Summary of this years growing season
Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 6:43 pm
Last year some of us gave a round up of 2015's growing season in http://forum.kitchengarden.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12465
Where here is 2016's...I’d be interested to know how others got on….
The Good
- First year with the polytunnel. So for the first time I’ve been able to grow (successfully) sweet peppers, squash, chillies, French beans. I was particularly impressed to have peas in May, and sweetcorn early aug.
- I reckon I’ve grown about £240 worth of food (if I bought it in Morrison’s). I’d be interested to know how much anyone else thinks they grow.
- The stuff I grew in larger quantities (value wise) included:
- No significant blight problems!!
The Bad
- Water melon, only got one!
- Sweet potatoes, only got about one and half from 3 plants!
- Apples / Pears...harvest was looking good, but something had them before I did!
The Ugly
- Strawberries are a *total* disaster. Despite having about 36 strawberry plant I had about 3 punnets in the entire year. I’d love to know why. Last year was a good year.
- Cabbage white butterflies. Never had it so bad!
Lessons learned:
- Beetroots are better grown indoors, mainly because they come earlier, and the critters don’t eat them.
- Peppers really do seem to benefit from feed made for pepper (rather than generic stuff)
- If you grow the calabrese varieties “Belstar” and “autumn green” side by side, the autumn green seems to act as a sacrificial crop. I going to deliberately grow autumn green next year for this purpose.
- calabrese “Belstar” seems to cope ok in the polytunnel, getting crops into November. Could have had them in Dec, except something started eating what was left.
- No point bothering with minicorn unless you are on top of them every day (based on the last 2 years)
- I really must try to space things out more!!
- Summer rasperberry really don’t taste that good; you’d be better off growing a loganberry as they fruit around the time of summer raspberrys but have the flavour of autumn raspberrys.
Where here is 2016's...I’d be interested to know how others got on….
The Good
- First year with the polytunnel. So for the first time I’ve been able to grow (successfully) sweet peppers, squash, chillies, French beans. I was particularly impressed to have peas in May, and sweetcorn early aug.
- I reckon I’ve grown about £240 worth of food (if I bought it in Morrison’s). I’d be interested to know how much anyone else thinks they grow.
- The stuff I grew in larger quantities (value wise) included:
- 1. Cherry Toms: 23 punnets
2. Raspberries: 27 punnets
3. Shallots: 5 kg
4. Half sized cucumbers: 64
5. Sweetcorn: 56 cobs
6. French beans: 3.5 kg
7. Peas: 5kg
8. Calabrese: 4kg
9. Squash: 8kg
- No significant blight problems!!
The Bad
- Water melon, only got one!
- Sweet potatoes, only got about one and half from 3 plants!
- Apples / Pears...harvest was looking good, but something had them before I did!
The Ugly
- Strawberries are a *total* disaster. Despite having about 36 strawberry plant I had about 3 punnets in the entire year. I’d love to know why. Last year was a good year.
- Cabbage white butterflies. Never had it so bad!
Lessons learned:
- Beetroots are better grown indoors, mainly because they come earlier, and the critters don’t eat them.
- Peppers really do seem to benefit from feed made for pepper (rather than generic stuff)
- If you grow the calabrese varieties “Belstar” and “autumn green” side by side, the autumn green seems to act as a sacrificial crop. I going to deliberately grow autumn green next year for this purpose.
- calabrese “Belstar” seems to cope ok in the polytunnel, getting crops into November. Could have had them in Dec, except something started eating what was left.
- No point bothering with minicorn unless you are on top of them every day (based on the last 2 years)
- I really must try to space things out more!!
- Summer rasperberry really don’t taste that good; you’d be better off growing a loganberry as they fruit around the time of summer raspberrys but have the flavour of autumn raspberrys.
