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Year End Roundup
purplerallim
Posts: 5,287
in Fruit & veg
Well as promised a round up of my harvest/experiments for this year. First cucumbers. Better than last year with a third as many, mainly due to mini cucumbers being so prolific ( not as good as @Pete8 😀) courgettes up but only by a few. Raspberries good crop, strawberries poor. French beans a bumper crop. Sweetcorn alot of work for a few ears not sure will bother next year. Spring onions,red, will grow again loved them. Finally tomatoes. My experiment on leaf removal found this. The Alicante didn't seem to do any better or worse for the removal of half as many leaves from one set of plants, also it was the first to die back, in both groups, week's before the others. Gardeners Delight are still producing and they do seem to be holding on longer on the plants with more leaves left on , but it did cause problems with bent trusses of heavy fruit that were missed because they couldn't be seen easily. Black Russian won't grow again poor cropping, and sungold poor crop. Black Cherry still producing and best flavour will get again. Overall I may leave more leaves until later in the season than I would have done, but will still open the areas around the trusses to help the ripening process as I don't think we can rely on such s long growing season every year.😁 Overall a heavy crop of tomatoes. Well that was my year, how was yours.
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OH got me to plant potatoes so I did but in raised beds with no earthing up. Very good crop from each of the Charlotte seed potatoes and no troubles but flavour not exceptional. Bintjes are still in the ground so no news on cropping.
Planted far too many tomatoes and have had huge crops. Best flavour from red, orange and yellow varieties of marmande, yellow pear, banana, green zebra and San Marzano. Others were good too but I haven't yet found the labels to see which of those to grow again. Very disappointed with black Crimea and smaller version of Brandywine.
Loads of courgetees and pumpkins are ripening well but haven't yet been tasted. Beetroot and assorted brassicas have done well but Provençal salad mix was hopeless as was the sweetcorn. Not bothering with those again.
We have had some galia melons and water melons in the PT. Not sure I'll bother again as the local Charentais melons are much sweeter and very cheap. Cucamelons were horrid and were pulled up after the first taste. Yellow peppers are only just ripening.
Yet to harvest are fartichokes and sweet potatoes.
Tomatoes were good when they eventually started to ripen.
Suncherry - Very pretty, but average flavour - will try something different next year.
Sungold - very good as always, but not a heavy cropper
Rosella - excellent flavour and very good yield
Shirley - as always reliable, good flavour and good yield
Sparta - a bit larger than Shirley, similar flavour and good yield
Runner beans White Lady - picked the 1st on 18th sept! (due to weather) since when there have been masses and masses of them. Very nice and will grow again
French Beans (Laguna) good crop and good taste
Carrots - Flyaway - good crop, good flavour
Lettuce - Little Gem and Amaze - very good, but some bolted
Sweetcorn Swift - 33 cobs from 8 plants. Very good
Spinach & Chard - more than I know what to do with
Beetroot - Bolthardy - good beets and good flavour
Kale - Nero di Toscana - excellent as always
Calabrese Ironman - fantastic looking heads, but masses of caterpillars in the heads (so all composted) wont grow broccoli/calabrese again
Spring Onion - after many years I still have no success with them
Sprouts - Maximus - look good but not ready yet
Peppers - Marconi - so far not a single one! - usually have a good crop and they are excellent roasted
Peppers - Snackbite - usually get lots, but poor crop this year. Very sweet
Chili - Superchilli - masses
Chili - Jalapeno - My fave chili
Raspberries - Glen ??? (their 1st year) Very nice
Blueberries - Patriot (nice, good crop) - Ozarkblue (delicious, excellent crop) - Herbert (outstanding flavour, but the birds got most of 'em..)
Apples - Katy - not a single one - usually get 10's of kilos
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.