Pics from last weekends shows

Which one of these drives a blue Chrysler PT Cruiser........and which one is far more discerning and prefers to swing from a tree? No.....I couldn't tell either!

I DID IT !!!!

After 5 years and much embarrassment I have finally beaten my tomato nemesis ! I'm too emotional to say anything else so I'll leave the final words to Wendy herself....

'Simon, I bow to your vast superior tomato-growing expertise. You are the master.'

Ok, I made that up...... but it's my blog and I can put what I want! On to 'round two' and the next show that we both compete at in 2 weeks time.

Pity about the carrots

As I expected my carrots are a long way from my usual standard. The cold spring and warm summer has meant they are very small but at least there is little sign of rootfly.

Today has been very busy indeed so I can't go into too much detail but have quickly uploaded a couple of pics to show the sort of lengths I go to to try and get one up on my fellow competitors.

The first pic shows my beetroot that has been washed and matched up in 3's, and then is stored in a bucket of water overnight. This water has a dash of vinegar and some salt stirred into it as this seems to bring out the colour of the beet. You need to make sure you give them a rinse in the morning....if not the judge will know exactly what you've been up to!

The lower pic shows my tomatoes carefully packed in tissue paper in individual cell trays. (Wendy's gonna have to go some to beat 'em!). If you look closely you will see little blue dots on the tissue paper denoting the best 6. The next best 6 are for a collection and the 6 at the other end are for the Top Tray class. In top corner you will see some 'rejects' that didn't match up for size, colour, shape or just had a few blemishes. My middle daughter Jennifer loves tomatoes so she'll appreciate those. And well done on your exam results this week Jen! xxx (Who says we don't love you cos you're a middle child?)

It's SHOWTIME!

Sorry for not posting for a few days.....had a situation at work that has caused some stress. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to sack someone these days ........even if they're a lazy, lying, incompetent idiot who steals from you! Ah well!

Ok.....first couple of shows this weekend and round 1 of the great tomato challenge with my friend Wendy. 2 weeks ago I had world beating tomatoes....a few of the better ones have started to split but hopefully i'll have more than enough to choose from. I need about 36 in all to cover 6 classes at 2 different shows.....a tall order.

Other things have 'arrived' on time but others just haven't quite made it. My cucumbers need another 3 or 4 days for instance. In a previous post I mentioned how I protected the 'cus' with sheets of polystyrene to prevent the spiky foliage scratching the skins. Above is a pic showing this.

Both shows need to be 'staged' on Sunday morning and they're some 20 miles apart so a lot of rushing around is involved. For that reason, all of Saturday will be spent washing or preparing the exhibits, checking and rechecking the schedules and loading the car up ready for an early start on Sunday morning. I'll only be able to get the stuff for the first show ( which is at a village about 5 miles away) in the car so once I've staged there it's back home to reload for the other show in Leicester.

On Saturday morning I will 'pull' my carrots and parsnips. After months of work you finally get to see if they are any good or not, as until that point you just cannot see whether they are any good. They might have 'forked' halfway down making them no good for exhibition purposes.

I'll let you know how things went in the next few days.

Showing a few dahlias

I like to grow a few varieties of dahlia to show locally as I find them a reasonably easy bloom to show to fair standard. I'm growing the following varieties, 6 plants of each:

Trelyn Kiwi - small cactus, white with pink blends.
Jomanda - small ball, orange/terracotta.
Lismore Moonlight - Pompom, yellow
Kenora Sunset - Medium semi-catus, yellow with red/orange flashes.

The top growers will perhaps grow 50 varieties, 20 or 30 plants of each on an allotment, all covered over with polythene etc to keep the rain off, but mine are grown outside and inevitably have the odd blemish here and there.

You need to start cutting in the 2 or 3 days before a show as soon as the bloom starts to look it's best for the particular variety. I store them in my garage out of sunlight and they seem to hold in good condition. When you cut you need to pierce the side of the stem with a knife about 2 or 3 inches up from the cut whilst holding it under water. This allows any trapped air to escape and again allows the bloom to last longer.

Staging at the show needs to be practised beforehand to save time on show day (see pic above). For a class of 3 blooms, 2 need to be staged at the front with the 3rd in the back middle. There should be space around each bloom to show it off at it's best and foliage showing also. Any petals that are nibbled can be carefully plucked out if needs be but don't take out too many. In the case of cactus dahlias they should be fully reflexed to the rear of the bloom to give the effect of a spiky ball, with no centre or 'daisy eye' showing. You can use newspaper to pack them in the vase (which is fiddly) or better still oasis. Most shows provide their own 'bikini' vases so you need to check this out beforehand, otherwise you will need to take your own.

Make sure you show the correct amount of blooms for each class.........and a word of warning, those tiny little buds in the leaf joints need to be pinched out. If not you will be disqualified as that counts as a bloom! You only make that mistake once!

List of jobs

It's a week or so to my first shows and here is a list of things I'll need to do before then, in no particular order.

1 - Unwrap all onions, check for rot and tie tops with raffia (see pic).
2 - Check schedules for number of exhibits required and staging times.
3 - Tie shallot tops with raffia.
4 - Get together all display aids such as trays of dry sand (for onions and shallots), paper plates and wooden boards for 'Top Tray' class (see pic)
5 - Straighten runner beans as they grow and pick any that grow to your selected length (say 14") and pick these and store in a damp towel in the fridge.
6 - Check which dahlias are likely to be 'right' on show day, check for earwigs and stake if necessary.
7 - Pick dead leaves/spent flowers off pot plants.
8 - Straighten cucumbers and protect from scratches by placing sheets of polystyrene between the fruit and the foliage.
9 - Scrape around the tops of carrots and parsnips selecting those whose shoulders are the same size and put a label next to them. This saves time when pulling....you know exactly which ones to go to.
10 - Polish the trophies won last year!!!

The varieties I'm growing this year......

When exhibiting at a show make sure you read the schedule carefully and put the correct exhibit in the correct class.

Also, pay attention to detail. If the schedule states carrot foliage should be trimmed to no more than 3" make sure you do it. The judge may 'NAS' you (Not As Schedule!) if you don't and you will be disqualified. All those months of effort will have gone to waste for the sake of a few seconds concentration.

The pic above shows my winning 'stump-rooted' carrots at last year's Leicester Show. There is no need to go to great lengths......keep it simple. I see some exhibitors on the local scene employing all sorts of presentation methods but all you need to do is choose 3 well-matched, clean specimens laid neatly side-by-side.

The best varieties for showing usually have to be sourced from specialist suppliers as they are not on general sale. The ones I am growing are as follows:

Long carrot - New Red Intermediate
Stump carrot - Ulysses & Gringo (see pic)
Parsnip - Countess
Potato - Winston/Kestrel & Amour
Runner Bean - Enorma
French bean - Purple Speckled
Leek - Vin Throup strain (bought as young plants)
Onion - Shomaster (grown from sets)
Onion under 8oz - Tasco
Cabbage - Charmant
Red Cabbage - Huzaro
Shallot - Hative de Niort
Beetroot - Red Ace
Tomato - Cedrico
Cucumber - Jessica
Cauliflower - Amerigo

Winston spuds sorted.....

The spuds I 'harvested' last weekend (when I cut off the tops and stored the pots in my garage.....see previous entry pic below) have been emptied out and sorted for size and conditon. The ones in the pic are the 'rejects', in that they are either too small, too irregular in shape or have blemishes making them no good for showing. But over 20lbs of spuds for the kitchen certainly goes down well in the household as Winston are excellent roasted.

The good ones have been sorted and graded according to which show they are being entered into, and stored away in pots of the same growing medium that they grew in to keep them moist. Each pot is labelled so that I can go straight to it the evening before the show. Only then will the tubers be cleaned and wrapped in damp paper towels. I shall probably cut the tops off my Kestrel potatoes this weekend and again store the pots in the garage for emptying and grading next weekend. Kestrel is a mainly white potato with purple splashes at the 'rose' end which means it is therefore classed as a coloured potato. It is very hard to beat on the showbench. Winston is classed as a white potato.

The pumpkin seems to have slowed right down and has only put on 20mm in circumference for each of the last two days so my plans for a whopper have gone right out of the window. I will probably leave it now until my last show in early October, although there is a young lad who shows there who always has to get his grandad to deliver his pumpkin on his trailor! Not much chance there then!

The windy, dull weather in the Midlands over the last two days has knocked about my beans and marrows. A nice bit of rain followed by gentle sunshine would soon sort them out however.

Also, my cucumbers have perked right up and I have several about 4 to 6 inches long. With the first shows in acouple of weeks they should be a good size by then, and all I need to do is to make sure none of them come into contact with the coarse foliage. This scratches the skins and can cause the judge to downpoint them. I usually pack little bits of flexible polystyrene sheet between the fruits and the foliage to prevent this. I will take a pic to illustrate this nearer the time.

Pumpkin still growing.........

Progress report on the pumpkin....680mm circumference averaging 40mm per day. The dilemma now is which show to enter it into. The first show is in 3 weeks when it should be approx. 1500mm but if i waited another week it could be 1800mm. Decisions, decisions!

Is it me or has there been an invasion of cabbage white butterflies this year? The cabbages in the pic are ones I grew several years ago but I always seem to be able to grow decent cabbages. The variety is Globemaster from Medwyns. But this year however, all my cabbages have so many holes and nibbles in them that I shall be surprised if I pick up any 'red cards' for them. I just hope everyone else's are in a worse state than mine!

Not the best leeks in the world but not bad......

My leeks are looking reasonable but far from what some of the top boys can produce. I spent the whole of last weekend taking off the 14 inch collars and putting them into 18" ones.......pieces of black damp-proofing rolled around the barrel (see pic).

Whilst I was doing this I took the opportunity to remove any decaying foliage and split flags and to give any slightly bent barrels a bit of tender manipulation to make sure they were as straight as possible. The foliage is supported by a cane framework and another cane in the soil next to the leek helps to keep them growing upright.

Then I gave them a spray of Dithane 945 as they were suffering from a bit of rust. I also removed a few caterpillars of the leek moth. However, to be able to compete on the showbench I really need them to put on a bit of girth in the next 3 or 4 weeks, although some are better than others.

Again, as with my onions I could really do with a polytunnel to grow better quality leeks in....but that's a project for next year I hope.

The Annual Tomato Challenge

Each year for about 5 years one of our oldest friends Wendy has grown a few tomatoes in her greenhouse in order compete against me at our local show. The first year she beat me was quite funny and I was pleased she had done it. The 2nd year she beat me again and that was reasonably humourous despite the incessant mickey taking from her husband Graham. However, the 3rd year and she beat me again......this time it became serious.........and i'm in the market for a home-made car-bomb that will attach discretely to a blue Chrysler PT Cruiser !!!

Last year she chickened out (something about not having time because of building work) but I know she's growing some this year........and this year it's going to be different ! I have lavished so much care, time and attention on this year's tomatoes that if I don't beat her then I'm taking up stamp collecting.

I have adopted a cycle of 3 different feeds from the first flower set and the growth has gone completely berserk, giving me the largest and best looking tomatoes I have ever grown. If anything, some of them are looking a little too big. Usually around now I'm hanging ripe bananas in amongst the trusses to try and get some of the tomatoes to go red (the ethylene gas encourages ripening) but this year has been no problem.......if anything I need them to slow down a bit!

So......unless Wendy resorts to the annual steroid injections (Graham works for a major pharmaceutical giant) then first prize is in the bag!

Growing potatoes for show

I cut the tops off my first lot of spuds this evening. (See pic)

Potatoes for show are grown in large pots full of peat. (Yes I know I'm depleting the peat bogs but if you've ever been to a peat bog you'll know they are soggy, dark shit'oles that only mosses and the lesser spotted peatbog warbler inhabit....so the sooner we use it all up the sooner we can build houses and factories there).

Anyway.......the idea is that when you plant your spud in the bottom pot the root grows through the holes into the soil below. As the potato foliage breaks through then more peat is added and another upturned pot with the bottom cut out is attached as per the picture shown. More peat is added until both pots are full. In this way it is like 'earthing up' on a conventional veg plot except that when harvested the spuds are very clean and free from the usual blemishes that you get when grown in garden soil.

The rows of pots in the foreground are the variety 'Winston', an early variety that has white flesh. They were planted on the 7th May. The foliage has been cut off but I won't empty out the pots for another week. The reason for this is to allow the skins to harden, making cleaning for the show a lot easier. If I harvested them now the skins would peel off very easily making them useless for showing. All the pots are now indoors in my garage so that no rain can get at them.

The pots at the back of the picture are 'Kestrel' and will be harvested in another week or so. At this point I don't know if the spuds will be of a suitable size for the showbench. I will only know next week when I start emptying out these first pots. Because of the hot, dry summer the foliage has often looked 'tired' compared to other years and I've had to water more often than usual (no hosepipe ban where I am). One other tip......remove the flowers as they appear. This makes the plant put energy into the tubers rather than wasting it on producing flowers and seed.

Today's rant

Nowt to do with gardening........but why are so many good-looking women having ugly great tattoos plastered over their bodies? Why don't they just go the whole hog and have 'I am an idiot' tattooed on their foreheads?

And my pumpkin has started to 'motor' at last......

For the first time in a few years, I'm also attempting to grow a decent pumpkin this year after acquiring some seed from one of the boys on the Giant Veg website (http://www.giantveg.co.uk/)

I've allowed one pumpkin to set and I'm measuring it every day to see how it progresses and have something to compare with in other years. Yesterday it was 430mm circumference and today (Sunday 6th) it's 480mm....so at that rate it will be approx. 2metres by showtime!

And yes.....that IS a piece of carpet that the pumpkin is resting on. The plant is growing along a coarse gravel path so if I left it to rest on the path the sharp stone chippings could pierce the skin and allow rot to set in or even give a starting hole for a mouse to burrow in. As the nights get cooler I shall also put a blanket over the fruit (hope my wife doesn't read that bit.....she's feeling neglected as it is!)

First onions harvested

Harvested the first of my onions today. The ones in the pic are all approx 4" diameter but as you will see they are all slightly different shapes. I'm not sure I will be able to exhibit some decent ones this year as they haven't grown as well as I'd hoped. There are many more to harvest but they all need to put on a bit more girth to catch up with the harvested ones.

I've always struggled with onions. They grow in raised beds but to compete with the good onion growers you really need a polytunnel for optimum growth.

These will now be dusted in talc and wrapped in newspaper and stored away in a cool place (if one can be found in this weather!). Dusting with talc helps them to ripen evenly and I will check them every few days to make sure they are not rotting from the base which often happens to me as my soil has onion white rot in it. I've only lost a few to it this year as I drenched my soil in Jeyes fluid in the spring before planting out.

Growing long carrots

Just in case anyone is wondering how you grow carrots as long as those I'm holding in the pic posted below then here's how:

You need to get hold of some old plastic drums and cut the bottom out. Lay them on raised beds of sand and fill the drums with sand also (coarse builder's sand). In effect you have made a long tube. The sand provides a free draining growing medium that encourages the carrots to go down in search of moisture. Conical holes are cored out and filled with a growing mixture of sifted compost/sand/soil and various fertilisers.

The picture above shows the various 'stations' with the carrots just through prior to thinning. This all needs to take place around the end of March to give you enough time to harvest decent roots for the shows starting at the end of August.

My veg patch

Right then....here goes.

As you can see from my profile and picture below I grow and 'show' flowers and veg. I've been doing this for over 10 years now mainly at small local shows but I am hoping to start showing at National Vegetable Society Shows in the near future.

A common misconception people have is that the 'big veg' they see at shows are no good for eating. I can assure you that they are as good as, or even better than any supermarket veg or stuff that you would grow on your own plot. When 'showing' any veg quality MUST be as important a consideration as the size and uniformity. The only difference is that 'showmen' use seed that has been re-selected so that they naturally grow bigger than the seeds you might acquire from the usual seed sources.

We've just returned from a 2 week holiday in Scotland and The Lakes and this is always a nervous time for me as I have to rely on others to look after my produce while I am away. Apart from a few 'holey' brassicas everything seems to be looking good so I'm hopeful of some good results once the show season starts at the end of August.

My growing regime differs to anyone else who grows veg in that I have to 'time' all my stuff to 'come good' at roughly the same time.......from late August to early October. I grow all my veg in my garden which is over 300' long, but I only have quite a small veg patch at the bottom. I'm trying to take over more of the garden for veg growing but domestic politics mean that I have to leave some flower border space and lawns for the kids to play on.

Also, the way I grow means that we have an absolute glut of veg during September (rejects not destined for the show bench that is LOL) so family and friends benefit from fresh veg that month.

I'm am NOT organic as I do use sprays ........although I do try to companion plant where possible. If I didn't grow tagetes in my greenhouse my tomatoes would be infested with whitefly......I don't know what it is about tagetes but they really do work. Otherwise I reckon growing organically = dead veg and flowers. I hate the way organic growers bang on about 'saving the planet' etc and look as me as i'm Beelzebub !

Anyway....enough for today......attached is a pic of my veg patch from the middle of June.

Wonder if this really works!

Impressive huh? And I think you'll agree, the carrots look good too!