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Calling SMB veg growers

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Strawberries were amazing this year, raspberries have done great too.
Beetroot flying along, onions ok, broccoli doing well but peas have been very poor, scrapped them as they never got more than a foot high.

Gooseberries got snaffled by the birds before they were ripe, blueberries are looking good. Melons failed miserably in the polytunnel but tomatoes are looking good, done some beefsteak ones this year, marmande & ox heart to go with sungold, golden sunrise and red cherry.
Hard prune of the fruit trees means reduced crop this year but they needed it, I inherited them and they were out of control.

Damn slugs are a real menace this year, they're everywhere :evil:
 

High Entropy said:
Strawberries were amazing this year, raspberries have done great too.
Beetroot flying along, onions ok, broccoli doing well but peas have been very poor, scrapped them as they never got more than a foot high.

Gooseberries got snaffled by the birds before they were ripe, blueberries are looking good. Melons failed miserably in the polytunnel but tomatoes are looking good, done some beefsteak ones this year, marmande & ox heart to go with sungold, golden sunrise and red cherry.
Hard prune of the fruit trees means reduced crop this year but they needed it, I inherited them and they were out of control.

Damn slugs are a real menace this year, they're everywhere :evil:
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Skugs were a pain in the arse for me earlier on but when it dried up a bit it sorted itself out, myself dnd the mrs Went on slug patrol every night then I bought some nematodes and that was the ending that.

I had major issues with f***ing days again, the little bastards set up shop in my greenhouse, absolutely thousands of them around my cucumber plants. I used to like them when I was a kid now Ive designated them as a terrorist organisation so launched a war on them with nipon traps, lil fuckers.

After a slow start I’ve had a fantastic year in my garden, me and the boy lifted a couple of hundred onions last week had them on the drying tables(pallets) since, some beuties, carrots were fantastic also this year, we are gonna be eating them for a while.

All I have left outside is sbout 40 broccoli which are looking good

The greenhouse is absolutely stacked with tomatoes, cucumbers are ok but not as productive as last year but the tomatoes have made up for it.
I got27lb of potatoes out of my buckets which was nice , pink fur and sarpo mira, I’d recommend both and will be doing them both again
I’ve recurved some Yukon gold which we’ll plant for Xmas sounds.

I have a lot of photos which I’ll throw up in the next few days,

Hope you all had a productive season, @Wilfy i hope you enjoyed your allotment mx. 💪👍
 
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Been digging up second earlies as and when we need them, we got blight on them so had to cut all the tops off. Onions will be ready to harvest soon and leeks are looking good. Got loads of brassicas that seem to be doing alright and quite a bit of beetroot, mange tout and peas. Going to plant some late stuff this weekend and hope for an Indian summer. Hope you’re well @Az*
 
Wilfy said:
Been digging up second earlies as and when we need them, we got blight on them so had to cut all the tops off. Onions will be ready to harvest soon and leeks are looking good. Got loads of brassicas that seem to be doing alright and quite a bit of beetroot, mange tout and peas. Going to plant some late stuff this weekend and hope for an Indian summer. Hope you’re well @Az*
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I’m a lot better mate thanks, I had an injection in my shoulder a week or so ago and that’s allowing me to start physio on my arm again without being in agony and they are gonna ween me off the morphine in the next week or so, so things may finally be looking up, just wish the bloody arm would start moving. It’s hard being a one armed Gardner :lol: ( might be a good YT channel in there though!).
few bits and pieces from my garden, its not the biggest so I'm limited on what I can grow, had a nice weight this year though, my littlr helper had to have him self in some of the pics, tbf to the boy hes really stepping up and helping me, hes only7...i could only post 3 images ffs so the rest will follow...


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Been an awful year so far. Slugs have been a nightmare, rats constantly at my strawberry bed, carrots took 3 sowings before I could get any significant germination and are still tiny despite plenty of top growth. Garlic came out with damaged outer skins so won’t keep and are destined for the freezer.
Been a good year for brassicas, calabrese were exceptional and good cabbage and cauliflower. Onions and shallots were OK. Peas were good but didn’t crop as long as I would expect and quite a bit of beetroot running to seed.

Got savoy cabbage,purple sprouting broccoli, pumpkins, climbing beans and leeks coming on OK. Pak Choi, spinach and autumn lettuce ready to plant out next week.

Onwards and upwards.
 
few more, was trying to merge my posts and wouldn't let me submit, fking forum..

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FC United of Manchester said:
Been an awful year so far. Slugs have been a nightmare, rats constantly at my strawberry bed, carrots took 3 sowings before I could get any significant germination and are still tiny despite plenty of top growth. Garlic came out with damaged outer skins so won’t keep and are destined for the freezer.
Been a good year for brassicas, calabrese were exceptional and good cabbage and cauliflower. Onions and shallots were OK. Peas were good but didn’t crop as long as I would expect and quite a bit of beetroot running to seed.

Got savoy cabbage,purple sprouting broccoli, pumpkins, climbing beans and leeks coming on OK. Pak Choi, spinach and autumn lettuce ready to plant out next week.

Onwards and upwards.
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You could try nematodes for the slugs?
I had a thorough clean and removed anything they could hide under(planks of wood, bricks etc)
 
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Just had a quick gander at the allotment when I was walking the dog, onions are starting to fall over, shallots look like they need to come out tomorrow.
 
My pumpkins are flowering but I've no idea what to do!

The video guide says find the male flowers and fertilse the female ones. But I can't find females!
 
Wilfy said:
Just pulled my onions and the last of my second earlies.

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Looking good Wilfy.
May I suggest knocking up a frame/lattice work cage or rack to dry out the onions?
Put the green leaves through the holes in the lattice, so that they are upside down - the onions will dry out better with the green leaves gradually dying off. Once dried out, the onions can be plaited together and hung up on nails in the garage or shed.
 
Butcher's Coat said:
Looking good Wilfy.
May I suggest knocking up a frame/lattice work cage or rack to dry out the onions?
Put the green leaves through the holes in the lattice, so that they are upside down - the onions will dry out better with the green leaves gradually dying off. Once dried out, the onions can be plaited together and hung up on nails in the garage or shed.
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I’ll get something knocked up at work. Cheers.
 
High Entropy said:
Strawberries were amazing this year, raspberries have done great too.
Beetroot flying along, onions ok, broccoli doing well but peas have been very poor, scrapped them as they never got more than a foot high.

Gooseberries got snaffled by the birds before they were ripe, blueberries are looking good. Melons failed miserably in the polytunnel but tomatoes are looking good, done some beefsteak ones this year, marmande & ox heart to go with sungold, golden sunrise and red cherry.
Hard prune of the fruit trees means reduced crop this year but they needed it, I inherited them and they were out of control.

Damn slugs are a real menace this year, they're everywhere :evil:
Click to expand...
Shame about the melons I’ve toyed with the idea of trying them , built a polly tunnel but I think we are gonna stick a grape vine in there instead

The Mrs gooseberry bush produced one solitary gooseberry :lol: Ima leave it in but if it does the same next year it’s going the journey.

I said I was done for this year but I planted some spinach last week, found a packet of seeds so thought it would be rude not to try them.

The raspberry bed has gone the journey now also , I haven’t had much success with fruit trees min

Looking forward to next spring now and deciding what flowers we will try in the new year.
Wilfy said:
Just pulled my onions and the last of my second earlies.

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Looking good there mate! Been a decent first year eh!
 
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The missus' dad has a farm out here in Spain. They grow all-sorts through the year - onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, long peppers (like the italian peppers), tomatoes, melons, watermelons, pumpkin, peas, grapes etc...

I am using part of their land to grow bell peppers (as they don't grow them) and also I have some chilies on the go (they don't eat spicy). This year I have Carolina Reapers and Chocolate Habaneros planted and they're both doing pretty well:

View media item 13041View media item 13042View media item 13043
 
Az* said:
Shame about the melons I’ve toyed with the idea of trying them , built a polly tunnel but I think we are gonna stick a grape vine in there instead

The Mrs gooseberry bush produced one solitary gooseberry :lol: Ima leave it in but if it does the same next year it’s going the journey.

I said I was done for this year but I planted some spinach last week, found a packet of seeds so thought it would be rude not to try them.

The raspberry bed has gone the journey now also , I haven’t had much success with fruit trees min

Looking forward to next spring now and deciding what flowers we will try in the new year.

Looking good there mate! Been a decent first year eh!
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It’s been a steep learning curve and a lot of graft but definitely worth it.
 
Wilfy said:
It’s been a steep learning curve and a lot of graft but definitely worth it.
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Aye there’s a lot to learn but as you said, it’s worth all the effort and you get you get to do it all again in a few months time :lol: I find it very therapeutic mate tbh ,especially having been through what I have this year, it’s a nice get away ya know👊🏻
 
FC United of Manchester said:
Been an awful year so far. Slugs have been a nightmare, rats constantly at my strawberry bed, carrots took 3 sowings before I could get any significant germination and are still tiny despite plenty of top growth. Garlic came out with damaged outer skins so won’t keep and are destined for the freezer.
Been a good year for brassicas, calabrese were exceptional and good cabbage and cauliflower. Onions and shallots were OK. Peas were good but didn’t crop as long as I would expect and quite a bit of beetroot running to seed.

Got savoy cabbage,purple sprouting broccoli, pumpkins, climbing beans and leeks coming on OK. Pak Choi, spinach and autumn lettuce ready to plant out next week.

Onwards and upwards.
Click to expand...
Same here, worst year I have had.

Early season was wet and cold. With heavy clay soil underneath, everything was waterlogged and left me weeks behind when I normally get started. For the first time I have known, there was standing water in the greenhouse until well into June. That created the perfect environment for slugs and snails, which ate most of my seedlings. Then the little stuff I did plant out was followed by really hot dry weather.

Meanwhile I have had a big building project on and limited time for the veg garden. The weeds have gone crazy and it is a right mess up there, with very little produce. I'm nearing the end of my building work so I plan to just keep the whole area weeded down to bare soil, give the beds a mulch and compost dressing early autumn and just keep on top of weeds so that literally everything is ready to go next spring.

I'm usually bad at leaving old plants and pots in the greenhouse, which gives places for slugs to live. I'm going to empty the lot and keep spreading around that nitrate based slug killer (which I do find good) through the winter. Come the spring I hope to find a relatively slug free greenhouse.

The taties and onions I did get out look good. Strawberries were poor, but they have been in the same bed for 5-6 years now. I'm going to move a few plants and pot up the runners into a new bed.

This time next year I'll be telling you all how amazing my garden is.....
 
Came back from holidays to find my various tomato plants had grown a touch, but nothing like previous years where I was forever having to prune them back. Got about 20 actual tomatoes growing, only 3 actually grown and ripe though.

Strawberries went well, had 3 large crops from them. Pruned them right back after the last harvest hoping for a late bloom, but doesn't seem to be happening, all they want to do it run.

Peas are the same disaster that I always get. No height at all. New batch went into the ground last night, fingers crossed for a late bloom there.
 
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