2026 Allotmenteers - have we lost the plot?!

[Seaitoverthere]

A thread for those of us with new allotments to discuss progress and swap ideas. All welcome , established plot holders and wannabe plot holders too!

@blackheartsgirl
@hockityponktas

@Growing2026 I have a dozen mature plants, 15 one year old's grown from last year's runners, which i'm not letting fruit this year, so I'm hoping for a great harvest next year, i also have about 5 very mature plants that i took out of the covered strawberry bed last year and re-planted in a border, I leave these fruits for the birds.

edit to add - we only harvest about 6-12 berries at a time, as they ripen, its enough for our breakfast yoghurt or a sweet treat after dinner

@Sproutling thank you, that's good to know. I have 6 plants that I bought from the range this year. So far we've had one lonely strawberry 😂 6-8 per day sounds ideal. I'll bear in mind for next year!

I have about ten mature strawberry plants and 20 ish runners I planted this year. Everbearing type. We get a little harvest everyday also

I bought a grafted garden centre aubergine plant and then planted about ten from seed. The grafted one is 2-3 x the size of the from seed ones and has flowers already

I'm loving all the photos! Am joining in with my tomatoes. They are still tiny and green but they are there 😀

I am picking a bowl of strawberries each day, I have around 15 plants and they are all different varieties so some haven’t even started producing yet. The once’s that have been fruiting are now putting out runners which I have removed. Last year I hardly got any of them, this year they are going crazy. My raspberries are producing a lot too, a lot more than I usually get. I am enjoying not having to buy fruit from the shops, definitely getting my moneys worth this year.

Picked another cup of blackcurrants today, there’s still quite a few left to pick. I was hoping to make blackcurrant curd but looking online it says it doesn’t store very long? I kind of expected it to store like jam.

Is everyone struggling with watering? I have 2 plots and my garden and it seems never ending. I know it’s best to water early morning but that would mean me getting up before 5am 😬. I have been watering in the evenings but todays it’s still so warm out, I probably won’t water until 9pm.

We got a load of gooseberries today and did some more planting out. The weeds are huge and neverending though, even bits I have just cleared are coming up again.

I planted some runners and a couple of more established plants this year. They are all growing well and looking healthy but only 2 have flowered, does anyone know why this may be? And why are you picking runners off? Is it not a good way to get more plants?

If they put lots of energy into runners they won’t put it into fruit. I have 9 plants from 2 years ago, I get a punnet every other day. I have pinched the runners off them as they are nicely spaced. I expanded the bed and put some new plants in this year, I have let them put out runners as I’d like more next year but they aren’t producing many fruits.

My gooseberries are not ripe yet or redcurrants. My raspberries also seem much slower but maybe that’s because the weeds are going wild in the raspberry bed! I have cleared them out today and given the raspberries a feed in the hope that helps.

@Moonlightfrog -I got a hamster-sized harvest of 4 blackcurrants, no more to be seen on my young plant. Hamster will get one every other day as a treat. A neighbour ( actually about 15 plots down) has a glorious patch with blackcurrants and redcurrants- all laden with juicy currants. She uses manure from her chickens on them.

Put some soaked mealworms out for the blackbirds and robins- and was transfixed by the ants who were trying to carry them away- one of the robins kept popping down to the ant entryway to steal a worm back.

Do robins eat ants? The little beggars nip me when I'm hand-weeding

Too hot to do as much as I would have liked over the weekend but did a reasonable amount of weeding. Picked some wild strawberries and berries.

First courgettes are flowering, beans too and my succession sown seeds have germinated nicely. More onions planted out, I suspect we'll lose some but we ended up with so many seedlings it's a bit of a nothing to lose situation.

I picked up two trays of strawberry plants for £2 yesterday so they'll top up our strawberry patch.

We've also started asparagus from seed, we'll make a bed for them once we've pulled some potatoes out in a couple of weeks.

Car about to go into garage which is bad timing as want to go to allotment to water. I don’t do a lot of allotment watering but do some in a heatwave.

Have chucked out aubergines, peppers and Romello tomatoes so will see what happens. Love the fact @Sproutling ’s hamster is getting treats!

Getting a few raspberries daily at home. Have had some blueberries at allotment. First year for strawberries in at allotment and moved some to a raised bed at home. Not many berries and am letting them produce runners for now and hoping for a decent crop next year. I have loads now and able to give some to friends, started with 6. Hopefully now I have a couple of dedicated beds and don’t need to move them anymore they can crack on with things.

I’m noticing significantly fewer slugs and think the little frogs in little pond might be helping. Snails are another matter…

Thanks @tealandteal I think I will let them produce runners this year with the aim of also creating a patch at the allotment then lunch out next year and hope they start producing fruit!

Huge downpour here so less worried about watering, well timed for once !

Very well timed! I was just about to head down there to water! That’s a job off my list this evening

I am without a car so it was going to have to cope, was very happy to see it!

Some poor people in Bristol had house catch on fire from lightening and reports of a tornado in Pilton. It was a pretty epic storm, very tropical.

Had a dream my tomatoes had blight. Won’t be long now …

@TheGanderoh no, really?? Should I prune off all leaves touching the ground? More straw? I thought it was a late summer/early autumn thing - hoping to get some tomatoes at least 😂

I’m in London and we had heavy rain overnight, followed by high heat and apparently it’s humid heat too. It’s unfortunately not too early for blight I believe. I would cut any leaves touching the ground and water only in the morning, not the evening.

Just a quick trip to water tonight and pick a few berries

Everything looking ok despite the heat. We didn't get any rain earlier in the week.

Early morning water, picked berries and kale. My raspberries are a bit pathetic. They were ones here in the garden when moved in so have some here and some at allotment and have some to a friend. Notice hers look small. How are everyone else’s doing?

My raspberries in my garden are doing great this year but only the red ones, the yellow look awful. The ones on my plot are not doing much at all.

I have spent all day worrying because I didn’t water my squash last night 🤣, I am worried they will look sad when I go up there tonight. I never know if I am watering too much or not enough and I am so tired of watering (2 plots and my garden).