Given Up

[OverWyreGrower]

I felt like that as well! Yesterday I removed all my damaged plants, did another dose of RoundUp on the couch grass, covered with card and tarpaulin, and today I've just ordered some overwintering veg (onions, garlic etc) and some late cropping potatoes from Dobies and Marshalls.

Not ideal, but better than looking at empty beds!

[multiveg]

Managed to get up the plot today and it is a mess. Most of the plants havent a clue what is going on. So I have given up on 2007.

Garlic....Rust and gone to seed
Onions...appear smaller now than when they went in
Tomatoes...no flowers let alone any fruit
Chillies.....see above
Corn...still looks ok
Potatoes...blighted
Gherkins...7 fruit so far
Runner beans....last seen being dragged off by a army of slugs.

So I am going to rotovate the lot and start again next year.

Any one else given in this season.

Garlic - rust, also started to rot what with all that rain, but still harvested it and spent a couple of evenings getting them chopped for freezing while watching vampire films.
Onions - well, they don't seem to have got very big yet. Shallots however look good. Spring onions have had poor germination.
French beans, the HSL ones that I planted in the garden have been sliced off by those molluscs. Those on the plot are faring better.
Squash things - well, had slug damage and those that survived to be planted out still seem slow/small.
Sweetcorn - well, munched.
Brassicas, even with proprietary cabbage root fly collars, most had root fly. Also, cabbage whitefly and white blister rot. Very few cabbage white caterpillars though.
Lettuce has been a success.
Broad beans - choc. spot and blackfly (overwintered & spring sowings).
Peas - ok.
Spuds - a couple with blackleg, but otherwise, the earlies have been fine. Blight though has been spotted on a couple of varieties and have now been sprayed with Bordeaux.
Ups and downs this year and I had felt like giving up.

[greenlung]

Hi - It's ok to try planting again. All the snails have come to me now ; (

[bubblewrap]

Hi - It's ok to try planting again. All the snails have come to me now ; (

How did they get there. Down the M42/M5 from me then but I still have some to send you.

[Two_Sheds]

My plot is infested with teeny tiny slugs. They are minute, about 3mm long, but doing a lot of damage. Does anyone know, are these a particular variety, or just baby slugs?

[bubblewrap]

I have climbing slugs/snails they are eating the leaves on my sun flowers at least 5 feet up.

[Geo]

Yep baby slugs..they love this wet weather



Geo..

[Sue]

Bubblewrap
Me too, they've done for my sunflowers, second year running too.
Yesterday, I thought, blimey that lettuce looks a bit holey so got down on hands and knees and found 9 of the big brown jobs sheltering under it and loads of their kids in the lettuce. All were given their marching orders.
Have now commandeered the allotment picnic table to put my container carrots and radishes, they don't seem to have made it up there yet but anywhere else I might as well put out little tables and chairs for them to eat at their leisure.
Sue

[NOG]

Slugs must taste great. Think of it Corn fed Chickin in lovely. so slugs that live on tender young veg must be even better.

[carlseawolf]

my year so far !
garlic - bolted but got some bulbs
pots - about a third rotten , green or slug eaten
swiss chard --bolted
cabbages -- part eaten by slugs , the eggs must have been in the earth as my beds are fully netted
french beans - mares tailed into oblivian and slug damage
no apples on tree
only 5 pears on 3 trees
mares tail back with avengance , it has got back in all the beds i seived and the whole plot looks like a scene out of a christmas card with all the little trees.

GOOD NEWS
onions - still growing but gone bull necked
beetroot - had a good crop so far
carrots - doing fine and no carrot fly
parsnips - growing well
red cabbage - growing well but no heart ?
lettuce -- to many to mention

i think this year has been a test for every one , and on a finishing point my marrow bed was lined with plastic sheet to retain water and it was to much that end up killing it .

[laura g]

harvested my first tomatoes the other day. 15 tom plants have provided 22.5 cherry tomatoes and not many more to come!! cukes were doing briliantly but collapsed within 24 hours. salad leaves took their own lives it appears. peppers just arent even trying. 12 pea plants have given me 4 pea pods.

i mowed over my strawberry beds at the weekend. not a fruit in sight.

only things that appear to be doing well are things i havent got to touch - ie apples and blackberries. whats the betting that i go out one morning and they're all on the floor.

unless there's a market for gourmet fox poo that I dont know about, my garden is producing ***** all!!!

so yes, i'm a clearer outer and starter again.

[Birdie Wife]

It all comes around in the end! So sorry to hear of all your losses, some of you will know that I had a terrible time veg-wise last year, finding my new plot infested with leatherjackets and not being abe to plant anything out until late July when the adults hatched, then sheep getting into the garden and eating what was left... this year has been totally different. I applied nematodes that killed the leatherjacket grubs, chucked rocks at the sheep whehever they looked a bit too curious and kept the grass strimmed right down so they weren't too tempted to jump the wall. Tatties, onions,garlic are all doing really well, carrots and parsnips fine, beetroot okay, even salads have hardly been touched by the slugs until quite recently. The only downsidese were the pak choi which bolted and the summer sprouting broccoli, one plant snpped it's main stem in the wind but it was salvagable, I staked it up and it's now producing lovely firm florets for me. And no hint of cabbage white butterflies anywhere! So there you go, don't be too disheartened, it may be too late for this year but that means you've got extra time to prepare for next year, bumper crops all round hopefully!

[zebedee]

I bought some slug pellets once. B*****s didn't work. I didn't hit a single slug!!!

[Piper]

My slugs love beer, but not expensive stuff. It works brilliantly. However, I do think I attract more because of it, but hey, they have one last good night.

[Bramble Lover]

I saved loads of yogurt pots exactly for the same reason. I had good intentions of putting them in strategic places around the lottie and filling with beer and drowning the b**gers. (never got round to it) Does it really work?