Strawberry and cauliflower advice needed please

[emarisa28]

Im having a disaster with my plot this year. And the few things that have managed to grow seem to not be that great either. Apart from the garlic and lettuce!
First up strawberries - last year i got some bare rooted plants from Marshalls. Planted them and got just a few strawbs as it was their first year, and they tasted amazing. I planted them in pots over winter mainly because i wanted to try and raise the bed. In Jan / Feb i put in some soild plus a bag of Country Natural composted manure. Left it a month, mixed it all in and replanted my strawberries.
This year there have been lots of fruit - but none are edible. Basically they are totally hollow and when they turn red then turn to mush. I have only fed them twice with comfrey tea so i doubt ive over fertilized them - unless its the Country Natural, but that was months ago. My neighbours ones are fine so its not down to too much rain either. Any opinions apprecited!

Also, i tried growing a couple of califlowers (the 'all year round' variety) and they are in a slightly shady area of my plot so that the sun (ha ha) wouldnt cause any problems. However, when about 5" across the curd started separating and going slightly yellow even though the stems were still slightly green in colour meaning they werent overipe. I tried to cover the leaves over when i saw the young head, but i was away for a week and they seemed to have doubled in size with this as the end result. What did i do wrong with these?!

THANK YOU

[skeggijon]

I'm afraid its a challenging year for Strawberry growing emarisa. It's so wet and warm - millions of slugs about and I've found that unless I pick my Strawbs before they're fully ripe, they just turn to mush too this year.
I pick them when they're just starting to turn and leave them on the windowsill til the next day and they're perfectly ripe.
Cauliflowers are just the most difficult of all brassicas - if not all veg to grow. All but one of mine have split - most of them look like white sprouting broccoli

[emarisa28]

Yes but the person next to me, their strawberries are totally fine. So could i have done something wrong. Im having to throw a punnet worth away twice a week. Which wouldnt be so bad if there was something else actually growing on my plot this year

[Alison]

Don't give yourself a hard time, mine showed so much promise this year but are rotting at an alarming rate which is a real shame. Some varieties are more prone so that could be the difference to your neighbours.

[emarisa28]

This is my third year of having my allotment and its third year unlucky. I just feel the whole thing has been a disaster, from seedlings being smashed up by the weather, to a freezing may and June, my timing being wrong, not even my courgette plants have started growing and they have been in the soil for over a month....its like they don't want to grow!

[veggiechicken]

Have a read of http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...tml?highlight= to see that you're not the only one having a difficult year.
Next year will be better, of course

[Alison]

It always is a challenge and stuff always goes wrong so don't cut yourself up over it. I find by growing a small amount of a lot of things that I always get something that goes OK. This year all my autumn caulis have been slugged and the spinach bolted before I ate any but I had some spare red cabbage plants that replaced the caulis and the compost heap benefitted from the spinach