What's Your Best and Worst Crop This Year

[noobiechickenlady]

My corn is looking fantastic and the tomatoes are stretching too. I lost the spinach and several oregano plants to the rain/heat. I have one gigantic oak leaf lettuce that is huge! The slugs got to the rest of the ones that were in the ground. Bowls of beer took care of that, but only after they chomped 6 of them into the ground. I've had a small container of mixed lettuces since last year that I've been picking small bits off of that is doing much better than it did last year. Carrots look sick and I think slugs got some of my onion sets as well. Got to mound some dirt around the survivors, one thing I forgot to do this weekend...

 

[Hiedi]

What I thought was my best crop is turning into a real pain. We had a really hard rain last night, and when I went out to check the garden this morning, some of the tomato plants had fallen over; the really tall ones, in spite of all our efforts to keep them upright. So we took some (2x4's) lumber that we had and cut them down the middle (long ways), sharpened the ends, then climbed up on a ladder and pounded our homemade (eight-foot) stakes into the ground with a sledge-hammer. If that doesn't hold those plants up, then I give up on those particular tomatoes plants. The problem is; the tall ones are a new variety that I have never grown before. I did not know the plants would end up growing this big.

 

[me&thegals]

Wow, Hiedi, what are you feeding those things?!? Actually, could you have heirloom varieties? They tend to have indeterminate growth patterns, which means they will simply keep growing until frost. Yikes!

My greens are incredible, as always. I think I must have the soil for them, because I just toss the seed out and they grow absolutely gorgeously. My broccoli rabe has been a flop. Flowering or very tiny stems. I've not grown it before, so maybe that is the way it is supposed to be.

Hard to tell yet, but it would be awfully nice to finally grow some lovely zucchini like everyone else does without trying!

 

[Hiedi]

Wow, Hiedi, what are you feeding those things?!? Actually, could you have heirloom varieties?

Yes, the plants that are getting really big are heirloom. In the past, I have mostly grown Better Boy tomatoes, which the plants do not get nearly as big. This year, I was experimenting by trying some new things; but I am starting to think the best thing to do is stick with what I know.

 

[FarmerChick]

All crops are doing well with the "extra" rains we are getting...no problems on those.

My problem is hay. I can't get it cut. Looks like there will be only one fall cutting this year. Going to let the hay fields go to seed and that is a plus, then just cut my fall cutting. I am not going to put down hay for spring. Missed the opportunity cause of weather but it is fine since I have tons in the barn.......with wet soil, humid air, possibility of rain etc...it calls for a bad situation to make hay. So many farmers lost hay this spring due to tons of rain...so many fields cut and it poured and poured. UGH---I hate when hay gets any kind of wet on it.

 

[Tallman]

All crops are doing well with the "extra" rains we are getting...no problems on those.

My problem is hay. I can't get it cut. Looks like there will be only one fall cutting this year. Going to let the hay fields go to seed and that is a plus, then just cut my fall cutting. I am not going to put down hay for spring. Missed the opportunity cause of weather but it is fine since I have tons in the barn.......with wet soil, humid air, possibility of rain etc...it calls for a bad situation to make hay. So many farmers lost hay this spring due to tons of rain...so many fields cut and it poured and poured. UGH---I hate when hay gets any kind of wet on it.

I would be interested to know what you cut for hay back there. Is it brome, fescue, alfalfa, or something else? Here in SE Kansas we have all three that I have mentioned; however, there is one more that is very prevalent, and that is bluestem grass. Of the grasses being cut for hay around here, bluestem is the best.

 

[Better Half]

Everything is doing fine except the lettuce. The spinach is great but for some reason only one lettuce came up. Last year the lettuce was the best. The potatoes are much bigger than last year. There's even a stray potato in the lettuce bed.

 

[Wifezilla]

I have the opposite situation. I have lots of lettuce, but my spinach looks really sad.

 

[FarmerChick]

All crops are doing well with the "extra" rains we are getting...no problems on those.

My problem is hay. I can't get it cut. Looks like there will be only one fall cutting this year. Going to let the hay fields go to seed and that is a plus, then just cut my fall cutting. I am not going to put down hay for spring. Missed the opportunity cause of weather but it is fine since I have tons in the barn.......with wet soil, humid air, possibility of rain etc...it calls for a bad situation to make hay. So many farmers lost hay this spring due to tons of rain...so many fields cut and it poured and poured. UGH---I hate when hay gets any kind of wet on it.

I would be interested to know what you cut for hay back there. Is it brome, fescue, alfalfa, or something else? Here in SE Kansas we have all three that I have mentioned; however, there is one more that is very prevalent, and that is bluestem grass. Of the grasses being cut for hay around here, bluestem is the best.

We have fescue.

When we raised horses back in the day we would raise and cut wheat hay.

Yea we have all kinds of hay here...best alfalfa grower was a stone throw from me. When I needed some for the horses he had the best stuff, cause it is hard to grow being alot of work and something we never tried.

But just regular fescue for cattle and goats now.

 

[freemotion]

My garden isn't even all in yet, here in cold New England.

I went to check on one of my pasture gardens yesterday, to see what is doing well (tomatoes plants look fine, onions are 6", mangels and rutabagas are just sprouting, comfrey is recovering from being transplanted, and Dutch white clover that I planted to mulch the paths and around the tomato plants is coming up) and found little oat shells all around the area where I planted some for oatstraw tea......GRRRRRR!