Vegetable Growing 2025

Delighted to get this from plots today
In spite of being away for the last few days and so not watered.

 

Picked a few beetroot today, first for a few years.

 

@pete A good harvest but our beetroot is still tiny but then as usual we sowed later than we could have done.

 

Picked my first two courgettes this evening. The variety is "Defender".

 

Yesterday I took out the spent early peas., and transplanted some cos lettuce. I'm trying Lobjoits green this time, much better germination than I've been getting with little gem recently.
My first courgettes are still little finger size at the moment. Should be able to pick by the end of the week.

 

@Allotment Boy - I grew Lobjoits last year, and it germinated and grew very well, but I wasn't impressed with the taste. That might just be down to me though!

 

My courguettes have stalled completely because of the cool wet weather

 

I remember reading that most lettuce wont germinate above a certain temperature, true or not I dont know, but sounds possible.

 

Apparently it's a 25°C induces thermodormancy and rates fall off over 20°C.
Apologies @pete I've just double checked and 15 was wrong so now corrected.

 

Its not been below that here for over a week at night.
Cos does sound like it might be from a warmer climate.

 

Yes I have heard about lettuce being sensitive to high temperatures and it inhibiting germination. Luckily I sowed these 3-4 weeks ago when it was cooler. Just have to keep them well watered now so they don't bolt.

 

First time broad bean growing this year, Aquadulce Claudia. Picking to have raw in salads but half of the pods I’m picking have just one large bean in the pod and some tiny black pips spaced along the pod. I assume some sort of fertilising issue but thought I’d the pod was fertilised then all the pips would become beans. Am I thinking about this all wrong or just made a rookie error when sowing the seeds? TIA.

 

I've had a few pods like that in the past but usually the pod is small or distorted.
It does seem like a pollination problem.

 

Broad beans do best if insect pollinated. Can be an issue if they flower (too) early and bees etc are inactive. Covering with netting is also an issue if fine enough to exclude them.
Over fertilising with nitrogen can also cause issue with bean (seed) production, resulting in really strong looking plants but little crop..

 

On the topic of beans and pollination.. My Firestorm runner bean plants have lots of flowers but they've all been dropping off. I had the same problem last year with the Polestar variety, so that's why I wanted to try Firestorm, because it's supposed to be self fertile. Does anyone have an idea as to what might be the problem? Thanks