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Reflections on the season, 2012
+2
Adrian
Chilli-head
6 posters
Page 1 of 1
Reflections on the season, 2012
Well, it's that time of year. Most crops have done all they are going to. It has been ... a "difficult" year - we seem to get a lot of those these days.
So what has done well for you despite the odds, and have you learned any new tricks ?
For me, there have been a few sucesses.
Celeriac had done well, and is tasty - from Seeds of Italy.
My Fagiolo di Spagna Giant beans, also Seeds of Italy, are really HUGE and a reasonable yield.
I have a great pumpkin Conneticut field haunting the dining room table. Maybe 18" across, too heavy for the kitchen scales. Still annoyed about the low life who stole the other ...
Judging by the freezer contents, petit pois type peas Linnet and Waverex, and sweetcorn Lark did OK. Overwintered broad beans Super Aquadulche (SOI again) did OK too.
Strawberries and fruit in general did well - 7 jars of strawberry jam !
Tomato San Marzano Redorta F1 from SOI is the best plum type I've yet found. Little blossom end rot troubles.
Not so successful were Spring sown onions (tiny compared to the autumn planted sets), Fennel (vanished without trace at the seedling stage), French bean Lamon - rotted on the plant, butternut squach (some, but tiny), Leeks (minature), potatoes (fair number, but full of slug holes)
So, favourite varieties discovered 2012:
Tomato San Marzano Redorta F1
Giant beans Fagiolo di Spagna
Celeriac Del Veneto
Chilli Datil - hot and prolific.
So what has done well for you despite the odds, and have you learned any new tricks ?
For me, there have been a few sucesses.
Celeriac had done well, and is tasty - from Seeds of Italy.
My Fagiolo di Spagna Giant beans, also Seeds of Italy, are really HUGE and a reasonable yield.
I have a great pumpkin Conneticut field haunting the dining room table. Maybe 18" across, too heavy for the kitchen scales. Still annoyed about the low life who stole the other ...
Judging by the freezer contents, petit pois type peas Linnet and Waverex, and sweetcorn Lark did OK. Overwintered broad beans Super Aquadulche (SOI again) did OK too.
Strawberries and fruit in general did well - 7 jars of strawberry jam !
Tomato San Marzano Redorta F1 from SOI is the best plum type I've yet found. Little blossom end rot troubles.
Not so successful were Spring sown onions (tiny compared to the autumn planted sets), Fennel (vanished without trace at the seedling stage), French bean Lamon - rotted on the plant, butternut squach (some, but tiny), Leeks (minature), potatoes (fair number, but full of slug holes)
So, favourite varieties discovered 2012:
Tomato San Marzano Redorta F1
Giant beans Fagiolo di Spagna
Celeriac Del Veneto
Chilli Datil - hot and prolific.
Chilli-head- Admin and Boss man
- Posts : 3305
Join date : 2010-02-23
Location : Bedfordshire
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
I've had a great year for garlic, chillies and spuds, everything else was a disaster
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
Resounding success, surprisingly, were courgettes. If I had covered them with fleece, they'd still be cropping now. Melons also very good (greenhouse), sugar snap peas, parsnips. The strange Latah tomatoes also in the greenhouse seem to ignore any prevailing conditions and just do their own thing - and are still doing it now. And a nice crop of raspberries from my fairly new canes.
Had to work hard to get any worthwhile crops off the broad beans, runner beans and tall peas. All the brassicas are magnificent by my standards, and mediocre by anyone elses. Historically plagued with clubroot in this garden, this year I don't seem to have lost any crops to it, though not yet uprooted anything to be sure.
Peppers stunted and strange, chillies not as prolific as last year and onions (sets) hopelessly small.
Unmitigated disaster was sweetcorn (I underplant with courgettes, which were so huge that they prevented the sweetcorn pollinating), carrots (my fault), garlic, outdoor potatoes (blight), tomatoes (blight) and strawberries.
Both my cooking apple trees have been fairly prolific this year, but only one eating apple cordon, Redsleeves, an early non-keeping variety, did well. The four other cordons and the big Maidstone Favourite had virtually nothing.
But next year's garlic planted, compost sorted and I'm clearing vegetable plots, with that undiminished hope common to gardeners, that next year is going to be better.
Had to work hard to get any worthwhile crops off the broad beans, runner beans and tall peas. All the brassicas are magnificent by my standards, and mediocre by anyone elses. Historically plagued with clubroot in this garden, this year I don't seem to have lost any crops to it, though not yet uprooted anything to be sure.
Peppers stunted and strange, chillies not as prolific as last year and onions (sets) hopelessly small.
Unmitigated disaster was sweetcorn (I underplant with courgettes, which were so huge that they prevented the sweetcorn pollinating), carrots (my fault), garlic, outdoor potatoes (blight), tomatoes (blight) and strawberries.
Both my cooking apple trees have been fairly prolific this year, but only one eating apple cordon, Redsleeves, an early non-keeping variety, did well. The four other cordons and the big Maidstone Favourite had virtually nothing.
But next year's garlic planted, compost sorted and I'm clearing vegetable plots, with that undiminished hope common to gardeners, that next year is going to be better.
freebird- Posts : 2244
Join date : 2011-10-19
Age : 67
Location : Powys
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
OHs runner beans did really well, but most of the rest was a failure, either due to my problems or the rain.
Did get some pots, but not as many as last year. hope that next year I will up to getting a good garden going again.
Did get some pots, but not as many as last year. hope that next year I will up to getting a good garden going again.
polgara- Posts : 3028
Join date : 2009-11-16
Age : 77
Location : Sunshine Isle
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
Apples were a disaster (all varieties are a similar pollination group so all got frost damage), plums were scabby, strawberries rotted but rhubarb and autumn rasps were magnificent.
On the vegetable front I grew my first two cauliflowers which I was very proud of. Squashes and courgettes were minimal, only one parsnip germinated, but we had loads of 'Mr Fearns purple flowering' climbing French beans, which were juicy (and as heritage seeds were one in the eye for the EU and its regulations!!) I also grew my first carrots - in a bucket, as our soil isn't great for carrots.
On the vegetable front I grew my first two cauliflowers which I was very proud of. Squashes and courgettes were minimal, only one parsnip germinated, but we had loads of 'Mr Fearns purple flowering' climbing French beans, which were juicy (and as heritage seeds were one in the eye for the EU and its regulations!!) I also grew my first carrots - in a bucket, as our soil isn't great for carrots.
Dandelion- Admin
- Posts : 5416
Join date : 2010-01-17
Age : 67
Location : Ledbury, Herefordshire
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
Didn't bother to mention the tomatoes - they were a complete dead loss!
Dandelion- Admin
- Posts : 5416
Join date : 2010-01-17
Age : 67
Location : Ledbury, Herefordshire
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
Poor year for garlic (smallish) as we had a month of no rain at just the wrong time. First good year for peppers having moved where they were being grown. Being a much higher value crop for us this bed where previously growing parsnips and a few carrots will now be the pepper area.
Mike- Posts : 484
Join date : 2009-11-08
Age : 79
Location : Step by Step Farm, Berkshire Mtns, Massachusetts, USA
Re: Reflections on the season, 2012
Having just been outside to pick the meagre crop of Winter Greening apples, I find that I'm mistaken about them being a disaster - there were far more than I had been able to see. The tree is very upright and hasn't borne much fruit, so last year I tried 'festooning' the branches - pulling down some of the long whippy upright branches, and tying them to the trunk so they look a bit like a circle. Interestingly this has done what it's supposed to do - where the branches bent round, there has been a lot more fruit production. I couldn't see the apples because of all the leaves!
The fruit is hard and mainly green (as it's meant to be) - there is a rumour that they keep so well that you can store them for two years. Will have to get started with the apple pies!
The fruit is hard and mainly green (as it's meant to be) - there is a rumour that they keep so well that you can store them for two years. Will have to get started with the apple pies!
Dandelion- Admin
- Posts : 5416
Join date : 2010-01-17
Age : 67
Location : Ledbury, Herefordshire
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