Tales of woe - 2016

[KevinM67]

Marb67 - your post was so refreshing and striking in its honesty.

Yep, I've been guilty in the past for taunting you as the 'prophet of doom' - but it was genuinely done in jest.

You opened up a little a while back - and I'm so glad you're still posting on here, when you were threatening to quit.

Anyway, there's a lot of virtual love and kindness on here - post away anytime, about anything, any time you feel.

[cariann88]

Green fly on plants.
Strawberries being eaten by slugs.
Caterpillar eggs all over pepper leafs, cucumber leafs and tomato leaves.
Sprouts gone to seed.
Strawberries rotting.
Horse tail everywhere on the plot.
Found bindweed on the plot.
Big greenhouse the wood is rotting away, could collapse any moment.
Ant's in the other greenhouse.

All in all it will not get me down. I will beat it all!

[Martin H]

Pigeons got my PSB and spring cabbages after the wind blew the netting off.
No flowers on my apples, so no fruit this year.
Flea beetles destroying my radishes and mizuna.
Slugs got most of my carrots.
Strawberries rotting from the damp.
Blackleg on the early potatoes.

All in all, pretty good.

[Bren In Pots]

Here's my list :-

Parsnips failed twice so those in the bad now don't even have their true leaves yet.
Lettuce going to seed
Allium leaf miner destroying my Leeks before they've made it to pencil thickness
Blossom falling of apple trees
Bolting Chard
Only 3 spinach plants have survived the slugs.
plus Slugs eating radish, lettuce, peas, strawberries well they've nibbled most things really apart from my toms.

[Nicos]

Well all I can say is that this year it's gonna be a monumental problem chosing a winner for the 'Best Failure' catogory of the VVS



* runs & hides behind Norty Step >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yeh!
Get taking piccies of these failures!

[Ryez]

I am a new grower and being in a low maintenance garden with new soil and beds sitting on a decking area makes it much easier. Still, I have slugs eating my plant's leaves and mysterious bugs making holes on their leaves. Today I got aphids on my tomatoes and the ladybugs are nowhere to be seen... Everything is very slow in my garden so I think the failures will start appearing from next month. i.e. I have no flowers yet on my raspberries, blueberries and strawberries... My salad leaves give me enough to make a tiny salad every 3 weeks... And I am sick and tired of eating radish!

I have become an avid reader of these forums and it is all these tales of woe that teach newbies like me the dos and don'ts in gardening. I have learned a lot here. Thank You!

[Jay-ell]

Yeh!
Get taking piccies of these failures!

Lots of photos of empty soil.

• I've had a bean eaten by a slug
• And my cucumbers. (some may revive, but gives me space for the cucamelons)
• And my peas are only 2' high.(tall peas)
• My kiwi has only grown 1.5' (this month )
• Had to pull out the radishes because the parsnips germinated first (used as a row marker mainly)
• My Portuguese walking stick kale committed harikari (leaves more space for all the other kales)
• 7 out of 10 fuchsia berries croaked (the remaining 3 filled the rest of the fruit hedge at the front)
• A rhubarb transplant has died (3 spares in pots just in case)
• A red currant in the cental fruit hedge died (leaving some pace to plant a grape)

[Containergardener]

.

[Penellype]

At home:
Rhubarb rotted in the wet and died
Lettuces (new seed) had zero germination
Poor germination from cucumbers, runner beans and broccoli
Aphids everywhere from as early as January, being farmed by ants on the apple tree again despite glue bands
Tomato plants very variable, some went yellow and leaves were damaged, although they survived
Strawberries rotting while still green
Begonia plugs curled up and died
Spinach got too hot and bolted (my fault)
Rain knocked a load of blueberries off the bushes
Possible blackleg on one potato plant
Mildew on a courgette plant at the 4 leaf stage
One lot of peas look odd, with the leaves curling up and going brown (although they are flowering ok)

And at my friend's:
Slugs anihilated celeriac, calabrese, runner beans, lettuce and mizuna and decapitated 5 tomato plants and a courgette as well as munching a lot of the foliage on potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages, kohlrabi and carrots and eating most of the PSB
Aphids infesting peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries in the greenhouse
Slugs eating strawberries in the greenhouse despite being on 3ft high wire shelving with copper bands round the legs
Red spider mite in the greenhouse damaging strawberries and peppers
Sun scorch on the tomatoes in the greenhouse from 1 day of hot sun


On the plus side:
Superb early crops of spinach and salad leaves
Excellent performance from the one brokali plant
Very pleased with the overwintered and early carrots
Astonished to have already eaten a sweet pepper from an overwintered plant.
Great crop of early peas (Meteor)
Some decent early indoor tomatoes
The best turnips I've ever grown
Carrots, parsnips, calabrese and most of the potatoes coming along nicely

At my friends:
Very happy with the early cucumber
Some huge onions on the way
Parsnips seem to be avoiding the slugs (not much else is)
The one plant that (currently) looks really happy is the outdoor Mountain Magic tomato.

[Bal]

I've had a mixed bag this year, my flowers have done really well.3rd year with kelvedon wonder peas and a very poor crop. Onions bolting, rust on garlic, strawberries growing mouldy, all leaves and not fruit on one blueberry, all fruit and no leaves on another slug, slugs, slugs and more slugs, but I still love gardening

[Penellype]

Every year is different - that's part of the challenge

[Tripmeup]

So far so good.
Its early days so plenty of time for things to go wrong.
Some of my onions have bolted.
Very poor germination on my Little Gem lettuce.
Carrots doing very poorly.
Parsnips didnt germinate.
Rust on some of my Fuschias.
Slugs attacking my sunflowers.
Still trying to stay positive though.

Ok folks, I think I am guilty here of making too many doom and gloom posts. (Veggie Chicken, you are welcome to delete some of my recent posts and I can get them all off my chest here) You see I have had a pretty terrible couple of years with a lot of personal stress, loss and some health issues. My gardening (and creativity-music/photography) are my only means of trying to control/enjoy at least something so that is why I have been veering (I know a little too much) on the negative side, which sadly I tend to do naturally anyway. I start out positive in my garden (and I do expect things to go wrong) but when so many things seem to go wrong I get to a point of despair and this is my only venting place with fellow growers. I have also been guilty of being dismissive of people's help here of which I can only apologize. I get bouts of depression, especially when things go wrong as they seem far worse so perhaps when in that state of mind it isn't a good idea to come here.

Anyway, it's cold comfort to know I am not alone in these increasing problems so thanks for posting. Yes, so far it's not been a good growing year.

Aphids
Whitefly
Snails/slugs (although not as bad as they used to be due to frogs)
Flea beetle.
leaf miner in cherry tree/oxe eye daisy/honeysuckle/spinnach/beetroot/chard
Spinach poor growth and leaf miner
Radish bolting (although I will use the seed pods in salad)
Did I mention aphids ?
Some spring onions just went to nothing.
Brassica young plants going white, shriveling and dying.
Healthy chard diminishing after harvesting leaves.
Damping off in some seedlings
Last years healthy flat leaf parsley getting smaller and smaller and putting up flower heads.

Thankfully, I have never had blackfly on my broad beans but flea beetle in the tops every year without fail

LOVE that post Marb...so honest and truthful..fair play to you

[Lumpy]

To add insult to injury it has been hissing down for hours and my muppet (sorry OH) decided to fix the corner of the raised bed that had my healthy leeks in even though it was not in desparate need - result is 2 rows destroyed out of the 5 I had.

[Tripmeup]

I don't know about other peeps and I know it can cause issues for Mods, but I would rather peeps come here and vent if needs be than wallow in silence, although it is nicer if you share some happies aswell.

Oh and Snoop what you mean about my list, I just do large quantities of everything

Absolutely correct. a place to vent as well as celebrate the many successes we have...

For me, I find each year has a trend...
This year for some inexplicable reason I can't get lettuce to germinate (well barely any)
Seems I am not alone on this...
Slugs everywhere..
Some red onions bolting
Pak Choi that wasn't munched bolted..

[Jay-ell]

Somehow when reading about what's gone wrong it doesn't seem right to like a post.