Well, the broccoli in the pot looks like it's kind of stunted. There could be various reasons for this -- poor soil fertility, inadequate watering, exposure to excess cold at the wrong stage when a seedling (referred to by commercial growers as "buttoning") or even being stunted in the cell pack before transplanting. Also, from the photo, it looks like the pot doesn't have a lot of soil in it -- there is a lot of space between the soil surface and the rim. Next time, fill it a lot deeper -- the more soil volume, the better. Also, what kind of soil did you use in your containers? The better the mix, the better the results. I personally would recommend ProMix brand, it's probably the best I've found to date. I'm NOT a fan of Miracle Grow brand potting mix, too heavy and wet, IMO.

OK, #2, the ground cherry. Your biggest issue here might just have been the weather. I understand it was a very cold summer on the West Coast. That definitely didn't help.

Not really sure what is going on with your potatoes. Looks like some kind of disease to me, but the photo is kind of hard to tell.

Thanks for the input.
As for the ground cherries, I've read about leaving the plant and letting it self sow.
Anyone do that? or do you start a fresh plant every year?

The weird thing about the ground cherry was that it took forever to germinate and was tiny for weeks and weeks when inside. when I finally put it out, it shot up and grew huge very quickly.

Number 2. The ground cherries I grew several years ago only grew to the size of a marble. I had no experience with these, so I assumed that this was as big as they got. Looks like yours are about that size...can't tell exactly from the photo. They were quite a few volunteers this summer, much in the same way tomatillo's reseed. In fact two years ago I thought I was planting tomatillos as the see packet from Territorial was marked that way in big with ground cherry in small. Boy was I surprised! I made some sweet and sour sauce, but it wasn't a big hit. I won't grow them again.

Dennis pretty much covered it. My 2 cents worth - under the conditions it was growing, less than ideal, it did all it could and you didn't pick it when the small heads were ready. Enjoy the flowers, they're beautiful! If you want those big grocery store heads you'll need BIG pots, like 10 gallon or better for BIG plants unless you are an extremely good hydroponic farmer.

I'm also wondering if the broccoli bolted from heat? We had that heat wave which I think might have caused it to shoot up quickly. I'm just learning my broccoli, though, so that's only a guess.

Good point loribee2, heat can cause bolting. I honestly can't say where the plant senses the heat that induces bolting though, if it were in the roots that would be particularly important in a potted plant. Just an educated guess but, the sensing occurs in the growing point (apical meristem). the heat issue is the primary reason why I plant from transplants in the ground and as early as possible, Even if it risks losing plants to cold injury. One strategy you might try is staggering your plantings on 1,2 or 3 week intervals. After a few years you'll get a good idea of how the variety you are planting responds to the temps. in your area. FWIW, I plant "Packman" and have found it to be a very reliable producer over a very wide range of growing conditions, there may be varieties that can take more heat but I haven't tried them, yet.

Thanks for the tip! We've had a perfect cool summer for broccoli, but at the end here we had a couple serious heat waves (temps in my garden in September hit 110). I could see that taking a perfectly good head of broccoli and turning it into a flower arrangement pretty fast. LOL

I'm experimenting with three varieties right now, Arcadia, Gypsy and Marathon, looking to see which ones do best at which times of the year. I think Packman is the variety I got from starts at the nursery and it did really well last fall. I'll definitely add succession planting to my plan. I appreciate the suggestions!

I'm in zone 7a-8. I plant my brocolli in fall. Maybe you should too
since your in a warmer zone. I think winter would be perfect time
for you to plant it.

thanks all.
so the verdict seems to be weather and size of pot for the broc. I think I will throw some more seeds down this week and see what happens.

As for the potatoes, who knows and I probably need to provide a better picture.

as for the ground tomatoes, I am assuming I just didn't get the heat they need. Weird though, my first experience with GT was having them up in vancouver, where they were abundant. we are warmer than vancouver so I thought I would have at least that much luck.

The potatoes sure look like septoria or a similar leaf blight to me. It sure played hell with my tomatoes this wet summer. If it's phytophthora, that's serious and you can't plant solanum species until you deal with it. My suggestion is to remove all plant material, torch the whole area with a hand flamer and then consider if Bordeaux mix or a some further fungicidal methods are needed before planting in spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: common tomato/potato diseases