What silly thing can't you grow?

Jenny Wright wrote:

Rebecca Norman wrote:

I'm going to keep trying to grow the things that don't seem to work. I have had so many things fail one year but produce delicious and abundant other years. So I figure if something doesn't work one year, it's worth trying again. I haven't had much luck with peppers, hot or sweet, but I'll keep trying.

I didn't ever have success with peppers until I stopped trying to grow big ones and found some tiny varieties that could grow in my short season.

I also just learned that peppers will grow as a perennial and so if you have space inside, you might want to try growing peppers in pots and bringing them inside every fall and then putting them outside again in the spring when it warms up. I'm going to give it a try this year because even with my successful peppers, they don't start producing until the very end of the season. I'm going to try it with eggplants too (which can also be perennials). I dug up my pepper plants this last fall and tried bringing them inside but most of them were shocked and died. One did survive though and I just got a red ripe pepper from it last week.

Can confirm about keeping peppers for years. We have a Datil on the deck that's 3yrs old now. I will repot it next year probably. I'm also going to try to dig up a couple jalapenos that are too shaded with the tomitillos, which aren't producing anything either, but male flowers galore. Better than last year I guess, bc they refused to grow. I'm still blaming the weird water tower I used for them.

I have never been able to get a winter squash to grow. I can grow summer squash like the dickens, but no keeping squash. One year I almost got a small butternut, but the next time I looked for it it was gone.

Cat Knight wrote:I have never been able to get a winter squash to grow. I can grow summer squash like the dickens, but no keeping squash. One year I almost got a small butternut, but the next time I looked for it it was gone.

I have no clue what I did this year, but I have butternut squash on steroids. I never had this kind of success so I'll just give you a quick rundown.

Planted them next to cucumbers and cabbage early in the season, they did meh until the middle of cucumber harvesting and then the butternut vines EXPLODED and took over my walkways. I had planted crimson clover between the plants to keep down weed pressure and planted them in a raised bed that I only added compost to this year. It feels like they waited for the summer heat to come and start waning before taking off.

I'm struggling with growing cabbages, but I think its my own undoing because I don't put up netting. I'm getting some good slow brussel sprout growth, I'm hoping to harvest before frost.

I can't grow horseradish.  That thing that you can't get rid of.  I've tried three times and each time it's just dwindled away to nothing...

Onion. It's so different than the cousin garlic which is so hard to fail.
I got seeds started 12 weeks before last frost but the seedlings kept dying after transplanting. I spent more money on seed packs than I can buy a 50# bag.
Sometimes onion bulbs sprout before I can use it so i cut the center out and plant in ground. They either bolt or grow to be a huge bunch. I am really at a lost about growing onion.

I can't grow onions and eggplants well.  Onions die as seedlings and eggplants get eaten by flea beetles.  
I am experimenting this year and trying to use 1/2 vermicompost + 1/2 leaf gro as my seed starting mix.  I just sifted some into a 1020 tray (because the sticks and stones, hamper the growth of seedlings too).  So far, onions are healthy seedlings. We just need to get them into the ground.

I also took a soil test and it looks like we need to add some elemental sulfur and make sure our micro-nutrients are also added.  According to nerdy Amish farmer, John Kempf, if you have healthy soil, you can be free of insects and plant diseases.  So there's definitely something not optimal in my soil,  Still learning.  

I bet, focusing on the soil will help with whatever it is we are trying to grow.  Thanks for this question Cat!

This year nothing grew well really. We didn't plant as many vegetables as we normally did but the drought made all the harvests less, except for two apple trees. Interestingly, one of the apple trees with stunted fruit is the same age as one with normal sized fruit. There's not a huge difference in how low/high their respective spots are either, as our land is mostly flat and even.

In a more "normal" year I have trouble with watermelons, bell peppers, and I've only planted parsnips once but got nothing. Also had no success the one time I tried growing an eggplant, and minimal success with pumpkins. I try to keep to varieties with a short growing season, but even then some things just don't seem to like me. I've struggled with fruit trees as well, other than the one that was here when we moved in, and two that were transplanted from another place with decent growth on them. Maybe we just need to buy bigger/older trees and plants. Not great soil in general around here. It's sandy and acidic, so the blueberries dying is a mystery. My two currant plants have survived this year, but the gooseberry died.

Timothy Norton wrote:

Cat Knight wrote:I have never been able to get a winter squash to grow. I can grow summer squash like the dickens, but no keeping squash. One year I almost got a small butternut, but the next time I looked for it it was gone.

I have no clue what I did this year, but I have butternut squash on steroids. I never had this kind of success so I'll just give you a quick rundown.

Planted them next to cucumbers and cabbage early in the season, they did meh until the middle of cucumber harvesting and then the butternut vines EXPLODED and took over my walkways. I had planted crimson clover between the plants to keep down weed pressure and planted them in a raised bed that I only added compost to this year. It feels like they waited for the summer heat to come and start waning before taking off.

I'm struggling with growing cabbages, but I think it’s my own undoing because I don't put up netting. I'm getting some good slow brussel sprout growth, I'm hoping to harvest before frost.

My butternut squash grew huge and amazing this year too. Cucumbers were a total failure. I never do well with carrots. I keep trying.