24 Aug - Already Wrapping This Season Up!

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.

26 Jul - It's An Annus Horribilis!!

Well, things aren't going great, I'll admit it. Let's go for the successes first. Runner beans have developed well, the onions likewise, we are still eating my Rocket early potatoes, there's a load of broad beans in the freezer and the tree is full of ripening plums.

Now to the bad news and this season there appears to be a lot of it. The Picasso main crop potatoes look pathetic, the plants are small and I doubt very much if there's anything worthwhile underneath them. The brassicas are awful - I said last month that I had given some spare sprout plants to my allotment neighbour and his Brussels were twice the size of mine, well, his have all keeled over and died. Closer inspection has shown root fly at the base. Both my summer cabbage and sprouts are stunted, no doubt due to a lack of root development despite rubber disks at the base of the stems.

The most tragic for me are the Winter squashes which usually provide lovely food well into the new year. Not this time. None of the squashes have flowered at all, not even the courgettes which usually produce so well that they are a plague by the end of the Summer! 

I'm not sure about the Picasso spuds, maybe they just aren't suited to my clay soil but more likely it's because the weather has been dry and they have suffered. The brassicas have been hit by root fly, I'm certain of that so I'll have to have a think about how to combat that next season.

The squash failure is curious but I think I know why they haven't done well for me this year. I planted them out in early June as usual but unfortunately the weather became relatively overcast and cool for a few weeks. Squashes really don't like that and cooler temperatures just after planting really interrupt their development cycle. I'll leave them in the ground but I know from past experience that signs of fruiting should be appearing by now if there's going to be a decent crop.

Anyway, I'll sign off with a picture of a more fruitful squash crop from a previous season just to remind myself that I'm not a total idiot! Bye for now.