[Townie]

I dont know if any of you have had any success with these this year but my crops were a complete and utter disaster!

All my plants looked great, the flowers on them superb and the start of the fruits at the back of the flower looked promising, then after a coupel of days the fruits went brown and died although the plant stayed healthy?

I tried placing straw underneath, that didnt work, then I tried  a couple of crossed sticks and raised the flower/fruit up off the ground ... that didnt work either!

Do you think it was just the weather this year that ruined the crops?

[Fluffywelshsheep]

yes am affraid it is the weather cause it is totally strange i had a perfect butternut sqauash forming then it just went blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and i have give up on pumkins at the moment lol.

Linz

[carl]

i only planted corgettes this year, as part of an indian tri bed, i have to say they have been magnificent.
must be the quality muck i put in.

[Rosemary]

Our courgettes were fine in the main vegetable garden but I gor fed-up waiting for the pumpkins and squashes to do something and pulled them out. I'm not going to grow them next year at all and I'm limiting courgettes to two plants. Dan still can't face courgette and brie soup two seasons after our last glut!

[welshdragon]

We bought what we thought were butternut squash and they turned out to be buttercup squash which left us a little frustrated but they turned out Ok. Some of them weighed 8 lbs and the flesh was like a mild swede which was wonderful in a casserole. Courgettes were briliiant as we grow them in a polytunnel. At the end of the season we strip out the polytunnel,manure and dig it over and put down Phormisol floor cover,then grow a different crop straight through the cover. Strawberries one year, courgettes the next and next year it will be baby sweetcorn. The floorcover lasts for years and saves all that weeding.As for the stem rot we found some of it was just that and others had small bugs and maggots in the stem. Which came first I am not sure. Pumpkins _ never tried them.
WD

[brittanyalex]

Yes, I'm sure it was the weather.  My courgettes and cucumbers were good although they were on the ground, but potatoes and tomatoes gave up completely.  My neighbour has an enormous piece of land put down to potatoes and he lost the lot.  My spinach, herbs, leeks, mixed salad lettuces, radishes, three sorts of onions, shallots and beetroot were fine.  In late September I put in a polytunnel which I hope to grow the tomatoes in this year as well as lots of other veggies and fruit too.  I did plant some strawberry plants in their as soon as it was up and was still eating those into December - brilliant!

I haven't grown veggies for years and years and it was so lovely to be able to go and pick things and eat them minutes later, with eggs from my hens and pork from my pigs I felt almost self-sufficient some days.  The local children loved helping too and went home with some of the surplus eggs.

[Lizt]

I do think the weather was to blame. I did ok with courgettes but the squashes mostly rotted off - although we did get a decent size pumpkin for halloween! Potatoes were ok but not a big crop. Lost the sweet potatoes completely though!
Good luck
Liz

[Guy]

we had the very same issue with our courgettes this year - so poss. specific weather conditions? Pumpkins ,however, were fantastic - although the plant grew like a thing possesed  and took over a huge area of the garden , the pumpkins themselves were not huge in size , but made great lanterns (sold them all in 1 day on our table out the front!)
We may try them again this year in a raised bed in an attemp to keep them under control

[katie]

Definitely the weather! I normally have a huge glut of courgettes and have to sneak them into practically every meal to make the pile go down a bit. This year I didn't even have enough for us and friends didn't have to run when they saw me approaching with a carrier bag....