Growing in 2018 weather

[Odsox]

I commented on another thread about my problems growing peas this year, I thought I might comment on the pros and cons of this year's weather. Swings and roundabouts springs to mind

Cons are; Apples and Pears are fairly sparse, due I think to the cold wet flowering time that kept the bees away, potatoes are small and the floury ones are even more floury and the waxy ones are becoming floury too.
French beans quickly went flabby as soon as they were big enough to pick and Runner beans are not setting pods hardly at all.

Pros;
I have a fantastic crop of Apricots, probably twice the yield of last year and significantly bigger. The same goes for my Black Grapes, bigger and earlier by 2 weeks. The Green Grapes are still too small to tell what they will be like.
The other 2 plants that love this summer are my Squash (Black Forest & Black Futsu) which are wandering everywhere in amongst the sweetcorn. So far they have set far more fruit than we can possibly eat, and lots more to come. The other plants are my Melons wandering under my tomatoes, they are a success this year when other years they were not really worth growing.
One more plant that might be good is my Sweetcorn, I won't really know until I harvest them in 2 to 3 weeks time, but they are looking good.
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[Green Aura]

So basically anything that's puts up lots of sugar is good this year. In that case I'm pleased we didn't bother. The toms are doing really well though - those Stupice are great, we'll definitely grow them next year.

[Brewtrog]

Our loganberry seems to be doing quite similar to other years. The chillis seem to be a bit behind where I'd like them to be, and haven't flowered as much as expected.

[Odsox]

I forgot to mention my Garlic and Onions did very well this year.
My Garlic cloves are huge, almost as big as Elephant garlic, which may be because of the weather or could be because I've been selecting large bulbs to replant every year for some time.

My tomatoes and Peppers are also doing well of course, but I forgot my Aubergines which are setting masses of fruit.

[Flo]

Hmm - courgettes anyone?

[ina]

Hmm - courgettes anyone?

Mine got out too late - same with the squash - just now I have a few small ones coming on...

[Odsox]

Started picking my Apricots today, just the ones that got most sun are ripe at the moment. There is going to be a large crop this year, almost certainly due to the late flowering and hence more bees about.
Picked about 1.25 Kg which is probably about 1% of what's on the tree.
All destined to be dried .. well most of them anyway.
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[ina]

Envy!!!

I love apricots, but the ones in the shops have no scent (and therefore no flavour) at all.

[KathyLauren]

Our peaches got hit by the June frost. Though the leaves look healthy this year (sprayed with dormant oil in the spring), there are very few fruit growing. One apple tree is doing okay. We cut down the other, which was not healthy, to make room for future new apple trees.

We planted a pair of new apple grafts, but the rabbits ate all the new growth. They are starting to come back with wire cages over them.

My tomatoes died back after the same June frost. But, since I don't pinch off the suckers, they were able to come back. However, they are several weeks late. Two of them are setting fruit, and one other is starting to flower.

The strawberries are doing better than last year. We decided that the soil was a problem, so we dug in lots of composted manure, and they perked right up. We aren't getting a bumper crop, but it is looking good for next year.

I have been harvesting black currants. We planted a third bush this year, so hopefully we will get a better crop next year. We got enough berries to make a small batch of black currant jam. Yum! My favourite!

[Green Aura]

The apricot tree which has only ever produced one apricot is looking much healthier since rehoming so, as long as we manage to shift it to its new home before it blossoms, we might just get a few next year. If we don't it will be looking for a new home as I'm not even that fussed about apricots - I keep it more for sentimental reasons.

Blackcurrants, however, we can do too, KL and have managed to freeze quite a bit. We've been adding the odd, single ripening blueberry to bought ones, every few days. Most of our other berries got blown off in the high winds a couple of months back. We managed to pick a small handful of raspberries, gooseberries and jostaberries and two, yes two, whitecurrants!

Oh, and we have about 5 pears which seem to be growing very slowly - either that or they're miniatures.

Onwards and upwards.

[Flo]

I shan't have anything left for the town show at the start of September.

[MKG]

It's a good year for peppers (the non-chilli kind), though. I can't even remember why I sowed them. Oh - and the runner beans in the tubs very near to the house have just started beaning after lots of loving care throughout the drought. The crop of robins and blackbirds is pretty good too.

[Brewtrog]

I'm looking like I'm going to have all of 10 chillis from 6 plants this year, although I have also lost maybe twice that to some evil little critter I didn't spot until too late.
On the plus side our vine has actually fruited and the fruit is ripening, even if the grapes are a bit on the small side

[Flo]

Plums ... Plums .... Plums
Bit like the courgettes .... Glut

[Odsox]

Plums ... Plums .... Plums

That reminds me of Spam ... Spam ... Spam (or am I showing my age? )

Would you believe I have a glut of ..... TOMATOES.
I grew fewer plants this year and now have all that we need preserved; dried, bottled puree, bottled chopped, bottled whole, with just the requirement of a couple or so daily for sandwiches.
I'm now supplying a local restaurant, so at least I won't have to compost them and have seedlings coming up everywhere next year.