parsley - so I just don't bother any more. I thought it must be the soil as neighbours all have the same problem. (I live right on the edge of the Mourne mountain granite intrusion so the soil is a mix of the acidic granitic and a metamorphosed limestone ) but I've tried it on pure compost and its the same thing - so it must just be down to regional incompetence...

[Greenleaves]

^^^Good to see you Bacchus

I have been trying to grow a decent cauli for years, last year i accomplished just that.....not holding my breath for this year though

[Yasai]

If any one has any ideas n how to get spring onions to grow bigger than "the size of a chive plant" please do share...
I would LOVE to grow them but no joy so far. Haven't even bothered getting any seeds this year... which obviously won't help matters but there we are.

[roitelet]

Swedes. We can rarely buy them here. I have tried several times with little success. Trying for the last time this year.

[vixylix]

The only way I manage spring onions is to ignore them for about 9 months!

But then it takes so long to get them mud free it never seems worth it!

[BUFFS]

I have major problems with the whole brassica family. They if they germinate, please note if, then they grow a little bit then die. Plug plants, tried them, they die.
So mine is

Brassica family

would that be your soil type? I always lime the soil a month before planting out any brassica..