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.

Catie George wrote:I can't grow zucchini. ...

It's not my seeds/varieties. I started plants for my aunt with the same variety I planted. She has now presented me with 7 oversized zucchini. I have tried direct seeding. I have tried purchased plants. I have started my own. I have tried 3-4 varieties.

I grow acorn squash (same species) like crazy. Currently have one plant with 10+ full sized, others with 3-5.

But zucchini is the devil vegetable and it hates me.


What silly, 'easy' plant do you struggle with?

Dumb question but are they dying from powdery mildew but meanwhile your acorn squash are resistant or the soil where you have them is better?

Granted I just ate my first immature 2" diameter scallop zucchini (yellow spaceship) off the vine and it's mid August, but I am growing on compost and on non insecticide hay bales beside a compost infill and both are working for me, the squash on the nettle hill topped with nettle stems and a bit of soil are doing best and of course full sun. Those plants were seeded outdoors and transplanted into clumps into flats to protect them from wildlife then planted once secondary leaves were established

Another possibility to consider would be mosaic virus
I'm the past I did Lebanese cucumbers where I had contaminated soil in a community garden.

You may know all about these scourges of the squash and cucumber family but I figured since others are reading as well I would ask the obvious question since your aunt can grow them but you can't and she will have a different location so maybe it's the soil (so straw bales may help you, but will need lots of watering)

PS
I have had problems with imported soil from purchased seedlings and powdery mildew in that soil in the past, but with caution in advance and elimination I am powdery mildew free!! (Pot into really old brittle buckets and keep them downwind then watch them; break the buckets and plant on hills if by the time they are outgrowing their buckets they are free of problems)
Now I won't buy any seedlings and of course you're planting from seed so not bringing in contaminants.

And I have been struggling with potatoes

Usually I'd say zucchini but I actually got about seven or eight zucchinis this year from two plants.  It was actually kind of amazing considering how riddled they were with vine borers.  But the squash bugs weren't as bad this year probably because they were up in pots. I also tried to stake them up which is something the internet has told me to do and this was the first year I actually did it.

But here's a weird one. I cannot grow dill. It's a weed for everyone else but for me it always dwindles away to nothing without setting seed.  I've tried seed and transplants.  Meanwhile my parsley is trying to take over the world.

I keep having trouble growing chives, which everyone says  are easy to grow. They will sprout and then die. I also can’t grow celeriac roots. The seeds don’t even germinate. What I have figured out, is to take directions lightly. Everyone says that in Southern California you have to grow soft neck garlic. I can’t get those to grow properly. They either grow tiny, not at all or rot. I have fantastic results with hard neck garlic, so I grow those instead. I also have volunteer collards, broccoli and pumpkins growing. While it’s the season for pumpkins, it’s not for collards and broccoli, since we are in the hot season. Also, 8 years ago we bought an apple tree, that was supposed to grow nicely here. We haven’t gotten a single apple on it, so this year it goes, and I am planting cherries plus black and white sapote. On the other hand, I was told that I can’t grow tea and coffee here, but mine are thriving.
I find that with gardening, you win some and you loose some. I have had trouble growing sunflowers, gave up and gave the seeds to the wild birds in March. As it turns out, the birds are better gardeners than me, since I got the most beautiful sunflowers growing everywhere this summer. You have to see the humor in it or you will grow crazy. I also had trouble growing calendula, but now they are growing on the floor of the forest garden, and come back year after year.

Here in western North Carolina I cannot grow rhubarb which I LOVE! I’ve tried everything…buying big fancy pricey plants. Small plants. I put them in the sun. Part shade. I water a lot. A little. I plant them by the creek. Or In the garden. I don’t harvest anything for a few years. AND THEY STILL DIE!!! Grrrrrrrrrr

Ra Kenworth wrote:[


Dumb question but are they dying from powdery mildew but meanwhile your acorn squash are resistant or the soil where you have them is better?

Granted I just ate my first immature 2" diameter scallop zucchini (yellow spaceship) off the vine and it's mid August, but I am growing on compost and on non insecticide hay bales beside a compost infill and both are working for me, the squash on the nettle hill topped with nettle stems and a bit of soil are doing best and of course full sun. Those plants were seeded outdoors and transplanted into clumps into flats to protect them from wildlife then planted once secondary leaves were established

Another possibility to consider would be mosaic virus
I'm the past I did Lebanese cucumbers where I had contaminated soil in a community garden.

You may know all about these scourges of the squash and cucumber family but I figured since others are reading as well I would ask the obvious question since your aunt can grow them but you can't and she will have a different location so maybe it's the soil (so straw bales may help you, but will need lots of watering)

PS
I have had problems with imported soil from purchased seedlings and powdery mildew in that soil in the past, but with caution in advance and elimination I am powdery mildew free!! (Pot into really old brittle buckets and keep them downwind then watch them; break the buckets and plant on hills if by the time they are outgrowing their buckets they are free of problems)
Now I won't buy any seedlings and of course you're planting from seed so not bringing in contaminants.

And I have been struggling with potatoes

It was the (many) black walnut trees nearby I think. And the leaves we used on the garden where from my neighbourhood, which is also full of walnuts.  Somehow acorns seem to be more resistant.

I also had an issue with tomatos dying mid season - realized this year, as my mom continues to work in that garfen and bought 4 pack starts instead of my solo-cup sized starts, that the reason was, when they ran out of "good" soil they died. Mine died after a reasonable yield, hers before producing.  Only thing that produced for her was the few solo cup grown tomatos i gave her. Also a juglone issue, i suspect.

I've moved and this year am swimming in zucchini, maxima squash (another species i struggled to grow previously). Also in pattypan/scalloped squash - i've picked as many as  4(!)  from one hill in a single day. I do have a black walnut tree, but only one, and it's further away. I've really been watching how plants like basil are impacted by juglone in my new garden. I may take down the black walnut, though i'd rather not. Next year, i plan to zone my garden to plant only juglone tolerant plants on the west side.

I also grew a really good crop of potatoes here - potatoes were another thing that died in that garden.

I can't seem to get lettuces reliably.. they always bolt. Cabbage and broccoli evaded me until I began planting in fall. We get snow but not deep. They both seem to like sitting in hibernation. I was able to harvest mid-May.

Potatoes. I live in tropical country and potatoes get all kinds of blights and diseases.