Vegetable Growing 2021

Think this is my last picking of runner beans and there's still lovely long ones up to 21" amongst them.

There's nothing left on the plants now apart from a few pods left to dry out for seed saving, and I've already got over 300 seeds saved.

 

Cleared my runners out yesterday afternoon.

 

Harvested some of my pumpkins yesterday.



Here they were just moments ago.



It took almost 150 days since transplantation to harvest time. Two plants grown in 340L of home made compost, each producing five pumpkins.

Each pumpkin weighed between 3.5kg - 6.1kg.

I am more than happy with the outcome.

 

Most of my harvest ist already eaten (Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, currants, blackberries, grapes)
So only thing left is the dry stuff.
Since my mother in law always gives us loads of green beans we tend to let ours grow till they dry up.

This year has been a bountiful harvest of cranberry beans (in the back) and Styrian scarlet runners beans. There is a lot more still hanging of the latter type.



To be honest we mostly plant them for decorative value and because I always loved them as a kid. But since they are really easy to care for and are quite nice to look at we plant them every year. And they make a great base for salads, stews and as a gift for children who want to try and plant something.

 

Additionally my father donated a few cloves of garlic last year. We planted them in October '20, harvested during this summer and except for tasting one of the bulbs (tastes like heaven) I decided to replanted them all in my new strawberry patch last week. So hopefully next year we will be swimming in garlic. Which would be nice, since we use 3-4 bulbs (not cloves) for "Spaghetti aglio e olio" every other week.

 

What variety were they @misterQ ?

My 'Hungarian Blue' pumpkins (seeds from Realseeds) have only produced 2 on each plant. I've just pulled up one plant and they weigh 6.2 and 13Kg, the ones on the remaining plant are probably bigger.

Unlike the photo, they are not 'blue' and much biggger than "an average weight of 2.5kg / 5 lb" which was the size I wanted. I wouldn't trust a 13 Kg pumpkin suspended above my head.

Supposed to be like this



But grew like this






P.S. Planted out third week in June.

 

Cut another Hungarian Blue pumpkin, that according to Realseeds have "an average weight of 2.5kg / 5 lb"

It weighs 15Kg/33lbs

 

Still getting Runners, just enough for my dinner, a real motley bunch, but a couple of 22 and 23" beans.

 

Picked another marrow this afternoon. Can't get into the back garden to weigh it as a dumpy bag full of apples waiting to be pressed is blocking the way, probably should have taken my weighing tripod and scales with me when I cut it.

 

It only weighed a tad under 90lbs, but there many smaller than mine. Even all the best growers were thoroughly beaten by the new world record marrow of 255 lbs. I had a good couple of days out and was able to pass my unused free exhibitors tickets to local growers.



The 'second largest' marrow I cut yesterday felt strangely heavy, so I got it in a mesh sling under my weighing tripod and it registered 45.5 Kg on my 50 Kg scales, more than the 'heaviest' one I took to Malvern. I weighed it on my 100 Kg scales and got exactly the same reading, 100.3 lbs. It's obviously continued growing since 22nd Sept.



Based upon how much my other marrow has lost since being weighed 18 days ago, it would have been a pound heavier yesterday, and perhaps a lot more if I'd carried on watering, feeding and spraying the powdery mildew. It's obviously resumed growing unoticed because I haven't been checking it.

So at least I got a 100 pounder this year


There's also several new marrows appeared since I stopped culling them, that will make nice eating, and also would have kept the weight down. Must set a new target for next year, >125 lbs maybe, but it will require a lot of extra work and space, at least 15 x 15' per plant, extra manure and a system to get water amongst the network of stems with soaking leaves for starters.

 

Just one more last picking of runners



After my heavy marrows stopped growing, I stopped removing female flowers and let additional marrows grow. This lot weighed a total of 56lbs and are as sweet and soft as courgettes and will be cooked in chunks with skin on, unlike those small, hard skinned, stripey marrows that most people grow/buy.

 

The packet said to expect each plant to produce around four squash!