Allotments

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Taf

There's a lot worse you can get from compost.

Yeah Brussels sprouts!!!!

[Taf]

Aspergillosis, Histoplasmosis, Paronychia and Tetanus occur quite often.

[Osem]

Not to mention lower back pain from shifting bags of the damned stuff.

[Kymmy]

How's everyone's allotment doing...

Potatoes this year got a tiny bit of blight on one or two plants but we caught it before it got down tot he roots.. Strawberries, Raspberries, black/red currants, Rhubarb have gone crazy and the gooseberries are rediculously large (over an inch in diameter)

Cobnuts are doing well for their first year, squash (dumpling, gem, butternut) Pumpkin (rouge/jacklanterns) Carrots, Beetroots, parsnips and sweetcorn are also doing well.

Here's a pic from about 2 months back to show how we have it laid out.. (vines on the right, potatoes closest to you and soft fruit far end and mid left)

[techguyone]

I'm starting to get ripe tomatoes now from my garden grow-house, although this year I cheated and planted partly grown plants rather than growing from seed as normally I don't get fruit until September.

Sadly my pepper I planted got munched on almost as soon as I planted it, and has been munched mercilessly daily ever since, despite being grown in a ring, I guess I must have Olympic athlete class snails.

So Tomatoes 1 - Peppers 0

maybe next year I'll have better luck, I haven't actually tried peppers before.

[Taf]

Leeks bolted, as did a few onions.

No fruit at all on the apples and cherries, the aronia and goji didn't even flower!

Beans have just started to crop, they have been really slow this year.

Courgettes, pumpkins and butternuts have started to get a romp on.

Gooseberries huge like yours (already made into jam) ditto the blackcurrants. No sign of the redcurrants though. Raspberries going well... some are over 8ft tall this year! Blackberries have started to ripen, so I hope for drier weather or they will rot on the plants. Kiwis not so prolific, and the Tayberries are still in flower.

Jerusalem artichokes have reached for the sky, as have their cousins the sunflowers.

Peppers and chillis in the greenhouse are in flower, but the Naga chillis are still under 6" tall due to the cold start to the year. Mini cucumbers have been fruiting for weeks already (Picolino). The salads are all surviving cut-and-come-again treatment.

The strawberries have been OK, but many rotted before they ripened. My new addition, German strawberries (Frau Schindler), seem more interested in making runners than flowers and fruit. They are reputed to be the best flavoured strawberry about.

The vines have flowered, but a lot of the leaves look battered and dying, I hope it's the weather, and not a disease.

This year's pest problems have been snails and ants (with their allies the blackfly). Slugs have been scarce.