As I said in my last post, I've had a bad season. It's usual to have the odd failure, pests, disease, weather, bad luck, etc, can all hit a particular crop and cause a failure - it happens. Unfortunately I've had a number of different problems hit my allotment and the results have been the worst year for growing veg I've had in a dozen years on the plot. It's truly been an allotment annus horribilis.
I was right about the Picasso main crop spuds (see my last post) they dwindled away to nothing and there was very little in the ground underneath them. The squash plants remained small, undeveloped and fruitless despite the weather getting hotter - they just didn't get off to a good start after being planted out and never recovered.
I'm not going to have a rant about Shirley F1 tomatoes this month; I know people swear by them but they've been pretty useless for me on two occasions now. Sorry, they're over priced, unreliable and not worth the effort, I'm going back to cheap and cheerful next season, give me simple Alicante, Roma, Gardner's Delight or Alisa Craig any day.
My Sturon onions have done well though, even despite some very dry weather throughout July and August. I have had to water them and they aren't the biggest I've ever grown but they're respectable.
My Firestorm runner beans were doing well until some freak high winds the other night snapped and demolished the supporting canes - oh dear, more disaster! Still, at least we managed to eat a good number of them. I've had lettuce from the plot, the carrots in the barrel look good and the parsnips look healthy so that's something.
I'm already clearing the plot in places, there's a few early spuds to come up and the whole potato bed can be cleared of any remaining weeds and leveled out with a rake. It's already pretty well dug over. I've removed the broken runner beans and canes this week and weeded the area. The squash bed has been an utter disaster, what a disappointment this year, never mind, I'll try again next season.
Well, I'm winding down already, a bit of an anti climax. Usually the plot would be busy into late September and early October with squashes galore but not this year.
That's it. I'll post next month if there is anything to say! Bye for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment