Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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sean
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Varieties yields report..Limited to spuds in my case, because I'm hopelessly unorganised, but I thought a thread where people could report on what they'd grown and how it did might be useful...
International Kidney aka Jersey Royals did really well considering how late I planted them. I got a decent crop and the flavour was fantastic.
Same goes for Belle de Fontenay. I will grow both of these again probably.
Estima, words cannot express my contempt for this variety. OK spuds but bugger-all of them.
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steve.k
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A lot of the hard work is starting to pay off. My biggest success to date this season has to be the good old runner beans. Needed to get rid of some old rubbish this weekend so decided to do a couple of boot fairs Sat. and Sun. Freezer completely full up and the the beans are still coming. Bagged up all that i could pick on Friday and took them with me. I filled about 40 of those bags that supermarkets supply for their veg. Sold out on both days within half an hour. £1.00 a bag. Allotment rent is £52.00 a year. I reckon i could do the same next weekend along with cucumbers, beetroot and Pots. Allotment is now more than paying for itself. The only probelm is i didn't managed to shift all the rubbish i was trying to get rid of in the first place.
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nettie
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I loved my Maris Peer second earlies, wonderful flavour and pretty good yield.
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nettie
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What a good idea Steve!!!!
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cab
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Errm...
New potato variety rocket gave really decent yields for a new spud, but the flavour wasn't anything awfully special. Not bad.
Main crop spud desiree did really well. Big baking spuds abound, with plenty of smaller ones for boiling or roasting in their skins. Really good harvest and a great flavour, but that's to be expected as this one is well siuted to our climate down in East Anglia. I'll grow this again and again, I think.
Salad potato pink fir apple gave smaller yields than desiree, but I wasn't disappointed; it did better than I'd thought. Perhaps a wetter season would have given a better yield again, it doesn't seem so tolerant of dry weather as desiree.
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cab
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Onto carrots. Main crop isn't in yet, but this is what we've been eating.
Red samurai was interesting; good flavour and excellent colour. Yields passable. Maybe won't grow that one again in a hurry.
Purple dragon gave an excellent purple colour and thick, but short carrots. The carrot beneath the skin was variable; deep orange to yellow, some even with purple spots in them. Very pretty, I'll grow those again for sure. Yields okay.
Paris market were early, of course, and did okay. Tiny little things, a good one to put in as an early salad crop or a catch crop. I'll get some more seeds of this one in. Yields are pathetic a carrot, but okay for a catch crop.
Sugarsnax produced long, straight, thin carrots of unsurpassed sweetness; again, it's an early variety, and it's well worth a shot. I'll grow that one again too. Good yields, as the thin roots mean you sow thickly.
Early nantes was the first one I had ready this year; planted in a big pot indoors, put outside when the weather could be trusted, this gave some passable early salad carrots. Nothing special, but pleasant enough. Dunno whether I'll grow this again.
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cab
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Beetroot...
Boltardy reliable and a big cropper. Tasty, but germination was erratic even after soaking and left me with a gappy row. I'll sow more thickly next year.
Chioggia is a red and white stripey Italian variety that looks good but tastes poor. Mightn't grow that again, next year I'll try a golden variety instead.
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judith
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Spuds have been a disaster this year. Slugs have ruined practically my entire crop so far. I don't think I'm going to be able to salvage much for storing at all 
Of what we have managed to eat so far, the Rocket were tasty but cropped poorly. International kidney were absolutely delicious and gave nice big potatoes, but have been most affected by the slugs. Fantastic straight out of the ground and plain boiled, but the cold boiled turned an unattractive grey overnight in the fridge. Not great for potato salad.
That just leaves the Anya - the plants have been a wee bit sickly-looking compared to the other varieties, so I'm not holding out much hope - and the maincrop Majestic. Listen out for howls of misery coming from the direction of Wales when I harvest those
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cab
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Courgette...
Taxi has produced MASSES of lovely yellow courgettes, almost invariably straight and very flavoursome. A bushy plant that doesn't spread far. The yield has been stunning, I had expected this variety to be out-done by the green courgettes, but that hasn't been the case. Long season. Longer, thinner courgettes than on most other varietues. I'll grow this one again, very likely.
Bambino I grew for the quality of its flowers. The flowers stay attached to the young courgettes very well, and the yields on the plants have been very high. This bushy plant doesn't spread far. I might well grow this one again, but it hasn't got much to offer over the other green varieties.
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cab
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Runner beans...
Hestia is a dwarf variety I grow every year; pretty little red and white flowers, not high yielding but it's a great way of snmeaking something useful into a flower bed. I sited it behind some yellow chard this year for colour contrast, with the asparagus bed behind it, and it looks great.
Painted lady is the one down on the plot. Great yields, I'm picking every day from the dozen or so plants. They're on short pyramids, with a net stretched above the top of them between two posts when it looked like they were going to go a bit wild, and they're a good seven feet high now with no sign of slowing down. Pretty red and white flowers, a good flavour, perhaps a hint of stringiness to them. Unless someone sugests a better bean I'll grow them agian for sure.
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steve.k
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Don't know if this is commonly known but i have always been advised to sprinkle soot in and around pots. when planting. Apparently slugs do not like this and tend to keep away. Must admit i have never had problems with slugs in the Pots. since doing this. Anybody else heard of this?
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judith
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| steve.k wrote: | | Don't know if this is commonly known but i have always been advised to sprinkle soot in and around pots. when planting. Apparently slugs do not like this and tend to keep away. Must admit i have never had problems with slugs in the Pots. since doing this. Anybody else heard of this? |
I will certainly give that a try next year - thanks for the advice.
I think a lot of the problem may have come from using a heavy straw mulch because of the lack of rain we had earlier in the year. Last year, when it was a lot wetter and I didn't use the mulch, I had practically no slug damage at all.
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ken69
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Spud varietiesDon't know the varieties, but grew a lot of pot taters this year, hard to know when to water so yield not too bad but could be better.Won't do it again, altho with restricted space at home, might grow earlies and as they are used, plant maincrop ( Desiree do well here) from pot grown.
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cab
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Of the carrots...
Flakee has given us lots of big carrots that we'll be digging up all winter. Very tasty.
Autumn King also very big, tasty and reliable, but some of those have split.
I'll likely as not grow both again.
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cab
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Burdock Takinogawa has been big, tasty, and prolific. Only trouble is that she hates my home made dandelion and burdock, and we can't eat it all. I might grow it again, but only the one row next time!
Radish French Breakfast has been massively prolific late in the season. I'm fed up with radishes. I'll grow this variety again when I can face them.
Radish mooli is still going great guns. I planted them closer together than I perhaps should have done, but I was aiming for more and smaller roots. Working well.
I'm inundated with florentine fennel. Now I don't know why, but mine is great, and the lass two plots down has had all of hers bolt. I will grow it again, but it does seem to be erratic.
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cab
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Lettuce... Deep breath now...
Webbs Wonderful was one I grew early, and obtained massive, tasty, lovely lettuces. I'll grow that agin. Unsurpassed yield.
Lollo rosso was my early red lettuce, and it was prolific but a little bitter, as it tends to be; it looks good and its nice variation, so I might grow that again. Good yield.
Mikola was a better red lettuce, flushed with red on green bases, a butterhead lettuce with a good texture and flavour. That's becoming a regular in my garden from now on. Good yield.
Little gem was as it always is; I don't really rate this one, I know it is popular, but I find that it doesn't stand well once it is ready. Tasty, but not what I want. Poor yield.
Great lakes produces big, open green heads, and they're really, really tasty. Worth having this one, I'll grow it again next year for sure. Yield is excellent.
Freckles, a really old almost cos variety, is in my opinion the best lettuce you can get. Combining a good flavour with a nice, leafy texture, it almost melts in the mouth. Red freckles on a pale green background, it's a darling little plant and I love it to bits. Yield is good, not stunning, but I can't hold that against freckles. If I grew one lettuce type, it would be freckles.
Frisbee are still tiny little things, they're growing nicely. Open headed, well suited to cutting leaves off the outside to keep more coming, I find they serve me well in early autumn. Excellent flavour and good yield, I'll grow them again.
That's the first batch of lettuce write ups... I've got a 'thing' for lettuce.
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judith
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While you're in the middle of lettuces, I must give a plug for my favourite discovery this year - Sherwood. As far as I am concerned it has everything a lettuce needs - the sweetness of a Little Gem but the flavour and crunch of a Romaine. It survived the ravages of the slugs, starlings and chickens, survived both underwatering and overwatering, I transplanted the thinnings and practically all took. It makes a storming egg and salad butty, everyone I have fed it to has loved it, and the pigs go crazy for the trimmings. Oh, and I'm still eating my way through my June sowing - it doesn't seem to bolt readily either.
What more can you ask for from a lettuce?
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cab
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(bumped for interest, as a comparison with this years)
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