So far its a weird year!!

[philllb]

I am just outside London but far enough not to hear the Olympics, had a forage the other day, wild plums have finished and rotting on the floor, elderberry's ready , full sun blackberry's read AND cobs ready!! weird year!! just noticed an elderberry bush with fruit and flowers!!! no fungi around at all, still early i know but temp had dropped about ten degrees and its chucking it dow, couple of days should sort the fungi out, not seen one puffball this year!!

 

[Harvestman]

Nver mind a funny year, its been a funny day. Earlier on today I was sat in full sunshine watching lightning and listening to thunder. Not in the distance, but almost overhead.

"Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get"

 

[Silverclaws]

Funghi, I have noticed loads of it this year and I noticed it because there was so much where normally it is scarce.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Not much fungi in Sussex right now, but I'm expecting that to change in the coming two weeks.

 

[xylaria]

Generally I find cold summers result in poor fungi crops. however i found a good size of a type of lurid bolete that cooked into soup that lasted three meals, and yesterday I had saffron milkcap in a stir fry.

The fruit crop is in a dire state. I have six apple trees in my garden and I produced in total four apples and three of those have spliting due to rain fall. Vertually no plums or various relatives inculding sloes. Bilberries [whin/blae/wind] crop is also appaling. I noticed the haws are falling off the trees rather than staying on until october. The hazelnuts have got blown off from a few trees. The blackberries are doing ok but the rain is has started botrys this can see out a harvest in week.

 

[locum76]

Rowan is also doing badly. feed the birds this winter folks.

 

[daveO]

Rowans are loaded with berries up my way but a lot of other stuff has done badly or is just shedding now before ripening. The weather report is predicting frost for us tonight

 

[Filterhoose]

Not many butterflies about here in East Lothian, nor Bees for that matter. Result = No apples or plums in any of my trees nor those of my neighbour.

Windy

 

[Paul72]

Rowans are loaded with berries up my way

Same here, the Rowan tree in my garden has been full of starlings and thrushes for the last day or so, I've also noticed ripe blackberries on one side of a path with immature ones on the other.

What is life without a little wierdness..........

 

[Geoff Dann]

Not many butterflies about here in East Lothian, nor Bees for that matter. Result = No apples or plums in any of my trees nor those of my neighbour.

Windy

Most of the apple trees down south are also lacking in apples, for the same reason. But there's tons of wild plums.

 

[Joel_m]

I know this isn't strictly a gardening forum but it has been a bad year overall I think. All in all we've (me and the SWMBO) found this year really bad generally for growing... So I'm glad to hear others have noticed it too (I was wondering if it was just us).

This year so far:

Potatoes... never really flowered in the end dug them (last week) after a full season growing as they were suffering badly from slug attack and blight, I think we got about 20 baby new potatoes from 4 plants which is way down on last year and we planted early too.

Strawberry's Again slug attack and due to the wet weather loads rotted on the plant before ripe (oddly the wild strawberry's in the garden seem to have done a bit better... point to mother nature over man I guess)!

Spring onions... did ok... but it was a constant battle against the slugs eating the stems...

Tomatoes - Cherry tomatoes ... blighted and little fruit but the big tomatoes seem to be doing ok

Peppers - Did bad until they were moved in to the conservatory...now more sweet and chilli peppers than we know what to do with!

Courgettes - 4 plants, 1 survived... all but one courgette got eaten by slugs

Blackberrys poor so far

Red currents pretty poor crop

Bay - developed bay sucker

Other herbs (chives, rosemary, thyme, garlic thyme, Basil, basil mint, Hyssop) all done pretty well although garlic was poor managed a few bulbs about the size of half a wine bottle cork.

Various other failures too... Think for preserves this year its going to be out foraging in the local woodland and hedgerows!

Has anyone notice masses of slugs this year? I usually use yoghurt pots dug in to the ground with Guinness in them and then a stone over the top with a gap (as recommended many years ago by my Granddad) as I don't like pellets or salting because they can damage other wildlife like bees or plants. But this year the pots just haven't made a dent in the slug population at all it just seems to have been a relentless onslaught by these ghastly gastropods!

Edit: just to say I don't have anything against slug I usually let nature take its course but this year... jeese....

 

[dwardo]

Spuds - Shocking this year, barely a bag between 2 plants. The foliage was rubbish all year.
Spring onions - Tiny and most dug up by the birds who are probably hungry from all the bad weather.
Broad beans - Did OK
Strawberries were a joke lol
Pear - fungal infection
Apples - small, few and dropping early.
Carrots - waste of space.
Salad crops did well for a change.

 

[mercurykev]

Fungi wise it's not too bad so far up in Scotland. Since about mid August there have been loads of Chanterelles about (I've picked over 10kg and my freezer is brimming), the hedgehogs have just started showing and last weekend I found my first Ceps of the year - hoping for more of those.

 

[Silverclaws]

The lower picture are very similar in appearance to Kantrell which the Swedes go nuts for when they are found in the Swampa season, usually found where there is birch.

 

[mercurykev]

The lower picture are very similar in appearance to Kantrell which the Swedes go nuts for when they are found in the Swampa season, usually found where there is birch.

They are Chanterelles and the Swedish for Chanterelle is kantarell, so I reckon we're looking at the same things.

 

[Silverclaws]

They are Chanterelles and the Swedish for Chanterelle is kantarell, so I reckon we're looking at the same things.

They are particularly hard to find at the base of birch trees with leaves fallen that go yellow, but in our party I was the first to find them when we had a go at swampa hunting where the Swedish forests are rich with the things of all kinds, so it is take the basket the hook knife, someone that knows poisonous from edible and the guide book and go hunting. It was whilst hunting these things I had an elk jump over me whilst I was crouched down, I remember someone shouting don't move, so I just froze.