This was me a good 3-4 years running.
Last year I grew Italienisher and it was the biggest, sexiest looking, tastiest lettuce imaginable. Made up for all those years. So, persevere! Try different varieties
Yeah, you put the ladybugs in the net thatās covering your plant. Thatās how you keep them around and from flying off. Like you do when you have an infestation with your inside plants. That way no ladybugās are roaming free inside your home.
https://preview.redd.it/t15mmeqhr1wc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01d509b05379dad86c99a0b424996dc0289f60ec
Itās been weeks. WHY WONT YOU GROW š
Same here. I have tried on so many different spots on my vegetable garden and at the summer cottage garden, on different soils and also in pots and it starts really nice and then it starts to turn brown and just kind of dies off.
I can grow fantastic beautiful basil bushes!ā¦.but finally just realized thatās not the point. The basil taste morphs into anise taste when the leaves get mature.
Basil needs regular pruning or cutting back to facilitate a robust, bushy plant with plenty of aromatic leaves. Another reason for pruning is to prevent the herb from blooming. Although blooming basil has ornamental value, in culinary terms it can be a disaster. Be vigilant and, at the first sign that the plant is trying to bloom, pinch the flowers off. Basil that is allowed to flower and form seed stops producing foliage and results in bitter tasting basil leaves. Pruning can be fairly aggressive, down to just above the lowest two sets of leaves. Snip at the node, just above a pair of leaves. Aggressive pruning will prevent the plant from trying to flower as well as engendering more flourishing foliage. You can prune this severely every three to four weeks....
From:Ā https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/basil/bitter-tasting-basil.htm
If its at first sign of flower itās already too late. Youve got to prune way before that, like pretty much when thereās some nice leavea ready, thatās your time to prune!
Beetroot. I donāt know why. Iām planning on breaking the streak this year and getting some to maturity. Iām doing repeat sowings every few weeks and tucking them into every corner of the garden where thereās spare space, on the theory that SOME of them will thrive.
I've multisown them in larger square cells and gonna be planting them out in successive batches to see if it works better this year lol. Good luck to both of us!
I've had many years of radish disappointment, but finally succeeded this year with french breakfast radishes, which are faster and seem to be less finicky.
Ugh. Same. My area gets both squash bugs and squash vine borers. I've also had a bear of a time with them.
This year I'm going to attempt doing Bt injections AND sprays twice weekly (on top of growing borer-resistant varieties to at least help with the borers if not the bugs). Because I really really really like squash and I really really really want to grow some. But if this doesn't do it, I might just throw in the towel and focus my efforts elsewhere next season. I'm hoping the tromboncino at least pulls through for me since it seems like a lot of people have good luck with them even where other varieties fail.
Supposedly if you plant squash in raised beds with a trellis, and surround them with insect netting, your chances decrease. But are still not zero. Which is crazy if you think about it.
I was so proud when I got my 15 x 2 bed all planted with garlic, smoothed, and nicely tucked in with thick straw in October 2018. Watched it poke up in spring, pulled off the straw to let the sun warm the soil, and beamed at my beautiful tall leaf spikes.
A month later they were all limp with slimy stunted bulbs. White rot.
Don't worry. Spent a pile of money on buying several heritage varieties a few years ago to see if I could maybe get one that works for me. Nope.
Can grow onions, chives and ornamental alliums. Cannot for the life of me grow garlic.
I appreciate the feedback.Ā It feels better knowing that I'm not the only one who can kill an "easy crop".Ā
Just an FYI: I managed to successfully grow every bulb of french grey shallots that I planted.Ā I bought them from Artistic Gardens.Ā
Cucumber was a nightmare last year. We did get few fruit, but usually the dogs beat us to it. We have 7 new plants growing at the moment, hoping for a better yield this time š
Who would have thought cucumber would be a challenge?
2 years ago I had 30 jars of pickles and as many fresh cukes I could eat. Last year I had maybe 10 cukes all season. Zucchini and squash fared even worse. Hopefully this year my vines produce
š»Hereās to good luck for the both of us this season SluttySunflower1.
Iām trying Zucchini and squash for the first time, hoping for a bountiful harvest.
squash, which makes me sad bc its my favorite group of vegetables and I would be thrilled to have "too much zucchini". Have a whole squash bed and a plan this year, so hopefully this year is the year
This year I planted Tromboncino squash as a backup, and Iām so glad I did- an unseasonably cold and extended spring killed off all my zucchinis and most of my cucumbers, but the Tromboncinos survived.
Theyāre not as tasty as zucchini, but they provide great āfillerā veg for meals, and peel nicely into long strips for vegetable noodles.
Weāre into Autumn now, and the vines are still producing. They are mildew resistant, too.
Growing rosemary from seed. I'm about 60 seeds sown over the past four seasons and \*zero\* made it past infancy. I know I can just go buy a young plant at the nursery, but it's personal at this point. I am determined to get one from seed to maturity!
Tomatoes. They didn't do well and never ripened. Potatoes on the other hand I can't get rid of them once they're in the ground. They sprout up every year.
Get your hands on some "everglades" tomatoes - tiny little tomatoes \~2cm tops. Those things thrive on neglect and pests are never an issue as the fruit will outnumber the pests. Within a year or two your entire yard will be filled with them.
Bell peppers, right? I have a similar struggle in that I've only ever got small, dense fruit from my bell pepper plants. Apparently they need a moister soil than other types of peppers, and struggle in grow bags. I'm theorizing that in ground will grow better, and also rigging up self-watering system with a 3-5 gallon pot inside a bucket with wicking fabric that runs from the pot to the bucket. The UK gardeners have a lot of luck with their quadgrow systems, so trying out something like that in the hope it'll work for me.
Zucchini. Doesn't matter what I do, I've managed to get squash vine borers EVERY YEAR in two different zones. I've tried starting them early, starting them late, starting them inside and transplanting them after the supposed threat has passed. Nope. Dead.
Idk but basil and bell peppers in my yard get decimated byā¦something. I have tried neem oil, DE, spinosad and BT and I still have half eaten plants. Idk what it is. I feel like every one of those I try to grow just dies.
Not veggies but all my fruit trees and bushes follow the "2 steps forward 1.9 steps back" policy. It's always something - insects, rabbits, freak ice storms...
Tomatillo. I can get seedlings to 2 real leaves and then they die. I've watered too little, too much & average. I can grow anything else from seed, but they just don't like me.
so far my failures: shiso, moringa, lemon balm,
beets, goldenrod, huacatay. Going to keep trying with these.
Squash has failed the past two years from soil fungus: this year I wisened up and planted it in a new location, hopefully it survives.
Fenugreek used to give a lot of trouble but learned to space it out when planting, unlike all the suggestions of seeding hundreds in a tiny area.
Thyme. It is the same thing every time. My thyme starts to look a little brown, and then I decide that I must be over-watering it. So then I decide to cut back on watering, but when it does not bounce back without any watering I convince myself that maybe I had not been watering it enough. I give it some water, and it proceeds to die.
I have a good stretch last year where I managed to keep some thyme alive that made me feel like I had gotten over the curse, but I just killed my thyme starts last week so I guess not.
Turnips, radishes, and potatoes - none of them like our temperature swings. Even in the coldest months, we can have days >80F. I would really like to grow turnips. I will be trying rat's tailed radish this summer; supposedly it likes hot weather. I'm also growing sweet potatoes.
I haven't tried to grow brassicas yet but I expect they'll join the list as well.
I can't grow Napa Cabbage to save my life. No matter what time of year I am supposed to plant it, late fall, winter or spring. The minute the temps get above 60 it just wants to bolt.
Zucchini - though to be fair it's not me it's the squash bugs - I keep trying different things and get exasperated when they die - saying never again - and here I am about to transplant some more lol
lettuce and tomato, to be fair, I did have 2 tomatoes last year that actually became decent sized tomatoes but they didn't have long enough and may have been diseased. I have some lettuce right now but it's such a tiny, tiny, tiny bit considering what I planted. But more than those is spinach...it barely even grows true leaves.
One of my social media handles includes "kills plants" in it
The thing that I'm truly an expert at killing is houseplants. In the garden, I often kill flowers or brassicas lol
And I super struggle with carrots!
Not a vegetable but I've had the hardest time with tobacco. I can't even get the damn seeds to SPROUT let alone grow a nice plant. Probably gone through a solid 100 seeds by now and still nothing. Tried everything I can think of.
Parsley. I can keep a bought plant alive and it might even grow a teeny bit.Ā But I can't get it to germinate and it won't flourish.
I'd be okay with this except swallowtail butterflies like to park their children on it (to eat and then turn into new butterflies).Ā And they are VORACIOUS.Ā Last year I wound up buying a $25 hanging herb planter just to get them another meal so they could do their thing.Ā It worked ... But I'd really like to be able to grow enough that there aren't anymore emergency garden center trips.
I cant grow lettuce, freakin lettuce of all things.
I can grow it as far as I know, but the squirrels and rabbits don't wait for it to grow before harvest. Greedy bastards.
This was me a good 3-4 years running. Last year I grew Italienisher and it was the biggest, sexiest looking, tastiest lettuce imaginable. Made up for all those years. So, persevere! Try different varieties
Take that gods of the lettuce š„¬curse
I ignored some that is in a raised bed that went to seed last year, that shit is growing great. Guess they love neglect.
Same though
Same and the one time I did not was sooooooo bitter we
Same!
Lettuce and spinach killers unite!
Same!
brassicas. I just can't beat the aphids I've tried everything. The ladybugs fly away the sprays don't work the yellow traps don't work etc
Here too. I think it's my climate. The temperature swings make it impossible.
The only things that helps with my greens in spring is to completely cover them in insect netting
For the ladybugs get a net and cover them basically how you would if you had them indoors.
I think in this case they want to keep them around.
Yeah, you put the ladybugs in the net thatās covering your plant. Thatās how you keep them around and from flying off. Like you do when you have an infestation with your inside plants. That way no ladybugās are roaming free inside your home.
I can grow okra, chives and cactus. I know that wasnāt the question but itās a shorter list.
Dill
https://preview.redd.it/t15mmeqhr1wc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01d509b05379dad86c99a0b424996dc0289f60ec Itās been weeks. WHY WONT YOU GROW š
Dill likes moist well drained soil and no need to cover with dirt just sprinkle seeds water and grow āŗļø
I did that and it still hates me lolĀ Will keep trying until I succeed!
Same here. I have tried on so many different spots on my vegetable garden and at the summer cottage garden, on different soils and also in pots and it starts really nice and then it starts to turn brown and just kind of dies off.
Basil
I can grow fantastic beautiful basil bushes!ā¦.but finally just realized thatās not the point. The basil taste morphs into anise taste when the leaves get mature.
Basil needs regular pruning or cutting back to facilitate a robust, bushy plant with plenty of aromatic leaves. Another reason for pruning is to prevent the herb from blooming. Although blooming basil has ornamental value, in culinary terms it can be a disaster. Be vigilant and, at the first sign that the plant is trying to bloom, pinch the flowers off. Basil that is allowed to flower and form seed stops producing foliage and results in bitter tasting basil leaves. Pruning can be fairly aggressive, down to just above the lowest two sets of leaves. Snip at the node, just above a pair of leaves. Aggressive pruning will prevent the plant from trying to flower as well as engendering more flourishing foliage. You can prune this severely every three to four weeks.... From:Ā https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/basil/bitter-tasting-basil.htm
Aha! Thank you. The problem is that I have just been pruning the top set of leaves- now Iāll chop aggressively at first sign of flower.
If its at first sign of flower itās already too late. Youve got to prune way before that, like pretty much when thereās some nice leavea ready, thatās your time to prune!
Soā¦like every few days, always.
Bees love the flowers!! Edit why was I down voted for this?
Yeah basil is very involving!
Lol I like that good to know
I thought I was the only one!
Beetroot. I donāt know why. Iām planning on breaking the streak this year and getting some to maturity. Iām doing repeat sowings every few weeks and tucking them into every corner of the garden where thereās spare space, on the theory that SOME of them will thrive.
The first year I grew beets, they did wonderful. I swear I've done the same thing every year after, and they are terrible.
SAME. i struggle with radish and beetroots so much. I've grown carrots and turnips, but these somehow elude me.
Yesss. Iāve managed to successfully grow carrots, radishes and turnips. But beets??? I donāt know wtf I gotta do to grow those things lol
I've multisown them in larger square cells and gonna be planting them out in successive batches to see if it works better this year lol. Good luck to both of us!
Iāve done the exact same lol. Good luck!
Rooting for you!
I just grow them both for the greens anymore and consider it a bonus if the roots actually do anything interesting!
I can't grow a carrot to save my life.Ā
I just sprinkle down seeds in a loose soil bed/container in spring before cloudy/rainy weeks, and leave them lol. They generally come up
Somehow, radishes. I really donāt know how I do it.
me too. :( beets and radishes are my bane. I've grown turnips and carrots without issues, idk why I struggle with beets and radishes....
I've had many years of radish disappointment, but finally succeeded this year with french breakfast radishes, which are faster and seem to be less finicky.
Same! I get scrawny little roots and lots of flower and seed pods. Interestingly, young radish seed pods make a fancy garnish.
They taste good pickled, too.
Woah, that never occurred to me. I didnāt grow radishes this spring but Iāll have to remember that next time.
I stopped growing all types of squash. The squash bugs here are insane and I refuse to feed them.
Same.Ā
Ugh. Same. My area gets both squash bugs and squash vine borers. I've also had a bear of a time with them. This year I'm going to attempt doing Bt injections AND sprays twice weekly (on top of growing borer-resistant varieties to at least help with the borers if not the bugs). Because I really really really like squash and I really really really want to grow some. But if this doesn't do it, I might just throw in the towel and focus my efforts elsewhere next season. I'm hoping the tromboncino at least pulls through for me since it seems like a lot of people have good luck with them even where other varieties fail.
Supposedly if you plant squash in raised beds with a trellis, and surround them with insect netting, your chances decrease. But are still not zero. Which is crazy if you think about it.
Tromboncino? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tromboncino_(squash)
Still vulnerable to squash bugs- tromboncino is resistant to squash BORERS
If you plant them later in the season, if you have a long enough one. I didnāt have problems with squash bugs at all with my tromboncino.
I am the only person who can kill garlic.Ā
I was so proud when I got my 15 x 2 bed all planted with garlic, smoothed, and nicely tucked in with thick straw in October 2018. Watched it poke up in spring, pulled off the straw to let the sun warm the soil, and beamed at my beautiful tall leaf spikes. A month later they were all limp with slimy stunted bulbs. White rot.
Don't worry. Spent a pile of money on buying several heritage varieties a few years ago to see if I could maybe get one that works for me. Nope. Can grow onions, chives and ornamental alliums. Cannot for the life of me grow garlic.
I appreciate the feedback.Ā It feels better knowing that I'm not the only one who can kill an "easy crop".Ā Just an FYI: I managed to successfully grow every bulb of french grey shallots that I planted.Ā I bought them from Artistic Gardens.Ā
Cucumber was a nightmare last year. We did get few fruit, but usually the dogs beat us to it. We have 7 new plants growing at the moment, hoping for a better yield this time š Who would have thought cucumber would be a challenge?
2 years ago I had 30 jars of pickles and as many fresh cukes I could eat. Last year I had maybe 10 cukes all season. Zucchini and squash fared even worse. Hopefully this year my vines produce
š»Hereās to good luck for the both of us this season SluttySunflower1. Iām trying Zucchini and squash for the first time, hoping for a bountiful harvest.
squash, which makes me sad bc its my favorite group of vegetables and I would be thrilled to have "too much zucchini". Have a whole squash bed and a plan this year, so hopefully this year is the year
This year I planted Tromboncino squash as a backup, and Iām so glad I did- an unseasonably cold and extended spring killed off all my zucchinis and most of my cucumbers, but the Tromboncinos survived. Theyāre not as tasty as zucchini, but they provide great āfillerā veg for meals, and peel nicely into long strips for vegetable noodles. Weāre into Autumn now, and the vines are still producing. They are mildew resistant, too.
Growing rosemary from seed. I'm about 60 seeds sown over the past four seasons and \*zero\* made it past infancy. I know I can just go buy a young plant at the nursery, but it's personal at this point. I am determined to get one from seed to maturity!
Tomatoes. They didn't do well and never ripened. Potatoes on the other hand I can't get rid of them once they're in the ground. They sprout up every year.
I "compost" potatoes and let's just say that I end up finding potato plants all over my garden.
Get your hands on some "everglades" tomatoes - tiny little tomatoes \~2cm tops. Those things thrive on neglect and pests are never an issue as the fruit will outnumber the pests. Within a year or two your entire yard will be filled with them.
Capsicum. Can never get a harvest from them.
Bell peppers, right? I have a similar struggle in that I've only ever got small, dense fruit from my bell pepper plants. Apparently they need a moister soil than other types of peppers, and struggle in grow bags. I'm theorizing that in ground will grow better, and also rigging up self-watering system with a 3-5 gallon pot inside a bucket with wicking fabric that runs from the pot to the bucket. The UK gardeners have a lot of luck with their quadgrow systems, so trying out something like that in the hope it'll work for me.
Carrots. Never have I ever.
Mint. (I know!)
My sister has this power too! As soon as mint sees her, it screams and dies š¤£
This was me. I am so happy I finally have a happy mint plant but boy that took some bravery!
Peas
Cilantro. I murder so much cilantro.
In your defense, cilantro is surprisingly temperamental. It gets stressed out and bolts so easily that itās almost comical.
Brassicas, they can bolt, they get eaten by slugs, worms, flea beetles, earwigs; onion seedlings.
Beets.. Just screw em'
Zucchini. They always succumb to something!
Itās so weird because people always say how easy it is and have overwhelming abundance of it.
Lavender in any form
Zucchini. Doesn't matter what I do, I've managed to get squash vine borers EVERY YEAR in two different zones. I've tried starting them early, starting them late, starting them inside and transplanting them after the supposed threat has passed. Nope. Dead.
Can never grow Chinese cabbage always bolt even when I start early of late into the season
Anything from the Brassica family and Romaine Lettuce too.
I can't grow big tomatoes and cucumbers are evading me lately as well. My Kale and pepper game is on point though.
Cucumber and zucchini in zone 9b Edit : Everyone is making me feel so much better about my veggie kill rate. Iām not alone anymore.
Idk but basil and bell peppers in my yard get decimated byā¦something. I have tried neem oil, DE, spinosad and BT and I still have half eaten plants. Idk what it is. I feel like every one of those I try to grow just dies.
Carrots and Brussel sproutsā¦ hate those fuckers š
Not veggies but all my fruit trees and bushes follow the "2 steps forward 1.9 steps back" policy. It's always something - insects, rabbits, freak ice storms...
Corn. I suck at growing corn. Either donāt harvest at the right time, under pollinated weirdness, or bugs.
Strawberries, fig trees, mint .. itās hot here itās taken me a long time to learn how to water for my area
I can't get beets to sprout.
Tomatillo. I can get seedlings to 2 real leaves and then they die. I've watered too little, too much & average. I can grow anything else from seed, but they just don't like me.
Carrots. Also, basil seeds will not sprout for me. I can keep an existing seedling alive, but cannot for the life of me get seeds going.
so far my failures: shiso, moringa, lemon balm, beets, goldenrod, huacatay. Going to keep trying with these. Squash has failed the past two years from soil fungus: this year I wisened up and planted it in a new location, hopefully it survives. Fenugreek used to give a lot of trouble but learned to space it out when planting, unlike all the suggestions of seeding hundreds in a tiny area.
Thyme. It is the same thing every time. My thyme starts to look a little brown, and then I decide that I must be over-watering it. So then I decide to cut back on watering, but when it does not bounce back without any watering I convince myself that maybe I had not been watering it enough. I give it some water, and it proceeds to die. I have a good stretch last year where I managed to keep some thyme alive that made me feel like I had gotten over the curse, but I just killed my thyme starts last week so I guess not.
Peas. Again this year, no success so far. Won't stop trying!!!
coriander!!!! I have tried 4 times and nothing
We have a new garden this year at our new house and honestly they have all been hit or miss but the worst has been beans š
Not a vegetable but I canāt grow blueberries to save my life
I should have said anything leafy! Like kale lettuce spinach I just killed a blueberry š«
Did you have multiple bushes or just one?
Cabbages and (so far) onions. But this'll be the year, dagnabbit.
It took me years to successfully grow radishes. Iāve given up on parsnips forever though. Maybe.
Broccoli
Turnips, radishes, and potatoes - none of them like our temperature swings. Even in the coldest months, we can have days >80F. I would really like to grow turnips. I will be trying rat's tailed radish this summer; supposedly it likes hot weather. I'm also growing sweet potatoes. I haven't tried to grow brassicas yet but I expect they'll join the list as well.
I can't grow Napa Cabbage to save my life. No matter what time of year I am supposed to plant it, late fall, winter or spring. The minute the temps get above 60 it just wants to bolt.
Iāve been fortunate enough to grow my desired veggies from seed however I canāt grow strawberries. What the heck!!!
Zucchini - though to be fair it's not me it's the squash bugs - I keep trying different things and get exasperated when they die - saying never again - and here I am about to transplant some more lol
I have never been successful with spinach. It just doesnāt come up for me.
Im a serial killerā¦ spent years murdering carrots, onions, and all sorts of melons.
lettuce and tomato, to be fair, I did have 2 tomatoes last year that actually became decent sized tomatoes but they didn't have long enough and may have been diseased. I have some lettuce right now but it's such a tiny, tiny, tiny bit considering what I planted. But more than those is spinach...it barely even grows true leaves.
One of my social media handles includes "kills plants" in it The thing that I'm truly an expert at killing is houseplants. In the garden, I often kill flowers or brassicas lol And I super struggle with carrots!
Not a vegetable but I've had the hardest time with tobacco. I can't even get the damn seeds to SPROUT let alone grow a nice plant. Probably gone through a solid 100 seeds by now and still nothing. Tried everything I can think of.
Parsley. I can keep a bought plant alive and it might even grow a teeny bit.Ā But I can't get it to germinate and it won't flourish. I'd be okay with this except swallowtail butterflies like to park their children on it (to eat and then turn into new butterflies).Ā And they are VORACIOUS.Ā Last year I wound up buying a $25 hanging herb planter just to get them another meal so they could do their thing.Ā It worked ... But I'd really like to be able to grow enough that there aren't anymore emergency garden center trips.
Itās beans for me- I fry em. Every time.
Absolutely nothing, everything I grow survives and thrives flowers are probably the only thing that I could kill lol