Kitchen Garden Forum

Anything you won't grow next year because it is too much hassle ?

Agretti but not because of the hassle factor.

I bought some seeds, planted them as instructed and they have grown beautifully. However, the "intense flavour of chive/asparagus" is something I just can't find. It's Italian grass as far as I can tell and everyone else who's tried it agrees. I'll have a go at braising it as a side dish as recommended on the box, but so far the only person who adores the stuff is Rocky the chicken! If this is the "must have" side dish in Italy I can only assume that the soil and climate out there gives it the flavour.

I just wish seed catalogues admitted to the faults of various varieties rather than making everything sound just marvelous.

I'm giving up on tomato San Marzano - too suceptible to blossom end rot.

Spinach - over the last few years I have tried a number of varieties, different watering regimes etc, but it just runs to seed. I can grow the Perpetual Spinach, but no one likes the flavour.

Hi Ian,
Is it a case that you cannot eat the Spinach in the given time or is it something else. I am intrigued and mystified as why it should go to seed. I can recommend Seakale Beet (Swiss Chard) this has nearer the taste of true Spinach than Perpetual Spinach Beet. I can recommend Seakale Beet grown fairly thick down the row and pulled in the very young stage picking should start at 3-4 inches. Pulled, roots nipped off and then steamed whole.
However next year I will carry on with my experiments but have decided to retire altogether so will be growing nothing really. Oh! Toms and Beans but nowt else.

I'm interested in your reply Tony as my San Marzano have suffered with blossom end rot too. I've never grown them before and never experienced BER before either. Maybe I'll stick to trusty old Roma.

triomphe de farcy french beans, recommended on the organic catalogue website as 'one of the best tasting varieties'; they just taste tough and stringy to me however young I pick them

We gave up on climbing French Beans, a very heavy crop in the tunnel but it took too much time, so this year we had just a few non-climbers, never again, difficult to find and pick, and lots of dirt and dust.
So far the pelleted Autumn King carrot seed has not justified itself, about 23 seeds germinated out of 600 sown and I DID water them regularly. I have meanwhile got replacements of conventional seeds in modules to put out intead, they came up thickly so will be pre-thinned.
What annoys me is I don't know what went wrong.
Allan

Allan,
I am sorry that your pelleted Carrots appear to have failed. My experience is the exact opposite.
What I suspect has happened is that when you sowed them the ground temperature was too high. You sowed them on about the hottest of the days when the top temperature was recorded at Ross on Wye which is not a million miles from your plot. The temperatures given on the weather programmes are always shade temperatures and the open temperatures can be vastly higher. Imagine the scenario of planting a seed 1/2"
deep on the hottest day of the year with a shade temperature of 87F just down the road with no breeze.
The temperature of the soil surface could well be over the maximum germinating temperature. This means that the seed will either lock up until conditions improve or they sadly perish.
This is only a thought as to the discrepancy in germination rates from my experience in the Spring on my experiment of growing in small raised beds
where I sowed 1176 and as far as I could ascertain only 8 failed to mature. The results of the two varieties sown have been incredible and certainly in excess of my expectations.

I definitely will not be growing first early Rocket potatoes next year - I was very disappointed in their small yield and lack of taste. Because of my limited space, and for the sake of a couple of weeks, it was not worth it - back to "Charlotte" next year.
Lyn

I'm going to restrict the number of tomatoes I grow next year for sure!

I went a bit mad and grew 21 different types this year, but it that was because I was given some seed gift vouchers for Christmas! It has given me the opportunity to try some weird and wonderful varieties, and see which one have turned out to be good 'uns in my greenhouse and outdoors.

I have had no success with direct sown carrots this year either, but am trying some in containers, including a polystyrene box as suggested by forum memebers; they are doing ok. It will be interesting to try some in my new allotment next season!

Fewer turnips! and less chard.

Just picking up on the San Marzano point...there's been a lot of discussion elsewhere on the forum about the way plum tomatoes are more prone to blossom end rot than other types, because they seem to need more water. I've been growing the plum tomato Olivade in the greenhouse, and have never before had so much trouble with BER. However, it has been exceptionally hot. And since I sussed what was happening and increased the watering, the later trusses seem to be fine. Olivade is badically a good variety, but I haven't decided whether to give it another go or go back to Principe Borghese (hope that's how you spell it!)

Trailing squash in the greenhouse - never again! Too much trouble watering, not enough room for them to romp, mildew and whitefly, and hardly a fruit compared to the prodigious spawn of their cousins outdoors And I'll give stuff more space in the g'house too - tried to cram in too much this year.

What won't I grow - bindweed, docks, thistles, ground elder.......oops, dreaming again.