Harvest time....yummy or not?

Maria · Harvest time....yummy or not?

How have you been doing with your harvest this year? Have you any best/worst experiences? Would love to hear how others have fared. For me it looks like this...

The best

Toms - loads in the poly and in the house - all going red nicely.
Peppers and chilli's - I've grown halapinos woo-hoo - last year they all died.
Carrots - needed even more....no need to guess why.
Beetroot - even made a borch...wasn't great but just about edible.
Herbs - what can i say - most have gone mad especially the sage.

The worst

Brassica's - devoured by cabbage whites while i was busy elsewhere
Strawberries - dire, soggy
Sweetcorn - some fell over others too small, bad planting position and too soggy again.
Cucumbers/courgettes/gerkins - all damped off, others too late.

Proudest achievements

From seed, asparagus, globe artichoke and soya beans.

Theres more...but this is a huge post already

....please excuse spellings...ever so tired.

peppercat

Best:
broccoli - purple sprouting early in season followed by green
broad beans - got freezer full!
tomatoes - in greenhouse and now ripening well after slow start
peppers and chillies growing well but not yet ready to harvest
curly kale looking set to do us well into winter
herbs - hurray the fennel seed seems free of aphids this year

worst:
picking cabbage white caterpillars and slugs off the brassicas
the smallest and mankiest cauliflower imaginable
expensive blight resistant Sarpo Axona seed potatoes still showed signs of blight and had to have shaws cut off early and burnt and (probably as a result) yield is disappointingly low.
peas - got fewer back than planted!

Diana

Best:
Broad beans - got freezer full and load for seed next year

Tomatoes in polytunnel
Cucumber in polytunnel
Peppers in greenhouse - first year I've ever managed to grow plants with fruits bigger than chillis

Aubergine in greenhouse - again first year of success with a large fruited variety (have grown the Japanese kind OK in the past)
Potimarron squash/pumpkins - 2 dozen fruits, outside from 4 plants. Had trouble with slugs eating imature ones though (so might have had 3 doz). They're a small variety (about 1-2kg) and keep well (will keep fine round to April/May next year), so that's the kind of glut I like!

Worst:
Apples - some kind of rot. They always get it, but this year it was very early.
Potatoes - got a very early blight hit, and no, they weren't planted anywhere near the apples (bad companions)
Leeks - nearly all bolted
Pepino - no fruits. First year with these though, so will try them next year in the greenhouse.
Parsnip - only 2 germinated/survived

andybebbington

the best
beans - broad, runner and french
cabbages
cauliflowers
courgettes
salad leaves
tatties
carrots

the worst
leeks resemble mini spring onions
tomatos (still only one red)
chillis flowered late no fruit yet
cucumber all rotted off

the very worst -

NEXT DOORS BLOODY COWS! on sunday they decided to break down the fences between them and the veg and ate/ trampled everything now have 2 cabbages 3 unripe pumpkins and a lot of broken canes and a I AM BUSY from the farmer who left Matt and Gill to get the cows out and fix fencing no one happy

Maidenstone

The best:
New tatties
Kale
Runner beans
Broad beans
Beetroot
Carrots
Apples, blackcurrants, gooseberries (but they do it all themselves!)
Green chillies

Worst:
Spinach (holes in it)
Garlic (small)
Tomatoes (3!)
Courgettes (only just producing now!)
Salad leaves (bolted)

But I'm dead chuffed to have grown so much this year!

Townie

The Best:

Potatoes
Peppers
Chilli's
Basil
Broad Beans
Peas
Tomatoes (although they took an age to ripen)

Worst:
Goosberries (didnt flower at all)
Blackcurrants (beastie infestation ate all the leaves didnt crop as much)
Squash - seeds didnt germinate
Purple sprouting broccolli -seeds didnt germinate

Sassinak

The Best:

Garlic (Even if I did think I was planting onions lol)
Peas
Mangtout
Parsnips (There are loads to pull)
Carrots
Gooseberries (Branches were weighed down with fruit)
Blackcurrents

The Worst:

Onions (Because they were all garlic!!)
Broad beans (Planted too late so small crop)
All brassicas look like lace curtains lol
Pumpkins - planted on compost heap and it was so hot it burned the roots off haha

rainbowstar

this was my first year so i only planted a few things i learned alot though

best :
beetroot, they were huge
potatoes , grew them in tyres
spinich, it was yummy and wasnt eaten by beasties
french beans

worst:

sweetcorn, germanated but failed to grow
broccoli, infested by white fly and then bolted i got none
carrots , only got 2 that were eatable some were woody some grew no bigger than pencils
tomatoes, took forever to grow and just as they are going red the kids started taking them to show me " look mamma its nearly red" the slugs have had the rest

strawberries, got about 20 from 5 plants it was a fight to the death to decide who got to eat them

must try harder next year

Smooth Hound

JamesB

its great to see what worked for people in this part of the world, I'll try some of the veg that worked for other people myself.

for us
worked:
1)chillies both in poly and inside, we have far too many chillies now. incidently, really easy to dry, we cut the whole plant off at the bottom, hung up on the window, went on holiday for 2 weeks and came back to stack of dried red chillies (even the green ones had gone red and then dried!). the dried plant looked great too (must get the picture onto this site at some point). reckon we have about 60 dried chillies now!
2) tomatoes, we abused more this year and didn't water as much and did much better! just about finished now and most went red this year
3) cucumbers, one plant in poly gave about 25 cucumbers. they grow so quickly, tiny cucumber one day and 3 days later it was ready for harvesting (they are a small variety)
4) potatoes, just got big enough before blight in july
5) peas, beans, squashes, lettuce, radishs
6) blackcurrants, took seedlings from previous house

didn't work:
1) stuggled to get much spinach
2) sweetcorn
3) aubergines

has anyone tried sweet potatoes in a poly tunnel? Im thinking of growing next year?

anyone want some chilli seeds, since we have 2 in the house still going I reckon we wont need seeds for years (and could just use the ones in the chilli)
James

Diana

I'm adding runner beans to my "best" list - they're still going strong even after the recent frosts.

James - I've tried sweet potatoes in PT. My advice would be:
1 - grow your own slips (bought slips will arrive too late to get a decent crop up here). Best to start them sprouting in January to give as long a season as pos.
2 - prep the soil really well - lots of compost, a little manure and moisture retentive organic stuff (like rotted seaweed)
3 - plant through black plastic - to keep the soil as warm as pos (make sure plastic is in place a few weeks ahead of time to heat the soil before planting)
4 - plant on the sunny side of the tunnel (if there is one on yours - depends on orientation really) as early as pos - June is best if you're not in a frost pocket
5 - keep well watered, but probably no additional feed (or you'll get loads of lush foliage and small SPs)

Hope that helps - and let us know how you get on.

JamesB

great advice, thanks for so much detail! i'll give it a go in January

James