Cutting my loses

[Greenleaves]

I have decided that for a number of reasons to cut my loses and get rid of this years runner beans, broad beans and green french beans, all have suffered heavily to blackfly, pigeons and of late the strong winds.

Fortunately I still have plenty in the freezer so will create a bit of space by eating them.

My onions are not looking too good either and as mentioned on a previous thread all going to seed .

On a positive note my brassicas are doing fantastically well.

I might have a change of heart and resow a few beans but time will tell

[Bren In Pots]

I think we all have years like that some times GL

[lottie dolly]

How sad GL,it does seam to be a bad year again,nothing seems to be growing as it should,even weeds are looking ropey,was dissapointed on visiting the lottie earlier on,BB stems are starting to brown,lots of beans,just not filling out,carrots and swede are few and far,not worth the bother,even the brassicas have fell foul to the slimes,bit better at home,apart form the slimes,have decided to just plant out the squash and pellet the area down the lottie,and see if i can get some sort off results from the types off beans yet to be put out,the poor things are chewed up,just a thought GL,if your bean plants have good roots,just cut em down,and not digg up,they should shoot again.

[Florence Fennel]

I've had plenty of salad leaves but everything else is sparse so far. Sow some more GL you know you want to

[craftymarie]

My onions are running to seed as well. I sowed 2 beds worth so I too am absolutely gutted. We eat loads of onions so its one of my favourite crops.

However, have to try and find a bright side, am pulling them up daily as we need to eat them so basically just eating them much smaller and much earlier than expected with probably none left to store.

Am not having the best year with lots of things. The runner beans are nowhere near as good as last year although at least they are now finally growing up the canes. Everything seems very slow and some seeds I've had to sow 2-3 times just to get things growing.

The lettuce is fabulous and am eating lots of that at least!

It seems a very odd year with weird weather boiling hot one min and freezing cold the next - no wonder the crops are struggling!

[Penellype]

Agree its a weird year. I normally grow enough spinach to feed me every day for about 2 months and have some left over to freeze, but this year it has all bolted really early despite frequent watering and some of it being in self watering planters. I did get some nice harvests but nowhere near enough to freeze.

The beetroot that I sowed in March is now bolting too - the beets are the thickness of my little finger . I've not grown this variety (Boldor - a yellow rooted one) before, so I don't know if its the variety, the early sowing or the weather that's the problem. The Boltardy that I sowed later is about the same size but so far not bolting.

[Greenleaves]

Ironically my beets are doing really well, even my courgettes look pathetically small. Always next season

[Nannysally99]

Words fail me GL

[Nicos]

I think we are in our 5th sowing of climbing French beans.
The voles have tunnelled underneath and eagerly await the next sowing!
Before feasting again.
I think we may have thwarted them thus time....loads of Holly leaves around each bean...
Time will tell eh?

Agree...sow again GL....

[Jay22]

That was me last year, it was a disaster so this year I have stuck to chillies and some toms! Little tree seedlings which I have been looking after so well were looking good. Had them in a pot with a large freezer bag over them and closed tight at bottom. Took it off last night to give the seedlings some air and forgot to put them back on. Result? No tree seedlings today! Sometimes you wonder why you bother!

[Jay-ell]

My squashes are there somewhere - it's hard to tell as they're so small.

It took 3 sowings of broad beans for them to come up. My CFB, DFB, CRB and DRB seem to be doing fine at the moment.

My autumn planted shallots are going to seed, my autumn planted onions are looking pathetic. My Garlic isn't doing the best - one row completely disappeared, leaves had died completely back and it had turned into mono bulbs. Some of my elephant garlic is as big as a fist - if you're a small 10yo.

I'd be tempted to pull out the autumn alliums if it wasn't for the fact that that is the next bed I have to dig out, remove the weed fabric underneath, demolish and rebuild because I haven't finished the previous bed yet. Plus I want to give the Oerprei a chance as it's the first time I've grown it and I want to see how big the broodballs get

On the other hand, I get to try seed saving shallot seeds and who knows - I may end up with my own strain, or possible straining something.

Once I have rebuilt the beds they'll have more organic material incorporated into in them (which I believe is why that bed hasn't done so well) and the beans & spring sown onions/shallots in two of the beds I have rebuilt are doing fine.

I also have 1 parsnip and 3 salsify come up out of 3 rows each. The carrots have came up and are looking better than I've ever achieved and my scorzonera has become a cut and come again root crop so there's a plus there.

All my brassicas got slugged so I had to buy some sprouts. There's loads of self sown brassicas coming up in the yacon bed so I'll leave the ones that look more like kale (if there's any) and see if they can hold their own against the squash and Yacon.

Half my dahlias (the bee watch ones) got smashed to bits in the hail storm a little while ago but I had a few grown from James Wongs seeds in the GH. This left more space for weird and wonderful tomato relatives in the bed.

Out of a bed of Oca I only have two plants come up. Ever hopeful that the rest will be up soon. I think I was late planting them.

[happyhumph]

My failures so far this year

Courgettes/squashes - never had an issue before but slugs hate me this year

Rocket - ditto slugs

Salad - haven't had time to get the planter refilled so pot bound seedlings being slowly starved/slugs

Carrots/root parsley - nothing showing yet.

Brassicas - everything apart from perennial kale from VC pot bound and slugged as haven't got bed ready - time issues again. No PSB or WSB for me next year, although I will pot on tomorrow and see if I can salvage.

Garlic - generally good except one variety hasn't done much.

Boddington soup pea - slow, low germination rates

Huauzontle - 3rd attempt, looking good now. My fault, watered the first lot with too hard a hose attachment and let 2nd lot dry our in propogater. 3rd lot on sunny window sill with delicate regular watering doing OK

Spinach - barely even doing anything.

Going to stop now before I wonder why I bother!!!

[Mr Bones]

Sorrry to hear of your struggles GL.
My peas are rubbish, DFB's sruggling to the point of not moving and courgettes are looking sick. Carrots and parsnips have yet to have an outside sowing that germinates.

[Small pumpkin]

I think all of my onion sets are going to go to seed. Also have a variety of carrot (red samurai) that I think is going to to seed. I've never had a carrot go to seed before so I'm not 100%

[Greenleaves]

Sorrry to hear of your struggles GL.
My peas are rubbish, DFB's sruggling to the point of not moving and courgettes are looking sick. Carrots and parsnips have yet to have an outside sowing that germinates.

Not a struggle Mr Bones....an opertunity