Broad beans - slugged
Giant mangetout peas from Real seeds - fantastic! Light crop because no sun, but the taste was wonderful.

Runner beans, Climbing French, courgettes, all OK because I grew them in pots in the greenhouse. Ditto tomatoes and cucumbers, although both are late.

Cabbages spinach etc - between pigeons and slugs I'm experimenting with greenhouse growth.

Lettuces - greenhouse - very good.

Alpine strawberries are always good in a wet year, much bigger than normal
Rhubarb slugged! Though I did get a reasonable harvest.

Raspberries good but lacking in flavour, tayberries good, blackberries best yet.

Mulberries - about half normal crop.
Medlars - very poor. Perhaps 30 fruits altogether
Figs - big and juicy but still not ripe - it's a rice between them and the frost.

Apples - mixed. Could just be biennial bearing. About 30lbs of Worcesters but heavily predated by blackbirds. None of the others are anywhere near ripe yet.

On 01/10/2012 10:41, wrote:
Broad beans - good
our too
Runner beans - awful (slugged to nothing)
First sowing eaten. 2nd try still producing.
French beans - awful (slugged to nothing)
Again 2nd attempt gave good crop. (plenty in freezer)

Courgettes - awful (slugged to nothing
2 out of 5 survived - a few fruit.
Pumpkins - awful (slugged to nothing)
Butternut - awful (slugged to nothing)
Brilliant this year
Patty pans - poor (mostly slugged, 1 plant survived to produce a late fruit)
Peas - ok (would have been better if we'd stayed on top of picking!)
Mange tout - ok (ditto as peas - had some nice purple ones)
Eaten by something. A few pickings.

Carrots - awful (slugged to nothing)
2nd and 3rd sowings reasonable. Little CRF this year.
Onion - ok (significant amount of white rot)
Not bothered due to white rod.
Leeks - ok (going well, hard to call atm)
Likewise

Potatoes - ok (but mostly still underground as it has been too hard to dig!)
Not bad - a bit slug eaten.
Tomatoes - really good (indoor and out, mostly still going strong)
Not bad - not brilliant.
Chard - very good (first year, looks like we have more than we can ever eat!)
Pathetic - one seedling out of zillians.

Raspberries - very good (best year for these ones yet)
Not very good.
Strawberries - hit and miss
Plentiful
Blackcurrants - poor (were goign well, then shrivelled on the stem!)
Plentiful
Whitecurrants - good (young plant, but best year yet)
Redcurrants - very good (still picking them!)
OK
Gooseberries - poor (few and far between, although the ones we got were good)
Pretty Good
Apples - so-so (nice, but not a heavy crop)
Pretty good cooker. Eaters only 1 cordon of 4 had a good crop.

Probably missed loads of stuff.

Paul Luton wrote:
Onion - ok (significant amount of white rot)
Not bothered due to white rod.
Leeks - ok (going well, hard to call atm)
Likewise

I've never had a problem with my leeks despite the white rot problems.
I'm going to try the garlic-watering idea before trying to plant onions
this time.

Chard - very good (first year, looks like we have more than we can ever eat!)
Pathetic - one seedling out of zillians.

I even had a spare chard plant in with the brassicas I planted out yesterday!

wrote:

CT wrote:
Courgettes: accidentally had four plants instead of two (see broad
beans, below). I didn't realise they got so big so two of them got
a overshadowed by the ones at the front so didn't do as well. All
in all, too many courgettes and again, gave loads away.

What variety were they? I find Green Bush are usually the best
behaved for various reasons (but not this year!!)

Early Gem[1] & Goldrush F1. The Early Gem did slightly better than the
Goldrush.

[1] Assuming that the one that were marked as broad beans were the same
variety as the ones that were labaled correctly.

--
Chris

CT wrote:
Courgettes: accidentally had four plants instead of two (see broad
beans, below). I didn't realise they got so big so two of them got
a overshadowed by the ones at the front so didn't do as well. All
in all, too many courgettes and again, gave loads away.

What variety were they? I find Green Bush are usually the best
behaved for various reasons (but not this year!!)

Early Gem[1] & Goldrush F1. The Early Gem did slightly better than the
Goldrush.

[1] Assuming that the one that were marked as broad beans were the same
variety as the ones that were labaled correctly.

Goldrush are yellow, yes? I've always found yellow ones much less reliable.
Are early gem round rather than long?

wrote:

Goldrush are yellow, yes? I've always found yellow ones much less
reliable.

They are yellow, yes. They were slightly behind the early gems in
terms of size & number but generally OK.

Are early gem round rather than long?

No, they're normal ones. Some were left a bit too long and were more
like marrows.

--
Chris

CT wrote:
Goldrush are yellow, yes? I've always found yellow ones much less
reliable.
They are yellow, yes. They were slightly behind the early gems in
terms of size & number but generally OK.

I've always found yellow ones are pretty, but not as good eating as
the green - the skins seem to be thicker, and they get chewier seeds
in the middle even when still courgette size. Always been rather
disappointed with them, especially since they seem harder to grow,
so I gave up with them.

Are early gem round rather than long?
No, they're normal ones. Some were left a bit too long and were more
like marrows.

Perhaps I'm mixing up with little gem squashes. They /sound/ round. :-)

I've found patty pans are by far the most reliable croppers and plants,
followed by green bush, then some of the darker green sprawly ones.

On 10/01/2012 11:41 AM, wrote:
Probably missed loads of stuff.

We don't do much veg but have some fruit here in lower Normandy. We had
a hard freeze on 13 May after a warm and very dry period.

Peaches: good crop
Cherries: none at all
Pears: none
Apples: a handful on 1 tree (Reinnette Blanche d'Espagne)
Gages: none
Plums: none
Mirabelles: none
Black currants: a few
Red currants: a few
Gooseberries: a handful
Raspberries: decent
Blackberries: decent (still going)
Loganberries: none
Tayberries: none
hazel nuts: decent
walnuts: none

So, pretty miserable in all. But the worst was in the Acer production,
where I have learned some hard lessons. I will not stint on Bordeaux
mix or snail/slug bait. I have managed things with a very light hand by
assuming that what didn't make it through the winter was going to die
later anyway. But to either snails or pseudomonas/damp-off I lost:

~ 20 variegated pseudoplatanus (sycamores)
~ 20 pseudosieboldianum
~ 20 micranthum
~ 50 ginalla
~ 40 davidii
~ 50 variegated palmatum
~ 200 interesting palmatum
~ 10 varied rare species (sinopurpurescens, pycnanthum etc) young grafts
purchased in pots

All in all, a disaster and then some.

BAD

Two main problems with me, other than natural ones.
1) I was away mid-may to mid-June, hence planting erratic and late
2) For sowing seeds indoors I used a year old bag of multi-purpose
compost, which turn out to be a disaster!

Natural problems, weather, slugs (hordes), caterpillars, weeds!

Beetroot None. Few plants germinated, three still growing but still
only 3" high
French Beans None - slugs
Broad Beans Reasonable, given that they went in quite late
Runner Beans Good, still picking
Leeks Loooking good
Lettuce so-so
Turnip Excellent and still growing well
Swede Very poor
Peas A few, from late sowing
Mange Tout. First time grown, from bought plants, good, but not really a
heavy crop
Spring Cabbage Still waiting for them to heart up!
Sprouts Disaster, plants just about a foot high
Curly Kale Very small but begining to grow now
Cauliflower Still waiting
Purple Sprouting Brocoli Plants growing stringly, looking forward to
good crop in spring
Winter Cabbages Slow to start, but now growing well, some begining to
heart up
Summer Cabbages What summer, what no cabbages
Carrots Reasonable, eventually, sowed serveral times before germination
Parsnips No germination at all
Onions Sets Quite good, but generally small
Garlic Disaster, over run by couch

On the soft fruit side

Strawberries (in pots) None, flowered well, started to form, then
nothing!
Blackcurrants Good, but not as bountiful as last year
Gooseberries Small, from old bush
Raspberries Summer fruiting v poor and some of the few next years canes
are now fruiting as autumn variety.
Autumn Fruiting Raspberries. Quite good, berries large, but canes quite
short, 3ft as opposed to normal 5ft, so quantity low.
Red Currants OK
Loganberry Very good, bumper crop
Blueberries Disappointing
Rhubarb Bumper crop, but then I split some crowns 2 years ago, so I have
a lot more to pick from



--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

Roger Tonkin wrote:
Swede Very poor

I've got a bunch of these growing for the first time this year, but I
have no idea what's going on under the ground! I think they are Marion

Sprouts Disaster, plants just about a foot high

That happened to me last year. I was going to pull them out in the
spring but they suddenly started growing again! In the end they gave
a tiny crop, not really worth having, and took 18 months.

In article ,
says...
Swede Very poor

I've got a bunch of these growing for the first time this year, but I
have no idea what's going on under the ground! I think they are Marion




Make sure you thin then to a reasonable distance apart, slugs will get
in them and most of the activity tends to be above ground when they
start swelling

--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

Roger Tonkin wrote:
I've got a bunch of these growing for the first time this year, but I
have no idea what's going on under the ground! I think they are Marion

Make sure you thin then to a reasonable distance apart, slugs will get
in them and most of the activity tends to be above ground when they
start swelling

I started them in root trainers then planted them out, so they should be
well spaced already. I have no idea if they will work, but they have
leaves. :-)

On 01/10/2012 22:08, wrote:
Paul Luton wrote:
Onion - ok (significant amount of white rot)
Not bothered due to white rod.
Leeks - ok (going well, hard to call atm)
Likewise

I've never had a problem with my leeks despite the white rot problems.
I'm going to try the garlic-watering idea before trying to plant onions
this time.

Ah; I meant the "hard to call". Yes white rot doesn't seem to affect
them - just allium moth and leek moth !


I will have to look up "garlic watering" presumably dehibernating the
white onion rot organism.

Paul Luton wrote:
Onion - ok (significant amount of white rot)
Not bothered due to white rod.
Leeks - ok (going well, hard to call atm)
Likewise

I've never had a problem with my leeks despite the white rot problems.
I'm going to try the garlic-watering idea before trying to plant onions
this time.

Ah; I meant the "hard to call". Yes white rot doesn't seem to affect
them - just allium moth and leek moth !

Ah, I see. Yes. I get rust. (I should towel down better!)

I will have to look up "garlic watering" presumably dehibernating the
white onion rot organism.

*nod* Apparently a weak garlic solution watered onto the patch brings out
the white rot but it finds nothing to grow on, and after a few attempts it
burns itself out. Allegedly. I haven't tried it yet, and I have no idea
what strength to go for.

On 10/3/2012 5:20 PM, wrote:

*nod* Apparently a weak garlic solution watered onto the patch brings out
the white rot but it finds nothing to grow on, and after a few attempts it
burns itself out. Allegedly. I haven't tried it yet, and I have no idea
what strength to go for.

I hope you'll report back on your results. It sounds like an excellent idea.