Vegetable Crop Failure is the Path to Growing Success

Vegetable Crop Failure is the Path to Growing Success

Posted on 07. Oct, 2009 by Tracey in How to Grow Veg

As I look back over my growing year I automatically think of the vegetables that underperformed or didn’t perform! but I think it is human nature to try to improve on growing them. My failures definitely give me the determination to try for success next year.

Some of my failures this year have been:

  • Cabbages
    The first year I grew cabbages they were wonderful, this year the spring ones bolted and I forgot to sow summer ones. I find the spring, summer and winter sowing times of cabbages confusing to say the least. I will strive to grow all 3 types next year!
  • Runner Beans
    Again great crop in the first year, so much I had to give them away. This year all I got was a few flowers and some skinny beans. I think I will sow them early next year to try and give them the best start.
  • Cucumbers
    First year growing these I had a glut. This year I have to admit watering containers was not my strong point, my cucumbers succumbed to my neglect. If I’m growing these next year I will have to sort out a container watering system.
  • Maincrop Potatoes
    I’ve grown them twice in my raised beds both time with no success, first time eaten by slugs, this year they were all covered in scab and then I left them to go green! On a positive note, I have always had success growing first and second earlies potatoes in pots.

When some of my vegetable seeds don’t raise up above the ground, I tend to think of it as a learning curve. When I first started growing my own vegetables, I thought I must be doing something wrong, too much/not enough water, maybe the compost’s not right, have I bought the wrong seeds or sown them at the wrong time?!

Over the past two and a half years I’ve learnt that some seeds just don’t grow, sometimes we will never know why and we all have to live with that.

The best thing is that something else can now grow in its place, its as if someone’s said to you I wanted to get you a gift but it was out of stock, what can I get you instead? so you go through your seed packets and see what is suitable to fill a gap in your plot and if there’s nothing you like, out come the seed catalogues, I can always find something I want in there!

What vegetables have been problematic for you this year?

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2 Responses to “Vegetable Crop Failure is the Path to Growing Success”

  1. John

    11. Oct, 2009

    It is good to see I am not the only one that has failures. I do not seem to get carrots to grow right and the blight wiped out my beautiful tomato plants this year. You are right, our mistakes teach us where to go next.

  2. Sarah Knowles

    12. Oct, 2009

    My tomatoes also had the dreaded blight. It seems to have been very widespread and very aggressive this year :-/ The only crumb of comfort was that it seemed to set in fairly late with ours and we were able to salvage at least some of the crop, but very upsetting nonetheless…

    Our French beans never really got going. Runner beans started off great, but a week without water while we were away, during the only warm spell in August, and they never flowered again.

    And out of all the herbs I sowed this year, only the curly-leafed parsley really thrived.

    But for a first-time grower, there were many successes too. And I just love the fact that I’m constantly learning from eveything I do in the garden. It’s all grist to the mill.

    S

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