Is anybody else having a bum year?

[rosiekitty94]

This year was the first year I've tried to raise all my plants from seed. I started on the first day of march and had to keep the seedlings and the grow light in my bedroom until May. My room smelled like soil-less mix and onions for 3 months! I started raised beds in the garden and filled them with our regular garden soil then a layer of store bought organic compost, then I layered on store bought topsoil with plant food mixed in and then more compost. First, I think I planted my peas too late and the rabbits kept eating the vines they even bloomed. Then, I planted onions and shallots which actually turned out quite nice. I received some lettuce seedlings and collard green seedlings after attending some classes at the local county extension office. The rabbits got most of those too. My potatoes did alright, a little mushy but alright, until I harvested them and left them in the hot garage for too long where they rotted and got maggoty. The carrots were thin and pale, the basil and sage were choked out by chocolate mint. The watermellon died off without giving a single fruit, the pumpkins haven't had any fruit yet and the tomatoes have had tons of fruit on them but so far none of it has come ripe. Also, in one bed I had enough topsoil to fill the frame entirely. The 3 pepper plants and tomato seedling appear to have been stunted in growth after being planted here. Even my mom's flowers she bought from a nursery haven't really taken off yet either. It wasn't even that bad of a year for bugs around here (except for the ants). So my question is: is it just us, our soil or has anybody else experienced difficulty this year?

 

[erinszoo]

It could be a combination of things. I'd almost venture that part of the problem is in the soil. Where do you live? What zone?


We're in zone 6b and we have so much produce we can't eat it fast or can it fast enough ... except for the one bed that didn't get compost added. It produced patty pan squash early, has a few tomatoes, but is otherwise barren.

The other beds are doing bumper crops.

Of course variety choice is always an issue for location. After 15 years of gardening in the same place, I'm beginning to figure out what varieties do well here and what don't. To date the only winter squash I can grow and produces well is butternut.

 

[Czech's_chicks]

My toms were horrible and, get this, I couldn't get 1 darn zuch to grow!! None of my plants did anything. I know it's the containers so when everything gets tossed back in the compost I will feed the heck out if it before I refill! Had marginal luck w peppers and my beets don't want to do much, either. On the other hand, my eggplant from last year is still giving me little fruits (it was the small egg shaped ones).

 

[rosiekitty94]

I'm in the pan handle of Maryland and kind of in between zones 6b and 7a. I think I'm going to try a winter cover crop and let the chickens till it in the late fall.


Quote: That's what kills me! My pastor has never gardened before and now the church garden is over run with zuchs and tomatoes! It's a good thing she can collect the fruits to use at the local shelter.

 

[3forfree]

I started my plants indoors and was overrun but the garden wasn't ready, lots of water from snow melt, then 3 in of rain one day. so I planted in containers. This didn't work either, everything grew well but then they quit. Everything was pot bound. I took everything out of the containers as the garden had dried out and planted them there. Now they are growing good but I'm just now getting blossoms on the tomatoes. I planted cucumber seeds indoors and they grew well, now that they are in the garden I'm finding out that they aren't cukes, but buttercup squash. I won't have someone give me seeds again. I'll harvest my own. I have many squash, but have never intentionally planted them, when do you harvest buttercups? Thanks

 

[Peaches Lee]

We have had a terrible summer here. So cold that we needed electric heaters, I hate that! So highs at 68-75 and lows in the upper 40s. Needless to say, our plants aren't the happiest. We have a ton of tomatoes, but they are not ripening---it's just too cold. The summer squash took forever to produce fruit but now I am harvesting a good amount of it. My corn seems okay and the winter squash is growing good, but now the squash bugs are getting to them. Every year it's something. We do have good apples though this year.

 

[sandspoultry]

Our summer squash and green beans have been a bust this year, great year for tomatoes and everything else is about average.

 

[FlySammyJ]

My carrots and radishes are about the only thing that did well this year. We had a lot of cold nights that I think stunted root growth early in the season. My squashes are lagging so bad they have yet to set fruit, and there's no pollination problem. My beans absolutely died off, but I did get one good break in that a patch of wild purslane took over the empty spot, so I've been eating that instead!

It's a tasty strain with a nice lemony zing, so I think I'll just let it re-seed and research a few companion plants to set in with it. The plants seemed really unhappy when I weeded around them and took away their shade, so I'm thinking maybe a few rows of something that provides good cover would make them happier. Just put in one last planting of radishes around them for this season.

Since I'm in a new location and haven't had time for my own compost piles to cook, I bought some this and last season, and I put heavy blame on it. It was obviously unfinished, with big chunks of wood and bark (which will suck nitrogen out of the soil as it decomposes) and even rocks. Not, like, one or two, but at least a pound of egg-sized pebbles per bag.

I also have an alkali well, which doesn't help matters. Each year I try new heirloom varieties and find one or two that work well in this micro-climate, so I hope eventually I can develop a well-adapted garden that doesn't need a lot of special treatment.

 

[3forfree]

Everything is late but growing well. This week I got my first tomato, and 1 sunflower has bloomed.

 

[lilliesanchicks]

My stuff is late as well hard time with growing any squash or melon types. Only the tiger melons seem to want to grow.

Does not help that the rain water catchment system is not set up yet and we also have had hardly any rain this last half of the summer.

Peppers and tomatoes are finally showing up and hope for at least the lemon plum tomatoes to ripen soon as they are the biggest so far.
Lost of hot peppers growing but the bells seemed to have given up.

Oh well will have my raised beds next year at least some of them anyway.

Now some flowers did great as did all the perennials I planted or started from seed.