What did you plant as an experiment this year that you WON"T be planting again?

[WthrLady]

Make sure we know WHERE you are in case weather or other location conditions are a factor.
WHAT you won't be planting again.
And WHY.

 

[WthrLady]

Middle of Nebraska. We had a wet, wet HOT HOT HOT spring and summer. Tomatoes fought fungus all year.
I planted a new variety of black cherry tomatoes. Indeterminant
I actually bought two of these by mistake.
Pretty tomato, but does not like our heavier amended soil. Bred in sandy florida.
Stunted plants due to soil. All plants around them are going gangbuster.
Have only had dozen cherry tomatoes so far.

 

[piminuse]

I'm in the sometimes-sunny-sometimes-lets-be-real-mostly-rainy Portland, OR area. We've had some bizarre weather changes over the last few years, so reliable gardening calendars are out the window. This year's especially. It was rainy and cold all the way through May, we had a patch of 100+ days, then bouts of rain and humidity.

• Circling back to the extended spring like conditions: I thought I could squeak in another batch of radishes early June and uhm lets say I had to get really creative about how to cook up radish greens.
• Also learned that you only need ONE collard green plant per household. Not a whole row. WTF am I gonna do with all these dang collard greens??
• Corn has never, ever worked for me, and I figured once it got oven hot out here that this might be the year for golden ears of corn fresh from my own garden!!! But nah, just scraggly tufts of tall grass. Doesn't matter how much I amend before the season or how much I fertilize afterwards. Corn doesn't want to rise to the occasion :/
• Final observation: nasturtium will always beat out your rare (ie exspensive) morning glories on a fence even with aggressive intervention.

What I WOULD recommend tomato-loving folks would be a saladette variety called Topaz/Huan-Yu. I got seeds from Baker's Creek 3 years ago and most the seeds were still viable and I ended up with 6 plants that were fast to develop, early fruit set, early ripened clusters and perfect balance of sweet/umami.

 

[WthrLady]

Noted ! I will order some of those for next year!

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm in western WA, zone 8B. Lots of rain in fall and spring, dry but generally not overly hot summers, some snow in winter.

Busts for the year:
- Monstrueux de Viroflay Spinach. Don't know if it was just the seeds I got or what, but I couldn't get these to germinate for anything. Probably put a good 50 seeds in the ground and got maybe 10% germination? And then slugs immediately ate whatever popped up. Meanwhile my 3 year old Bloomsdale spinach seeds still showed decent germination, like 50%, and the plants grew quickly enough that I had some spinach to harvest.
- Hedou Tiny Bok Choy. "Tiny" being the key word. Too tiny to do much with, and then instantly bolts at first sign of heat. Can't really harvest anything from the bolted plants because the leaves are so tiny in the first place. I haven't had luck with bok choy in general (bolting has been a problem) so not going to grow any of it any more.

From last 2 years:
- Cosmic Purple or Purple Dragon (can't remember which) Carrots. Mine got woody fast, even when relatively young (I routinely leave carrots in from spring through very late fall, until the ground starts frosting over). Not sweet, kind of hard, slightly spicy. Just not what I want out of a carrot (tender, sweet).
- Danvers 126 Half Long Carrot and Kuroda Carrots. Just not great? Neither was as sweet or remained as tender at larger sizes as my preferred carrots (what I DO like are Nantes, Imperator, and Amarillo Carrots - all three of those routinely come out sweet and tender and keep well in ground).
- Shogoin Turnip. I specifically wanted it for the greens, having seen it listed on a "turnips for tasty greens" list, but the greens were not good. Nor were the turnips, all of them went woody on me even while relatively small/young. I now grow the standard Purple Top Turnips which take much longer to go woody, and has tastier greens.
- Albino Beets. For a beet specifically labeled as sweet, they weren't really sweet and frankly, pretty bland. Golden Beets are my go to, sweet and tender without the earthiness or the messiness of red beets.

Also learned that you only need ONE collard green plant per household. Not a whole row. WTF am I gonna do with all these dang collard greens??

Ha, collards did well for me last year so I thought to myself, heck, I should grow more this year! I seeded for 8 plants. Now I have a bunch of collards along with the realization that only I've been eating them... So guess what's on the schedule for dinner next week? 2 days of collards. Rather than cut-and-come-again I just pull up entire plants.

 

[piminuse]

I'm in western WA, zone 8B. Lots of rain in fall and spring, dry but generally not overly hot summers, some snow in winter.

Busts for the year:
- Monstrueux de Viroflay Spinach. Don't know if it was just the seeds I got or what, but I couldn't get these to germinate for anything. Probably put a good 50 seeds in the ground and got maybe 10% germination? And then slugs immediately ate whatever popped up. Meanwhile my 3 year old Bloomsdale spinach seeds still showed decent germination, like 50%, and the plants grew quickly enough that I had some spinach to harvest.
- Hedou Tiny Bok Choy. "Tiny" being the key word. Too tiny to do much with, and then instantly bolts at first sign of heat. Can't really harvest anything from the bolted plants because the leaves are so tiny in the first place. I haven't had luck with bok choy in general (bolting has been a problem) so not going to grow any of it any more.

From last 2 years:
- Cosmic Purple or Purple Dragon (can't remember which) Carrots. Mine got woody fast, even when relatively young (I routinely leave carrots in from spring through very late fall, until the ground starts frosting over). Not sweet, kind of hard, slightly spicy. Just not what I want out of a carrot (tender, sweet).
- Danvers 126 Half Long Carrot and Kuroda Carrots. Just not great? Neither was as sweet or remained as tender at larger sizes as my preferred carrots (what I DO like are Nantes, Imperator, and Amarillo Carrots - all three of those routinely come out sweet and tender and keep well in ground).
- Shogoin Turnip. I specifically wanted it for the greens, having seen it listed on a "turnips for tasty greens" list, but the greens were not good. Nor were the turnips, all of them went woody on me even while relatively small/young. I now grow the standard Purple Top Turnips which take much longer to go woody, and has tastier greens.
- Albino Beets. For a beet specifically labeled as sweet, they weren't really sweet and frankly, pretty bland. Golden Beets are my go to, sweet and tender without the earthiness or the messiness of red beets.



Ha, collards did well for me last year so I thought to myself, heck, I should grow more this year! I seeded for 8 plants. Now I have a bunch of collards along with the realization that only I've been eating them... So guess what's on the schedule for dinner next week? 2 days of collards. Rather than cut-and-come-again I just pull up entire plants.

Your seed list looks eerily similar to mine. I put in Kuroda, Danvers and Cosmic carrots about 2 weeks ago. Hoping they due OK to overwinter and not get woody for next spring. The Monstreaux I planted in early April had about a 50% germination for me, but only one plant ever got the big leaves. I attributed it due to blocked/choked from my New Zealand spinach planted next to it which went absolutely bananas and spread all over. Maybe just a bad batch. Did you order from Baker's Creek this season?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Your seed list looks eerily similar to mine. I put in Kuroda, Danvers and Cosmic carrots about 2 weeks ago. Hoping they due OK to overwinter and not get woody for next spring. The Monstreaux I planted in early April had about a 50% germination for me, but only one plant ever got the big leaves. I attributed it due to blocked/choked from my New Zealand spinach planted next to it which went absolutely bananas and spread all over. Maybe just a bad batch. Did you order from Baker's Creek this season?

Yes I place an order with Baker's Creek each winter. Normally do a spring order as well but obviously this year, they're out of stock on a LOT of stuff. Hopefully they'll be able to restock decently this winter but if not, I should still have a good selection of seeds for next year. But I like trying new stuff.

Hopefully your carrots will come out better than mine did. I tried all those because I was on the hunt for the "perfect" carrots, then I realized, the Nantes and Imperators had been consistently good for me for the first 3 years here, so why was I trying anything else? The Amarillo was a freebie but I ended up with some 10 lbs of juicy, huge carrots last winter (gave half to my mother in law) so they're definitely on my will-plant-again list. I do want to try planting red carrots as well, maybe next fall, as reds are one of my favorites due to their soft texture.

I dumped my remaining Monstrueux Spinach seeds into a corner of a raised bed just to see if I can get some fall greens. Figured at worst nothing grows at all, but I should get at least a few plants out of that.

 

[NightingaleJen]

Here in central Ohio, summers can be hot and HUMID. The past couple have gotten off to a slow start—very cool (low 50s and even high 40s) evenings well into June. At least we didn't get 12" of rain in two weeks as we did in 2019!

The only thing I had going in the garden (granted, it's a small garden so it does not fit much) that I think I am done with is the Black Krim tomato. One plant only yielded a half-dozen fruit, and while the other is still going (though also not yielding impressively), I just don't think it tastes very good! Most of them have a strange flavour—like mild rot!—no matter when I pick them—even if I yank a half-green one and ripen it indoors. Weird.

Of course, I saved seeds from one of the Black Krim. So maybe I'll give one or two of those space next year. Hope springs...crazy, I guess.

Still not sure about the Dragon Tongue green bean. We had a bad time with them this year—lots of bug pressure even after we got most of the varmints under control—but they taste SOOOO good! They have a delightfully sweet flavour, plus they are quite pretty indeed. Next year they'll be staked and under some sort of cover.

Sorry, @WthrLady, I guess the latter isn't really what you wanted...a little overcaffienated today...!

 

[corriemartin]

This was a year for squash explorations, in hot and humid Kansas. I will not plant New England pie pumpkins again, and they were really susceptible to squash borers and squash beetles, before succumbing to mildew. And I only got one turban squash, so that's a no-go for next year too. The butternuts did MUCH better.

 

[rosemarythyme]

The only thing I had going in the garden (granted, it's a small garden so it does not fit much) that I think I am done with is the Black Krim tomato. One plant only yielded a half-dozen fruit, and while the other is still going (though also not yielding impressively), I just don't think it tastes very good!

Yeah I'm not doing Black Krim again either. Grew it a couple years ago and my mother in law casually went, "Oh, those are really hit or miss... either you get great tomatoes, or really mealy tasteless ones." Yup, I got the mealy ones. Still looking for the "perfect" dark tomato... grew Paul Robesons this year but weather has not been good for tomatoes at all, so still waiting for one to ripen!

Might go with all cherry tomatoes next year just to get ripe fruit faster.