I probably won't grow broccoli again, at least not here. Last fall I put out 9 plants I'd started from seed, two survived the late heat, and produced small heads in late winter. It was fun to try once, but I'll be buying it from the store from now on.

Also, after many tries and no success, I think I'm giving up on carrots, beets, and turnips.

Horseradish, it was evasive.

Eggplant. Just dont use it enough.
Pumpkin - Growing Season not long enough!
String Beans - Just doesn't do anything for me, I'd rather buy those.

fliptx: Like an idiot, I keep growing brocolli, just to watch rabbits find a new way into the garden in early spring and eat the entire crop. My garden is starting to look like a military base ;)

Cantaloupe.

I love them but I seem cursed. The first year I tried them, they turned out flavourless, almost like a cucumber taste. Not that I mind the taste of cucumbers, but not when I'm biting into cantaloupe!

The next year, moles got every single one of the. Flipped them over and big holes on the bottom of the fruits.

The third year, I placed the fruit on tuna cans to keep the critters out. The vines all developed a fungus that killed them before the fruit was even a good size.

Three strikes and I'm out. Like I said, it's a curse.

Okra.
I was young and foolish and believed my neighbor when she raved about it.
It grew and produced well, but I hated eating it. I gave it all to my neighbor.

Broc. too much space, for such little production. Ill plant Brussel Sprouts instead. 5 times the crop in the same amount of space. Hard to figure out at 1st, kinda got to time them just right. Here in the south, Ya got 1 good season, and a half of one...Anywho...Corn, every other year.
I could ramble on some more about every other year crops.....tooo tired..GG to Ya!

Having moved from San Diego to Wisconsin, my list could be rather long. ;-) Oh, did you mean things I don't _want_ to grow again?

Since I garden organically, if a crop proves to be a pest magnet, I (usually) won't grow it more than once. There are often alternatives.

- Potatoes. They attract Colorado potato beetles, which then also attack my eggplant (which I grow a lot of). Besides, my soil pH falls in the "scab zone", and potatoes don't do well in clay. Fortunately for me, Yukon Golds are now widely available.

- Cantaloupe. These are "iffy" for my Northern climate anyway (my choices are very limited); and since they act as an incubator for cucumber beetles (which then attack _everything_) I grow more watermelons instead.

- Cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. Since the cabbage looper is so prevalent here, I would have to spray BT every 7-10 days. My garden is large, so I don't have time for vegetables which are that labor-intensive. Broccoli is tough to grow here anyway, so it's no great loss. I do grow bok choi, kohlrabi, and sometimes Brussels sprouts.

- Malabar spinach. Someone last year compared it to "shiny green mud flaps"... I almost cracked a rib laughing! Because the comparison was fitting. The slimy texture & bland, unpleasant flavor don't appeal to me; it's like wild purslane. Egyptian spinach (a.k.a. Jew's mallow, saluyot, or molokhia) has a similar texture when cooked, but I found the flavor to be far superior... and it can be dried for use throughout the year.

- Jerusalem artichokes, currant tomatoes, and martynia. I might still grow them... but NOT in my vegetable garden! They are very good at becoming weeds.

- Zucchini. While I have enjoyed several varieties over the years, the season was too short. They were always too quick to succumb to disease (usually mosaic or PM) or SVB attack. "Zucchetta Rampicante" (a zucchini-like relative of the Butternut squash) has none of those problems, and while slightly different in flavor, can be used interchangeably. It's not for the space-challenged, though.

- Spinach. Too little, for too short a time. To me, it's a waste of space. I prefer greens that bear over a long season, such as Swiss chard, amaranth, water spinach, Egyptian spinach, and "kamote" (an Asian sweet potato grown for its leaves).

I am tempted to join the Flaming Librarian in boycotting garbanzos (and still might) since my one attempt did not go well... but not before I trial a few more varieties.

"- Malabar spinach. Someone last year compared it to "shiny green mud flaps"... I almost cracked a rib laughing!"

Hehe! I believe that was me, and now that you've reminded me, I can add malabar spinach to my list up there. Or at least I won't be growing it as a vegetable. It's kind of nice grown in a pot as an ornamental, or if you want to keep mud off any tiny vehicles.

In fact, I can add genuine spinach to that list, too. Mine always gets to the first true leaf stage and then quits growing.

Coosa squash, which I think is what someone mentioned above. Couldn't stand the taste and it is a huge plant. On the other hand, Costata Romanesco is a huge plant that I've dedicated 30% of my garden to grow 2 of because I love the flavor.

Argula. Don't really like it and it grows fairly big.

Any and all root crops - just not worth the space. I only grow what the grocery store cannot provide, and only those things that are just plain better homegrown.

Why bother growing radishes, lettuce or potatoes? A potato is a potato is a potato.... homegrown taste no different.

Now, tomatoes, beans and peas....... that's a different story...

Eh, lettuce is easy, and I like it fresh. I'll agree with you on potatoes and radishes, though. Carrots, I usually grow a couple as a novelty -- never too many, though, because they're a lot of work to dig out. My parrot likes the tops, and they distract any rabbits that sneak past the garden's defenses.

Here is my "Will not grow again" list.

Early Girl tomatoes, and all varieties of cherry or grape tomato.

Early Girl just do not taste good and I no longer hanker for an early tomato enough to put up with them. The cherry tomatoes are a pain in the neck to harvest and at the end of season there are always hundreds of them underfoot. From now on, only mid to late season tomatoes in my garden, of the large or giant type.

I also won't be growing "too many varieties of tomatoes".

This year I am growing Brandywine, yellow Brandywine, Belgian Giant and Beefmaster. That's it.

No more Roma tomatoes & other sauce tomatoes. The home canning thing never caught on in my family.

Watermelons. Not worth the square footage. Cheaper to just buy them at the supermarket.

Regular cucumbers. Only Asian varieties from now on they taste better are burpless and seem to be hardier.

Carrots. Could never get giant carrots like on the seed packages.

Turnips. Too woody and bitter by the time I harvest or else they are too small.

I agree with your comment on cherry tomatoes. I wonder if anyone ever manages to use them up?
I'd add patty-pan squash. One plant produces more squash than anyone could hope to eat. Plus there's not too many options for cooking it - at least that I'd found.
Pumpkins too - not worth the space and SVB invasion.

Armenian cucumber. Just not worth the hasstle. Even okra might be worth another try some future year.

moulman

I always tell people that the taste of home-grown potatoes has the most dramatic difference between store-bought than most home-grown vegetables. I wonder if it's due to our climate or sumthin?

I never could succeed with spinach. Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage take waaay too much room for the pay-off.

I know this is supposed to be about poor vegetables but, one of the best surprises was Sugar Snap pea vines. You plant them very closely, give 'em a trellis to climb and enjoy one of the best garden vegetables there is. We can only grow them here in the winter. Every trellis I have will be filled with Sugar Snap peas this winter.

Interesting thread. It is interesting to hear things that don't do well for certain people do well for others.

I have given up on brussel sprouts. I've tried them 5 years in a row---different varieties, different planting times, different methods of encouraging sprouts---They just aren't productive for me and take up way to much space. I tried hard because they are a favorite of my family. I've decided I'd much rather grow broccholi which is much more productive for the amout of space it takes.

I won't grow cabbage again--it is so cheap to buy and for the amount of space and time it takes, I'd rather buy it and grow something I really like in the space.

I'm deffinately not growing malabar spinach again.

I've given up on radishes pretty much. Oh, I might try a few in the fall, but spring ones are hot and woody.

I'm not going to grow watermelons again. I'm the only person who likes them but even I can't eat 10 in one week. The problem with them is they all ripen at the same time, so most go to waste. I'd rather just buy one every couple of weeks. They are fun to grow though, and quite productive.

Soybeans--I grew them two years ago, ate a few and froze the rest--I still haven't eaten a single bag of the ones I froze, so it must have been a waste of time. Plus they really weren't that productive for the amount of space they took.

Three years in a row squash has been destroyied by the SVB-I've given up on that unless I move to a different location.

I for one, love cherry tomatoes--so does my family and my vines are always stripped bare--I can't seem to grow enough.

One thing I can't grow in my current garden is potatoes (lack of space and because of a black walnut tree), but I really miss new red potatoes from the garden. I think there is a huge difference in the taste of home grow potatoes.

Spinach is a major crop in my spring and early summer garden. I grow a ton of it to freeze and it is out of way by late June, early July so I can plant summer and fall crops.

Forest Girl, sorry but Ya got it backwards.....Brussel Sprouts waaaayyyy out produce Brocolli, at least here in the year round growing region, I lived in Marquette back when I was in the Air Force.....Jeese Louweese...Ya cant hardely grow grass up there, snowed 8 months out of the year. anywho...GG to Ya!

Brussel sprouts, here in the year round season they are a bugs deli, at least for my one and only try.
Cantelopes, something attacks them when they sprout.

Squash and Pumpkins, SVBs ,it's too emotionaly disturbing to watch big beautiful vines die.

BEST surprises, see new thread !!!

Since this is only my second season as a gardener, I can't really add to this thread. But I grew potatoes last year, and the difference between a fresh potato out of the garden and a store potato is tremendous. Home-grown potatoes are so much tastier.

What's an SVB? Squash vine borer?

I'm growing a variety of stuff this year. Several different varieties of zukes and broccoli. Several different types of potatoes.

I'd like to offer a couple of suggestions for things that some don't want to grow again.

1. If cost is your main factor for determining what you grow, you can probably buy anything cheaper. On the other hand if you are looking for flavor, healthy (read that as pesticide free) veggies that are as fresh as you can obtain, read on.

2. Row covers will keep many bugs off your plants and give you a successful harvest. It will also get seeds to germinate better, because it holds in some moisture and adds a few degrees of heat to the soil.

3. Broccoli is a huge producer, especially if you get varieties that give off side shoots after the main stem is over.

4. Root crops like carrots, beets, even garlic and onions do VERY well in raised beds. I never could grow carrots until I put them in a 12 inch raised bed with light soil (even artificial mix) and now have carrots that rival the supermarket in looks, and are far superior in taste. Also, in the light soil, you literally pull the carrots, not dig them.

5. Even with failures, I keep trying as the failures are due to something I did or didn't do. Either I picked the wrong varieties for my area or I didn't fix the soil, meaning I didn't add enough organic matter, correct the pH or didn't give them enough nutrients either organic or conventional.

Sorry to do a thread drift, but I'd rather see people succeed using proven methods than hear about all the bad projects.

Ann

Nutri-red carrot. Pink, mild, disgusting.
Kohlrabi - woody bug houses.
Frozen snap beans - the freezer is still half-full of them.

What about vegetables we'll grow less of? Turnips!!

Comments about Magenta Spreen:

I found it easy to grow, giving huge plants with high yields of leaves. What type of soil gave you trouble? Magenta Spreen requires light to germinate, sow uncovered seed or cover with a thin coating of white (transparent) sand (silica, not carbonate). Seeds die (or become dormant) fairly quickly; use fresh seed within 1 year or store in dry bag in refrigerator. where did you buy your seed?

Comments about Strawberry Spinach:

Same germination requirements as Magenta Spreen. But the leaves (and "fruit") are rather small for the effort. I won't bother with it again.

Comments about Miner's Lettuce:

They like shade.

>>"Why bother growing radishes, lettuce or potatoes?"

Radishes, I don't eat. But sometimes it's gratifying just to have something to harvest within 4 weeks of sowing. Potatoes... because fingerling and other types of "gourmet" taters are $3.99 at the store or farmers market. And because non-organic commercial growers kill out the potato leaves with a broad-spectrum herbicide to make harvesting easier. Lettuces? Again, "gourmet" baby lettuces are like $2.59 for a 5 oz bag. DH and I eat a large salad about 5x per week, so about $10 in lettuce each week. Much more economical to grow in season, and I can choose a different mix each day I go out and pick. Plus, it's as fresh as possible.

Things I won't grow again:

Contemplating cauliflower. I may give it a shot next spring, but I consider that cauliflower's last chance to produce for me.

Purple dragon carrots. Pretty, but not worth eating when you can have a nice nantes or chantenay.

Green zebra tomato. Ick. Just ick.

Peanuts. Takes too long to produce not a whole lot.

Have a huge list of tomatoes I'll never grow again, starting with Green Zebra, Early Girl, and most of the hybrids. Yucky flavor. Large watermelons take up too much space and too long to mature. Corn won't live here again unless I have more room and someplace not prone to flooding. Two years in a row, my creek has flooded just long enough to lay over all my corn. I will try the melon family again this year, but if SVB takes over again, I'm done!

Based on early results this year, scratch lettuce of any kind off my list. THe plants go to a decent size, then leaves started to wilt and fall off. No damage evident, but when I pull them out, the stem gives way from the rootball very easily.

Artichokes. Took too long to fruit and low yields for the space.

But I did it! I grew artichokes and got globes in zone 6b. Now to move on. :)

Definitely will not ever plant another Hubbard Squash. I had one last year by accident (was supposed to be a cuke from a local garden store!). Not only was it HUGE and trialed 10' out into the yard but it invited every SVB known to the region!! And I ended up not even eating the one monster squash that I managed to grow before the plant died.

The things I won't grow again...chalk up another for corn. There's lots of farmers around me that grow great corn. For the back yard gardener, it's not worth the space. I also won't grow spinach again. I always plant it too late and get tiny mouse ears for leaves. I also won't try brussels sprouts again. Many people have told me they're easy to grow. I tried several times. The best year I got brussels the size of peas that were bitter as could be. Lastly, despite continually amending my soil, it's still a rocky, heavy clay soil, so carrots are still out of the question.

As for Cherry tomatoes, I love them and we use up most of them as well. Aside from salads and just plain snacking, they are great on the BBQ in a little tin foil with a bit of olive oil, salt/pepper and a herb of your choice (basil, lemongrass etc). Just warm them quickly so they're a bit cooked but not too watery and they're just delicious. Simple too.

I have heavy clay soil which has been ammended but is still fairly heavy clay soil :) Carrots grow here, right in the ground. Some get a little crooked but we're eating them anyways so it doesnt really matter. They get pretty thick and long too. A little harder to dig out at the end of the season, but I just stick that long small mini-shovel in beside them to loosen up the dirt and they come out pretty well. I love growing carrots.

I have tried Brussel Sprouts and will not be growing them again. Hard to keep upright, hard to get the right timing down for good tasting veggies (they generally seem to end up very bitter), and I had loads of trouble germinating the seeds (not sure why that happened). Most veggies taste better home-grown, these didn't.

If Malabar spinach is the same as new Zealand spinach, that was a one-time shot for me. It took over a huge area of the garden and had this green slime texture.

We can't grow corn because it attracts the deer and they jump the fence to get into the garden that they otherwise leave alone.

Squashes of all types always attract squash bugs and I really, really hate those things. Really.

Artichokes - uses too much space and not as good as store bought. Celery - bitter and tricky. Spinach - bitter.
My best success is garlic - plant in October and harvest in May. Nothing bothers it and roasted on the barbie - scrumptious! Carrots get better each time I plant - must be the soil is improving.

I'll never try my hand at another bell pepper... jalapeños, sure, but I've never had any luck with bells--the plants look nice but the peppers are small and have thin skins. I'd like to know the secret since I live in NC and everyone around me says they're easy to grow.

Litchi tomatoes. Thorny thorny no good squirrel food.

Zucchini! Or at least I'll go from my two plants this year to one plant next year. It is a good plant for instant gratification. I have 150 green tomatoes which I'm still waiting to ripen, but I've already harvested 1/2 dozen zucchini from just one plant (I prefer to harvest them at about 8"). My family is already sick of them and they are MONSTERS in my garden, crowding out my peppers and okra. :(

Squash:( Although it is my favorite, I have had more trouble with disease than they are worth. We have an Amish market that sells them for 5 for $1 so that will be where I get them.
I think all season on my 6 squash plants I have harvested 4 squash but laid out nearly $30 in Neem spray and now Daconil and still have powdery mildew... Grrr...

Ha ha... I think calling half a dozen zucchini a "lot" is a crack up, whereas I think I have "only" harvest about a dozen. To each their own, I guess.

I love extra fresh corn, but I don't think I will bother with it again. I don't seem to be any good at growing it, whereas everyone else around here has it going gangbusters.

GardenCafe, we share a birthday. And I'd love to share my squash with you. Now patty pan squash... that I have a LOT of. Dinner most nights, giving it away, and it's only July 5th and I have already put up more than I will eat in a year. And those are just getting warmed up!

Cherry tomatos, not as many summer squash plants, cherry tomatos, cauliflower, takes too long and always turns black on me. Cherry tomatos, laying off turnips for a couple of years. They do fantastic here and we get a ton of them. They are yummy but we are tired of them after 3 years of bumper crops. Did I mention...cherry tomatos?

:)

Susan in NC

"Ha ha... I think calling half a dozen zucchini a "lot" is a crack up, whereas I think I have "only" harvest about a dozen. To each their own, I guess"

It is all relative.....I already had half a dozen zucchini off one plant five weeks after I put it in the ground, meanwhile I'm still waiting on my tomatoes to come ripe. So if this rate continues, one zucchini plant will produce more zucchini than I want to eat in a year!

Cherry tomatoes. My family doesn't want to eat them. They want the biguns. Fliptx a friend and I have had good luck with Danvers Half Long carrots. We are both growing more this next year. They work well in clay soil but they also continued to get bigger as they had more space and time in the ground.

I'm so glad you revived this thread, I missed it the first time around. It used to take me about three years to learn my lesson on any particular veggie because sometimes it takes that long to figure out what you did wrong, but I guess it is true... with age comes wisdom, so now it only takes one failure.

1. Parsnips: 5 came up
2. Kolrabi: nothing came up.
3. Celery: never grew... not even a smidge.
4. Red Lightening tomatoes: pretty, but skin is like leather
5. Fairy Tale eggplants: uniquely ornamental, but what on earth do you do with an eggplant that small?

Cauliflower never did any good for us, so it's on the never-again list. I might give broccoli another shot, it did great one year and I think the deer got it the next. Something that hasn't done well for us that I think I will try again next year is white sweet potatoes. Can't buy them in the stores that I've ever seen and they are so wonderful. My Mother-In-Law always grew them with no problem; wish she was still here so I could get her secret. But she was in WV, a whole USDA zone south of us so I don't know if that makes all the difference?

Carrots. Lots of work and excitement to see the lovely green leaves and then the ultimate disappointment when you harvest and discover a stunted, pale, rock-hard stringy arrowhead looking root. Every year I ever tried them, regardless of the seed company or carrot variety, I got this result, and why try again when i can buy acceptable fresh ones all year long at any grocery.

Happy Early Birthday alabamanicole:) Thanks so much for the offer LOL Wish we lived closer LOL I have alot of cantaloupe but my squash is about to be ripped right up LOL:)
But my sister somehow has a bumper crop of squash/zucchini just a few hours away from me, not sure what I am doing wrong....

Sometimes it happens that way. My tomatoes are horrible looking, but I've always had good luck with tomatoes. I guess they don't like my new garden. On the other hand, I have squash and beans all over the place.

Next year when I rotate, maybe the situation will reverse!

More than 2 zuchinni. I'm not sure what type I planted. I just bought some seed at the big box store and now I have 4 - 3 ft. high humongus zuchinni plants that are spitting out fruit almost over night! My friends are avoiding me because they know I'll try to give them some zuchinni or zuchinni bread :)

Probably bell peppers. They don't seem to do well.

The secret to radishes is to water them every single day and harvest them before the daytime temperatures get past the upper 80s. If you manage that, then they're tasty. If you can't water them every day, or it gets hot, then the radishes will get woody and spicy-hot-inedible. A bit labor-intensive, but early in the season I'm out every day checking on sprouts anyway, so it isn't a problem for me to drag the hose around with me.

Corn. Takes up too much room and some stalks are 6ft tall and others are 3 ft tall. Same variety, same conditions (maybe spacing)... Its cheap to buy in the summer. Maybe if i had an acre dedicated just for corn i'd do it.

Just a thought on radishes. I planted some rather late but they came on beautifully and when I pulled them they were spicy but not woody at all. They were like the radishes I remember as a child. I'm planting more because I just NEVER see them in the markets here. They vanished from the stores about 3 or 4 years ago, for unknown reasons (except maybe the ones we could get were tasteless and woody and nobody would buy them). My husband won't care HOW hot they get -- anyone who eats that many jalapeno peppers won't fuss at a spicy radish! Can you buy radishes where you are???