You may be finding that your veg has been growing slowly, or even barely growing at all, this summer…. especially the heat-loving crops like sweetcorn, squash, courgettes, beans, tomatoes and so on.
This time last year, growing in raised beds outside, we had bushy looking climbing beans (left) reaching the top of their wigwams, courgettes in full swing producing a glut, small winter squashes forming in abundance. We had lovely tall sweetcorn plants, tomato plants that needed pinching out once or even twice a week with trusses of green tomatoes forming already.
This year, the picture is very different. Courgette plants that are still only putting out male flowers, winter squashes that are all leaf and no flower, sweetcorn and tomato plants that have barely scraped two foot tall, and spindly looking beans that have only climbed to about two foot as well.
The reason? It’s largely down to low temperatures. There’s just not been enough warmth in the air. Here in Cornwall, we’ve had a fair few weeks of chilly north winds, and not nearly as many days of full sun as normal.
When it comes to heat loving veg plants, the lower temperatures and lack of full sun really changes things and hinders growth, no matter how much water and liquid feed the plants might have. They just don’t like to get going fully until they are warm enough.
Hopefully we will get a bit of a late summer, in which case we’d expect to see all these plants have a full growth spurt and get cropping pronto. On the plus side, it means that if you didn’t get a chance to plant beans and courgettes yet, there’s no harm in planting some now as they really won’t be very far behind at all! And if you have space in a greenhouse or polytunnel, then you might find they just fly!