Growing your own - is it worth it?

[oddoneout]

Outdoor tomatoes: Have you tried Crimson Crush? They really are blight resistance.

https://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/Popular+Vegetable+Seeds/Salad/Tomato+Seeds+-+F1+Crimson+Crush_182440.htm

You can buy seeds as well as plants.

Pumpkins: I had the similar feeling. Those tentacles....

A friend recommended that tomato variety, and I might see if I can cadge a plant off him next year, if I can get to taste it first. Funnily enough I was involved in a small scale trial some years ago when varieties with some tolerance to blight were becoming available. The one that was supposed to be best was the worst for me, and none of them had fruit that impressed me taste-wise sufficiently to grow again. Over the years I have tried many varieties,out of interest and through membership of the Heritage Seed library, but keep coming back to one in particular - Outdoor Girl, which if I'm organised enough crops really early and so gives me something before succumbing in a blight year, with Gardeners Delight and Minibel for variety if I can be bothered. The latter is a really small neat plant with tough leaves and dinky little fruit which is slow to get blight and sometimes recovers even if it does if weather conditions permit - and Indian summer is useful. I find dilute seaweed spray used frequently seems to help leaves be a bit more resistant, and on my hungry freedraining soil is of benefit even if blight isn't around.

[doversoul1]

Crimson Crush: if you like those Vittoria type that come on their vines and in pretty boxes, you won’t like Crimson Crush. They are very much like those ‘beef’ tomatoes: large and odd shaped. Their taste isn’t terribly sweet. More like how tomatoes used to taste but they make impressive salad and very good for cooking, as they are quite fleshy. I wouldn’t grow this as my only tomatoes but if blight is the problem, you can’t go wrong. Only problem I had last year was the squirrels; they seemed to like green tomatoes which surprised me.

French beans: mines are the other way round: the dwarf ones were short, fat, and very leathery. The climbing ones are nice and long and tender. I was most impressed by fine/Kenyan beans last year; VERY heavy crop for a very long harvest period. I’ve grown twice as many this year but what I had forgotten in spring was that harvesting these beans was an absolute back breaking job. They do taste good though.

[oddoneout]

With French beans, particularly dwarf, I think it pays to experiment and find what works for your conditions and tastebuds, and also whether you prefer flat, round, or 'fine' types. I tend to grow climbing kinds now, as I have found a couple of varieties(both purple pod heritage kinds which I save seed of ) which do well in my soil and in all sorts of weather. They make better use of limited space, the beans are clean and free from mollusc attention, and they are easier to pick.

[gradus]

I just found an extraordinary apple set on a russet that hosts or perhaps more accurately is swamped by a wisteria, apples that are growing in grape-like bunches, very odd.

[doversoul1]

I just found an extraordinary apple set on a russet that hosts or perhaps more accurately is swamped by a wisteria, apples that are growing in grape-like bunches, very odd.

Something like this?

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/apples/how-to-thin-apple-trees.htm

It must be the heat. My brassicas, especially the purple sprouting, are going down like ninepins, all with cabbage root fly damage. I’ve also found more than usual number of carrots affected by carrot flies. At least the badgers are keeping themselves scares. They must have heard that I’d bought an electric fence.

[oddoneout]

I just found an extraordinary apple set on a russet that hosts or perhaps more accurately is swamped by a wisteria, apples that are growing in grape-like bunches, very odd.

My first thought was that for some reason it hasn't done its 'June drop', and so will need you to do the thinning, as per Dovers link. If it's the result of disease or damage it would probably be advisable to remove and dispose of the fruitlets, not least to reduce the burden on the tree. However I think it's most likely to be a lack of self-thinning.

[gradus]

My first thought was that for some reason it hasn't done its 'June drop', and so will need you to do the thinning, as per Dovers link. If it's the result of disease or damage it would probably be advisable to remove and dispose of the fruitlets, not least to reduce the burden on the tree. However I think it's most likely to be a lack of self-thinning.

Yes I think it must be that for some reason the fruit drop hasn't been as marked or is just delayed. The odd thing is that some of the bunches seem to be developing to a decent size, strange with so little rainfall, the roots must be going very deep.
Apples on my allotment - about a mile as the crow flies from the garden trees - have barely set any fruit with the notable exception of Rev Wilkes which I had thought could be biennial but which has some very respectably sized apples.
I suppose these quirks are part of the fascination of gardening.

[Globaltruth]

Something like this?

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/apples/how-to-thin-apple-trees.htm

It must be the heat. My brassicas, especially the purple sprouting, are going down like ninepins, all with cabbage root fly damage. I’ve also found more than usual number of carrots affected by carrot flies. At least the badgers are keeping themselves scares. They must have heard that I’d bought an electric fence.

Badger decimation last year at about this time for me too - so far not appeared. Ravaged other spots too and the theory was that it was a young one finding its territory, which then shoved off in the Autumn.
Generally the weather has played havoc, much low cropping and failure - also including the brassicas, just not enough water for them.
Notable success has been egretti aka salsola which has loved the conditions.
If you don't know it already, it is a very useful crop - raw in salads, poached or steamed, added to stir fries. A land samphire. Goes very well with fish, or fried foods. Apparently had a phase of being VERY TRENDY, but I missed all that. Also a fascinating plan to grow too...talk of tendrils reminded me. Starts not as a seed but as a plantlet which uncurls like a small snake. highly recommended, can even be started now for a late crop in the Autumn. Doesn't like it too hot to germinate, after that loves heat.

[Constantbee]

Badger decimation last year at about this time for me too - so far not appeared. Ravaged other spots too and the theory was that it was a young one finding its territory, which then shoved off in the Autumn.

Big problems with badgers rooting for slugs and worms here. It's a good thing the lawn is beyond redemption. 'Know your enemy' was the way forward and we invested in a cheap motion sensitive infra red camera to track their movements. After a couple of nights it presented us with unmistakable images of Boris and Beryl dining al fresco under the moonlight, time stamped at about 2:30am. They are HUGE, and remembering to shut the garden gate has kept their, by now, portly frames at bay. If I see people walking small dogs in the woods these days I try and advise them to keep them on the lead. The number of badger sets is increasing and small dogs have been known to go missing

[oddoneout]

Yes I think it must be that for some reason the fruit drop hasn't been as marked or is just delayed. The odd thing is that some of the bunches seem to be developing to a decent size, strange with so little rainfall, the roots must be going very deep.
Apples on my allotment - about a mile as the crow flies from the garden trees - have barely set any fruit with the notable exception of Rev Wilkes which I had thought could be biennial but which has some very respectably sized apples.
I suppose these quirks are part of the fascination of gardening.

Indeed, and why it pays not to be too inflexible about how to do things - there are too many variables for 'do it this way for success every time'!
The lack of fruit set on the allotment trees is more likely to be related to conditions at flowering time and shortly afterwards than the current weather. Cold weather and lack of pollinators(often linked) can prevent or drastically reduce initial fruitset, and frost shortly after can abort any that may have succeeded. Slightly later flowering and/or managing to coincide with other nearby trees to aid fertilisation can make a considerable difference; even self-fertile trees will do better with adjacent pollen available.

[gradus]

More garden quirks.
I sow Nicotiana Sylvestris most years and this year it was a real battle to keep them going during the drought. Several self-sown plants have appeared in the driest area of the garden and they are far greener and healthier and the leaves are much larger - the size of smoking tobacco plants - than my newly sown plants, despite being baked but showing no signs of stress. I just don't get it. The ground they are growing in was deeply dug in the course of building work and as expected some weeds have appeared but the Nicotiana and latterly some evening primrose are in their element. The plants are next to a stone path and in the angle of two ground height retaining walls, so my guess is that the moisture in the path and bricks have kept them going. To my surprise, I'd now add both plants to the list of those that work well in very dry sunny sites.

[doversoul1]

The sweetcorn is now over seven feet high trying to get away from the sea of pumpkins. I’m not sure if they can pollinate. At least it will be too high for the badgers to detect the smell. The question is; how am I going to pick them?!

Nicotiana: Yes, I find that self-sown plants often do better than the pampered lot. I have seen them growing in a crack of the front path and other odd places. I started them rather late this year so they are not yet flowering but the self sown ones are in full bloom, even amongst the mass of pumpkins.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The sweetcorn is now over seven feet high

The official height of an elephant's eye, I believe.

[oddoneout]

The sweetcorn is now over seven feet high trying to get away from the sea of pumpkins. I’m not sure if they can pollinate. At least it will be too high for the badgers to detect the smell. The question is; how am I going to pick them?!

Nicotiana: Yes, I find that self-sown plants often do better than the pampered lot. I have seen them growing in a crack of the front path and other odd places. I started them rather late this year so they are not yet flowering but the self sown ones are in full bloom, even amongst the mass of pumpkins.

The cobs will come part way down the stem so you should be able to reach. I do hope the badgers don't sense they are there and decide to fell the plants to get at them.
There are self sown nicotiana at work in the hottest driest border they could find. When they set seed I'll try and scatter it around - planting out seedlings isn't an option when there's only a few volunteers once a week to look after them.
I have self sown tomatoes in my small fruit bed; despite germinating at least 8 weeks after my named varieties and being ignored in the nightly watering duties they have romped away. I think they'll be too late to set fruit, assuming the blight holds off, but I am tempted to experiment with open sown toms next year having seen how well they have done so far - or perhaps just bury a ripe fruit in the ground and let nature take its course! The ones I raised indoors in new good quality compost really didn't do at all well until quite a while after they were planted out, during which time I pulled out dozens of self-sown seedlings from amongst the rows of lettuce etc.

[doversoul1]

I didn’t grow them myself but I have quite a few sunflowers growing amongst the vegetables and flowers (some were replanted by me). I noticed that some are multi-headed variety. They look rather spectacular but how do they follow the sun? Or do those new generation plants don’t bother with traditions?