WTF ate my potatoes?

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swollen lenticels maybe?

Ack. I suspect that slugs would be to blame if they're big-ish holes. The rock hard cherry tomatoes are the fruit of the plant, obviously- and poisonous, AFAIK. You usually dig 'em up before that stage, I believe?

Better luck next year ?

Thanks duggo. That certainly sounds like the white spots.

Any clues as to the munching?

Slugs UNDERGROUND? Fucks sake, I can't win.

Yes, better luck next year. I have carrots the size of my baby finger or smaller. LOADS of poddy peas (yum yum) and hoards of runner beans that I daren't eat because the beany things inside are bright fucking pink. I ask you.

Not my forte...

The beans inside are supposed to be pink! And they are grim if the beans are old but ok if they are fairly young and fresh.

Slugs are a bastard, and there are shed loads of them about as we've had two warm & wet years. Hopefully we'll have a hard winter which will kill them all off. Failing that, beer traps & slug pellets are the way forward. Slugs (and snails) like beer almost as much as my husband!

LTP - runner beans are often pink, they'll be fine to eat. You could try using Nemaslug next year for your spuds. I've had a fair amount of success with it & prefer it very much to slug pellets and it does tackle the little buggers underground. You might also try making a small pond to encourage frogs. I never had a slug problem when we had a pond. Encouraging birds into garden also helps massively.

HTH

PS. None of my friends have had any success with their carrots this year. XX

What a shame ☹️

my BIL is a farmer and i was speaking to my sister this afternoon. apparently their potato crop is rubbish too, due to the weather. so don't feel too bad, if the professionals can't do it...

their wheat crop is only fit for animal food too, and if that's the same all over the country i can't see food prices coming down any time soon ☹️

So does encouraging hedgehogs. If you create a stack of dead twigs and leaves in a sheltered area of your garden (near your veg), with a bit of luck you'll get hedgehogs in and they love eating slugs.

I can't have a pond. Garden too small plus 2 toddlers. We also have mean hunting cats, so birds tend to live in the woods nearby rather than our garden.

Thank you ALL so much for your suggestions and commiserations.

Good to know the beans are meant to be pink. I was looking at them thinking something had gone badly wrong ? Where can I get nemaslug?

Wiggly Wigglers do it

Could it be wireworms?

Thank you thank you. I will get some ordered for when we plant again.

Does it really last 6 weeks, or did the person who said 3-4 speak the truth?

They're just getting the wheat in around here... it's not fit to eat either, apparently.

LTP, home grown carrots are always the size of a toddler's little finger, at least ours are ? We've had a rubbish year; I made soup with the produce from our garden the other day. Yes, one batch of soup. From the single, modestly sized butternut squash ? It was v nice though.

Oh god, Zoay, I wish I hadn't googled that <bleurgh> I haven't seen anything that looks like that. We have some mad fat caterpillars though, which I am loathe to kill because of the butterfly shortage. They have eaten the runner beans leaves. Why couldn't it have been the pumpkin/triffids that are taking over all the lawn area too??

I did it on 1st of every month cos it that was the only way I could remember to do it. That worked fine for me so don't know about every 6 weeks.

I tried the beer traps but didn't feel particularly generous about giving the sods a pint to wash their meal down with! And it mings big time if you forget to empty it.

Don't worry - you aren't alone. I also have pink runner beans but they are edible! My tomatoes were disappointing. I had about 2 mini courgettes. My 3 aubergine plants failed to yield even one aubergine.

My only success this year was cucumbers ... and feeding up slugs and snails which have had a bumper year.

Buying beer for the little sods doesn't please me either, I can see where you are coming from there!!

ummm... it says on the site that because the items contain live animals, you have to use them immediately you get them - are you able to buy in advance at all??