Disappointing winter crops

[Mike Vogel]

Happy New Year to you all. I wonder whether anyone has come up against a poor harvest of crops which normally do well. This winter, although I've just dug up some good parsnips from 4-year-old seed, my sprouts and about half the celeriac plants have produced very meagre crops. The celeriac roots are very small [not all- I've had some good ones but often rather eaten] andthe sprouts have just not been prolific at all - small plants and few sprouts.

I don't think I've treatred the soil differently from before - except that I've made raised beds this year.

I suspect it's because I'm using old seed. So this year I'll use all the seed I've got left and also sow some from a new packet - and comaprison will reveal whether that's the problem.

Does anyone have other ideas?

mike

[Allan]

I cannot be categorical, too many variants, but I suggest it could possibly be the raised beds as they are going to have better drainage than on the flat and it is only too easy to have overestimated the effect of hand watering in what was a very dry summer so that the deep roots never got enough water. You mention old seeds, what varieties and how old. It is said that vigour is lost but I have never seen the evidence, for most seeds 3 years then discard seems reasonable.
Allan

[oldherbaceous]

Good morning Mike, i agree with Allan on both points here, i think some of these poor winter crops are due to the earlier dry conditions.
And as for seed, i can't say i have ever noticed any lack of vigour because of the seed being old, the only trouble i have come across with old seed is bad germination.

[Johnboy]

Hi Mike,
There is a lack of vigour using old seed especially with Brassicas. I would also suggest that growing Brussels Sprouts in raised beds which may not be firm enough for them. Personally I have raised beds and also normal beds and my Brussels are always grown on the normal beds and well and truly firm.
With certain varieties I also hold them with canes to prevent wind blow.
I grew some Derby Day cabbages a couple of years ago using seed that was about 5 years old and although they germinated well enough they failed to grow properly. I resowed with fresh seed from the same supplier and the second lot overtook the first and ultimately I scrapped the old ones. I hasten to add that I had grown from that batch of seeds the entire 5 years and they had been fine. My seed is stored in my old dairy which is unheated and on the north corner of my property which has 24" stone walls. They are also kept in containers with Silica Gel capsules to make sure they keep dry.
I will leave it for you to form your own conclusions.
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Johnboy, you could be right about the seed, but i think there are too many variations to compare one sowing of Derby day with one that is sown on a later date.
I must say one thing though, i think Derby day takes a lot of beating for taste.

[Compo]

It appears to have been a mixed bag on my plot. had a good harvest of the last of the parsnips, carrots and cabbage, leeks etc. That left me with Kalle(decimated by white fly) so no good, purple sprouting, not yet sprouted and spring cabbage, although too early to tell it does not look as if it will deliver much. However the november sown japanese shallots and broad beans are romping away. We had a dry and hot spell in Somerset, however, but the brassica's were planted later, so I can't bleme the heat.

I feel that the lack of cold did not help, as the Brassica's have not had the frosty check that they usually get to boost them into action.

I think the next few years will show some very intersting crop deliveries and failures and we may have to rethink traditional vegetable gardening to suit the changing climate.

[Mike Vogel]

Thanks everyone. I also had a feeling that raised beds may not have been a very good idea for my Bedford Fillbasket sprouts, even though I had staked them. I'll do what I suggested - use up all my old seed, which did, incidentally, germinate very well, and grow half a dozen of those as well as an equal number from new seed [different variety]. My friends will simply be given a lot of Fillbasket seedlings, provided they promise not to grow them on raised beds!

I think the points you make about dry conditions are very good. The celeriac I'm harvesting at present was planted out after a spell of wet and windy weather. The stuff I've had before was polanted just before that spell and produced decently sized roots. With luck the water-table will start a bit higher this summer.

You are right about the frost, Compo. Garlic also needs it to boost division. We had a few frosty nights before Christmas, but it's not been quite what we want. We'll see. I loke the look of my November-sown crops too.

mike